History repeats itself. September was a bad month for Italian basketball. First of all the men's national team, and then the women's failed to reach the quarter-finals in the European competitions.

It seemed it would be easy to get to the finals. Everyone thought that Andrea Bargnani and company added up the best men's team of all time.

A false impression. In Madrid, Italy won only two games, against Poland and Turkey. It all ended very quickly. What was missing? The consistency, first of all. Many times Italy had black-outs on defense and, above all, on offense. Look at the statistics of Gianluca Basile. Little or nothing. He is not the one. The star of Bargnani did not shine. Where was the old winning mentality? Only occasionally did we see it – against Germany, for instance, a one-man show by Marco Belinelli (and great defense by Dirk Nowitzki). The injuries suffered by Danilo Gallinari and Giacomo Galanda were a setback. But there was at least some good news in the the impressive tournament had by Angelo Gigli and precious minutes of Gigi Da Tome. The revival has to start with the young players.

‘Where was the old winning mentality? Only occasionally did we see it – against Germany, for instance, a one-man show by Marco Belinelli.’

In the women's game, Italy were again unlucky to suffer a key injury. Francesca Ballardini missed out on Eurobasket where her presence could have been essential. There must also be leadership question marks. Against Serbia, Raffaella Masciadri and Laura Macchi were a combined zero for 12 from behind the arc. Ress scored 0 point.

I think the problem is not to look for a leader, because Italy already have leaders. The question is how the leaders play in a national team. How can they play together to win? The alchemy is the priority, because basketball is a sport of 10 players, and five basketballers play in relays together.

Wake up Italy, it is not too late to restart and make it better.