GRAY LINE: MORNING AFTER FURY

By Niall Gray on September 2, 2011

Niall Gray is following Team GBâ€™s progress at Eurobasket 2011 â€“ and shares his thoughts after the game against Turkey.

If the first game was ‘frustrating’, then the word that comes to mind after Team GB’s 90-61 hammering by Turkey, is ‘infuriating’.

I’ll try to keep this blog short and sweet because let’s face it, no-one likes to read about their team getting ‘stuffed’, do they?

Well, this one got ugly early as GB were just played off the court for the vast majority of the forty minutes.

Not a great deal you can say when you’re 12 points down after one quarter and then see the deficit reach 21 by the half. Well, apart from “game over!”

However, you have got to take some positives from the game and for me it was Kyle Johnson and Devon van Oostrum.

Van Oostrum impressed on court and I loved how he was not afraid to drive to a basket guarded by some of the Turks’ biggest and best players. Johnson was 5/7 for his 10 points, mostly off jump shots.

Their efforts were in vain, but at least they’ve gained some experience which will come in handy for future tournaments.

On another point, yesterday I was talking about commentatorâ€™s curse, but does anyone know if there is a blogger’s curse? No sooner do I praise Dan Clark and Joel Freeland, they both go out and have nightmare games.

Clark was scoreless in 13 minutes of action and Freeland just had a bizarre game which consisted of some ill-advised shots, poor free throw shooting and picking up fouls at the wrong time.

Bearing that in mind, I’d like to apologise in advance to Devon and Kyle, just in case I’ve jinxed them for the next game!

But if there is a curse, Iâ€™d like to state that the Gasol brothers never have a bad game and Ricky Rubio never turns the ball over!

Spain up next and you’re forgiven if you are already fearing the worst. If GB want to stand any chance then it’s time to get back to basics. Work hard on the boards and stop letting the opposition have their own way from beyond the three-point line. Get out there and defend it!

If GB play this poorly again, it’s going to be ugly. Really ugly.

Fingers crossed that won’t be the case…

Main pic: Map Photos

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