Britain's Saunders grateful for teammates' advice

The 24-year-old made his first senior appearance for the team against New Zealand at the Copper Box in July.

It came following a season which saw him average 13 points and six rebounds in his senior year at Charleston Southern University.

He has recently moved to Italian outfit Novipiu Casale Monferrato as he prepares for a campaign on the European club scene, and Saunders conceded the advice of Clark and Achara – both of whom played at London 2012 - had been invaluable.

"Kieron and Dan answered a lot of questions for me and I really appreciate what they did," Saunders told British Basketball.

"It's huge because a lot of us haven't really played in Europe before and these guys have had illustrious careers, so for them to take time out and text you and talk to you and give you little pointers here and there is really helpful.

"When you haven't been through it before you can make mistakes, and then you can't perform at your best so when you have that background knowledge from those professionals it points you in the right direction and gives you a step up on the guys that don't have that.

In the end, Saunders was unable to mark his senior Great Britain debut with a win, as they lost out 84-63 to the Tall Blacks in the summer.

But the emerging star believes there are plenty of reasons for the team to be optimistic going forward.

"It was exciting, especially playing at the Copper Box in London because I am a London fella. That was really the highlight of the summer for me," he added.

"It was good to test ourselves against the teams we played because it shows what we need to improve on and where we need to get better.

"It's exciting, it's fun, it's not a job, it's not work.

"We've got the ability to compete with these teams and we have the abilities to be one of the top teams in Europe.

"We just have to focus on that team aspect, being together more, more training camps. I think it gave us confidence that we can compete at this level.

"I'm really excited about Great Britain basketball because there is a lot of potential there, we just have to make the most of it."

© Sportsbeat 2015