The next « bubble » for our national team is only a few days away. The FLBB-squad will travel to Kosovo (Phristina) in order to finish the pre-qualification tournament for the World Championship 2023. Luxembourg will play 2 more games in group B, against Kosovo on February 18th and against Iceland on February 20th.
„On this level, if we do not have a better team chemistry than our opponent, we can not win a game » says head-coach Ken Diederich who has created a culture of togetherness since taking over the position as the head-coach in 2016. With a fast and aggressive playing style, Luxembourg has made itself a name and „will not be overlooked again ».
The team’s captains Alex Laurent and Thomas Grün are clearly 2 leaders of the group. They have improved over the years and are now having a big impact on the game. The best player on the team is Clancy Rugg who is leading the competition in scoring (25 ppg) and is second in rebounds (10.8 rpg). However, the team does not only rely on him to do it all on the floor. In fact, multiple players are averaging around 10 points per game (Vujakovic, Laurent, Grün, Gutenkauf) which gives the team plenty of options on offense which is necessary to be able to compete against full professional teams.
A very important aspect of the team’s success has been their hustle, all players are involved in the game and fight for each other. „I want to have players playing for our country that really want to play and we have managed to do that. We have managed to change the mentality which is a big achievement. I even have to cut players out of the roster », says Diederich who is constantly saying that coaching this team is a lof of fun.
This new team chemistry and the good results over the last years also bring new challenges. The expectations have risen for team Luxembourg and wins against opponents in the pre-qualification tournaments are the goal right now which also puts pressure on the team. „We should not get too comfortable and think that we can compete with every team because then you tend to play with only 80-90% of your effort and that will not be enough » warns head-coach Diederich in the « Coache’s timeout: the podcast ».
Other articles about the « bubble »
–> Philippe “Sticky” Gutenkauf represents what basketball in Luxembourg is all about
–>Thomas Grün has become a leader for team Luxembourg: „Coach Ken gave me confidence from the start”
–>On to the next “bubble”
–> Ken Diederich nominates 18-man roster to start training camp
