Greece in the World Basketball championship semi-final

Greece may not have been gripped with soccer World Cup fever, since they failed to qualify, but the country has been getting excited about their progress in the basketball equivalent. The team are so far unbeaten in Japan, having topped a group featuring Brazil, Australia, Qatar, Lithuania and bitter local rivals Turkey, and then beaten France in the quarter final. Tomorrow they face overwhelming favourites USA in the semi-finals. Favourites in the bookmaking sense only over here, I hasten to add.

The country will come to a virtual standstill at 10:30am tomorrow to cheer on the team - and I'll be watching too.

Which I expect means that if there is a basketball equivalent of a dull 0-0 draw followed by an excrutiating defeat in a penalty shoot-out...