After a friendly game with the Russian Students Team, Russian Youth National Team captain (1984 and younger) and PBC CSKA guard Egor Vyaltsev offered his opinions about the tournament in Turkey, which was won by our national team after victories over Turkey and Lithuania and a loss to Slovenia.
Both Russia and Turkey notched five points, but our team won the tournament thanks to victory in the head-to-head matchup.
What do you think about the performance of the national team in Istanbul?
"I think that our team played well in Turkey. We only lost one game - to Slovenia. We were up by 16 points in that game, though. Nonetheless, we finished first. I didn’t think we would play that well, as this tournament is one of the warmups to the European Championships."
And what do you think of your own performance in Istanbul?
"All in all, not too bad. I the last game against Lithuania I scored 22 points, grabbed five rebounds and picked up two steals. And I averaged 12 points per game in the tournament."
Would you call Russia a favorite in the upcoming European Championships?
"You can’t judge from this tournament. It was just one qualification. At the European Championships we will be in a very strong group: Poland, as the host, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia and Estonia. Only two teams will move on. We will play hard. We have a good team. And like our coach says: We should finish in the top five."
Today your team played the Student team even. You even won, in spite of the age difference. How do you explain this?
"Yes, they’re older than we are, and almost all of them play in the Superleague. Of course, it’s hard to play against them. But we won anyway thanks to our team play. But the students have an excuse: They’ve practiced together all of four days."
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