Great Britain had a disappointing finish to their Olympic preparation after suffering a 79-56 loss to Belgium on Sunday afternoon in Belgium.
GB were without Dan Clark, Joel Freeland and Mike Lenzly who have all suffered injuries over the past week which could rule them out of the Olympics, whilst Luol Deng and Robert Archibald were also rested.
Pops Mensah-Bonsu finished with an 18 point, 10 rebound double double, whilst Eric Boateng added a 12 point, 15 rebound double double of his own. Nate Reinking finished with 8 points.
GB finished their Olympic warm-up games with a 2-10 record and will now return to the UK as they open up the Olympics on Sunday against Russia.
Thoughts?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
My thoughts… Worried
Boateng needs to be ahead of Archibald.
So, our finest, mosy talented team ever assembled has lost 10 of 12 warm up games, including to teams like Belgium, Tunisia and Nigeria. It now appears that previous hopes of an outside shot at a bronze medal were hopelessly optimistic. I will be genuinly happy if this team wins a single game.
I want to be positive, I really do. But i’m finding it very hard.
It is worth bearing in mind that of our 12 warm-up games, we only had one with our full Olympic roster (against USA – and in that Lenzly only played few minutes before injuring his calf).
Not sure if that is a good or a bad thing though…
On a positive note GB have not lost a competitive home game in 10. That’s optimism, but surely we need a miracle to get out of the group. We would probably need to beat China, & Australia. China, yes, but Australia will be too strong. So hope I’m wrong though!
Well I was like others really optimistic about our chances in the Olympics, but I am sorry to say that I think that we will struggle to lose game in single figures during the Olympics. Something is not right with the team and it is starting to show on the court.
The American commentators on ESPN during the Argentina v USA game said that we are the 12th team and a very poor 12th at that. I really want us to do well and make a good show of it, but I am afraid that I think the Olympic tournament may do more damage than good for basketball in this country.
I am sorry to say and although I am only a local league coach, I think that British Basketball will have to take a long hard look at the way that the International program is run and maybe get coaches with International experience to take on the program.
I am feeling very low at the moment and will be at the venue cheering them on, but the future does not look good for GB Basketball.
http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/basketball/story/_/id/8182503/nba-team-usa-tunes-win-host-country
As with Rob i too support team GB basketball but lets face facts. We are not very good. I don’t blame the players but i blame the system. Access to facilities is very limited unless you want to pay £25+ per hour for the privalage. I bet the crowd at the USA v GB game could name all players on the USA team but only a couple of the GB players. USA looked stronger on the floor in skill & speed. Most of the USA had muscle where our GB guys looked a bit flabby and out of shape. If we are to take this sport serious in this country then things need to change. England runs programms from U15 development squads to seniors. The U15 squad had 20+ talented players (my son included) but after one session decided to cut this number down to 15. Why? surley the boys should be given time to develope and prove their worth, one weekend isn’t much time to prove yourself. Nerves at that age play a big part so they might take time to overcome them. Surley it would be better to keep all the guys in the squad and develope a pool of 20+ players rather than limit it to 15?