ITA - Italy look to get back on track with youth movement

ROME (EuroBasket 2011) - EuroBasket 2011, it's fair to say, didn't go quite according to plan for Italy.

Following a four-year absence absence from European basketball's biggest tournament, the Azzurri headed to Lithuania hopeful that they could make a concerted run.

The Italians were banking on a generation including three NBA starters - Andrea Bargnani (Toronto Raptors), Danilo Gallinari (Denver Nuggets) and Marco Belinelli (New Orleans Hornets) - to rejoin the elite of men's national teams in Europe and even worldwide.

Instead, they failed to get out of the Preliminary Round in Siauliai, registering just one win in five games and finishing 17th out of 24.

The result was a far cry from a golden era back in 2003-2004 when they took a bronze medal at EuroBasket in Sweden and followed that up with a silver medal at the Athens Olympics.

That was to be their last taste of glory.

Ninth-place finishes at EuroBaskets 2005 and 2007 as well as at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan were the first indications of a downward spiral. Italy eventually hit rock bottom by failing to qualify for EuroBasket in Poland and last year's World Championship in Turkey.

Next up for Italy will be putting into application the lessons from Lithuania at next summer's qualification campaign for EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia.

With Bargnani, Gallinari and Belinelli playing together on the national team for the first time, chemistry might have been an issue this past summer.

However, the bigger problem hindering the Azzurri's progress is a lack of quality players.

Italy's top flight domestic league, Serie A, started two weeks ago and less than 15 players eligible for the Italian national team are expected to be starters at their clubs.

Simone Pianigiani, Italy's senior men's national team head coach, believes the proper steps are being taken to turn things around.

“We built a quality technical staff and the idea is to extend the job for the national team on the whole 12 months," he said.

"Our (national) federation is really working hard on a programme to develop our national team."

For Pianigiani, one way of getting quality players is to give the next generation a chance to show their worth.

“We have several promising youngsters, as can be seen from the European silver medal won by the U20 national team," he pointed out.

"But we need our players to be hungry. Being a prospect cannot represent your goal, but it might be your starting point."

Pianigiani hopes to have Bargnani, Gallinari and Belinelli available for the qualifying campaign for Slovenia.

But the Montepaschi Siena maestro is all too aware that the team needs to address some weak areas, notably at point guard and centre.

Those two positions are problematic already at youth level.

Stefano Sacripanti, Italy's U20 national team head coach - and winner of two medals in the last five campaigns – has a theory about why those positions are the most affected.

“It's caused by the low quantity of good young players. We have few big men. when I coached the youth teams of my club, I used to recruit the soccer's goalkeepers, as they were the tallest players," he explained.

“As for the point guards, the situation is simple: when a team's most talented player is a small-size guard, he is asked not to run the team but he needs to score."

Youth then is what Italy will bank on to take a step in the right direction next summer.

The generation that will challenge for a place at EuroBasket 2013 will have as its veterans the likes of Angelo Gigli, Stefano Mancinelli and Jacopo Giachetti (all born in 1983).

There will also be some key additions: Siena's guard Pietro Aradori is expected to return to the fold after working on his game last summer and a number of players who starred at the U20 European Championship in Bilbao will get to show what they are made of.

Among them will be forwards Nicolo Melli (Milano) and Achille Polonara (Teramo) along with guard Riccardo Moraschini (Virtus Bologna), but also 19-year old Alessandro Gentile (Treviso).

With the right mix of veterans and youth to complement their trio, Italy could reenter another gold generation - 10 years after the last one.

FIBA