Iceland coach beams with pride

REYKJAVIK (FIBA EuroBasket 2017) - Craig Pedersen speaks with a great sense of satisfaction about the Iceland team that he coached this summer.

For so long a side on the outside and looking in at the biggest tournament on the continent, the EuroBasket, Pedersen and Iceland have now clinched back-to-back qualifications for the event.

Iceland celebrate qualification for FIBA EuroBasket 2017

Iceland went into their last game at home against Belgium needing a win to be 100 percent certain of qualification and despite trailing by 14 points in the first half, Pedersen's squad prevailed, 74-68.

At joint No. 84 in the FIBA World Ranking with Portugal, the Netherlands and Estonia, Iceland will be the lowest ranked team at EuroBasket.

There were times in the qualifying campaign when Pedersen wondered if his squad would make it. They started with wins over Switzerland at home and at Cyprus, but then lost at Belgium and the Swiss.

"It's a heck of a lot more fun to qualify by winning your last game. It was a tremendous feeling, also to beat such a good team (Belgium). - Pedersen

Iceland rebounded with victories in Reykjavik over Cyprus and Belgium to seal a EuroBasket place.

"It's huge again," Pedersen said to FIBA.com. "We were really upset about our performance in Switzerland when we lost (83-80) down there and worried that was going to come back to haunt us.

"I think we responded very well with a group win against Cyprus. The players were extremely confident against Belgium.

"We came out and played tough and played well and had a huge accomplishment. To do it (qualify) was good but to do it twice was extremely good."

This year's achievement may have been sweeter than the qualification for EuroBasket 2015.

"We qualified last time after losing our last game," Pedersen said. "It's a heck of a lot more fun to qualify by winning your last game. It was a tremendous feeling, also to beat such a good team.

"Belgium had a really good team. They had beaten Poland in Poland in the warm-up which is an extremely impressive result no matter how you look at it. It was a great way to qualify."

Pedersen was pleased to not only see his veterans come through in the clutch but also youngsters.

"One of our key players this summer, (Martin) Hermannsson, just turned 22," Pedersen said. "He shot extremely good percentages in the six qualifying games. I think he was over 52 on 2s and over 57 on 3s and over 80 percent at the free-throw line.

"That's spectacular for a 22-year-old in this kind of competition so it's a mixture [of ages]. The team has great chemistry and that’s a big part of the reason for our success."

Pedersen says his players have the belief they can beat any team now, but that's not all.

"We've also noticed that the mindset of other teams towards us has changed," he said. "Now it's not, 'Oh, we have Iceland. Who's next?' Now it's 'It's a real accomplishment if we beat Iceland.' People aren't looking past us, and we can feel that. We have to play with a chip on our shoulder or the other teams are going to attack us." 

If 2015 was already special with Iceland playing in the toughest of groups in Berlin, 2017 will be all the more so.

Finland have selected Iceland as their partner federation, which means the two Nordic countries will play in the same group and the latter will help boost ticket sales.

FIBA