Basketball: Nemeth irate over selection guesswork

A first defeat against Ireland in almost 50 years was hardly a morale booster for England ahead of tonight's European Championship semi-final round against Italy at Coventry's Skydome. But, for the England coach, Laszlo Nemeth, and his team, preparations had already reached rock bottom.

Nemeth had to select his team for tonight's game against the former champions, for Saturday's trip to Slovenia and next Wednesday's home game against the Czech Republic, without assessing the form of any of the eight Continental-based players in his squad.

The cash-strapped governing body, England Basketball, restricted Nemeth to selecting the minimum 10 players. Two of those, the Greece-based Steve Hansell and Andy Betts, missed Monday's 79-69 defeat in Dublin because their clubs also had fixtures. Nemeth said: "Before selection, there was not one single training session."

ENGLAND: R Baker (London Towers), Y Williams (Essex Leopards), S Hansell (Larissa, Gr), M Bernard (Panionios, Gr), A Betts (AEK Athens, Gr), T Dorsey (Ostend, Bel), A Gardiner, C Haslam (both Liège, Bel), D Herriman (Breda, Neth), C Pearson (Vichy, Fr).