Lewis: GB U20s Must “Take Care of Own Game”
Head Coach Tim Lewis has emphasised his team needs to “take care of their own game” as the Great Britain Under-20s tip off their Division B European Championship campaign later today in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
Talking to the British Basketball website Lewis said:
“At the moment we’re bothered only by own performances and playing to our capabilities. We need to take care of our own game.”
“It’s (preparation) gone well, I think we’ve had some good games, and we’ve worked hard in the time we’ve had together. We could always do with more time, and we’ve had players join up late, but based on what we have to work with, I think we’re on track,” Lewis commented.
“The games we had last week were good preparation for us, we tried different things and played different players at times.
“In many ways, losing those games against Belgium may have strengthened us in a way we wouldn’t have got if we’d been perfect going into the tournament. It exposed some weaknesses, and we’ve been able to work on them.”
GB open their campaign today at 4.15pm local time against Portugal, before facing Finland, Luxembourg, Norway and Czech Republic and the GB head coach wants to see nothing less than a semi-final appearance:
“We’re trying to ensure we win the group and get through to the second round. Then it’s down to the performances on the night but I’d like to see us get to the semi-finals, anything can happen then.”
Lewis acknowledges that five games in as many days is a tough ask but feel the team is adequately prepared:
“It’s tough to play five games in a row in any competition, but at that level there’s a lot of intensity and you’re in unfamiliar surroundings with high temperatures, so it’s tough. But we’ve got ourselves in a position to compete, and we’ve done a lot of strength and conditioning work to get ready.
“It’s five games, we can’t change that, we just have to take each game as it comes, and at the moment we’re not looking past Portugal.”
Keep checking back to Hoopsfix.com and follow Hoopsfix on Twitter (@Hoopsfix) for regular updates of their mission for promotion to Division A.
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