POL - Kelati tries to help Poles vault to top

WARSAW (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Hosts Slovenia and two-time defending champions Spain are two sides nearly everyone expects to advance from Group C of the opening round of EuroBasket 2013.

Poland, with a talented squad that includes the twin towers Maciej Lampe and Marcin Gortat and sharpshooter Tomas Kelati, will certainly be in the reckoning for a top-three spot that is needed to progress.

Now led by former Germany coach Dirk Bauermann, the Poles have looked formidable this summer in their warm-up games.

Sweden coach Brad Dean was certainly impressed after the Scandinavians fell to Poland in their friendly over the weekend, 73-57.

"Poland is a strong team that is well run," he said.

The Poles advanced from the opening round in 2009 when they hosted the EuroBasket.

Kelati is optimistic that the national side can have some success this summer.

"If you look at the team that we have here, Gortat, Lampe and some of the young guys, it's just a great group of talent," he said.

"The coach said the other day, there is no big weakness. We have it all.

"It's all on us, how well we come together, play as a team."

Poland know they cannot be one-dimensional on offense.

They can't rely too much on Barcelona pivot Lampe and Phoenix Suns center Gortat.

The team must have balance.

Kelati is eager to do his part in Celje, Slovenia, where the Poles will also face the Czech Republic, Georgia and Croatia in Group C.

The shooting guard played in the Poland side that won a couple of games at EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania and would have advanced to the next round had it not been for a defeat in the last game to Great Britain.

"The first goal is probably to get out of the group," Kelati said.

"One of the reasons why I want to play in the EuroBasket is because I remember what happened in Lithuania.

"We took a team that didn't have much experience, not the full extent of the talent of Polish basketball and we almost did something, getting through the 'group of death'.

Lithuania, Spain and Turkey were the three sides to advance with Great Britain, Poland and Portugal missing out.

"In the back of my mind, I still think about that Great Britain game and feeling a sense of responsibility because losing that game was on me in some crucial moments. So this is a chance for me to come back, first get past that group play and anything can happen."

Kelati and Poland must take a warrior's mentality to Slovenia.

The team had a battling spirit under former coach Ales Pipan, the coach in 2011 and last summer in Poland's successful EuroBasket qualifying campaign, but he parted with Poland and took the helm of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MKD).

Bauermann is a coach that brings experience, discipline and a lot of self-belief to the squad.

If Poland are fully focused from the opening tip, good things can happen.

"We have the host nation (Slovenia), and Spain again," Kelati said.

"But we have to go into every game and approach it like we are going to win it.

"I think with that kind of mentality, we can be good."

The top six sides at the EuroBasket will qualify for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

If Spain are in the first six, then the top seven teams will progress to next year's event.

FIBA