“When did my wife give birth, when did I become a coach, when did I coach the national team?”

Vassilis Spanoulis' time on the bench for the Greek national team has started perfectly, after the official favorite went 2/2 in the EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers. And all this just two years after V-Span made the bench for the team for the first time. time . He also made his coaching debut with ANGT Belgrade's Europa League selection squad on 25 February 2022.

From then until today, even he himself did not understand how quickly time passed. Here he did not understand when he became a father for the first time and when his eldest son reached 14 years old, as he mentioned therein. Sport24 After defeating the Netherlands in The Hague.

– Exactly two years ago I was coach of the ANGT team in the Europa League in Belgrade. How fast does time pass?

“It went by very quickly. When I stopped playing basketball, when I became a coach, when I gave birth to my wife, when I had my first child when I was 14, when I became the coach of the national team. It went by very quickly. “We have to be grateful to everyone Moment. Now I feel proud to be the coach of the national team.”

– How important are emotions in these matches with the national team?

“They are very special. Children should understand what the national team means. I have felt it well in my body for more than 15 years, from the junior national teams to the men. I have lived historic moments, but also bad moments. The most important thing is that they understand what it means to wear this shirt and how proud you must feel inside. To understand the price and why we fight. Not only for ourselves, but for the sake of future generations as well, which we must inspire and raise them on the right path.”

– Can you put us through this minimum preparation? How different is the preparation for these two games compared to the college level?

“It's very difficult. You depend more on the quality and personality of the players to get the message across. We tried to establish some basics for playing basketball on both a defensive and offensive level. The players showed tremendous receptivity in understanding what we wanted. Some things we achieved and others not.

“We have definitely achieved one thing, which is that the kids automatically understand what way we should play, what our philosophy is, what mentality we should follow.”

-Tell me two things you really want to improve next time.

“We have to understand that in the national team there is no sadness about whether I played well or not. There is no sadness about whether I finished 12th or not. There is no sadness about whether I played one minute or 30 minutes. There is no “Only pride, only encouragement, only optimism and honor.”

Group F ranking

1. Greece 2-0
2. Czech Republic 1-1
3. Great Britain 1-1
4. Netherlands 0-2

System of conduct and mission of Greece

Starting from the basics: If Greece finishes in the top three in Group F, it will qualify for EuroBasket 2025. There is no second qualifying round, and no play-offs.

In total, 32 teams are participating in the EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers, which are divided into 8 groups of 4 teams. Once the qualifiers are over, a total of 24 teams will qualify.

In four of these groups (A, B, D and F) the teams that finish in the top three will qualify for EuroBasket 2025.

Team results/schedule:

• Great Britain – Netherlands 98-94
• Greece – Czech Republic 72-64

• Netherlands – Greece 72-74
• Czech Republic – Great Britain 90-82

• 11/21, Great Britain – Greece
• 11/21, Czech Republic – Netherlands

• 24/11, Greece – Great Britain
• 24/11, Netherlands – Czech Republic

• 2/21/25 Netherlands vs. Great Britain
• 2/21/25 Czech Republic – Greece

• 2/24/25, Great Britain – Czech Republic
• 2/24/25, Greece – Netherlands