Basketball / National teams / Faster, stronger and most importantly, taller

The national under-16 basketball team opens its play at the European championships in Crete this weekend. Israel faces Serbia tonight (7 P.M.), France tomorrow (9:15 P.M.) and the Czech Republic on Sunday. The top three of these four Group B teams advance to the next stage.

The previous national under-16 team finished seventh, and the current squad is thought to be no less talented. "The goal is to reach higher than seventh place," says coach Danny Franco. "The problem is that we were drawn to face two very strong teams, Serbia and France."

The most familiar name on the squad is 2.05-meter Daniel Tamir, who played on last year's squad. He is Amit Tamir's brother. "Daniel is better than Amit was at his age," says Franco, "but he doesn't have enough coordination yet. There are players on this squad who will move on to the older teams, and some of them will reach the senior squad. Their physical development is late, but they have good technique."

Other leading players are: Nimrod Tishman (center, 1.93 meters) from Givatayim; Guy Dotan (center, 1.75 meters) from Jerusalem; Eitan Rothenberg (forward, 1.95 meters) from Givatayim; and Assaf Ohana (guard, 1.82 meters) from the Galil Elyon. The rest of the squad: Carmel Bouchman (Maccabi Tel Aviv); Or Itzhaki (Ra'anana); Ami Wolf (Galil); Raz Nisim Cohen (Ramat Hasharon); Tom Havkin (Harzliya); Dudu Shamriz (Ashkelon); and Omry Buchbinder (Herzliya).

"In the last few few years, there has been an increased awareness regarding building up your physical strength," says Avi Thierry, former nation champion in the triple jump and currently the national team's trainer. "The national teams work with a trainer for two years even before the under-16 squad, and I get teams with more athleticism and power, but there are still genetic gaps between us and other nations. Our advantage is that the players approach a tournament as if they are going to war. They are more unified and there is a sense of being emissaries. Our coaches also are intricately familiar with every player on the competing teams and their training."

Women under-20 squad drops down a level

The national women's under-20 team dropped to Division B at the European championships after two years in Division A following its fifth consecutive defeat, an 80-67 loss to the Czech Republic in the classification round. Sunday's game against Hungary is now meaningless.

For all intents and purposes, though, a loss on Tuesday to Ukraine in overtime is what did in the squad. "It is reasonable to assume that if we had beaten Ukraine, we would not have been relegated," says assistant coach Lori Avidar. "We are not at Division A level." There was one bright spot. Ekaterina Abramzon, who scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds yesterday, is currently the tournament leader in rebounds with an average of 12.2 per game. Abramzon is expected to join the senior squad next week.