The German federation published on the official website of the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament the first preliminary rosters of several participating nations. I took a quick look at the already published European teams and give you some first indications concerning the quality of the rosters.
Germany U18
The German coaching staff has indicated the Top8 as goal for this year’s edition but to me, the goal of this highly talented German generation (#7 in our 1992 ranking) may even be the semi-finals as the higher ranked teams are either not present in Mannheim or are not in full force. The roster is of course built around the core of players that have been a major part of last year’s U18 National team already with the dominating Philipp Neumann in the middle. But with the emergence of players like Patrick Heckmann, Daniel Theis or Bill Borekambi, the German team has some serious depth on nearly all the positions and head coach Kay Blümel has probably one of the most talented German teams ever for the tournament.
Germany U17
The German U17 team comes to the tournament with the main goal to prepare the U17 World Championship. The team of coach Frank Menz is undergoing a major preparation process for the summer event, so that a participation at the prestigious tournament is helping them a lot. The roster features some very interesting players like the recent Jordan Brand Classic MVP Malik Müller (born in 1994) but also the highly regarded Serbian-born Center Bogdan Radosavljevic who should be able to compete after long stretches without playing due to different injuries.
Greece
The Greek team features the highly talented 2m05 tall Linos Chrysikopoulos who already played an interesting U18 tournament last summer. The rest of the teams seems though a bit limited both in talent and in size. But this does not mean that much as the Greeks are known for their fighting spirit and are often overachievers on the junior level.
Israel
The Israeli team is built around the players from the Maccabi Tel Aviv team that finished 3rd at the recent NIJT Barking Abbey tournament in London. Tomer Ber Aven is the clear leader of the group. The 1m94 tall PG is already pretty experienced and has a nice feel for the game. His leading skills will certainly help the team of coach Danny Franco to go for some wins during the days in Mannheim. He has the support of the athletic swingman Sean Labanowski and pass-first PG Tamir Simchony.
Italy
Italy will probably live and die with the presence of Alessandro Gentile. The highly talented guard saw regular minutes with the Benetton Treviso senior team before his injury but struggles to get back on the court on a regular basis since then. So it is not sure if Gentile will be on the Italian team or not. With him, Italy has probably one of the most dominating guards of the whole tournament. The rest of the team is less talented (“by farisssssssimo” as told by some Italian sources to me) but features some players to watch like Francesco Ramenghi or 2008 Jordan Brand Classic MVP Fabio Mian.
Croatia
The Croatian 1992 generation does not feature many outstanding talents but the preliminary roster has some other names that intrigue. The 1994 born Dario Saric and the 1993 born Marko Ramljak can be considered as the best talents of their respective age group in Croatia and having both of them in Mannheim can be very interesting. Boris Barac (brother of Stanko) is the leader of 92 born players and the recent MVP of the Croatian U18 championships. The talented US-born Croatians Marin Kukoc (son of Toni) and Dujan Dukan are not on the roster.
Turkey
The Turkish team comes with a very interesting mixture of 92, 93 and even 94 born players but the roster does not feature the 92 über-talent Enes Kanter. Safak Edge played a great U18 European Championship last summer and he will get the back-court support of Can Korkmaz. It will be interesting to see how the huge but raw Ramazan Tekin has developed since last summer and what is the value of 1994 born Burak Hacıismail.
11 responses so far ↓
1 can // Mar 9, 2010 at 5:11 pm
safak edge was injured and he cant shoot well(awful).can korkmaz is physically weak.ramazan has always in faul trouble and still very raw.burak is soft. you should watch kerem hotiç and yigitcan vardal in that roster.enes kanter wasting his time playing in u.s with a poor league not in euroleague . very pity..
2 ahmet // Mar 9, 2010 at 8:03 pm
the turkish roster is not correct…..
@can, can korkmaz and safak edge are the best turkish pg´s, for me better talents as balbay. ramazan tekin is to raw but we must wait 1-2 years, burak yüksel is the best big in this team but he will miss this tournament due a knee injury. kerem hotics speed is to bad, only can shoot 3, his offense is to limited, he is a nice guy but less talented. the sg yigitcan vardal can become an interesting player but he is know not present in the offense.
the best big in this team will be berkay candan, an interesting big is for me samet geyik.
the leaders will be can korkmaz, safak edge and berkay candan.
3 can // Mar 9, 2010 at 8:34 pm
how about erbil eroğlu?i think he will be very good.samet very talented i agree but his pos. should be 3 not 4. and ugur dokuyan is very interesting too.i think kenan sipahi will be in the roster too.
4 ahmet // Mar 9, 2010 at 9:53 pm
erbil eroglu is a talented pg but he has not the offensivetalent like edge and korkmaz, erbil is a great athlet and a good organizater but he will have problems to play in 2-3 years in the first division because of his limited offense, because the turkish coaches hate guards they dont shoot threes….he will be to in mannheim as the third pg.
samet is now 205-206 and must learn to shoot but his position will be pf because of his limited speed(for sf) and skills, but still an interesting player.
ugur dokuyan is a great athlet but for me mertcan özen is much more interesting player as dokuyan but both are now to limited in the offense.
we will see sipahi in mannheim but in 2012 not 2010.
5 Boris // Mar 10, 2010 at 1:07 am
Both Dukan and Kukoc were born in Croatia, but live entire life in USA. Also is missing center Josip Mikulic 93. 211 born who left to US and is much more talented than Madunic and Marasovic.
as usual lot of hight numbers are not corect
6 Christophe // Mar 10, 2010 at 7:35 am
Thanks to all of you for those updates on the different teams.
7 can // Mar 10, 2010 at 7:25 pm
all of them is limited in offenseyou think:) maybe but we are not expecting them to be a lebron or kobe at the moment.and i dont understand why all the youth team’s coaches from TOFAS.they call all their players but not playing in their club!?
8 ahmet // Mar 11, 2010 at 3:15 pm
because nihat izic is a good friend of tanjevic and therefore izic is the main trainer and they choose to much players from tofas, but tofas has a good prospect ilkan karaman and of course magic kenan sipahi.
9 can // Mar 11, 2010 at 11:07 pm
what makes talat altunbey special? he is chosen at jordan brand classic.and i couldn’t see any spanish player.why ?
10 ahmet // Mar 12, 2010 at 5:43 pm
because there was no jaiteh, yildizli, dallo, saric etc…..but talat altunbey(pf) is an interesting player because of his great athleticism and he can shoot threes. this spanish generation is really bad.
11 can // Mar 13, 2010 at 4:23 pm
barcelona offered 1M $ to kenan sipahi. GO KENAN GO!!! maybe he can learn something from rubio:)
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