GB Basketball thrown out of Eurobasket competition

Despite promising wins over Germany and Israel, the Standard Life Great Britain Men’s Basketball squad failed to reach the second round of Eurobasket 2013 held in Slovenia this September.

The team fell short after a disappointing 87-68 loss to the Ukrainian Men’s National Team, sorely missing the presence of NBA Portland Trail Blazers bigman Joel Freeland and Chicago Bulls superstar Luol Deng.

The GB side suffered early losses to Belgium and France in their opening games, meaning they simply had to beat Ukraine in the decider. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage it.

With Ukraine leading 48-31 going into the second half, GB’s lack of size and offensive firing power saw their opponents maintain their lead throughout the third and fourth quarter to close out the game.
By out-rebounding Great Britain 40 to 28 and out-scoring them with 40 points in the paint to GB’s 16, Ukraine booked themselves a spot in the second phase of the tournament sending Great Britain home to face further concerns over funding cuts.

A stipulation from UK Sport requires at least a top-six Eurobasket place in return for the continued funding of performance-dependent instalments from an initial one-year £7m pot.

British Basketball are set to discuss any longer term funding with UK Sport at the annual review in January. GB Basketball is hopeful that UK Sport will recognise the potential of the squad and continue future funding for the Rio Olympics despite the team not meeting performance targets.

Certainly Great Britain’s Eurobasket campaign is being heralded as far from a failure but rather a promising look to the future of British basketball.

The tournament saw the emergence of younger talent from a new cohort of basketball players now making the transition from the Under-20s and GB Futures programmes to the Men’s squad.

Recent call-ups Devon Van Oostrum, 20, and Myles Hesson, 23, shone in the opening games. Van Oostrum also led the scoring in the final game against the Ukraine with 12 points respectively.

Despite the disappointment of losing in the first round, coach Joe Prunty – who replaced Chris Finch as head coach of GB Basketball this year – was full of praise for his team.

“In my mind, I can honestly say I’m proud of what this team has done to represent their country,” he said.

Prunty hopes to continue his role as Head Coach and continue to build his team ahead of the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.

Domestic issues surrounding some of the players’ careers outside of the national team could be problematic, with many of the squad holding statuses as ‘free agents’.

For example, forward Dan Clark’s contract disputes over an ankle injury with club CAI Zaragoza led to the cancelling of his contract prior to the Eurobasket campaign.

Many of the players have been quick to commend the British public’s backing of their performance at Eurobasket, with captain Drew Sullivan and vice-captain Kieron Achara taking to Twitter to thank them.

But you can imagine that when France lifted the trophy for the first time in their history, beating Lithuania 80-66 in the final to secure their first ever European title, the British squad will have felt a tinge of disappointment.