Tomorrow Italy can return to the quarter-finals of a basketball World Cup as it hasn't happened for 25 years. The opponent to beat is Puerto Rico (two ball at 10) which wins when it manages to go beyond one hundred points.
If the Azzurri win, they finish first or second. They will be first if in the following match Serbia beats the Dominican Republic and therefore Italy's opponent will be the loser of the match between the USA and Dinamo winger Bendzius' Lithuania. Instead, they will be second if the Dominican Republic wins, who beat Pozzecco's team in the first phase, and therefore they will face the loser between the USA and Lithuania.
It is forbidden to think that it will be as simple as in the friendly match won in Ravenna 98-65. In that match the point guard Waters made 0/9 shooting, instead in these world championships he is averaging 22 points and 9 assists.
Tomorrow is a special day for Gigi Datome from Olbia who plays his 200th match for the senior national team, while there are 320 matches for the blue team, including the junior national teams. Current captain of Italy, Datome enters the restricted top ten of players who have worn the national team shirt at least 200 times.
