European Championship qualification
No self-promotion for the Olympics: basketball players disappoint
Coach Gordon Herbert didn’t want to attach too much importance to the defeat. photo
© Matthias Stickel/dpa
Two games, only one win, but a lot of insights. National coach Herbert has had an important week with a view to the Olympics. Now Paris comes into focus.
National coach Gordon Herbert was able to get over the defeat in the European Championship qualification. Because even if the embarrassing 62:67 in Bulgaria was a minor sporting setback, Germany’s basketball players will most likely take part in the European Championships in Finland, Latvia, Poland and Cyprus next year.
Ultimately, three out of four teams from the group qualify. “It was just a game,” said Herbert, not wanting to attach too much importance to the result.
However, the world champion coach was concerned that the second mantle in the German national team might not meet the very high expectations as hoped. While players like Oscar da Silva and Louis Olinde had impressed in the clear 85:61 win against Montenegro three days earlier, no one in the atmospheric Botevgrad Arena was able to gain points with a view to a place in the Olympic squad.
“Maybe some of them went a little deeper because of the atmosphere,” said Herbert meaningfully. “We had problems with the spectators and the intensity,” admitted Jonas Mattisseck. The 24-year-old from Alba Berlin was at least convincing at the beginning, but in the wild final phase he no longer found the means to give the German game any shape. And David Krämer, the only world champion in the squad, also had a bad day.
Squad for Paris should be identical to the World Cup squad
And so the squad for the Olympic Games in Paris should be almost identical to the one at the World Cup in Asia last year if none of the world champions are injured in the coming months. Dennis Schröder, the Wagner brothers and Daniel Theis from the NBA as well as the Euroleague professionals Andreas Obst, Isaac Bonga, Niels Giffey, Johannes Thiemann, Maodo Lo and Johannes Thiemann should be set when Herbert takes his Parisian team at the end of June/beginning of July. Squad starts preparation.
Da Silva, with 15 points and twelve rebounds in Bulgaria with a double-double, Justus Hollatz and Nick Weiler-Babb, who are missing this time, as well as Krämer, who is currently weak in terms of sport, are likely to make up the remaining two Olympic tickets. Based on the impressions from Botevgrad, the rest is out of the question for the big goal of Olympic gold.