Qatar Advances To Championship...

Less than 48 hours after suffering a narrow loss to Egypt by six, Qatar stepped onto the same court at the Graffa Stadium to take on the Egyptian National Team and this time delivered a 76-57 blow in the semi finals of the 4th Invitational Friendship Games held in Doha this week. Defense was the order for Qatar as they held Egypt to 31% shooting for the game. Qatar will now play for the Championship against Kasakhstan, an 87-86 winner over the USA Team Select in the other semi final. Qatar lost to Kazakhstan by five in the 1st round of the tourney. Kazakhstan has not lost in the tournament.

With the championship game being televised on Thursday evening, there was some major concern by the Qatar Basketball Federation that we would not make the final after two close losses. As a coaching staff, we really felt that we would handle Egypt this time around but still held to our schemes of playing different combinations. We have monitored our minutes very closely and have kept our best players getting plenty of rest. One of our "top 10" players had a major meltdown on the bench tonight so the showers came quickly for him. I never overreact to such situations and we are dealing with it in a quiet manner. Tommorrow a decision will be made if he stays or goes. Unfortunately, we will not be able to practice tommorrow morning like we normally do, because in Qatar, Friday is like our Sunday, and we fly on Friday to Taipei. The players have much paperwork and arrangements to make before we fly so tommorrow is their only chance. So much for championship preparation. Never a dull moment in international basketball.