Rasid Mahalbasic – 2m08 – PF/C – 1990 – Austria – Fenerbahce Ülker (TUR)

The massive Austrian big guy who recently signed a six-year deal with Fenerbahce Ülker, dominated throughout the tournament with his combination of size and physical presence. Mahalbasic is not the most athletic player on the court but he could not get stopped on this level once he has received the ball in the paint. He uses a multitude of fakes in order to get the right position to score the ball with the layup. He is a real floor-player, somebody who works a lot with pivot moves and extra steps in order to get open.

His jump shot is correct and he can hit it up to the 3pt area, also after some hesitation. He will probably have to develop this part of his game on the next level because his physical dominance worked against U20 competition but not anymore once playing on the top senior level in Europe. He also needs to finish better with his left hand close to the basket where he had some misses out of Pick-and-Roll situations for example. The Slovenian-native likes to go for the assist out of the high-post where he has quite good court-vision but is sometimes too naive in the execution. This happened also some times on outlet passes where he went too fast and turned the ball over quickly.

Mahalbasic’ biggest weakness remains his lack of athletic abilities. Not particularly fast or reactive, he gets beaten on the dribble in defense when he has to defend against a smaller PF who takes him out to the three-point line. Additionally, he has no real penetration play when he goes outside as his first step is rather slow.

Stats: 16.9ppg (69.7% 2FGs – 70.8% FTs), 9.8rpg, 2.0apg, 4.5topg

Moritz Lanegger – 1m90 – PG – 1990 – Austria – Kapfenberg (AUT)

The Austrian PG played an outstanding tournament and led his team to the Gold Medal. Lanegger displays excellent size for the PG spot, good speed, correct athletic abilities and an understanding of the game for the next level. He finished the tournament with an excellent 2.13 Assist/Turnover ratio but his impact on the game is more than just statistics. He controls the game speed nearly at perfection and he reads nicely what the defense gives him and his team. Out of the game situations, he nearly takes no bad decisions and his passing is particularly precise.

Additionally, he can step up if the team needs a score and drive hard to the basket and finish against the big guys with contact. Because of his aggressiveness, he goes to the free-throw line at a high rate for a guard but he needs to be a bit more precise in that area in the future. His three-point shot is not particularly dangerous but he can make it out of the dribble or in Pick and Roll situations where he excels with his above average Basketball IQ. Lanegger can attack the basket with either hand and he likes to stop on mid-range to hit the short jump shot out of the drive. Even in full speed, he has his game under control and sees the open man in traffic perfectly.

Defensively, he has great positioning and reads well what the offense wants to do. The Austrian guard is physically strong enough to hold his man in front of him and showed this also on the Senior level already. He goes now into his 5th season on the highest Austrian level already being only 20 years old. All the experience he has gained throughout the years helped him to grow rapidly into his current role. The next step would now be to move abroad and play on a higher level. He will have one more year to learn with Kapfenberg and lead his team to the playoffs and maybe the Championship.

Stats: 10.3ppg (60.0% 2FGs – 36.8% 3FGs), 4.6rpg, 4.0apg, 1.9topg, 1.5spg

Jesse Seilern – 1m89 – SG – 1990 – Austria – USC Aiken (NCAA2)

Jesse Seilern was the main scorer in the Austrian back court as the athletic combo-guard was one of the few players that can create his own shot effectively. However, Seilern mainly uses his left hand to attack the basket despite being a right-handed player. He has a quick shot release out of the dribble but he is some kind of streaky shooter who can hit the long-distance attempts in series but also have several misses in a row. Seilern needs to develop his right handed drive and take better decisions when attacking the basket where you can see him sometimes forcing a bit too much for his own scoring instead of passing the ball to the open man. After a slow first season with USC Aiken in NCAA Division 2 Basketball, Jesse Seilern und Aspang (his full name) will have to step up and confirm the good tournament he has played this summer in his home country.

Stats: 10.5ppg (43.6% 3FGs)

Romed Vieider – 1m96 – SF – 1991 – Austria – WBC Wels (AUT)

The 1991 born forward played an interesting tournament as regular scorer from the wing. He finished with excellent shooting percentages from both inside and outside the three-point arc despite being a year younger than most of the players. Vieider has quite a nice shot release with quick mechanics and excels from the corner in catch-and-shoot situations. He can also attack the basket with his right hand and finish close to the rim or from mid range out of the dribble. Vieider reads well what the defense gives him and decides upon that what he is up too on offense. It will be interesting to see how he develops this season in the Austrian league where he saw already some minutes in 2009/2010.

Stats: 11.0ppg (64.7% 2FGs – 45.7% 3FGs), 3.0rpg

Andreas Person – 1m88 – PG – 1991 – Sweden – Helios Domzale (SLO)

Andreas Person played a very consistent tournament in Austria. The Swedish guard, who moved abroad to play for Helios Domzale in Slovenia this season, showed his already well-known qualities like the drive, speed and athletic abilities but he is also progressing in his long distance shot and from the free-throw line. His jump shot looks a lot better than the last time I scouted him and he is not as hesitating anymore when having an open look from behind the arc. He takes the jump shot in catch-and-shoot situations immediately. It is possible that this has also a lot to do with his confidence that he can make the long distance shot with good percentages when he feels comfortable.

The main strength of Person though remains his excellent first step and great drive to the hoop. His above average athletic abilities give him the possibility to finish those drives also with nice dunks or difficult hang-time layups. He can score with both hands and shows great acceleration moves on the penetration. Person is at his best in the open floor when running the fast break where he can drive around the defenders at will and always go hard for the score close to the basket. After his 12.2ppg season in Sweden, it will be interesting to see how the 19 year old will do in Slovenia where he will face some different opposition.

Stats: 14.9ppg (62.0% 2FGs – 37.1% 3FGs – 81.8% FTs), 3.4rpg, 3.0apg

Christopher Ryan – 1m96 – SG – 1990 – Sweden – Boras Basket (SWE)

The Swedish guard had a good tournament and he is coming back to the level he was expected to be a few years ago but struggled to reach because of several injuries. Ryan is an aggressive SG who likes to attack the basket hard and who shows interesting speed and acceleration moves combined with good fakes. His three-point shot is less an option for him than the drive but he can nail the long-distance shot with quite good percentages. He is mainly a scorer but the Boras player is also very present in rebounding situations. Ryan does a good job in Pick and Roll situation where he can find the open man rolling to the basket but normally goes hard to the rim to find his own score.

Stats: 10.1ppg (54.3% 2FGs – 43.8% 3FGs), 4.5rpg, 2.6apg

Christopher Czerapowicz – 1m97 – SF – 1991 – Sweden – Davidson (NCAA1)

Unfortunately, the Davidson recruit had his worst games in the decisive phase of the tournament, the only games that I could scout as well. So there is not much positive to say about Christopher Czerapowicz which has not yet been said in our long portrait of him from last summer. Czerapowicz showed that he is still attacking the rim very hard and trying to finish close to the basket. However, he had some problems to do this against the taller and physical Austrian big guys. On the defensive end, he got posted up several times by taller forwards but responded well and did not let them score easily over him.

Stats: 11.6ppg (30.6% 2FGs – 28.2% 3FGs), 5.8rpg

Aleksander “Olek” Czyz – 2m01 – PF/SF – 1990 – Poland – Nevada (NCAA1)

The Polish forward and former Duke player Aleksandar Czyz showed some interesting potential during the days in Austria. He finished with an astonishing 74.0% 2pt field goal percentage and a constant activity on the boards. He finishes extremely well when close to the basket where his excellent athletic abilities help him to score even against bigger players. Czyz showed good positioning for the offensive rebound where he scored a lot of garbage points on some hustle or effort plays on his own or team mate’s misses.

He likes to attack the basket on the dribble, he can do this with both hands doing it particularly well when going left though. Czyz has a nice first step when putting the ball on the floor and his strong lower body helps him to remain in balance when being defended hard. Close to the basket, he can finish with jump hooks from either his left or his right hand but he has a certain preference for using the right one even if it would be more accurate to go for the left hand. With his aggressive play, he draws a lot of fouls and finds himself on the FT line on a quite good rate. The Polish forward will be eligible to play for the Nevada Wolf Pack in the second part of this season and it will be interesting to see what his impact will be in the WAC.

Stats: 16.1ppg (74.0% 2FGs – 68.9% FTs), 8.1rpg

Piotr Pamula – 1m94 – SG/PG – 1990 – Poland – Polonia 2011 (POL)

The Polish guard was voted into the All-Tournament team for his overall performance. Unfortunately, he did not play really well in the decisive semi-final versus Sweden that I scouted so the report on him is quite limited. Pamula has excellent size for playing the PG spot and his nice court-vision helps him to play very good passes. Over the tournament, he netted the three-pointers with great percentages and was also quite sure from the free-throw line. This was however not the case in the semi-final. He is one of the players to scout again when playing well in order to estimate his full potential as he seems to be a player to follow in the future.

Stats: 17.2ppg (52.3% 2FGs – 49.2% 3FGs), 3.3rpg, 3.6apg

Hristo Zahariev – 1m97 – SG – 1990 – Bulgaria – Chernomorets Burgas (BUL)

Hristo Zahariev was one of the two main options in the Bulgarian back court. You could see several times that he tried to post-up his defender in order to use his superior size and athletic abilities. On the other hand, Zahariev showed that his shooting from outside remains his biggest weakness, he finished the tournament with a very poor 9.1% from behind the arc. On the other hand, he is one of the most interesting players of this age group in terms of driving to the basket with direction changes and finishing against the big guys.

Stats: 10.9ppg (63.5% 2FGs – 9.1% 3FGs), 4.4rpg

Bozhidar Avramov – 1m96 – PG/SG – 1990 – Bulgaria – Lukoil Akademik (BUL)

Together with Zahariev, Bozhidar Avramov was the scoring option for Bulgaria on the guard positions. Avramov has a very nice touch from outside and can hit also difficult three-pointers in step-back fashion or with a defender on him. Additionally, he has quite a good look for his team mates and he throws some nice passes for the open man. He can accelerate nicely and looks more under control in what he does than Zahariev.

Stats: 11.4ppg (57.7% 2FGs – 42.1% 3FGs), 3.1rpg, 2.3apg

U20 European Championship Division B 2010 is a post from: European Prospects
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U20 European Championship 2010 – B Division (Austria)

All-Tournament Team

PG – Moritz Lanegger (1m90 – 1990 – Austria): 10.3ppg (60.0% 2FGs – 36.8% 3FGs), 4.6rpg, 4.0apg, 1.9topg, 1.5spg
SG – Piotr Pamula (1m94 – 1990 – Poland): 17.2ppg (52.3% 2FGs – 49.2% 3FGs), 3.3rpg, 3.6apg, 1.3spg
SF – Ovie Soko (2m06 – 1991 – Great Britain): 19.1ppg (58.5% 2FGs – 33.3% 3FGs), 6.3rpg, 2.0apg, 2.3spg
PF – Aleksandar Georgiev (2m02 – 1990 – Bulgaria): 19.4ppg (66.7% 2FGs – 29.7% 3FGs), 8.9rpg, 2.5apg
C – Jacob Cohen (2m10 – 1990 – Israel): 20.0ppg (58.1% 2FGs – 39.1% 3FGs – 87.0% FTs), 8.0rpg, 0.9bpg

MVP: Rasid Mahalbasic (2m08 – 1990 – Austria): 16.9ppg (69.7% 2FGs – 70.8% FTs), 9.8rpg, 2.0apg, 4.5topg

U18 European Championship 2010 – B Division (Israel)

All-Tournament Team

PG – Bar Timor (1m90 – 1992 – Israel): 12.8ppg (55.6% 2FGs), 2.3rpg, 5.8apg, 3.6topg, 2.5spg
SG – Devon van Oostrum (2m00 – 1993 – England): 14.3ppg (38.3% 2FGs – 29.0% 3FGs), 6.1rpg, 5.1apg, 3.9topg, 2.1spg
SF – Radosav Spasojevic (2m04 – 1992 – Montenegro): 17.9ppg (54.0% 2FGs – 39.0% 3FGs), 6.8rpg, 2.4apg, 0.9bpg
PF – Nemanja Djurisic (2m03 – 1992 – Montenegro): 14.3ppg (58.1% 2FGs – 54.5% 3FGs), 7.0rpg, 1.3apg, 2.8topg, 0.6bpg
C – Ondrej Balvin (2m15 – 1992 – Czech Republic): 10.9ppg (63.8% 2FGs – 43.3% FTs), 11.0rpg, 2.0topg, 2.9bpg

MVP: Radosav Spasojevic (Montenegro)

Fair-Play: Aleksi Koskinen (Finland)

U16 European Championship 2010 – B Division (Estonia)

All-Tournament Team

PG – Aleksej Nikolic (1m78 – 1995 – Slovenia): 10.5ppg (41.2% 2FGs – 40.0% 3FGs), 3.0rpg, 4.0apg, 1.6topg, 1.5spg
SG – Danilo Zuykov (1m85 – 1994 – Ukraine): 15.3ppg (38.5% 2FGs), 5.3rpg, 3.3apg, 2.3spg
SF – Joshua Ward-Hibbert (1m97 – 1994 – England): 18.1ppg (47.5% 2FGs – 36.0% 3FGs), 6.1rpg, 3.6spg
PF – Shane Hammink (1m98 – 1994 – Netherlands): 17.8ppg (48.5% 2FGs – 27.3% 3FGs), 8.9rpg, 2.3spg
C – Volodymyr Gerun (2m05 – 1994 – Ukraine): 17.3ppg (58.0% 2FGs – 62.0% FTs), 9.1rpg, 1.8spg, 2.4bpg

MVP: Volodymyr Gerun (Ukraine)

European Championships 2010 B Division All-Tournament Teams is a post from: European Prospects
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Mr. Langer, is this the first time that Austria organizes such a major event for Youth Basketball?

It is the first time since 1986 where the European Championship for Junior Men has been played in Gmunden and Vöcklabruck. where Yougoslavia won the Gold Medal with a team built around Vlade Divac.

Is the Austrian 1990 born generation, which is pretty strong, the reason why Austria Basketball decided to organize this European Championship?

The 1990 generation is one of the strongest of the last years we had in our country. The guys finished 4th at the U16 European Championship 2006 in Tallinn. They lost the Bronze Medal in Overtime against Bulgaria back then. In 2008, the U18 team won 6 out of 8 games in Debrecen, the two only losses were against Slovenia and the Czech Republic that afterwards played the Final and moved up to the Division A. We missed a bit of luck against the Czech Republic especially. It was clear, that if we want to organize such a tournament again after such a long time, it would be for this generation. This team deserves to play the European Championship at home.

What are the goals for the team?

With some luck, we can qualify for the Division A during this tournament. Eventually, the home-court advantage will help us gain the necessary percentages to move up. The federation did not put any pressure on the team to absolutely qualify for the final. But I think, that this is the goal of the players themselves. The mid-term goal is however to integrate these prospects in our Senior National Team. The long-term goal is to qualify for a 24-team Eurobasket. 2015 may be the right moment for this generation to play on that level.

Who do you consider as the main candidates for the title?

Poland was always very strong with the 1990 generation. We think that other teams that are strong are Bulgaria, Israel, Sweden and Belgium. One of the main factors will of course be the presence of the key players for all of the nations.

How do you see the future of Austrian Youth Basketball in general? How do you scout players and what are the structures behind the National teams?

We try to scout the players when they are about 14 years old. At this age, there are the first camps and tournament to find the best prospects. From the U16 group, we work throughout the year with the different players. Together with the European Championships, we manage to have the players together for 40-45 days in the year. This is only the case for a few years so far. If we can develop this program over the next years and improve it, we hope to get the results in a few years and have more players that have a good level.

Who are the players to follow in Austria for the next years?

We have some talent in all the different youth teams. We lack the necessary depth to play regularly at the top of Division B. From our U20 National team, Rasid Mahalbasic and Moritz “Momo” Lanegger are already members of the 16-players Senior National Team. Several other young players are on the edge of the 16-men roster as well. Jesse Seilern has played an excellent preparation to the European Championship. A lot depends on the career-choices of our young players, for which team they play or which US College they chose. Only good practice and a lot of playing time is helping them to improve and have the possibility to become a good player on the long-term. I hope that lots of them find the program where they can grow into professionals over the next years.

Austria started with a win against Belgium into the U20 European Championship. Rasid Mahalbasic was the top scorer of the team with 27pts and 12rebs. Momo Lanegger had 13pts, 5rebs and 6asts while Jesse Seilern scored 20pts at 4/6 from behind the arc.

U20 European Championship Division B: Austria is a post from: European Prospects
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For the 1987 born players, I want to point out the great games that Emir Preldzic has put on the table. The Bosnian-Slovenian forward showed his amazing talent level over a stretch of a few games in November where he came up with some great numbers. It was the particular 18pts, 7rebs and 5asts game against Union Olimpija that marked some minds.

Ludovic Vaty is averaging a double-double (15 and 10) in November so he was one of the options for the 1988 born prospect of the month. I have to give him credit for his performances as his team is struggling badly in the French league as they have not won one single game so far. I could have easily taken someone else because of the lower level of his team but I prefer to use these voting to put the light on some of the lesser known players.

The big Milan Macvan is doing pretty well at the moment as show his impressive stats in the Adriatic League these days. He started the month particularly well with three big games in a row and an amazing shooting touch. This was enough to be at the top of the in general less talented 1989 generation in Europe.

With Ricky Rubio injured, Motiejunas slowing a bit down and Jan Vesely only coming up with the good games in the end of the month, I want to present a very interesting young man from Austria: Rasid Mahalbasic. The 2m07 tall forward with Slovenian origins averaged 15.7ppg and 6.3rpg in the Austrian league in November which are pretty good numbers for such a young guy. Keep an eye on his development.

For the 1991 born players, there was not that much competition as Mirza Sarajlija started his Euroleague career in the best way. The Slovenian PG which I featured in a short scouting a few days ago was the clear-cut number one of the youngest of the categories this month.

Prospect of the month: November 2008 is a post from: European Prospects
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• Starting with the B Division, two teams remain unbeaten and look like the favorites for moving up to Division A. Germany started as one of the big favorites in Targu Mures, and until now, everything went well for them. They will face Estonia that qualified for the semis after a double overtime win over Romania yesterday evening. The presence of Belgium at this level is a little bit surprising as they miss 2 of their most promising players of the 1989 generation that won the U18 B Division last year. Still, the will face Sweden tomorrow and the winner moves up to Division A next year.
• The Division A tournament in Riga will go into its hot phase tomorrow with the Semi-Finals. 3 of the 4 teams qualified here were present in the U20 Tournament in Luxembourg that I have covered a few weeks ago. Turkey is the most surprising of the 4 as they did not look very promising there. Both Spain and Lithuania added quality talent with Donatas Motiejunas and Victor Claver.
• The disappointment so far is of course France. Started as one of my personal favorites for Gold, the generation that won the U16 and U18 Gold medal was impressive during the preparation but came up with two very bad misses in the Qualification round against Latvia and Spain. Now the team of Richard Billant will play Italy for the places 5-8 where also Montenegro and Ukraine are battling.

• Kostas Sloukas, the unofficial MVP of the U18 tournament in Greece is currently being chased by all the main Greek teams in order to join them for next season.
• Rasid Mahalbasic, the 17 year old Austrian player who was one of the main actors of the interesting Austria team in the U18 B Division joined the Senior national team for the Eurobasket Division B round this fall.
• Frank Wiseler, former PG of Urspring Academy will join the Drake Bulldogs in the NCAA. The Missouri Valley Conference team will however need to wait one year before Wiseler will be eligible.

Today’s picks (live from Riga) is a post from: European Prospects
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Division A

• Croatia did not have too much problems to beat a Latvian team that won’t probably repeat their Bronze medal act from last year. Mario Delas was everywhere for the Croats with 24pts, 9rebs and 3asts.
• Germany beat France in a very important game already as this group looked pretty equal. The M&Ms were on fire with Maurice Stuckey scoring 20pts in 23 minutes and Maik Zirbes going for a double-double with 22pts and 11trebs.
• In the game of the night, Greece overcame Spain in a closer game than everyone thought in the beginning. The Greeks started quickly despite a calm game of Nikos Pappas. They increased their lead and used their inside players Leonidas Kaselakis and Zisis Sarikopoulos very well against a small Spanish team. In the 2nd half, when Spain was switching to a zone, the could come back behind some good defensive efforts and a few nice plays by Alejandro Hernandez. However, it was Vladimir Jankovic and Konstantinos Papanikolaou who sealed the game in the game and a last second three pointer from mid-court by the Spanish guard could not change the result.
• Serbia, who misses all their players of Crvena Zvezda because of injury, struggled badly in their opener of the tournament and lost 83-68 against a Lithuanian team that was lead by Tautvydas Slezas and his 16pts, 13rbs, 3asts and 2blks. For Serbia, it was especially Bojan Subotic who was far away from his normal level with 2/10 shooting and 0/3 FTs.
• Bulgaria had nearly the comeback of the day after trailing by 17 in the fourth quarter. But it was not enough against the 24pts and 9rebs of Enes Kanter for the Turkish team.
• ERT World Sat broadcasts the game of the Greek U18 team. You can follow the Live Stream here from tomorrow’s game Greece-Israel starting at 18h00 CET.

Division B

• Poland had a lot of trouble to win against a English team without Ryan Richards who is not with the team because of slight injuries. Behind the 30pts of 1991 born guard Sebastian Szymanski, the Polish team won despite having their top prospect Jakub Wojciechowski fouled out in just 16 minutes. England coach Andre Alleyne told me after the game that he wasn’t happy in the way we played defense in the first half. We picked it up in the second and if we transfer that to the Portugal game tomorrow, we will be in a better position. The goal of the team is to finish better than last year (18th) and everything below 10th place would be a failure in coach Alleyne’s mind.
• Austria had a nice win to start into the tournament and put some pressure on the Netherlands. Behind the great effort of Rasid Mahalbasic who scored 28pts and had 10rebs, the team of coach Robert Langer has now chances to go to the next round. It was a very intensive game. Our team has fought very well and we stuck together. We have overpowered the Dutch but we can improve, told the coach after the game to the press.
• Sweden managed to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina behind 21pts in 24 minutes of Omar Zaghden. The Swedish PF got some nice support from his outside scorers Andreas Person and Christopher Czerapowicz who both were in double figures. The Bosnian team relied a bit too much on Dino Hodzic who had to do it all.
• Finland outscored Hungary in the second quarter 30-14 to go for their first win. A surprising performance by the Kouvot SF Matti Nuutinen with 22pts and 10rebs and the awaited scoring efforts of Sasu Salin and Roopi Ahonen were enough to give the Hungarians their first loss.
• One of the tournament favorites Slovenia will start their run for Division A tomorrow when they will play against the other strong team of their group Sweden.

Today’s picks (from the U18 European Championships) is a post from: European Prospects
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