Fiba World Cup: Love the game, Italy coach urges his players
Italy coach Gianmarco Pozzecco. –FIBA BASKETBALL
MANILA, Philippines — Italy coach Gianmarco Pozzecco needs the Azzurri to dream large of their Tenth Fiba World Cup look as they kick off their Group A marketing campaign towards Angola on Friday at Philippine Enviornment in Bocaue, Bulacan.
“My purpose is that my gamers dream. Dream and luxuriate in and proceed to like one another, respect one another, respect my workers,” mentioned Pozzecco within the introductory press convention on Thursday at Good Araneta Coliseum. “Love the sport. All that basketball may give you, optimistic emotion. They did a reasonably good job, so I really like them and respect them.”
With the Italians raring to return to the highest 4 for the primary time because the 1978 version in Manila, group captain Luigi Datome hopes that they may proceed to play on the identical web page for them to translate their good 7-0 document from their friendlies into World Cup success.
“We’re a group that loves to remain collectively. We like to play collectively. We all know that if we are able to play the identical form of basketball, we will be harmful,” mentioned Datome. “The purpose is to play as many minutes as doable in that approach. I’m actually excited. Very completely satisfied to be right here. All of the levels are unbelievable. One month of preparation, very excited, can not wait as a result of we labored out on this nation and we’re able to go.”
Italy, presently ranked Tenth on the planet in males’s Fiba competitions, took down Turkey, China, Serbia, Greece, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and New Zealand to brush all their tune-up video games earlier than the World Cup.
Datome, the remaining member of Italy’s Tenth-place end within the 2019 World Cup in China, needs to take one step at a time in Group A, specializing in Angola first on Friday earlier than considering of house group Gilas Pilipinas on Sunday at Good Araneta Coliseum.
“From the little expertise I’ve, we deal with one recreation at a time, and our focus is on Angola. In two days, we take into consideration the Philippines. However in fact, they’re an excellent group. They’ll be robust. A lot of followers, rowdy followers, noisy followers, however now we deal with Angola,” mentioned the previous NBA participant.
Pozzecco, who confessed to being a giant Manny Pacquiao fan, agreed with Datome: “Gigi’s proper. We deal with Angola. In fact, we all know, we are going to play not simply towards one group, however towards one nation. However we are going to help them, our gamers. Will probably be good for us.”
All eyes are on Utah Jazz winger, Simone Fontecchio, who emerged because the Italians’ predominant man of their previous three main tournaments within the World Cup qualifiers, EuroBasket, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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