Ukraine placed second in the AeroSvit Cup 2012. We beat Belarus 69-61 in Round 2 of the international tournament. It was a close competition throughout. Ukraine was down by two at halftime, but our bench did an excellent job to help our team to a victory.
Ukraine lost a tough game to to Israel in the finals, 74-68. Ukraine led 43-41 at the half. But Israel made big plays down the stretch and came out with the hard-fought win.
Photos courtesy of Anatolii Riabukha.
Ukraine beat Romania last night in our first exhibition game, 83-58. We got a chance to put in all 15 players who had dressed, which was great. Tonight we will face Belarus, and Israel will meet Romania. Hoping to get one or two of our injured players back for tonight’s competition.
Photo courtesy of Anatolii Riabukha.
We have concluded our first week of training camp in Yuzhny. Last year we came to the camp with 16-17 players. But this year we have 23 guys who were competing for 15 spots on the Ukraine National Team.
Since there are a lot of new faces we haven’t seen before, we’ve done much more playing than teaching during our practices because we need to get a feel for these guys and see what they can do. We will have to make some cuts because we can’t get as much accomplished in training camp with such a large group.
Our first friendly tournament will get underway this week. We face Romania on Tuesday, followed by Belarus on Wednesday and Israel on Thursday in the AeroSvit Cup 2012. Unfortunately five of our players will be out at the start of the tournament, including three starters.
Hopefully we will be competitive, but I’m not as concerned about winning as I am about determining who are in fact the best players to keep on the roster for the qualifying tournament in August. It will be good to compete against some new opponents in these exhibition games.
Photos courtesy of Anatolii Riabukha.
I have returned to Kiev this summer to coach the Ukraine National Team in the qualification tournament for the 2013 FIBA European Basketball Championship, which will be held in Slovenia next year. The only other returning staff member from the States is veteran strength and conditioning coach Rich Dalatri, who was the first such specialist to work in the NBA when the Nets hired him back in 1987.
Former NBA coach Bob Hill, who has been coaching in China for the past couple years, will join our staff along with Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Joe Wolf, D-League Erie BayHawks head coach Jay Larranaga, and Boston Celtics scout Jack Nolan. Former Spurs videographer Zach Guthrie will also come on board before heading to the New Orleans Hornets in the upcoming season. And Ukrainian team coordinator Andrey Khomenko will be back in action to handle logistics.
I look forward to working with the promising, young Ukrainian players again. It would be a great honor to qualify for EuroBasket 2013, which in turn gives us a chance to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio. Though it will be a tremendous challenge to qualify for the Olympics, this is what we’re setting out to do. This summer’s qualifying tournament is where our mission begins.
Our staff gathered in Kiev last weekend and then flew to our training site in Yuzhny, a port city on the Black Sea located about 45 minutes from the beautiful seaside resort city Odessa. Though Yuzhne is somewhat isolated, we have access to a great practice facility.
Photos courtesy of Jack Nolan.
Pitbull was the surprise guest at TNT’s All-Star party on Saturday night. This year’s invitation only event took place at the House of Blues in Orlando. Pitbull played for about an hour and put on an electrifying show. There’s so much energy in his music, you can’t help but bounce around to the Latin-infused hip hop beats. In fact, I did some break dancing. Still, it was impossible to upstage Pitbull’s great performance.
