European Championship qualification: beginning of a new basketball era: Mumbrú gets started

When it comes to setting big goals, Álex Mumbrú is in no way inferior to his successful predecessor. “We want to win the title, of course,” said the new national basketball coach with a view to next year’s European Championships.

The 45-year-old Spaniard has taken over from Gordon Herbert, who announced three medals in three years as the benchmark when he took office. And with bronze at the home European Championships in 2022, the sensational World Cup title in 2023 and fourth place at the Olympics in Paris, the plan, which was hardly considered feasible, was almost perfectly fulfilled.

Especially by winning the World Cup last year, Herbert took German basketball to a new level. The footsteps left by the Canadian, who moved to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, are big. Mumbrú knows this too. “Gordie did an outstanding job,” said the Spaniard. “But I don’t see it as a burden, but rather as a challenge.”

Herbert’s successor without fear

Mumbrú is not afraid of the big task. Quite the opposite. The ex-professional is looking forward to the project, which begins on Friday and Monday with the two European Championship qualifiers against Sweden. Even if the start is not easy. As always with the national team’s games during the current season, the biggest task is to put together a powerful squad.

The NBA professionals around captain Dennis Schröder and top star Franz Wagner are not available and the players from the two Euroleague teams Bayern Munich and Alba Berlin are only eligible to play in the second duel with Sweden on Monday in Heidelberg. There are three Euroleague players in the provisional squad: Andreas Obst, Louis Olinde and Jonas Mattisseck.

The rest is a mix of world champions like Johannes Thiemann and David Krämer and young, up-and-coming players like Jack Kayil and Johann Grünloh. “Of course it’s not easy when so many top players are missing. But I like what I’ve seen so far,” said Mumbrú.

Great success as a player

The Spaniard has won almost everything as a player. World champion in 2006, Olympic silver medal in 2008, European champion in 2009 – the winger belonged to that golden generation of Spanish basketball that dominated everything for years. A circumstance that is intended to compensate for his limited experience as a coach.

“I think it helps me. I know how players feel in certain situations on the field,” said Mumbrú, who coached in Bilbao and Valencia.

These days his focus is solely on qualifying for the European Championship, in which Germany has one win and one defeat so far. The first three teams in the group of four will qualify for the European Championships in Finland, Poland, Cyprus and Latvia next year.

Mumbrú relies on Schröder

Then Mumbrú wants to work with the best squad for the first time. After the games against Sweden, the Spaniard will take a plane to the USA to talk to the NBA professionals. He sat down with Schröder in Braunschweig a while ago. “It was a good conversation. Dennis will remain our captain,” announced the national coach.

He is also expecting Franz and Moritz Wagner as well as Daniel Theis next summer. Unlike Herbert, he doesn’t want to demand a commitment from his players for several years. “The age structure has changed. Now we have a lot of players around 30. That’s why we look from year to year,” he announced a new approach that should build on the old successes.