Itoudis: “Obviously it is not possible to stretch Moraitis to become a 4”

Her goal Greece is to emerge victorious from the difficult match against USA (28/8, 15:40)as said by Dimitris Itoudis.

The coach of the “official favorite” emphasized that the adjustments to the fives are made based on the players he has, while he mentioned that there will be tests against the Americans, in view of the match with New Zealand (30/8, 15:40).

“If I knew what we were going to do I would be sitting in Greece… We are in a good mood, we have a good recovery, we put some elements in our game plan for tomorrow. USA is one of the favorites, they are playing very well, yesterday was a very tough game against New Zealand. The start found the Americans realizing that if you take it easy in every game you will pay for it. New Zealand don’t let anything drop, they’re all focused on it. The USA had to play their best to win. USA is very athletic team, able to run and score on primary or secondary blitz“, initially stated Dimitris Itoudis and added:

“As the tournament goes on, some things will be fixed in our team. That was the logic of the strong friendlies we played, all these teams will go far in the tournament, I believe. The Jordan game is of a different nature than the USA game. Papapetrou may have entered the match late but he had a substantial offer, as did Hatzidakis in 8:40”. However, the matches against the USA and Jordan are not comparable. With Jordan you have to win, but that doesn’t mean you start a game against the USA only to lose and give up. We want to surpass ourselves. Undoubtedly, our task is very difficult, but we definitely want to gain things from this game. The dynamic that the USA has in high altitude, athleticism and explosiveness is something different compared to Jordan. This also has to do with quality».

For player testing: “I don’t know if testing players at other positions is called alchemy, but this is our roster. Obviously, it is not possible to stretch Moraitis to become a 4-man. We’ve seen what worked and what was more efficient. We will try to manage in this game as well, but also thinking about the next one against New Zealand».

For Steve Kerr’s statements: “Steve Kerr respects what he does and basketball. Just as I used to talk about Jordan like that, so does Kerr about Greece. If you don’t respect the opponent and basketball, it won’t respect you back».

For what Greece needs:We have to be tough, given that both of our next opponents invest a lot in physical play. New Zealand has college basketball principles, with pressure, with running the court and a lot of turnovers, because of the pace and intensity».