Unbelievable Russia

A few minutes after his team stunned Europe last year with a win over world champions Spain in the gold medal game, David Blatt perfectly summarized his men's performance in Madrid. "If anyone shows me an article that announced our victory before the EuroBasket, I'll invite him to a restaurant," Blatt said. Now, the American-born coach Blatt and Russia will try to show that 2007 was no fluke.

At the beginning of last year's EuroBasket, few people would have put their money on Russia. The national team, after all, had not captured the European crown since the break-up of the Soviet Union. David Blatt had a team of outsiders, one that had to go through the qualifying round just to play in Spain.

Blatt had guards that many people had never heard of like Anton Ponkrashov, Nikolai Padius, Petr Samoylenko and Zakhar Pashutin. He had a veteran center named Nikita Morgunov, NBA reserve Victor Khryapa and CSKA Moscow giant Alexei Savrasenko.

The Russians did have NBA All-Star Andrei Kirilenko, but he was coming off a disappointing season with the Utah Jazz. Blatt, who after an early qualifying round defeat to Belgium had questioned his players' heart, wound up turning them into winners. Once in Spain in the first game in Granada, Kirilenko and his teammates beat Serbia 73-65 and followed that with a 90-56 drubbing of Israel. Fans began to take notice after their next result, a 61-53 victory over 2005 champions Greece. In the Quarter-Final Qualifying Round, Russia continued their excellent play and lost only to world champions and hosts Spain.

The turning point came in their last-eight tie against Tony Parker and France. Les Bleus, a talented group that was loaded with NBA players, self-destructed at the free-throw line and Russia, despite losing Kirilenko to foul trouble late in the game, prevailed.

The Russians then caught a major break. After their triumph over France, Blatt's team went back to the hotel, rested, and woke up the next day to practice before watching their semi-final opponents Lithuania edge a strong Croatia. The Lithuanians, unbeaten and arguably the best team in the tournament, had to turn around and play 24 hours later while the Russians had two days to prepare.

Russia used 40 minutes of aggressive defense and shut off the inside while building a 19-point lead. The Lithuanians fought back and tied the contest, but Blatt's team held their nerve and won to reach the championship game for the first time since 1993 and qualify for the Olympics.

Spain, who had suffered a narrow defeat to Croatia in group play, were big favourites but weren't able to pull away and Russia found themselves trailing by just one with the final seconds ticking off the clock when JR Holden took center stage. Holden, the naturalized Russian from Pennsylvania, uncorked a jumper and the ball bounced off the rim and backboard before falling through the hoop.

Spain's Pau Gasol had one final opportunity but his last-second attempt drew iron and stayed out as the buzzer sounded. "It was a victory of David over Goliath," Blatt said. "We faced the beast and knocked him down and won."

Kirilenko underlined the importance of Blatt in Russia's success after the tournament.

"Blatt helped me to realize a dream, to become a champion with a Russian team," Kirilenko said.

"That's worth a lot to me. You wouldn't believe how happy I feel to win games for my own country. For this, I'm deeply grateful to Blatt."

Russia will have virtually the same cast of characters back in Beijing and will again start as underdogs in a field that also includes the United States, Argentina and Spain.
There's no doubt, however, that Blatt's men have won Russia respect.

Because of that, they will sneak up on no team and the Russians, especially when they take on the other sides from Europe, will have a big target on their backs.

How did they qualify?
EuroBasket 2007
Gold medal (8 W - 1 L)

Results

Preliminary Round
Sept-3rd 2007    Russia b. Serbia    73-65
Sept-4th 2007    Russia b. Israel    90-56
Sept-5th 2007    Russia b. Greece    61-53

Quarter-final round
Sept-7th 2007    Russia b. Portugal    78-65
Sept-9th 2007    Spain b. Russia    81-69
Sept-11th 2007    Russia b. Croatia    83-70

Quarterfinal
Sept-13th 2007    Russia b. France    75-71
Semi-final
Sept-15th 2007    Russia b. Lithuania    86-74

Final
Sept-16th 2007    Russia b. Spain    60-59