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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The favorites

If you consider the different tournaments that have been played so far this season, the main teams to win this year’s edition of the competition are Greece and Serbia. After the astonishing dominance in Mannheim, the Greek team around Nikos Pappas showed a great talent level despite missing some inside forces.

On the other hand, the Serbian team, that is build around the FMP Junior Team core of Andrija Milutinovic, Bojan Subotic and Dejan Musli. The non-consideration of Branislav Djekic or Lazar Radosavljevic may be a surprise for some people but still Serbia looks like a clear cut favorite to reach the Gold medal game.

The outsiders

Some other teams can be considered as potential Medal candidates, and those are the traditional teams like Spain, France or Lithuania. The Spanish guys, that will of course play without Ricky Rubio may lack of some size because they don’t have any player taller than 2m06 in their roster. So the paint has to be kept clean by guys like Toni Vicens or Alberto Jodar who either miss the necessary size or are no inside players. The least that one could say is that the Spanish backcourt of David Garcia, Alejandro Hernandez and Dani Perez is ready to face some tough opposition.

I also spoke with Luis from Draftexpress.com and here is his opinion on the Spanish U18 team.

I think Spain has a chance to reach the medals, although I think Serbia is just on an entire different level and no other team should be able to challenge them (perhaps not even Greece, although they are the other top candidate for the final).

Regarding Spain, I like the fact we have a heady PG in Dani Pérez, a skilled guard in Alex Hernández, aggressive and skilled wings in Jorge Santana or Marcos León, both capable of slash and shoot, an all-around physical freak in Alberto Jodar, and finally, we’ve added some size. You probably remember Toni Vicens, the undersized and over weighted hustler quite effective under the rim.

For France, their performance in Mannheim was really bad, but the uncommon practice methods of their coach seem to have some results. Les Bleus won their tournament in Douai behind a great team effort and playing without their supposed best player in person of Christophe Leonard who signed a pro-contract with Cholet recently. Ludovic Puigcerbier, who is following French youth basketball for basketsession.com gave us his thoughts on the chances for the French in Greece:

After a difficult preparation, the French U18 team could hurt more than one team during this year’s U18 competition. Despite some bad results in Mannheim, Euro-Essone and Manzanares, the French team has however beaten teams like Spain, Croatia or Lithuania during their preparation and has also won the tournament in Douai. The team has the necessary talent with players like Christophe Léonard, Andrew Albicy or Alexis Tanghe but we have to see how the team will play and behave during the tournament. But they have the possibilities to beat every team on any given night. On the other hand, the inside sector looks pretty weak though to be a contender for a medal. I think, they will finish between 5th and 7th place.

Lithuania is always present when it comes to Youth Championships. And this year, with super talent Donatas Motiejunas in the middle, Lithuania could eventually be considered as one of the main teams for a medal. But one player does not make them a Gold Medal team as they significantly miss some offensive quality in the back court. For the Lithuanian federation, the official goal is between 3 and 8 but the current results made some people think that this goal will be hard to reach especially if you take into consideration that Motiejunas was injured during two weeks and he is badly wanted by the U20 team to play with them. So eventually, he may leave after a few games if the U18 team can not reach a medal. Because of the lack of potential in the 1990 generation except Motiejunas and Tautvydas Slezas, the coaching staff added some interesting 1991 born guys where especially Gilvydas Biruta showed good talent so far.

Who else do we have?

Another team that has to be mentioned is of course Croatia and their impressive front court composed of Tomislav Zubcic, Mario Delas and Leon Radosevic. With the addition of Toni Prostran in the backcourt since the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament, the team is improving on the talent side but now remains the question if they can translate this into decisive games. The Croats, who should win their group will have their real opponents in the 2nd phase where they will play against France, Russia, Germany or Ukraine.All in all, this side of the table looks a lot easier to reach the semis than the other side where Serbia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain and Italy fight for the two spots most likely.

The Turkish team played also a interesting tournament in Mannheim and showed some stints of talent in Douai too. However, I have some doubts if they can go for it all in Greece as they seem to depend too much on their PF beat Deniz Kiligli who is not the most regular player in the world. They have some good scoring in the backcourt and feature 16yr old Enes Kanter who can dominate in the paint but it really looks like the left-handed hook machine from Fenerbahce is the guy that decides about the performance of the Turkish team. And one bad game may be enough to fall from 1-4th to 5-8th place.

Germany played an interesting tournament in Douai where they won the games they have to win. In their home event in Mannheim, they lost the game they had to win to qualify for the Top8. So Kay Blümel and his team know how good or how bad they can play, especially after the poor performances in Spain a few days ago. But the absence of some of the main players may be a reason for this as explains the German head coach:

After the very bad performance during the tournament in Spain, where we played without six of our first 10 players (Maurice Stuckey, Simon Schmitz, Robert Hülsewede, Femi Oladipo, Niels Giffey and Alexander Schrempf) and lost heavily against Spain, France and Croatia, the motivation of the team was really down low. We tried to improve this during our training camp these days. Unfortunately, we have to play without Oladipo (torn ankle) and Hülsewede (broken foot) during the Championships which lets a big hole on our SF position. Our goal is to reach the third place in our group first of all and avoid the relegation round.

The game against France in the beginning will be extremely important for us, because they have a team that we can beat.  Russia has improved and showed good games in the Moscow tournament and seems hard to beat. Ukraine is the unknown team in our group and it’s hard for me to predict how good they are right now. But as it will be our third game in the tournament, we have enough time to scout them during the Championship. If we reach our goal and qualify for the next phase, we will see how we continue. But we don’t want to become to high on ourselves and remain with both feet on earth. A place somewhere around 9th like last year would be very satisfying for us.

The Russian U18 team was very disappointing in Mannheim but has found a way back to be a serious outsider in Greece after their performances at the Petrenko Cup in Khimki. The squad has beaten Italy, and the Czech Republic while only failing shortly against the top favorites from Greece. Currently, no world class talent has emerged of the 1990 generation in Russia but the mixture of aggressive guards and long tall forwards that characterizes the Russian game is still present. So they are definitely a team to watch in Amaliada and Pyrgos.

Italy that played a correct tournament in Mannheim will see their top talent of the 1991 generation Nicolo Melli joining them. And with this addition on the wing, everything is possible for the Squadra. The young forward may be one of the best talents in Europe and if he can elevate his game to what he showed during the LegaDue semi-finals, he may be the leader that could help the Italians reach an unpredictable success in the tournament.

Fighting for relegation

Belgium went up to Division A in 2007 behind a great team effort and the nice games of Jorn Steinbach and Jean-Marc Mwema. But these two guys are born in 1989 and will not be available anymore. But some talent of the last year’s win is still on the roster and the addition of Yannick Moray should give the team of Fred Wilmot the necessary power in the back court. On the other hand, no real inside presence on this level will be tough to handle.

Israel, who plays Belgium in the group stage may be the team that can avoid relegation the easiest way in beating the before mentioned in their opener. The departure of Daniel Rom back to Russia lets a big whole in the middle of course but the typical fighting spirit and the athleticism of Carmel Bouchman may help them to stay in the league. This opener will be extremely important for both teams.

Estonia will feature one of the most interesting players to follow of the tournament with Siim-Sander Vene who played already a good tournament last season. Next to him, not too much talent is to be seen but maybe it is worth to take a closer look at the 1991 born Kristjan Rinaldo (yes, that’s his name) who put up some correct stats with the U16 last summer and plays for the Honka Academy in Finland.

Not much to say about the Ukrainian team as I barely know any player there and could not find any results or comments on them on the net. The main goal for the team is to stay in the Division as they have a pretty interesting 1991 generation that could compete next season on the highest level.

Lauris Blaus tries to lead his Latvian team to the necessary wins in their group to stay away from the Relegation round. He will hopefully get some support from the talented 1991 generation around Janis Antrops and Harijs Rubenis.

Bulgaria will be built around their back-court combo of Hristo Zahariev and Bozhidar Avramov. I have put them in this part of the preview one loss against Latvia could mean that the team has to play on relegation round. On the other hand, the team has the talent to pass against Croatia or Turkey but I don’t know how they could handle the inside presence of these two nations.

U18 European Championship Division A – Preview is a post from: European Prospects
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First of all, there is probably the best U18 Club tournament that will be held: the 29th edition of the Hospitalet Tournament. This year’s edition will be played from the 3rd to the 5th of January and features some top flight talent from different Spanish and European Club teams. When you fly over the different rosters, there are some names that pop up like Dejan Musli and Branislav Djekic from FMP Zeleznik, Alejandro Hernandez from Barcelona, Tomislav Zubcic from Cibona Zagreb, David Jelinek, Alexander Andreev and Josep Franch from Joventut Badalona, Nikola Mirotic from Real Madrid or Bozhidar Avramov from Pamesa Valencia.

Of course a lot of other players will be present in L’Hospitalet but those names seem to be some of the most promising before the start of the action. I will try to keep you updated the best possible as I will not be in Spain but there is normally a very good media coverage as Canal+ Spain is broadcasting some of the games this year.

One the other hand, during the same days, there will be the Sarajevo Youth basketball Festival with compiles U18, U16, U14 and even U12 tournaments for both boys and girls. For this website, the U18 and in a minor scale the U16 boys tournaments will be the most interesting. For the U18 division, the participants will be Playoff Sarajevo, Ulm, Barking Abbey, Austrian U16 NT, Inzersdorf, Kamnik and ALBA Berlin. The last ones can probably be considered as favorites when you check how the locals and Barking Abbey played at last week’s Interperformances Cup in London.

Some more tournaments to come is a post from: European Prospects
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