Mario Delas is considered as the main offensive inside option for the Croatian team right now. After a first Euroleague season with the Lithuanian team of Zalgiris Kaunas, the former Split player was looked at particularly as he combines excellent basketball fundamentals with great size. In Treviso though, Delas was not really as dominating as you could expect. He looked a bit overmatched physically by the athletic French inside players so that Delas mainly went for playing as a wing  coming from the weak-side or attacking the defense by putting the ball on the floor.

It was a good opportunity to see the limits of Delas when facing athletes that can dominate him physically. He is more of a floor player working with fakes and fundamentals but this did not gave him the necessary advantage to score easy baskets. Together with Toni Prostran, he went for a lot of Pick and Roll or Pick and Pop situations where he did particularly well when popping out to the three point line and bringing his defenders out of their comfort zone close to the basket. Delas can hit the three pointer from European range and has good enough handles to attack the basket out of these situations. One of his main strengths is his mid-range game where Delas did well either in catch and shoot situations, coming of the weak-side screen or when scoring out of his drives.

He recognizes the double-team situations when putting the ball on the floor and looks to be a correct passer out of the low post as well. The Croatian forward is not afraid to go for the coast-to-coast dribbles after the defensive rebound. However, the camp also showed that Delas most certainly lacks the athletic abilities to compete with high-level NBA prospects. He looks to be the perfect type of player to become a high-level Euroleague Power Forward in the next years.

Toni Prostran was the Point Guard of the Croatian U18 National Team last summer in Metz and despite being a year younger than the rest of the team, he was the clear offensive leader on the court for Croatia. Prostran is doing an excellent job in the Pick and Roll situations that he used a lot through out the games. He can shot the ball with a very fast release in catch and shoot or out of the screen going with either hand but showing probably a slight preference for going left when taking the out of the dribble attempt. His shot accuracy looks improved since the tournament in Metz despite having still a somehow strange ball rotation when going for the long-distance shot.

Because he hit his shots, also from NBA 3pt range, the defense needed to come out on him so that Prostran could use his main strength which is the drive to basket. Out of these situations, he could create a lot of nice opportunities for himself with hesitation moves or strong attacks of the basket with both hands. Prostran is doing a great job as well to setup his team mates in the Pick and Roll situations by going for the nice dish or the bounce pass for the rolling cutter. Some doubts remain though on his control of the game tempo in real game situations.

Ivan Ramljak played only one game and he did not even appear in the official stats of the camp. The long forward did some damage against the French National Team with his constant attacking of the basket mainly with his right hand. Ramljak looks quite athletic but somehow mechanical in all his moves. But he is excelling when attacking the hoop and he can score it out of difficult situations after pass or head fakes. The Croatian forward can also hit the three point shot even if his shooting mechanics are certainly perfectible. Fighting on both ends of the court, Ramljak looks however a bit to have a problem with one leg as he hobbled during moments on the court.

Paul Lacombe is probably one of the most under-rated prospects in France. The guard from ASVEL Villeurbanne earned the MVP Trophy of the recent Trophée du Futur but Lacombe has never been in the hype machine that other French prospects are included. However, Lacombe looks to be one of the most serious Euroleague prospects of the coming generations in France. Lacombe does not excel in any part of the game but he has the overall package of the modern European PG. Being quite tall at 1m94, Lacombe is nicely athletic, can shoot the ball and is also an excellent passer, especially in the fast break where he can use his speed to create good situations for himself or his team mates.

Lacombe reads the game very well, is always in the right place to play the steal or make the additional extra pass to get somebody open. Sometimes, he is even trying to pass too much instead of seeing his own opportunity. Lacombe can hit the three-point shot from NBA range with defense in catch and shoot situations as well. The thing that makes Lacombe however extra in my eyes is the feel he has for the game that is inborn. The French guard will earn a lot of minutes with ASVEL as a back-up on the PG spot next season after he cracked the rotation of Vincent Collet’s team this spring.

Andrew Albicy was a surprising name in the Draft pool 2010 as the tiny French PG has not really been in NBA considerations beforehand. Albicy withdrew his name for consideration but he was still a candidate during the camp in Treviso. The main strength of the Paris-Levallois guard is his defensive pressure. He did an excellent job on Toni Prostran on defense limiting the Croatian guard in his game versus France. With his very low center of gravity and excellent defensive fundamentals, Albicy is a full-court threat for any PG. His excellent lateral speed and quick hands give him a nice amount of steals.

On the offensive end, Albicy is not as strong as he is on the other side of the court. He fakes well to create for himself, he is more of a scoring PG than a playmaker at the moment. His three point shot is there but not a particular dangerous overall threat. Albicy attacks the basket nicely and creates some open spots for his team mates but his size limits him in order to look for his own options close to the basket. He prefers to stop in mid-range for the short jump shot. He does a nice job as well on the defensive rebound where he is present to start the fast break immediately.

Adidas Eurocamp Treviso 2010: U20 National Teams is a post from: European Prospects
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The value of such a game can be debated, at least the first twenty minutes of the contest did not really amazed me with brilliant plays. Except the huge performance by Jonas Valanciunas who grabbed 14 rebounds and had several big dunks in the first half, there was not much to be seen. It was however a good opportunity to see players from the B Division tournament like the two Swedes Andreas Person and Christopher Czerapowicz (more on him in the next weeks), the Montenegrin Nemanja Radovic or Janos Eilingsfeld from Hungary. Radovic, a 2m06 tall forward who averaged 20.3ppg and 10.0rpg during the European Championship in  July showed a nice arsenal of offensive moves including the catch and shoot three point shot or drives with the left hand where he also displayed some good footwork to surround his defenders.

The second half was not really more exciting and even if the final result of 77-75 may suggest some suspense, there was none to be felt. Valanciunas continued to dominate in the paint and finished the game with a MVP performance of 18pts, 19rebs and 3blks. Dejan Musli, who was his main opponent on the White team simply did not look motivated as he finished the game with 2 very poor airballs (one on a free throw attempt) and never really showed any kind of dominance inside. He preferred to play some kind of PG out of rebound situations when running the break. Whatever, it was an All-Star Game and you could see that several of these kids prefer to play real games than such exhibitions. Probably the most intense and ambitious guy on the court was the German Philipp Neumann. The 2m10 Center displayed a me-first show not giving away any ball he got into his hands and trying to score all the time. It was something that we already observed during the U18 European Championship and Neumann did not show any kind of development in this area in this All-Star Game. He finished the game with 14pts though and had also 3blks but he needs to learn how to share the ball.

The most regular guy over the whole game next to Valanciunas was Radovic who came up with positive things throughout the whole game. He finished the game with a nice 12pts and 9rebs in just 15 minutes of action. He got some scoring help for the Blue Team by the Serbian shooter Lazar Radosavljevic who netted 3/6 threes for a total of 11pts. For the defeated White Team, Toni Prostran had 13pts but 7TOs while the aforementioned Musli finished with 10pts and 13rebs.

Eurobasket 2009: U18 All-Star Game is a post from: European Prospects
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Leo Westermann (1m98 – PG – France – 1992)

Westermann started the tournament very well, however his production went down when it came to the big games. However, I named him to my personal All-Tournament for his overall performance and amplitude he had to the French game. Being very tall for the PG spot with 1m98 and having quite a good shot from behind the arc, the comparisons to a former French PG names Antoine Rigaudeau would be easy to bring. But as I am not a fan of such comparisons, I won’t bring it here and additionally, the game of both players is not that close as you might think.

First of all, the main weapon offensively of Leo Westermann is his shot. He was the only player that gave the impression to be sure about his long distance attempts even he was not lucky with his percentages through out the tournament. His shot release looks very quick when it comes out of the dribble but he arms a bit slower when he is in catch and shoot fashion. He nailed some big shots in the preliminary round against Serbia but he could not connect them when they counted the most in the medal round. But you need to have in mind that he has turned 17 only in July so that he has still a year to go in this category.

His drive to the basket is very interesting as he mix the hard attack to the rim with mid range jump shots. His in-between game looks however a bit predictable right now, his decisions appear to be more like pre-thought-off than a decision made of a defensive reaction to his drive. His ball handling helps him to beat his defender of the dribble with either his first step or on cross over plays. He recognizes well when the hedge is coming out on the pick and roll situations and he can split the defense at these moments without too much of a problem.

His court vision helps him to excel when it comes to fast break plays where he finds easily the open team mates in the cuts or waiting outside for the shot. As a vocal leader on the court, he imposes himself with his natural leadership and has all the tools to become a good PG. With additional experience , he should learn to better understand the tempo of the game and improve his decision making when it comes to defend advantages in the crucial moments, something he has barely ever faced with the Centre Federal team in France.

Stats: 8.1ppg (41.9% 2FG – 28.9% 3FG – 87.5%FT), 3.3rpg, 3.9apg

Safak Edge (1m88 – PG – Turkey – 1992)

A player that was unknown to me but who is now among my favorites is the Turkish guard Safak Edge. And I was not alone to be a new fan of this player as coaching legend Svetislav Pesic was amazed by the talent level too. It has been a long time that I did not see a player like that! quotes the French press the current Red Star Belgrade head coach. So what makes this ordinary looking player that special.

First of all, Edge amazes with his great speed and handles. Several times, you could see him speeding the court up and down with the ball so that nobody could follow him. What is more surprising that he looks even more dangerous right now in the set play than in the fast break which could be the main force of a player like him. But Edge excelled when he needed to create out of a set offense where his creativity opened him several good positions for his shots.

One of his main forces is that he can knock the shot down from nearly everywhere on the court. He has a great shot out of the dribble, from the penetration or just behind the three point line. His balance in the air is sometimes looking like a work in progress but he netted those difficult jump shots from mid-range with impressive percentages, especially in the area around the free-throw line. Because of his height, he does not go that often until the rim and settles mostly for his jump shots not going for floaters either.

But where he is doing really great is when it comes to creating space for his three point shots. Several times, he went for very difficult moves to open the necessary room to arm his shot. Penetration followed by a hard step back or a nasty cross-over move or the simple three point shot out of the dribble are in his repertoire. Additionally, you could see a nice maturity for a player of his age setting up perfectly a last offense per quarter play that he concluded with a perfect assist for an open jump shot basket.

On the downside is of course his physical presence which does not allow him to finish close to the basket at the moment. So you could see several drives of him ending up with a turnover as he needed to jump to make a pass out of his drives in the paint. However, his passing skills in the pick and roll situations are good even if he needs to improve that part of his game as well as getting strong on his right handed dribble.

Stats: 12.7ppg (41.0% 2FG – 43.4% 3FG – 72.2% FT), 2.3apg, 1.9topg

Toni Prostran (1m83 – PG – Croatia – 1991)

Probably the most impressive guard when it comes to a pure statistical point of view. The short guard from Croatia had some very impressive games despite an injury during the match with Slovenia. He finished the tournament as top scorer, first in assist and first in minutes per game.

Despite being not that big, Prostran excels when he takes the ball to the basket. His three point shot is pretty streaky right now, even if he can go for some long-distance bombing but mostly he recognizes when his shot is not falling and then concentrating on his drives and creation for team mates. On the other hand, that goes sometimes that far that he forces the drive a bit too much. But his penetration is always that dangerous that he attracts the help defense that gives him the possibility to play the pass to the center or the opposing wing.

During those drives, he likes also to create open positions for himself, mostly through spin moves in the direction of the paint. He recognizes the help pretty well in those situations and reacts accordingly. The problem is though that he has no real mid-range jump shot to speak of out of these drives and prefers to finish of difficult floaters or tear-drops. Those tear drops look very good though and he can score them with good percentages.

Despite being a great offensive player and real factor in the team, I have some doubts about his long-term potential to become a really great player. Defensively, he struggles of course because of his size which makes him an easy target for opposing guards posting him up. For the moment, he struggles in that area and with modern PGs in Europe being often taller tham1m90, this can hurt him down the road. Additionally, I don’t know how much his impact is on the team as he could not avoid four losses in a row after coming back from slight injury.

Stats: 20.9ppg (52.2% 2FG – 23.3% 3FG – 74.6% FT), 4.6rpg, 7.9apg, 4.0topg

Who else do we have?

Next to these three outstanding players, a multitude of other guards could have been described here in longer reports. I limit myself though on short scouting on them.

Maxim Mutaf was in the spotlight for Turkey as you could imagine as he got stolen a bit of his show by the emergence of Safak Edge. However, Mutaf is still an interesting prospect when it comes to shooting. He develops more and more into a SG and could see him play even on the SF during stretches. Very aggressive offensively, his jump shot has a high release point and he is not afraid to attack the basket hard. He tried a two-handed dunk over Jonas Valanciunas but got rejected on it.

Augustas Peciukevicius is one of the multitude of Lithuanian back court players that stands out more and more as the most talented one of the crop. Highly aggressive on defense, he looks to be the most gifted on offense as he can both created open positions for him self and give the necessary spaces from his drives to his team mates. He can score the layups against the big guys through his long extension of the arm and reads the defense pretty well to play the Pick and Roll or Drive and dish.

Vytenis Cizauskas is one year younger than the rest of the Lithuanian back court but he plays the most under control of all of them. Not that aggressive on defense but more a real PG on the offensive end, Cizauskas excels with great fundamentals and foot work that give him a multitude of options in the offense where you see him always in perfect triple-threat position before attacking or when stopping his drives. Good court vision, correct athletic abilities and a leadership mentality are other characteristics of his game.

Dimitry Kulagin is another player of that very talented 1992 generation. The Russian guard showed nice versatility in his game and looked like a very good rebounder for his position. Displaying perfect height for the PG spot, a tough and physical game as well as good speed and certain cleverness, he looks like a promising player for the next years as his shooting abilities make him a good scorer already right now. His drives are working well as he protects the ball and he can take the jumper out of the dribble but he needs to work his decision making on passes in order to become a strong PG.

Andrea de Nicolao had a very good tournament with Italy in a role as scoring PG where he excelled with his speed and shooting abilities. He change his rhytm on the drive which gives him several open looks for close baskets but most of drives, he needs to finish of difficult floaters or layups. His three point shot is falling pretty well, coming of the dribble or in catch and shoot situations where he continues his stroke without any hesitation even if the defender flies out on him.

Ole Wendt played a nice tournament for Germany after a slow start. But when he has found his role, he did some nice things for a young German team. His creativity of the dribble and good handles helped him to play a lot on his drive where he could score some nice baskets in the paint. His shot is however not that great right now so that the defense gives him the spaces around the three point area. Defensively, he was sometime lost on this level too but he should come back stronger next year.

Jan Span got a lot of playing time with Slovenia after Mirza Sarajlija ruled out of the team before the tournament and the 1992 born player used it very well. His penetration skills are very good and he can score with very nice under control fade away layup against the taller inside players. He reads the defense very well and reacts accordingly, you can see him go for some great plays in pick and roll situations where also can knock down the three point shout out of the dribble. He is also a very aggressive defender and he can chase the opposing guard full court with out any problem.

2009 U18 European Championship Division A: the Guards is a post from: European Prospects
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Division A

• While Spain struggled one half to beat Belgium, the Greek team continued their arrogant play. After a superb start into the game and leading by around 20 points, they stopped to play and let Israel come back in the game. The Israeli even went ahead in the third quarter, but this was the alarm signal for Kosta Sloukas and his mates. They started a late rush to win the game with 22 points. While Nikos Pappas is still going very slow, it’s Kosta Sloukas who takes over the leader role of the team with his 23pts and 6asts. Vladimir Jankovic showed also his versatility and Zisis Sarikopoulos continues to score on his left handed hook shots.
• Serbia had no problem to win against Estonia while Lithuania beat Italy in a thriller. For the Italians, Nicolo Melli seems to start his European Championship a bit slower but he came up with 13pts yesterday. For his team, it looks like Pasquale Paolisso is the man that takes the responsibility while David Cournooh is still the main option from outside. For the Lithuanians, the 1991 born guard Augustas Peciukevicius excels with his aggressive play that brings him to the line often and puts the opponents under pressure. Tautvydas Slezas is doing his job in the middle with 22pts and 14rebs.
• Germany struggled again with the turnovers against Russia and have to play a Final against Ukraine today in order to advance to the next round. A Ukrainian team that had no chance against France that finally opened their defense box and allowed only 50 points. Chrislain Cairo improves and comes up with 12 and 9 while Alexis Tanghe led all scorers with 15 and 8.
• Another final will be played in the last group between Latvia and Bulgaria, both team have no wins so far. It was Toni Prostran that managed to hold of the Bulgarians in the final minutes with 4 late points to seal the deal. Turkey also needed the final seconds to win against Latvia to remain undefeated. Enes Kanter was once again dominant in the middle where nobody could stop him.

Division B

• The favorites Czech Republic and Slovenia had no problems to win their openers against the Netherlands and Sweden. Also Poland continued their winning streak and are now 2-0 after they defeated Belarus easily.
• The division also has already some surprises with the two Alpine countries Austria and Switzerland still being undefeated. Austria held off Montenegro and increased its chances to move to the Qualifying round while the Swiss also beat a former Yugoslavian country with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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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• The first game in the morning saw the nice victory of Lithuania against a tired Adidas Nations team Africa. The Baltic guys won it in the end 90-73 but their dominance was bigger than the result. For Lithuania, Donatas Motiejunas showed his huge skillset to finished with 30pts, 7rebs and 2 steals. Nobody could really stop him and he just hurt his three point percentage (1/6) in the end by overshooting from outside. He look in general a lot more motivated than yesterday. He got some nice support from the surprising Edvardas Pikalavicius with 13pts and 8rebs. For the Africans, we saw big scoring from Mohamed Koita who netted 35pts but lost 5 balls. Another good game in the tournament came from Bandja Sy who had 19pts.
• The game for the 5th place between Turkey and Israel was extremely close. When the time was running up, nobody could take the decisive lead and we went into overtime. Here, the Turkish depth helped to bring this one home and end at the 5th place after the 99-89 win after 45 minutes of game action. For the winners, Maxim Mutaf started great in the first half but his scoring lead was taken over by Melih Mahmutoglu in the second half. In the paint, Enes Kanter did not start the game and only played in the second half. In those 27 minutes, he was once again dominating every body with his force and scored 21 in just 27 minutes. For Israel, Liran Moran shot well from everywhere and finished the game with a team high 22. Ron Sabag did a good job on the point where he scored the big FTs in the money time of Q4 and dished out 11 assists additionally.
• The Bronze medal game of the 2008 edition of the Douai World Tournament saw Croatia beating Germany by 3 points. The Germans had the chance to go into overtime but the last attempt of Simon Schmitz from behind the arc went not in. It was a match-up of the big guys in the paint with Maik Zirbes (22/5) facing of against Mario Delas (15/12/4) and Leon Radosevic (25/5/3). Toni Prostran was defended well by the German guards but scored however 22pts at 8/18 attempts. For Germany, it was a huge difference with what they did yesterday against Team USA while Croatia that played without their most talented player in Tomislav Zubcic did a very nice job by reaching this third place, a huge improvement to their performances in Mannheim this spring.
• The Final game of the tournament saw Team USA playing against the home crowd favorites France. And it was the French team that finished with the Tournament victory in the end. After a very disappointing showing in Mannheim, the team from the Hexagon managed to win Douai despite having a world-class talent in his roster, something that was the case mostly in the last years. It was the Finals MVP Andrew Albicy that led France in the decisive minutes with his long distance shooting and drives. He finished the game with 19pts and 5asts. But it was the defense that made the French win who lack a great scorer.
• The All-Tournament team that has been elected is the following:
• PG Andrew Albicy (France)
• SG Toni Prostran (Croatia)
• SF Carmel Bouchman (Israel)
• PF Mamadou Samb (Adidas Nations Africa)
• C Kenny Frease (Adidas Nationas USA)
• If you are interested if Video material from the tournament, contact me via email and I can send you an offer for DVDs of the games (christophe.ney@europeanprospects.com)
• During the next days, I will post detailed reports on the different players that were present

Douai Tournament 2008: Sunday’s picks 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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