Olympiacos Piraeus

Kostas Papanikolaou started the season opener for Olympiacos on the SF position which shows that head coach Dusan Ivkovic is counting on the talented Greek wing this season. The 1990 born Papanikolaou played 8 minutes and scored 2 points. This does not mean that he will get playing time every game but he is certainly among the most interesting players to follow this season in the Group B as he has a rare combination of excellent size and basketball skills for the SF position. He can run the court well, has a good shot from outside despite not having the quickest release and has an all-around game that makes him a player that can be used for multiple tasks.

Real Madrid

The 1991 born Montengrin with Spanish passport, Nikola Mirotic is the player to follow on the Real Madrid roster. Despite a DNP in the Euroleague opener tonight, he is definitely one of the most talented and gifted wings on the continent. With his great size (2m09), speed and ball handling skills, Mirotic can be used as a wing to create interesting match-up situations as he can either take the SF to the paint or beat the PF on the dribble. So far, Mirotic saw some minutes with Real on the ACB level but his impact this season may remain limited and he can learn from following and practicing on this high level. 

Unicaja Malaga

After having seen minutes on Euroleague level already last season, the Brazilian-Spanish guard Rafa Freire seemed to have a difficult season in front of him as he did not play any minute in  the first two ACB games of this season. However, he got his opportunity against Fuenlabrada on Sunday and used his twenty-five minutes on the court well. He finished with 9pts, 2rebs and 2asts but could not help his team to win the game. The 1m87 tall combo-guard is a nicely athletic player who is able to create his own shot. His jump-shot looks really well but he forces the situation sometimes a bit too much. With the experience he is earning through all these minutes at a young age (he is born in 1992), he should be able to learn and improve his decision making in the future.

Augusto Cesar Lima also had to sit on the bench during the two first games of the ACB season and saw the court for the first time against Fuenlabrada. The very long 2m06 tall Brazilian is doing an excellent job on the offensive glass but struggles when he has to defend in the low post because he is not physical enough against the older players. But the energy level of the 1991 born is a good asset for Unicaja and makes Lima an interesting option coming from the bench occasionally.

Virtus Roma

The player to watch in the Group B in terms of scoring is most likely the Bosnian Nihad Dedovic who arrived to Roma coming from Obradoiro in Spain. In his first full ACB year, the 1m96 tall forward averaged 6.3ppg and has impressed the followers with his scoring talent. He is one of the purest shooters in the different youth categories and has also very active hands on the perimeter. The 1990 born wing has a good acceleration when attacking the basket with his right hand and he could be one of the leading scorers of the Italian team this season. At least, this is what he showed in Roma’s opening game to the 2010/2011 Lega where he finished top scorer with 18pts (3/4 2FGs – 4/6 3FGs) combined with 4rebs and 3stls.

Brose Baskets Bamberg

Tibor Pleiss is of course the young player to watch with the German Team. He has already been drafted last spring and will play his first full Euroleague season. The progress of the young German has been tremendous last season where he grew from being a back-up to become a full-time starter. Now the 2m15 tall Center needs to confirm and show his level against the more physical opposition in the toughest European league.

With the injury of John Goldsberry, Maurice Stuckey got some interesting playing time over the first Bundesliga games. The quick guard used it nicely with his aggressive play mainly scoring on the break or with the long distance-shoot. The 1990 born combo averaged so far 4.75ppg for Bamberg and saw his playing time increase up to 23 minutes in a game against Hagen. As Goldsberry will be out for a several more weeks and Brose is currently not looking for a replacement, Stuckey will most likely see the court as well in the opening of the Euroleague season against Rome. With his aggressive defense, we could even see the match-up between him and the above mentioned Dedovic.

Philipp Neumann was supposed to get some minutes already with Bamberg this season but it has not happened so far in the Bundesliga. The 2m10 tall PF has not yet cracked the rotation of coach Fleming and mainly gets his playing time with the farm team in Breitengüssbach. However, the 1992 born player is considered as one of the most talented inside players of the continent but he has to show that he is able to make the next step from being a dominator in youth categories to a good rotation on the professional level. Maybe this season is still a year too early for him to do so.

Spirou Charleroi

In a team dominated by US-imports, the 2m09 tall and 1989 born Ioannis Iarochevitch is a bit of an outsider. With his thin frame, the Belgian looks a bit like a kid among men when being on the court. However, Iarochetvich uses nicely his speed to beat his opponents of the dribble when taking them out to the three-point line. He can be an interesting match-up for Charleroi offensively, but he struggles on the defensive end where he gets out-powered in the low post regularly. In the Euroleague qualification rounds, he averaged only 4.6 minutes per game as a replacement for the injured Christophe Beghin and he managed to score 1.4ppg. This shows though the limits of the impact that he can have on the team at the moment.

Euroleague 2010/2011 Preview: Group B is a post from: European Prospects
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• The main event may be the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland. The World team is this team made of mainly European players and it features some of the most prolific prospects around. While the US eyes will probably be mostly on Donatas Motiejunas, the roster features some future Euroleague players like Milan Macvan or Nikos Pappas. Draftexpress is covering the event live from Portland and has a first look at some of the major Europeans (Motiejunas, Macvan, Jackson) in the event. The excellent Blazer’s Edge is also covering the days as the event is happening at their home base in Oregon. They cover Motiejunas too in their first article about the world team but give also a first look at Mamadou Samb. The main sponsor of the event has of course also big coverage from Portland and gives the writing pen to some of the players of the event. Read here what Donatas Motiejunas (again him) tells us about his first time in United States and also what the French Edwin Jackson has to report
• The second place to be these days is Vilagarcia in Spain where one of the biggest U18 tournaments is played these days. Spain, Angola, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, New Zealand and the Czech Republic are playing here to see who has the best cards for the upcoming Summer Championships. Next to the official website, our Spanish friend Jaime Martinez Lafargue at Solobasket gives a great coverage of the Tournament, unfortunately only in Spanish. Read his scouting report of the first day right here.
• Eurobasket.com reports briefly about the Final tournament of Serbian U17 teams in Belgrade
• It has been last weekend already, but Serbia has won the prestigious Bellegarde tournament for U16 teams in France. Second place was for Greece while Turkey finished third and France on the last place. This weekend, Serbia plays in Ragusa (Italy) another U16 tournament against Spain, Russia and the home team of Italy. The opening game of the tournament saw Spain beat Italy 77-63.
• To stay in Italy, the 5th edition of the Memorial Graziano Barila is taking place these days and feature a couple of interesting teams. Team Ohio, the Sabonis Basketball School or Olimpija Ljubljana are the most notable names coming to the tournament to fight against the local youth teams from Italy. You can follow the results and check the rosters right here.
• The Cholet Mondial Basket Tournament will start today in Western France and will feature some very interesting teams too. Despite the withdrawals of some teams before the tournament for different reasons, the organization has managed to bring in such talented squads like Real Madrid (without Nikola Mirotic though), BCM Ostrava or Stella Azzurra Roma next to the traditional French professional Farm teams. Follow the tournament on the official website
• Finally, the German U19 league is looking for its last Final Four participants this weekend after the qualification of ALBA Berlin and Paderborn Baskets. In a highly anticipated (some considered it as a potential Final) game between Trier and Urspring, the team around Maik Zirbes tries to go for a decisive game after having lost the opener of the series one week ago and Maurice Stuckey’s team. The other quarter-final should see TSV Tröster Breitengüssbach qualify against Bayern Munich.

Heavy weekend picks is a post from: European Prospects
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Elias Harris (2m00 – 1989 – Forward – BIS Speyer)

In a recent article by the German magazine Forward, the current German U18 National team coach Kay Blümel considers Elias Harris as the biggest German prospect right now. Nobody else has the same combination of athleticism and basketball skills in the youth categories. Harris is also a house-hold name for all the followers of European Youth competitions and the possibility to see him play in his daily setup of Speyer was very interesting.

Harris is still present on the floor through his great athletic and physical skills. He is currently in process of developing a Small Forward type of play, as he was always used to play more on the PF position. So you see him attack the basket from the top, in a face-to-the-basket style. He can go down low on the block if he has a smaller defender on him but most of his plays are currently energetic drives to the hoop in a special off two feet jumping style. He uses this technique in order to surround players and it helps him to turn his big physical presence into an advantage.

The main question in Harris’ game was and still is his shot. While his mechanics look already better, most of his jump shots in this game looked pretty short. From the outside, he seems to miss the necessary shooting touch. However, this is a work in progress and his nice accuracy from the FT line shows that he is on the right way. What can be added in his favor is that he saw that his shot was not falling in the first half and relied more on the drives in the 2nd period; drives that he often scored of with the additional foul.

On defense, Harris is very present in rebounding and has the necessary speed and athleticism to defend Small Forwards. In his particular match-up with the quick Christian Standhardinger, he effectively blocked the way to the basket and forced the Ehingen forward to take mid-distance jump shots. Harris has the timing to become an interesting shot blocker too. In the rebounding area, he is very present through his good positioning and physical force.

After a slow season start, Harris has now found his rhythm and plays nearly 40 minutes every game. It is well known that he wants to join the NCAA next season, but for the moment, nothing official has been published. He will in any case be one of the leaders of the very talented German U20 team for this summer’s European Championship.

Statistics after 10 games: 19.1ppg (52.5% 2FG 20.5% 3FG 77.4% FT), 8.2rpg

Simon Schmitz (1m88 – 1990 – Point Guard – BIS Speyer)

Simon Schmitz is one of the nice surprises for me this season. The 1990 born PG has nearly doubled all of his figures in his second full season on this level. Together with Elias Harris, he represents the a very nice talented combo for the team of Speyer. Schmitz is a regular member of the different German Youth National teams and it would be no surprise if he joins the U20 squad this summer despite being one year younger.

Being physically quite the opposite of Harris, Schmitz displays a good size but a very thin and fragile body. He gets banged around and has to take lots of off-balance shots in a league that features quite a number of very physical players. But he is not afraid and drives with nice speed and mostly of his right hand to the basket. He normally does not go until the rim but mostly finished of some kind of driving lay-up a bit off the basket in order to avoid the big guys.

He can also hit the jump shots out of the dribble without any problem and even nets them when getting fouled. He looks under control in what he does and is very good in avoiding turnovers. Even if he plays more than 33 minutes per game, he loses only 1.8 balls per game, quite a great figure for somebody touching the ball so often.

Simon Schmitz, who is a coach’s son, looks to me like one of the most promising PG prospects in Germany right now. His development since the last time I saw him is good, and his numbers are also improving big. Of course, he needs to work on his physical abilities in order to get stronger and resist better on the shocks in the game.

Statistics after 9 games: 15.8ppg (54.7% 2FG 41.2% 3FG 77.8% FT), 3.9rpg, 3.6apg

Christian Standhardinger (2m01 – 1989 – Forward – Erdgas Ehingen)

Christian Standhardinger is in his first season where he only plays for the ProB team of Ehingen after winning two times the NBBL championship with Urspring. His slashy style of the last two years was somehow limited so that he works hard in order to add some additional tools to his offensive game. The 2m01 tall forward is for the moment the second best scorer of the whole ProB and the game that I had the opportunity to see him was simply the best scoring game of his season so far with 41 units.

And Standhardinger started the game with a very nice 3 point shot coming of a multitude of screens he used over the baseline. It showed that he has worked a lot on his long distance shot as Speyer tried to control his drives and he answered with some very nice shots from behind the arc or jump shots out of the dribbling. His one dribble jump shot seems to connect now on a regular basis off both sides when driving.

Of course, his main weapon remains the right handed drive which he tries to use up until the rim and where he collects a lot of fouls. He shots a high percentage from the FT line (more than 90% in November – 40/44) which makes his play very effective. Additionally, he reads the defense well as he uses the help defense to dish out easy assists to his team mates. He came for example up with an 8 assist effort recently.

Defensively, he lacks of course the physicals in order to stop a guy like Elias Harris on the block. On the other hand, he is going for every rebound on both sides of the court and has good instincts to play the steal. In order to be considered as a great prospects, Standhardinger needs to improve his physical presence, especially get stronger in his legs. His future is surely on the SF position.

Having participated to the ALBA Berlin training camp in Slovenia this summer, it is highly likely that Standhardinger will join the NCAA this summer though. His scorer and winning mentality makes him a very promising player, even if his sometimes arrogant behavior is not liked by all the observers.

Statistics after 13 games: 22.0ppg (57.4% 2FG 32.6% 3FG 73.3% T), 8.5rpg, 2.5apg, 1.7spg

Nicolai Simon (1m91 – 1987 – Point Guard – Erdgas Ehingen)

Nicolai Simon was considered as the top Point Guard talent in Germany 2 years ago. But a very long-lasting back injury (he did not play for about 14 months) pushed him backwards in his development. At one moment, he was coming up with promising games for ALBA Berlin, he is now back in Ehingen where he played before signing with the German powerhouse.

Simon’s play is still characterized by a very good jump shot, control of the game and leader qualities on the floor. He lost a bit of his speed which is quite normal and he has now the time to regain his full physical form. He is not yet having a big impact in terms of scoring, but with his 21 years of age, he is one of the oldest players right now of Ehingen and has additional roles to fulfill. And with Standhardinger on the team, he does not need to score that much.

Nicolai Simon likes to to for the drive where he has no particular preference for one side. He can go for the score until the rim, and even nets in with the foul after a spin-move for example. His range is great and he can hit the three-pointer without any problem. However, his shot does not really fall for the moment but this will come back for sure.

This season is very important for him as he needs to play a full season without any physical problems in order to show himself that he is really back and gain in confidence. The coaching staff at Ehingen gives him this possibility and he plays big minutes. And he claims himself that right now he is 100% free of pain so that everything looks well for him to come back at his potential level.

Statistics after 12 games: 6.7ppg (40.4% 2FG 23.3& 3FG 81.3% FT) 2.5rpg, 3.2apg

Other players

The game between Speyer and Ehinger featured some other interesting players in Ehingen’s roster. I saw a particularly nice game of Cornelius Adler, a 1989 born forward who is doing really well in the last games. The 1m95 tall former Braunschweig player scored 15pts in just 17 minutes and showed a nice arsenal of offensive possibilities. He made a good score of a post-up move, finished a drive on his left hand and also netted one three pointer.

Maurice Stuckey had not his best day and he finished the game scoreless.

Thierno Agne was present in his typical defending rebounder style. Offensively, he was not very present as his shots did not fall.

German talent meeting in Speyer 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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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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Andrew Albicy from France was the MVP of the Finals and got also elected to the All-Tournament team, a deserved recognition for the 1m70 tall PG from Paris-Levallois. Albicy is a scoring PG that lives a lot from his great shooting from behind the arc. Not incredibly fast for his size, he is driving but this is not his main offensive skill. He improved his three point percentage over the tournament after starting with a bad 0/6 in the first game.

After the poor showing of France in Mannheim and the request of the coaching stuff to find a PG leader, Albicy has really emerged and improved since Spring. He was the clear-cut go-to-guy in a less talented than the years before French team in general. With him on the court, the French team looked in confidence and went for an incredible 28-2 run during the semis.

He will probably suffer from his size in the future, but seeing the good games his countryman Marco Pellin had in the Euroleague, you can imagine a similar destiny in the future. However, Albicy has not developed the defensive mindset of Pellin so far, something that can still happen. At least, with Paris-Levallois down in ProB next season, Albicy should see lots of minutes with the professionals from this fall on.

Toni Prostran was also elected into the All-Tournament team, and this was even more deserved than Albicy’s selection as Prostran was one year younger than most of the competitors and he was probably among the top scorers of the tournament. The 91 born guard from KK Zadar showed a scoring talent that is rarely seen for a 1m83 small guard.

Prostran lives mostly from his super quick shot release from behind the arc where he can fire up threes at will, even with bigger defenders in his face. His shooting mechanics look super fluid but incomplete as he stops the move after releasing the ball immediately. Additionally, the ball turns sideways on his shot. This does not impeach him to score incredible shots from long distances.

When he gets defended hard on pick and roll, he has no problem to split between the defenders and go for great assists too. When he drives, he often scores tear drop shots or running floaters as he is not super athletic to go up against the big guys in the paint. He can be out of the game for stretches when he is defended by bigger players, but he can also on the other hand go for incredible scoring runs over short periods.

Maurice Stuckey did play a correct tournament in his role as scoring guard coming of the bench for Germany. With his speed and acceleration, he could drive till the basket lots of times as no defender was able to stop his right handed penetration. Stuckey is the ideal complement to the starting German PG Simon Schmitz who is more like an organizer on the court while Stuckey is the energizer.

Stuckey was not hot from the outside during the games I saw in Douai so he used his speed to drive in the lane and score with some running floaters or hanging lay-ups where he could use his nice athleticism. With his drives, he could also create some good opportunities for his team mates in the paint but he tried mostly to go for his own score.

He tried also some mid-distance shots out of the dribble, but he could not connect them in a regular fashion. He also managed to score sometimes of his left hand but his drives were nearly every time on his strong right hand. This was of course also the result of poor defense as they opened him his strong side lots of times. On defense, he put a lot of pressure on the opposing guards, especially when Germany played some kind of full court man-to-man defense.

Maxim Mutaf played some good games in Douai during the weekend. The scoring guard from Fenerbahce, who had a little injury on his hand, was the go-to-guy during moments for a Turkish team that was far away from its level it displayed in Mannheim.

Mutaf has a picture perfect shot from all distances which he can put up with ease against defenders too. He is always attacking his defender as soon as he gets the ball and tries to go for the scoring. When driving, he finished either with floaters of the glass or even when till the rim to score on nice finger rolls. He had also a very athletic back door lay up where he scored against two defenders with beauty.

For his long distance shot, he has no problem to create his own shot. He showed a variety of different shooting positions, coming off the screen or going for a step back three in his defenders face. Additionally, he showed surprising presence in offensive rebounding where he tried to go for every ball. Even his injured did not prevent him to jump into the chairs to get an lose ball. On the other hand, he put himself out of the game with 2 super stupid fouls in the last minutes. But he will learn how to avoid such errors in the future.

Melih Mahmutoglu was the other Turkish SG during this tournament and he came up with his beautiful game that we could already see in Mannheim this spring. With his perfect shooting mechanics, Mahmutoglu nearly netted every open position from behind the arc. Not much of a drive player, he often stops to go for the mid-distance jump shot out of the dribble.

Liran Moran was the top scorer for the Israeli team. He nearly scored only on three point shots, where he was pretty accurate. Moran is listed as 1m91 and I think that he can play the SG spot in the future in a very specific role as shooter. He showed sometimes a nice drive where he can go to the rim but mostly he is the guy receiving the ball from inside and netting the three-ball.

Gilvydas Biruta played only 1 quarter of basketball during the two days I was in Douai, but you could see that this guy has basketball talent. First of all, he is an outstanding athlete going for not less than 4 dunks in one quarter, two of these coming from highly spectacular alley-oop passes after a screen in the back (a play, that you could for example often see for Roanne’s Marc Salyers this season). He did not play in the last game of the tournament as his coach has probably seen enough of his scoring talent of the bench in the games before. One note on him is also that he is playing in the Gran Canaria basketball academy in Spain which is quite uncommon for a Lithuanian youngster.

Nic Wise was the clear leader of Team USA on the PG position and did hurt the opposing defenses a lot with his huge drives where he was not afraid to go against the big guys and even scored several times against them with the foul. With his great handles and speed changes, he was a tough match-up for any player that tried to guard him.

Mohamed Koita was the only guard on Team Africa, so he had to play 40 minutes per game. And he was mostly a scoring threat with a lot of turnovers in the setup of the game. Koita can hit a lot of threes despite a quite mechanical shooting way. His outstanding athleticism helps him on the drives but he lacks a bit of basketball understanding due to his limited playing on the highest level so far. He is currently at the Stoneridge Academy in the United States.

Douai Tournament 2008: the guards is a post from: European Prospects
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• In the first game of the day, Israel destroyed Adidas Nations Africe with nearly 30 points. The Africans started the game in a zone defense which was immediately punished by the Israeli as they hit 4 three pointers to start the game. The first quarter continued in a total domination by the physically weaker Israeli guys. The 1st quarter ended 24-5. The game was then going on a bit and Israel finished this one easily to win 76-48. The main scorers for Africa was once again Mamadou Samb who had 20pts and 8 rebs. Africa that plays without a real PG struggled a lot against the aggressive defense by Israel, they lost a total of 28 balls. For Israel, Liran Moran did a great job from behind the arc where he hit 6 out of his 10 attempts to finish the game at a scoring high of 22pts in 27 minutes of play.
• The second game of the day was a very close one between two of the most talented teams with some high potentials in their roster. Surprisingly, this was only for the places 5-8 of the tournament as both teams could have gone for the Final. But the results are the results. So it was Turkey that beat Lithuania 94-89 in a very nice game. The Turks, where Enes Kanter is present but not as dominating as during the AST (he got doubled on every touch), had a nice team effort with 4 scorers in double figures. They were led by their 1991 born scorer Can Mutaf who had 23pts, 6rebs, 3asts and 3stls. Deniz Kilicli came up with his unorthodox play only in the second half but had some very bad choices in his passes. For Lithuania, Donatas Motiejunas showed once again his incredible talent but could not win the game for the Greens. He got some support by the surprisingly athletic Gilvydas Biruta who scored 14pts in just 15 minutes.
• In the first semi-final, Germany got beaten easily by a Team USA that dominated the paint with ease. The German big guys seemed heavily afraid in the beginning of the game and so the semi was decided after Quarter 1 (20-7). The Germans did well during several minutes after the break when they were more aggressive on defense, but they could never come back in the game. Maurice Stuckey was still the best scorer of the team as he was not afraid to go scoring against the bigs. The Urspring guard who came of the bench had 18pts (6/17 FG) together with 3rebs 4asts and 3stls. For Team USA, big guy Kenny Frease scored 14 and grabbed 14 impressive rebounds while the tiny PG Nic Wise topped all the scorers with 22.
• The second semi-final saw France beating Coratia in a thriller 75-73. The game did not look like it was going to be close as Croatia directly started with a 9-0 in the first minute. But an incredible 28-2 run by the French changed the game completely. However, the Croats managed to come back in the game and have a chance to win it on the buzzer but the shot from Toni Prostran was too short. France was led by the surprising Jonathan Bourhis who scored 22pts. For Croatia, which plays without Tomislav Zubcic, Mario Delas had 17pts and 7rebs while Sven Smajlagic scored 21pts, had 6rebs and 5asts.
• The three point contest has been won by the Israeli Rub Omer with 10pts in the Final against the French PG Jonathan Bourhis.
• The level of the tournament this year is correct. Unfortunately, the system of the groups forced a team like Lithuania to play now for the last place despite being probably one of the most talented squads. On the other hand, Germany was not really a semi-final team but had won the games the had to win.
• Because of the NBA Draft, not a lot of NBA teams were present in Douai. We just saw one team represented and several NCAA and European scouts but in general, less than the years before.
• We heard from sources that the French coaching staff was not motivated to reach the Final because they have booked (as only team) their return tickets to Paris for tomorrow night. The player however won the game and now the coaches asked to advance the Final for half an hour in order to catch their train. I don’t know if that will happen. We will have more on this incredible story tomorrow.

Douai Tournament 2008: Saturday’s picks is a post from: European Prospects
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Christian Standhardinger (2m03 – SF – 1989 – Team Urspring)

The season MVP and top scorer of Team Urspring did play only 2 half times during the Tournament. In the first game, Standhardinger was just on the court during the first half and left the court for good after few minutes in the 2nd half when the game was decided. In the Final, after a disastrous beginning, he was benched until halftime. He played the Tournament with a abdominal muscle strain that caused him a lot of pain and can explain his up-and-down performances during the games.

The minutes he spent on court were however enough to give an update on him and check his development over the season. Standhardinger showed still his amazing penetration skills, especially from his very strong right hand. He could slash to the basket with ease when the defenders opened his right side. He showed however some skills from his left hand when he had to use it. However, this drive was not as good as from the other side. He showed sometimes a spin-move also after a left-handed drive to finish off the right hand.

The other concern in his game was his shot. Unfortunately, there was not much of a development to be seen here. On the other hand, he was not “forced” to take jump shots as he passed nearly every time his direct opponent with his great first step. His few shots from mid-distance still looked a bit hesitating and coming of a slow release. He struggled also a bit on his free-throws, but this was more the result of concentration problems.

Standhardinger is really an emotional player which can boost him as well as it can hurt him. He put him self out of the game totally in the beginning of the Final with his overreacting after some missed shots. However, in the second half, he fought really hard and made some game deciding plays with a charge and also a big steal after a missed layup by himself. To conclude on something positive, with his extremely aggressive play, Standhardinger is an regular visitor on the free-throw line.

He has also develop interesting passing skills and court vision. As he is driving hard, he recognizes the helpers very well and can give the pass out to the open shooters on the three point line. If he manages to develop a correct and regular mid-distance shot in his next season with Ehingen, Standhardinger will be a very interesting Small Forward.

Maurice Stuckey (1m84 – PG/SG – 1990 – Team Urspring)

Maurice Stuckey played a very good Saturday and a correct Sunday game. On Saturday, the scoring guard from Urspring went really hot from three and made 8 shots from behind the arc. On Sunday, he got defended harder and could not connect from downtown.

Stuckey showed great speed and excellent athletic skills which made him the fastest guy in the whole tournament. He can drive very well, with an excellent first step and finish strong around the basket due to his good jumping ability. Stuckey, who played mostly SG during the tournament should however develop into a PG in the future as the starting PG Wiseler will be gone next season.

His shot looks a bit strange, like he is always falling a bit to his left. But he can hit the threes in series, mostly in catch-and-shot fashion. He nearly never went for difficult threes out of the dribble. He did not show a particular spot from where he hit the threes with preference.

On the defensive end, Stuckey can be a very aggressive defender. He looks however sometimes a bit unconcerned in this area. But when he goes for the Defense, he is there with big pressure.

Frank Wiseler (1m85 – PG – 1989 – Team Urspring)

After a slower game on Saturday, Wiseler showed up big time during the first 20 minutes of Sunday’s game. With three threes in a row, he helped his team to stay in the game during the first half when Urspring was trailing big. He is the team captain and he showed why. His scoring pressure has been a little bit decreased with the addition of Maurice Stuckey so that Wiseler could concentrate more on his playmaking skills.

He is living a lot from his good drives to the basket where he guards control over himself and the ball. He can go for some beautiful passes when the help comes as he sees the open man very well. He sometimes looks for the fancy stuff but it is more a youth error than the absolute show forcing move. Wiseler has solid athleticism for the European level which allows him to score against the big guys on his drives too.

Wiseler has finished his stay at Urspring is currently looking to move to the NCAA.

Andreas Seiferth (2m05 – C – 1989 – ALBA Berlin)

With a new 3-year deal in his pocket, Seiferth came to Langen as the only real inside threat for the Top4 rookies. With a very long and thin frame, Seiferth looked however pretty aggressive in his moves and not afraid of using his elbows. He scored nearly all his baskets after a back-to-the-basket turn around jump hook.

He connected this move with both hands after he always faked in the other direction before his turn. Seiferth showed also correct athletic abilities on an extremely powerful two handed dunk with the foul on the break. However, Seiferth seems to have still big problems with his mid-distance shot.  He could not connect one shot from around the key or make one free-throw during the whole tournament.

Seiferth will be with ALBA Berlin for the next three season and get a lot of minutes with the farm team. For joining the professionals already next season will be too early for him probably.

Thomas Schoeps (1m88 – PG – 1989 – ALBA Berlin)

Schoeps was the absolute leader of the ALBA team on the floor, on both ends. During the final, he did a good job in defense to limit Stuckey to 14 points only. Offensively, he lived a lot from his jump shots that he can hit from everywhere on the court. He is not afraid also to go up against defenders for the long range missile. And this despite a shot that looks perfectible as he takes it a bit from over his shoulder.

Schoeps has already a well developed body and looked “older” than the other guys on the court. On his drives, he sees the cutters but he is not a John-Stockton like assist collector. However, with his good developed body, Schoeps is present in rebounding. He collected 14 rebounds combined in the two games of the tournament.

In Part 2, I will talk about the players from Bonn/Rhöndorf and Breitengüssbach as well I give a short outlook on the players of the next generation (91 and 92 born)

NBBL Top4: Final Review (Part 1) is a post from: European Prospects
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• ALBA Berlin defeated Breitengüssbach in a relatively poor semi-final behind the nice scoring effort of Thomas Schoeps
• The second semi-final has been won like last year by Team Urspring. The guys from Southern Germany started with an incredible 16-2 run which they managed until the end of the game
• The tropical weather in Langen made a really heavy atmosphere in the gym. Extremely high humidity and temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius impacted the games.
• Maurice Stuckey came up with the most impressive performance of the semi-finals. One day after his 18th birthday, Stuckey hit 8 three pointers to score 28pts, grabbed 9 rebounds and stole 4 balls.
• The awards of the NBBL season were for Christian Standhardinger (MVP), Mathias Perl (Best defender) and Kevin Bright (Best youngster, born in 1992 or before)
• Bonn had to play without Sascha Wahlbröhl because he was not ready after his injury. For Urpsring, Thierno Agne had his comeback after a long pause.
• Michigan recruit Robin Benzing was also in the gym. He controlled the tickets of the spectators…

Today’s picks (live from Frankfurt/Langen/NBBL Top4) is a post from: European Prospects
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The first semi-final will be played between ALBA Berlin and TSV Tröster Breitengüssbach. The team from the German capital, that is coached by former North Carolina player Henrik Rödl, had quite a clear victory in the quarter finals against their rival from Berlin, IBBA. The team is led by 1989 PG Thomas Schoeps who is the top scorer of the team in the games he played during the regular season. He gets support from big guy Andreas Seifferth who recently signed a 3 year contract with the ALBA pro team. 14.7ppg and 8 rebounds are the numbers that are speaking in favor of the 2m05 tall youngster. Additionally, U18 National team player Niels Giffey is in the supporting cast for the only newcomer team of the 2008 Top4 tournament.

The big surprise is however the qualification of Breitengüssbach. With the loss of Tim Ohlbrecht, Karsten Tadda and Sajmen Hauer, I did not see them as strong this season. However, the team managed to beat TV Langen in a heavily disputed quarter finals where no team won a game on their own court. Europeanprospects.com reader Kris sent us a few of his thoughts as the was in Langen for the decisive game.

Stefan Dinkel and Marco Völler were the two guys that lead their respective teams. Dinkel was always there in the big moments with the three pointers. Völler had some great plays but he was too tired at the end as the rest of the Langen team that did not substitute enough to be fresh in the money time. This was the key factor in the game in my opinion. Dimitry McDuffie was really in a bad day, but played 37 minutes while shooting 0/10 from behind the arc. Robin Benzing was ok in the first half but after that, nothing anymore from him and he was also in foul trouble so that he could not go hard in defense. Erik Land did a great job in the post but he did not get enough possessions. He finished the game with 18pts and 7/12 shots.

So can Breitengüssbach also go over ALBA and reach the final, something they could not do last year. I think their chances are there as they really seem to have a team with alternatives coming from the bench. And they can even win big games when one of their top players is having a total nightmare day.

The other semi-final will be a remake of last year’s game between Team Bonn/Rhöndorf and Team Urspring. And even the main players of both teams are still the same. Bonn/Rhöndorf is having in Fabian Thülig its all-around player that does everything on the court. He leads the team in scoring and in steals which shows his skills on both ends of the court. Long-distance shooter Sascha Walbröhl needs one of his better days in order to give a possibility to his team to put some pressure on the guards. The player to watch is however U18 National team center Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann who showed exceptional progress over the last year and is the team’s best rebounder and shotblocker.

The main favorite in my eyes is of course the defending champion: Team Urspring. Having lost their big guys since last year, the addition of Maurice Stuckey gives them even more potential in the backcourt. The emergence of Kevin Bright brings also more possibilities on the wing where the most dominant scorer of the team is still Christian Standhardinger. The PG duties are executed by Frank Wiseler and you have still guys like Akeem Vargas or Thierno Agne doing their job. I could continue with some more people just to show how incredibly deep the Urspring roster is this season. So, I don’t think anyone can stop them during this Top4 and the 1989 born generation can probably end their NBBL career with back to back champion titles. But still, the games have to be played and Bonn/Rhöndorf is known for their extraordinary team effort and defense so the game may become closer than one thinks.

I will be present in Langen on both days and cover the games extensively. If you need further info, feel free to contact me.

NBBL Top 4: the semis are known is a post from: European Prospects
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