World basketball championships, Carlo Recalcati explains Italy’s peculiarity

Carlo Recalcati extols Italy’s unpredictability

Carlo Recalcati, during an interview with ‘Tuttosport’, spoke about the qualities of the men chosen by Italy’s coach Gianmarco Pozzecco for the basketball World Cup that will take place next August 25 in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.

“It’s a team that plays differently than all the others: it doesn’t overdo the pick and roll, it knows how to alternate quintets,” said the senior national team assistant. They pass the ball a lot, they play at speed, they defend a lot with assists and recoveries. And then all the guys know that with Pozzecco they can express themselves freely on the court.”

“A schematic basketball is not asked,” added the coach who, on the Azzurri bench, won the historic Olympic silver medal in Athens in 2004. We have three point guards, Marco Spissu, Matteo Spagnolo and Alessandro Pajola, who are very different from each other. I would add that we have a lot of options available to vary the quintets and this also gives us unpredictability.”

Italbasket, placed in Group A, will make its debut on Aug. 25, at 10 a.m. Italian time, against Angola. At the same time on Aug. 27 will be the second challenge, against the Dominican Republic, and at 2 p.m. on Aug. 29 will be the match against the group’s hosts, the Philippines. The top two in the group advance to the second group stage, which precedes the knockout stage (from the quarters onward).