By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos forward Ioannis Papapetrou won’t join the Greek national team in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will be held in Victoria, Canada, Ricki Pitino said.
“Papapetrou won’t be with us. His knee problem won’t allow him to help,” Pitino said in a presser. “He’s preparing for the next season. There’s a possibili8ty he’ll be with us if we make the Olympics. He’s a player who would play a lot of minutes for us so a way to fill the gap is Dinos Mitoglou. He’ll move to the “3” position. He can do a lot of things on the floor, not like Papapetrou, different things. He’s tall, he can post up, he can cut to the basket and together with Charis [Giannopoulos] he’ll cover the “3” position where we’ve done a very good work defensively and offensively so far. Dinos will also play at the ‘4’, Giorgos Printezis wants to play the whole game so this is why I put Dinos at “3”.
Pitino will keep Vassilis Spanoulis out of the upcoming Akropolis prep tournament due to a calf issue. “It’s not something serious but we thought to not take a risk and use him. Vassilis arrived at a really good condition, he had a very good week and showed what he can offer. I know very well what I can take from him. We have Printezis who has had great practices, we’ve put an emphasis on him shooting from distance. He’s an exceptional player, very smart and as a person he takes 11 out of 10. Along with Dinos, George Papagiannis and Kostas Sloukas, the most experienced guys, they are slowly having really good practices and are in good condition.”