The Georgian national basketball team could not repeat its result at EuroBasket 2011 and was left beyond the second group round. The team of Igor Kokoskov which played at EuroBasket without Zaza Pachulia and Tornike Shengelia beat only Poland and lost to Croatia, host Slovenia, Czech Republic and Spain. Of course, the opinion of the head coach is the most important and we talked to him before leaving Celje.

- The Georgian national basketball team ended up participation in EuroBasket 2013. The team won only one from 5 games and could not make through to the second round. How do you evaluate the competition of the team?

- You saw that the tournament was held heavily and took a lot of energy. If we take certain games, we had a good start against Poland and won easily. Unfortunately, then we held two identic games against Croatia and Slovenia. If Ante Tomic and Zoran Dragic had not scored at the last seconds, perhaps, the tournament would have continued differently for us.

- Then there were games against Czech Republic and Spain. The Georgian national team lost with solid score…

- It had its reasons. The game against Slovenia was held at the end of the day and the boys had a little time to restore strength. They went to bed late because of the game. It was obvious that their legs did not obey them. We did not play well in a 3-second zone and were scored 60 points. As for the game against Spain, nothing unexpected happened there. We played current European champion and one of the main favorites of the current EuroBasket.

- Manuchar Markoishvili did not play in the last game of the tournament due to injury. How does he feel now?

- Markoishvili is a fighting basketball player. If it had been necessary, he would have played but the game against Spain did not decide anything. That is why, we decided not to put his health under a risk. “Manu” has the whole season ahead in “Galatasaray” of Turkey and he will prepare for the next games. Besides that, other basketball players had a chance to play. Beso Lezhava, Duda Sanadze and others spent a lot of time on the arena. I think good basketball players are coming to the national team and Georgian fans must believe in them.

- The Georgian national team played at EuroBasket 2011 too and had better result then. If we compare to the Slovenian EuroBasket, what was the difference for the Georgian national team?

- The most important is that we could not win enough games this time. But we had full roster then. Zaza Pachulia and Tornike Shengelia helped us. We made some changes in the play because of their absence. The preparation period showed that the national team could play at high level. We played well against Israel, Serbia, France and Lithuania. Overall, we showed ourselves at Eurobasket well. In my opinion, we were in one of the toughest groups.

- Now about Ricky Hickman, a new member of the Georgian national team. He seemed not to be used to the boys. He could have done more for the team.

- I partly agree with this opinion. Ricky joined us later and of course, it caused some troubles. Hickman really can do more and I believe in him. In the future we must expect more from Ricky.

- The Georgian national team often played a zone defense. Did it bring a good result?

- It was expected because when 5-6 basketball players play all the time, it is very tough to play personal defense. It would have made us more tired. The zone defense worked in some cases. In short, we have to improve a lot.

- First of all, it must be known if you continue working for the Georgian national team. As we know, your contract expires with Georgian Basketball Federation…

- First of all, I want to mention the Georgian national team consists of brilliant basketball players and they achieve success. The boys understand each other so well that it does not matter who will be a coach – Igor Kokoskov or somebody else. I have perfect relationship with them and if I do not extend contract, nothing will be changed. If I receive an offer, I will think about it and perhaps, we will reach agreement. I want to thank Georgia for their support. I am very thankful to those fans who arrived in Slovenia to support our boys and journalists who covered the games of the Georgian national team.

Dato Manjavidze, special correspondent of www.worldsport.ge from Celje

EuroBasket-2013 is presented by online bookmaker TBILISIBET.COM and Spanish sports clothing manufacturer Joma