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30 August, 2014
14 September
Mike Fratello (USA)
30/08/2014
News
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Fratello takes Ukraine to new heights

BILBAO (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Ukraine's players have had some pressing concerns in the build-up to the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Injuries have not disrupted the national side but something far more serious and important than basketball.

Political problems and civil unrest have hit the country.

The crisis has led to the removal of Ukraine as the host nation for EuroBasket 2015 and also meant the dissolution of two clubs that had national team players, Azovmash and Donetsk.

Both outfits were in the region of the conflict.

The national side has nevertheless been able to prepare for the World Cup and is set to open thair campaign against the Dominican Republic in its Group C opener in Bilbao.

Ukraine will also face Finland, Turkey, New Zealand and the United States.

The coach of the national team, Mike Fratello, took time to talk to FIBA.com.

FIBA: How have the preparations been for Ukraine?
Fratello: We've had a few other things to deal with along the way, but I think considering everything, they've done a great job of trying to zero in on the time that we're supposed to be thinking and concentrating on basketball. And we're a young group, first time here for them. But it was the same thing last year. We're one year together, basically. There is one change to our roster from a year ago (Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk replaced Dmytro Gliebov). Other than that, we hope that the level of play against good teams... our win and loss record in the exhibition season is nothing to be excited about. But we understand that we take it a little bit differently. We had a lot of people that we brought into training camp, too many, that we were trying to give chances to other people that we haven't seen before to make our team. And we had some games early on after just seven, eight days of practice. We understand.

FIBA: Ukraine had some solid performances of late, though, with friendly wins against France, the Philippines and Mexico, and only an eight-point defeat to Spain.
Fratello: At that point, we had cut back down (the squad). We're trying to get towards the minutes for the guys that are going to play in the competition so we hope that playing that last four or five exhibition games carries over now because it was a good image. We got good effort. And then you've got to make shots. That's what happens in games.

FIBA: The Dominican Republic came in fourth at the FIBA Americas Championship and are No. 26 in the FIBA Ranking. They do not have Al Horford for the second summer in a row. Some would suggest that Ukraine should win this game. Remembering how Ukraine were favorites last year at the EuroBasket against Latvia but were then blown out, does that defeat help your team be fully concentrated for the Dominicans?
Fratello: The number on a piece of paper that says this is your ranking, it doesn't mean anything. You've got to go out - you respect the people that do the rankings - but you've still got to go out and play. And we, I think, learned a great lesson. Maybe we (the coaches) gave them the wrong game plan for Latvia. We should have come out and tried to play them differently. But Latvia was very good that night. They made a lot of shots and we were not the same defensively as we had been in the first round, and not the same against Serbia the next night. We learned also, the coaches, learned lessons during the tournament. Hopefully we don't make the same mistake.

FIBA: Someone was asking about the main one or two guys for Ukraine. But really, your team doesn't have that.
Fratello: That's the reason why we were able to win some of our games last year. It wasn’t one guy or two guys. When the first group (of players) was struggling, we could put the second group in. And they kind of came back and helped us get in the game again. And down the stretch, we kind of mixed and matched, the guy who was playing well from the first group with the second group, put them together and tried to finish the game out. That's what our team is. We don't have that dominant star, but we have guys who try to help each other. A different night, someone's got to step up and make something happen for us.

FIBA: You only made one change from last year's team when putting this World Cup squad together with 17-year-old Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk entering the team.
Fratello: We looked long and hard. We didn't get to see him from the beginning. He missed a lot of time with us because he was playing for the U18 team so when he came in, it was like, 'let's just see what this guy can do'. The more we watched him, the more we saw his ability, his skill level, we thought this makes sense for us. We're doing two things, for now and down the road.

FIBA