GB Men: Teddy fired up for Greece test in Newcastle
Teddy Okereafor is looking forward to resuming battle with Greece and Turkey – and believes Great Britain are stronger than the last times the teams met.
GB have been drawn with the two European powerhouses, as well as Belarus, in their 2023 World Cup Qualifying group.
That gets under way at Newcastle’s Vertu Motors Arena with a clash against the Greeks on 25 November and is closely followed by a trip to Turkey a few days later.
GB lost narrowly in home and away games against Greece in 2017 and 18 at the same stage of the same competition and fell to Turkey at the 2017 EuroBasket.
But GB have been on a strong run of form across the last few years, building a strong and unified team identity and qualifying for the 2022 EuroBasket Finals. They head into World Cup qualifying in positive mood.
Team stalwart Okereafor said: “I think it’s a good draw for us. We’ve got experience playing against both Greece and Turkey. Both are different teams from when we last played them, but so are we.
“I don’t know much about Belarus, other than they are a strong basketball nation and will be a formidable challenge too.
“We’ve been playing at a high level over the past couple of years and we want to take that momentum into November which I’m confident we will.
“Our last four games against Greece were really close. We know them pretty well, and we’re much improved since the last time we played them so hopefully we can win those games moving forward.”
record-setter
Ironman Okereafor will set a new record for most consecutive international games played if he is selected for the first game against Greece.
Okereafor, 29 recently, tied the current record of 49 consecutive games, which has been held by Bill McInnes since 1976, in February against France.
Dan Clark (108 caps) will move closer to becoming GB’s all-time leading Men’s International Cap winner with only Eric Boateng (116 caps) ahead of him.
Tickets
GB face Greece at Newcastle Vertu Motors Arena on 25 November. Tickets are on sale HERE.
They face Turkey away on 28 November.