European Prospects

With the Nike Hoop Summit and the Jordan Brand Classic behind us, the Easter weekend is a few days ahead featuring a full load of Tournaments with all kind of prospects involved: from NBA caliber guys to future Euroleague players and prospects that are potentially involved in games that you can bet on in the future in College Basketball odds. Here is a preview on the most important tournaments.

Villagarcia Basketball Cup

The tournament in Villagarcia features four U18 National Teams. Next to the hosts from Spain that had Adria Gasol, the younger brother of the NBA players, in the preparation camp, the main favorite is probably France. The French team comes with their classical 93 generation that features the usual suspects in Livio Jean-Charles, Yannis Morin, Hugo Invernizzi but also the young Boris Dallo and Mam Jaiteh. The Spanish team with players like Daniel Diez or Alejandro Suarez is built around the core that won the U16 Gold Medal two years ago in Lithuania but will miss Jaime Fernandez. Germany features most of their 93 generation that played the U17 World Championship but sees also some new guys on the roster like Dennis Schröder and one of the most talented 94 born players in Paul Zipser. Italy is the fourth participant and should be lead by players like Diego Monaldi, Giovanni Severini or Raphael Gaspardo.

Follow the tournament on the official Website or the official Twitter.

Cholet Mondial Basket

The tournament in Cholet goes into its 30th edition and features again a very international participation field. Next to several French teams (Cholet, SIG Strasbourg, Elan Chalon and Orléans) where you take out for example Clint Capela from Switzerland who plays for Chalon, you have teams from 6 different countries that will compete from the 22nd to the 25th April. For KK Zitko you should take a closer look at 2m10 tall Nemanja Miskovic, Nikola Simic, Marko Nikolic, Jagos Lasic and Mihailo Knezevic. Stella Azzurra Roma comes with the team that finished 5th in the NIJT in Rome in December where you can pick out Matteo Fallucca or Mario delle Cave. Reda Basketball from Canada features good size with several players above 2m04 and Serbian-related Adam Djukic. Easo San Sebastian looks a bit undersized with an average height of only 1m91 and they will come without their Spanish National Team player Mikel Motos Cabodevilla who will be present in Villagarcia. The Czech team from BCM Ostrava is a bit of an unknown while BC Torrejon comes with a very international team as the roster features a 2m12 tall Senegalese in Cheikh Diagne, the English Greg Krippa, Bulgarian Ilia Zvezdelinov and a 2nd Senegalese in Gaston Louis Diedhiou. The Urspring Academy from Germany was more or less a last-minute addition to the field but the team is known for its quality and should feature several National Team players like Sid-Marlon Theis, Julius Wolf or the 94 born Malik Müller and Kenneth Ogbe. Finally, there is Joviat-La Salle Manresa from Spain that will be present as well.

Follow the tournament on the official Website.

Memorial Barila

The tournament in Italy features a multitude of Italian teams but the International teams present look highly interesting as well. Next to the English U16 National Team around several Jordan Brand Classic participants like Mo Soluade or Kingsley Okoroh and the Hungarian U16 National Team, you have two NIJT participants from l´Hospitalet that will compete in this tournament. BC Khimki comes with Stanislav Ilnitskiy and JBC participant Vasily Martynov while Cedevita Zagreb  brings interesting players like Dorijan Jelenek or Karlo Lebo that had a major impact in Hospitalet already. The participation field will also feature a selection from Ohio and 19 different Italian teams.

Follow the tournament on the official Website.

Tournoi Mondial Basket Tourcoing

In the French city Tourcoing, the 22nd edition of the tournament features a more mature field of teams with the U20 team of Unics Kazan who won the event last year, the U20 National Team from the Netherlands, Slask Wroclaw or a Selection from the Lille Region. Next to these, a selection from Belgrade featuring Petar Jokic (Novi Sad) and former Giessen 46ers forward Stevan Tapuskovic and the Canarias Basketball Academy around the already NCAA-bound Haralds Karlis or the high-mid-major prospects Johan van Zegeren, Marek Soucek and Thomas de Thaey. Additionally, a selection Elite Team from the United States and a Reda team from Canada will be present in Northern France.

Follow the tournament on the official Website.

Holland Nordic Basketball Tournament

One of the strongest teams active this weekend will most likely be the Polish U18 National team that should dominate at the Holland Nordic Basketball Tournament. The golden generation around Nike Hoop Summit participants Mateusz Ponitka and Przemyslaw Karnowski will play against the Dutch U18 National Team (with 94 born Jito Kok), the Norwegian U20 National Team as well as the locals Gasterra Flames and the Eisbären Bremerhaven NBBL team from Germany that has their former player Bill Borekambi (he left Bremerhaven to sign a professional contract in Trier but left Trier during the season to play College Basketball) on the roster. Additionally, the tournament will see KK Junior Skopje with Marko Zdravkovski, Stefan Krstevski, Nikola Gogovcevski and Filip Zubcic as well as the 1997 born 2m02 prospect Oliver Dvojakovski. There will also be a Selection Team from Slovenia and the team from the Serbian region of Leskovac that has won the tournament last year which will be present at the 16th edition of this tournament in the region of Amsterdam.

Follow the tournament on the official Website and the official Twitter.

Trofeo Pasqua Barocca

In Italy, the traditional U16 tournament of Ragusa will start on Friday with four interesting National Teams. Next to the hosts from Italy, there will be Spain, Greece and Germany fighting for winning the trophy. The Spanish team around Agusti Sans and Alberto Martin will also feature the traditional African import with Ilimane Diop. The Spanish coach Diego Ocampo expects the Greek team to be weakest and has a lot of respect for the German height and discipline. You can follow the Spanish team in a daily blog written by the Federation. The German team comes from an excellent result in Turkey where they finished third at the important Turk Telekom Tournament. The roster features a lot of size with guys like Robyn Missa, Niklas Ney or Gavin Schilling but has also some talent in the back court with David Taylor or Ismet Akpinar. The Italian team should be lead by Alessandro Spatti in their home tournament.

International Tournament Massagno

In the Swiss city of Massagno will be played one of the most looked at U16 tournaments next weekend as the participation field has some really big names. Next to the host SAM Basket Massagno and the Swiss U16 National Team, there will be FMP Belgrade, the Italian champion Vis Nova Roma, Endese Tenerife from Spain and the two German powerhouses Brose Baskets and ALBA Berlin.

Follow the tournament on the official Website

Tournoi International La Roche sur Yon

Another interesting U16 tournament will be played in Western France as the 23rd edition of this event features some big names like Urspring Academy from Germany, BC Torrejon from Spain, the Klaipeda Knasiaus Basketball School, VKM Vilmesta or the physical team from Hermine de Nantes.

Follow the tournament on the official Website

Scania Cup

In Södertälje (Sweden), some of the best Scandinavian Youth teams will compete with among them the very strong Vaerlöse generation around Rasmus Larsen and Peter Möller and the Sanda Basketball Gymnasium that features some of the best Swedish talents.

Follow the tournament on the official Website

Easter Tournament Vienna

Certainly the biggest tournament in terms of participants is the Easter Tournament in Vienna. This huge event started already yesterday and features more than 100 teams in a multitude of age groups and levels.

Follow the tournament on the official Website

You can also take a look at the International School World Championship that will be played in China.