Dubai // Without height, basketball can be an incredibly difficult game. When you do not have it and you match up with a team that does, it makes it especially difficult.
The UAE learnt this lesson last night at Al Ahli Arena in their 121-32 loss to Italy in their opening game at the 2014 Fiba Under 17 World Cup.
But, as learning experiences go, they were at least able to take a few other things away from the game against the big, skilled Italians.
Click here for a photo gallery from all the action on Day 1
“Let’s put it this way, we have flashes,” said UAE coach Zoran Zupcevic.
“Flashes of some individual moves, spin, whatever, we have some flashes of team defence – but they were flashes.
“It’s better to have some flashes than none.
“Each of those flashes which they had today individually and as a team, we are going to try to build up for the next day and the next day and the next day.”
The UAE did do some things well.
They were aggressive and fearless driving into the lane, despite the looming threat of a block from one of Italy’s relative giants.
They drew 13 fouls and made 11-of-22 free throw shots, accounting for a significant portion of their points total.
They hustled and ran after loose balls – aggressively enough at times to commit 14 fouls of their own.
They moved the ball well and created some solid open looks and, on another night when their shooting touch might be more in synch, they would not have gone 10-for-51 from the field, so the final deficit would not have been as large.
They also showed able ball-handling skills, their undoing in that regard coming when they would get too creative and lose the ball. The Emiratis committed 27 turnovers.
Ultimately, Italy were simply too big for too much of the game.
Italy boasted eight players as tall as UAE’s tallest listed guy, 1.93- metre Abdullah Al Yammahi. In fact the Italians average height matched the UAE’s biggest big man.
The Italians constantly scored inside buckets the UAE realistically could do nothing about and they added a deft outside shooting touch that made it even harder on the Emiratis.
Their length on defence helped create many of the UAE turnovers, one of the prime culprits for the dozens of fast-break points the Italians scored.
But Zupcevic was sanguine about the overall result, pointing out the true purpose of this tournament – not necessarily to win a bunch of games, but to continue to build basketball in the UAE from the ground up.
“We cannot complain about that group of kids. They work hard, they fight to the best of their abilities and they improve according to the level of their talent and they are doing the best that they can” he said.
“Is it painful? Is it difficult? It is. Is it going to be better tomorrow regarding the scoreboard? It will not.
“Which means we are aware of it, those things will not change – but what I believe is tomorrow we will be able to take the extra hit, which we didn’t take today because it was overwhelming.
“The next day, we will not be so overwhelmed with the size of the players, at least we come to some kind of comfort zone.
“Is this going to change something on the scoreboard? It will not.
“But step by step with this type of experience we are definitely going to get the benefit as long as we don’t focus on the scoreboard. It was never the purpose.
“We have one option – close the doors, close the windows and live in our world or open to the rest of the world and say, ‘OK, let’s move forward’.”
Guard Mohamed Juma led the UAE in scoring, with 17 points. Rashid Mohamed added nine.
The important thing, though, as Zupcevic said, was that yesterday was the start of a roughly week-long experience for the young UAE basketball players that will, in the end, help them grow and help the sport in the Emirates grow.
“If we didn’t have this tournament here, our kids would never be exposed to this type of the players at this age,” he said.
“How much are they going to gain? They are going to gain a lot.”
jraymond@thenational.ae
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