After beating Polish national basketball team (84:65) which is one of the favorite teams of Group C at the European Championship, Georgian fans expected the same result from our team in the game with Belgium. Georgian team started the game with Belgium well but left the arena defeated. We asked for comments about the mentioned game to coach Tamaz Okruashvili, former coach Nodar Korkia and veteran basketball player Konstantine Jorjikia.
Tamaz Okruashvili: "I really have sympathy for Igor Kokoshkov, head coach of Georgian national basketball team. I like his work style. But I did not understand what had happened in the match with Belgium. Nobody played well except Pachulia and Sanikidze. Even changes made by the coach and time-outs were not timely. Nikoloz Tskitishvili had played only for 8 minutes. One of the main reasons of this failure was euphoria after beating Polish team. Everything has its own borders. Nothing overtopped is good.
Nodar Korkia: "Georgia - Poland" match has proved once again that Igor Kokoshkov is a good coach and our team will achieve success with him. We should not make tragedy by losing one match. Everything happens and nothing is excluded. Besides that, Belgium has a good team and it is not easy to defeat it.
It is difficult to make conclusions about this game by watching it on TV. But I can say that Georgian team looked unorganized. Every coach has its own methods. Unfortunately, method of Kokoshkov did not work this time. It is known well that it does not matter what kind of coach or team is, you cannot play all matches on high level. Pachulia, Sanikidze, Gamkrelidze and Shermadini played well. I think, Tskitishvili deserves more time for playing".
Konstantine Jorjikia: "It seemed that Georgian basketball players did not know their competitors well and that's why they were defeated. The coach did not let Giorgi Tsintsadze play for a long time. After beating Polish team they were overly self-confident. Overall, our team is young and is not experienced. Manuchar Markoishvili and Torin Green did not play well. Tornike Shengelia plays well but the coach should give Nika Tskitishvili more playing time. If we take into consideration, that Georgian team arrived in Belgium through Turkey and they were tired because of traveling, this fact could also have played a role in this failure. Kokoshkov is a good coach and I hope he will take the reasons of this failure into consideration in future.

Roland Labuchidze