Tunisia prepares early in Turkey for the World Champs 2010

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - Tunisia is wasting no time and will be in Turkey for a first preparation phase abroad.

Head coach Adel Tlatli and his national-team pre-select will be playing against a group of Import-players that are currently involved in the national championship on Saturday (27th of February) before departing to Turkey to stay there for eight days in the country that will be hosting to the world best basketball-nations this summer.

There, they will be testing against two first, and two second division sides to reinforce automatisms in offensive and defensive plays as well as to run different tactics on both ends of the floor.

The current team is missing its players currently active abroad like Marouene Kechrid, Naim Dhifallah, Atef Maoua and Amine Rezig who will be involved in a later stage of the preparations.

Runner-ups Stade Nabeulien and champions ES Sahel are spearheading the national-team with five and four players, namely the Hdidane brothers (Mohamed, Bechir and Anis), Nizar Kenouia and Aymen Trabelsi (of Stade) and Hamdi Braa, Makram Ben Romdhane, Salah Mejri and Zyed Toumi of Sahel. Marouane Lahmar, Mehdi Ben Ghenia (CA), Marouane Laghnej (JSK), Mokhtar Ghayaza (ESR) and Amine Maghrebi (USM) are completing the field of 14 players that went through a first stage in Sousse earlier this week.

It looks like the Tunisians are forming again a collective to display team-oriented basketball on the court to succeed, rather than relying on a few players to carry the team individually. Their recent success in Libya underlines this strategy as the country does not have a single player who stood out dramatically in the last African Championships.

Still, the World Championships will be a significantly better level on which Tunisia has to prove its uprising status, and competition will be a lot stronger than experienced on the continental level before.

I'm out like a one-man-show