2009 Greek National Team

[AydinOrs]

I'm surprised big Sofo still gets called up for the NT.

BTW, does Kostas Kaimakoglou play as soft as his name?

[Fozzy]

There is a force you are all neglecting.
Big Sofo will play for the only coach he ever respected! He played his best ball of his career under Kazlauskas. Many expect the same this summer as they say he is in ver good shape. With Spanoulis and Zisis free to run the floor, I see Greece bringing home a medal.

Also keep in mind that other european team will arrive without their prim players. It will be interesting to see who will walk the distance.

[Greek]

I'm surprised big Sofo still gets called up for the NT.

BTW, does Kostas Kaimakoglou play as soft as his name?

He is around 202-205 PF/C with nice 3pt range, nonathletic player who is playing with passion, and for sure is not soft. I dont remember the last time that Greek NT had soft player actually

[AydinOrs]

I'm surprised big Sofo still gets called up for the NT.

BTW, does Kostas Kaimakoglou play as soft as his name?

He is around 202-205 PF/C with nice 3pt range, nonathletic player who is playing with passion, and for sure is not soft. I dont remember the last time that Greek NT had soft player actually

Ok, I just looked and learned he plays for Marousi. I agree with you that the Greek basketball NT has almost always played with great passion. Just thought his name, 'son of cream' is kinda funny in a basketball context.

BTW, is it correct that almost all Greeks with -oglou ending surnames come from the Karamania region in Inner Anatolia?

[Fozzy]

It's totally out of the core discussion but, no, the name "oglou" is mainly carried by the Greeks that left Constantinople (Istanbul) during the trade of populations in the 20s or fled Smyrna a bit earlier. Most situated in north Greece carried their last name from Turkey.

As a player, Kaimakoglou is an old school european 4 player. He is slow but reads the court very well looking for the open pass. He has a great perimeter shot that pulls the big men out of the paint, giving room for the L's to drive in. He reminds many of Nikos Economou who played for Panathinaikos, Barca etc. in the Euroleague.

I can’t say that he is NT material since Fotsis and Tsartsaris have an even better perimeter game while they can do everything else a 4 must do even better .

[KWSN-Men]

It's totally out of the core discussion but, no, the name "oglou" is mainly carried by the Greeks that left Constantinople (Istanbul) during the trade of populations in the 20s or fled Smyrna a bit earlier. Most situated in north Greece carried their last name from Turkey.

As a player, Kaimakoglou is an old school european 4 player. He is slow but reads the court very well looking for the open pass. He has a great perimeter shot that pulls the big men out of the paint, giving room for the L's to drive in. He reminds many of Nikos Economou who played for Panathinaikos, Barca etc. in the Euroleague.

I can’t say that he is NT material since Fotsis and Tsartsaris have an even better perimeter game while they can do everything else a 4 must do even better .

Well Tsartsaris is retired from the national team so you never know he might have a chance to make it. I doubt it though.

[KWSN-Men]

Well, Theo Papaloukas and Dimitrios Diamantidis are officially out of the Greek national team. The Greek basketball federation president Georgios Vassilakopoulos and the Greek national team head coach Jonas Kazlauskas both stated that they are angry with them. They both implied the players are faking injuries somewhat to stay off the team. Sounds just like how Papadopoulos and Dikoudis were removed from the team for pissing off Vassilakopoulos.

It's also been said that it seems that Olympiacos and Panathinaikos ordered the players not to play which is a bit of a controversy.

So anyway, Diamantidis and Papaloukas are officially out. Antonis Fotsis replaces Papaloukas as the new captain of the national team. Spanoulis will now finally be moved to starting point guard and the offense will run through him (should have been done about 3 years ago actually).

Ioannis Georgalis (no relation to Nick Galis) and Manolis Papamakrios were called to the team as replacements. Kosta Koufos and Nick Calathes both reported officially to the training camp to try to make the team. They now have a much better chance to do so with Diamantidis and Papaloukas out.

So the roster stands right now as:

Panagiotis Vasilopoulos
Andreas Glyniadakis
Nikos Zisis
Kostas Kaimakoglou
Nick Calathes
Ioannis Kalampokis
Kosta Koufos
Loukas Mavrokefalides
Ioannis Bourousis
Stratos Perperoglou
Georgios Printezis
Vassilis Spanoulis
Sofoklis Schortsanitis
Dimitrios Tsaldaris
Antonis Fotsis
Ioannis Georgalis
Manolis Papamakrios

With Papaloukas and Diamantidis out and players like Dikoudis and Tsartsaris already quitting, Koufos should be in now. I would say that if Kazlauskas keeps this group for the camp that Calathes will be fighting against Papamakrios for the 3rd string point guard position. He probably would not be able to win the spot, but the team might give it to him just to start integrating him. We will see because now suddenly point guard becomes a lot more important with Diamantidis and Papaloukas gone. So Papamakrios would seem the logical choice because of that.

As far as I know no word yet officially on whether or not Vasilopoulos will play. But it seems very likely that he won't. So if he does not then Kazlauskas would probably call either Kostas Vasiliadis or Michalis Pelekanos to the team.

I have to say that looking at how it seems the roster will be it is really puzzling why Pelekanos is not on the team. He is way better than most of the players and he never announced he was retiring from the team. Greek team is officially in transition period now to the next generation. After swapping in about 4 new players at the 2008 Olympics, it looks like this year another 3-5 new players will be swapped in.

Also, Bourousis is still injured and he might end up getting replaced too. In that case it would seem that both Schortsanitis and Koufos would make the team and maybe even Vougioukas might get a call to the preparation. Mavrokefalides stands a good chance to make the team too if Bourousis does not play.

[AdamTheGreek]

I expect big things from Sofo and Koufos.

[brassviews]

It doesn't look like Greece will be medaling.

I still think they'll get a 2010 berth though.

1. Spain
2. Slovenia
3. Croatia
4. France
5. Lithuania
6. Greece

[Greek]

It doesn't look like Greece will be medaling.

I still think they'll get a 2010 berth though.

1. Spain
2. Slovenia
3. Croatia
4. France
5. Lithuania
6. Greece

You cant count Slovenia so high not because they don't have talent but because they have big history of choking. Also don't underestimate the dept that Greece has. Team now with a new coach and the 2 corner stones of the past years its enigma, but now we will see more run and gun game, and also we will see that the Greeks can score too other than playing hard D.

[KWSN-Men]

It doesn't look like Greece will be medaling.

I still think they'll get a 2010 berth though.

1. Spain
2. Slovenia
3. Croatia
4. France
5. Lithuania
6. Greece

Greece is bringing some of their best players like Perperoglou, Kalampokis, Tsaldaris. Among the very best Greek players and never got a chance because Giannakis did not like them. I am thinking this team will be much more athletic, have much better shooting, and much more offense than the recent years teams did.

Papaloukas and Diamantidis were always extremely overrated because they could not score or create their own offense. They were also very slow players. Papaloukas also could not shoot. Players like Perperoglou and Kalampokis for example are actually a lot more well rounded and complete players.

[NetsForce]

Eh Greece has always been overrated IMO, my guess is that they don't end up being much of a threat this time around.

[KWSN-Men]

Eh Greece has always been overrated IMO, my guess is that they don't end up being much of a threat this time around.

They are rated as the #2 favorite by all the odds makers even with a lot of players leaving. I don't see why everyone makes a big deal about Papaloukas and Diamantidis. Greece has more than enough to win a medal without them.

[Greek]

Eh Greece has always been overrated IMO, my guess is that they don't end up being much of a threat this time around.

Overachiever yes overrated no. Overrated was the soccer team. They won the European championship in 2004, then nothing, but the basketball team maybe among with Spain to be the most consistent European NT. You cant call that overrated!

[ilikecb4]

can you diggg iiitt??

champs

[Apollo64]

Bump.

Pretty good showing by Greece in the first official friendly against Romania (102-57). Weak opponent (first half was 56-18), but a lot of the new guys played well. Calathes and Koufos should certainly be in the final roster, Calathes especially is going to turn heads, he is going to be the next Papaloukas, Schortsianitis looks to be back in shape after a long time and be able to help. I really like to see Papanikolaou also in the final team because of his defense and hustle, he is a much better version of Pelekanos.

[Greek]

Bump.

Pretty good showing by Greece in the first official friendly against Romania (102-57). Weak opponent (first half was 56-18), but a lot of the new guys played well. Calathes and Koufos should certainly be in the final roster, Calathes especially is going to turn heads, he is going to be the next Papaloukas, Schortsianitis looks to be back in shape after a long time and be able to help. I really like to see Papanikolaou also in the final team because of his defense and hustle, he is a much better version of Pelekanos.

He already played on WC and on EC. Dont burn him. Also i would like to see the NT against a good team to say anything about how good we are

[brassviews]

Yes, Romania is not very good. I would like to see Greece against Slovenia or Croatia.

[AdamTheGreek]

Some video of that 102-57 beatdown of Romania:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENDHxWo4nyQ

[jt142]

I wonder where Calathes and Koufos learned to play basketball?