By Luca Virgilio
Experienced coach Andrea Capobianco is already preparing for European Championships U18, where he will lead Italian national team, like in previous year. In 2011 Italian juniors ended up on seventh place with 4-5 record. Our man Luca Virgilio interviewed coach Capobianco at Rome International Youth Level Coaches Clinic.
What type of U18 national team are you building?
-It's still early, but as I always say when I coach, it will be a team that will give anything it has out on the court because if we are inferior to our opponents in physique and athleticism, we certanly aren't in spirit and organization. I like training with intelligent players that are able to recognize and read situations on the court and this is what we are training on primarily.
The U18 National team for the 95-96 generation will be able to use the '96 players that have been really positive in the U16 European Championship.
-We have a broad range of players to select and it's still premature to start picking, we are studying and evaluating how they mix well with one an other and how to make them give their best. Later on we will decide based on a lot of aspects who will be the best players to compete in the European Championship.
Who do you think will be the favourite team in the next U18 European Championship?
- The European Championship have always been very even but I think Spain and Latvia that will be in our group and also Turkey and Lithuania are teams that can go very well. The real difference will be the momentum of the game and the physical form that the teams will reach the championship with. From the very beginning we will deal with high level games against Spain that has a tradition of being a super power and against Latvia that is growing a lot stronger and also has the advantage of playing at home, but we have to play with our head high against all of them and play every match.
Amedeo Della Valle (93) went to play in the NCAA with Ohio State and in the last weeks there have been rumours of Fontecchio (95) going to the US.
- I think that in life all the experiences can be positive and negative meaning that the ability to decide which are the instruments that are truly needed, so we must let the players have the ability to decide what to do, but I want to underline that Italy has a lot of top notch coaches, like the results prove, I think that the Italian school is a very important one but logically who decides to make an other choice knows fully well that that choice might give him more benefits.
What do you think are the future Italian candidates to be given the opportunity of being drafted in the NBA?
- I don’t want to say names because I think that the players should be still working hard, but I believe that there are players able to do some good. What ever comes in life is the result of hard work, so lets work hard and then lets see where that takes us.
