Anwil Wloclawek boss Igor Grischuk is on the verge of becoming Poland's national team coach.

The Belarus-born Grischuk, who spent his entire playing career at Anwil and received Polish citizenship in 1998, is expected to be put in charge of the national team through the 2012 Olympics on the condition he leads the side into next year's EuroBasket.

Poland's Marcin Gortat was the face of EuroBasket 2009 with the Orlando Magic center's image on billboards and magazine covers and television before, during and after the tournament.

Expect more of the same this summer for the Orlando man nicknamed ‘The Polish Hammer' in America because Gortat has confirmed he will represent Poland again this year when they attempt to make it to next year's EuroBasket in Lithuania.

One never knows just how strong a national team will be each summer because of player availability issues.

There is one guarantee for Great Britain, though, as they look to make it back to a second-straight EuroBasket.

When standing in the vast expanse of Skanderbeg Square in the centre of Tirana, you don't have to stroll too far to find plenty of kids playing basketball in the backstreets of the Albanian capital. After all, Albania is a nation located at the very heart of a regional basketball hotbed.

Having failed to make the jump into Division A with both senior National teams last summer, you might reasonably expect Swedish basketball to be hiding somewhere in a corner sulking. If you did you would be wrong since self-pity simply isn't an option.

If there is one nation in Europe that feels the pain of coming so close to reaching the promised land of Division A, and then falling agonisingly short, it has to be Sweden. On one fateful day last September they had to swallow not one but two very bitter pills as both the men and women missed out.

The men's national teams of Portugal and Poland have something in common and it's not that both countries begin with "Po".

Both sides, it seems, are more than happy to be in Group C with Georgia, Bulgaria and Belgium following the recent draw for EuroBasket 2011 qualifying.