Team North

Ole Wendt (Paderborn Baskets – 1992 – 1m83 – PG)

Either as a starter or as energizer coming of the bench, the young guard of Paderborn is always giving 100% in the offense and in defense.

Jusuf El Domiaty (NY Phantons Braunschweig – 1990 – 1m87 – PG)

Top scorer and assist player of Braunschweig, he also plays important minutes in the ProB and that’s why he had only 2 NBBL games so far.

Janek Schmidkunz (Central Hoops Berlin – 1990 – 1m81 – PG)

He led the surprising team to a 2nd place in the North-East division. He is the second best scorer of the team and plays 34 minutes per game.

Mathis Mönninghoff (Bayer Giants – 1992 – 1m98 – SG)

Mönninghoff has made a giant step this season and works a lot on his all-around skills. He has still two years to go in the NBBL.

Nico Adamczak (ALBA Berlin – 1990 – 1m92 – SG)

15ppg and 8.4rpg are the figures that characterize the player of the current vice-champions. He is an excellent long-distance shooter and gives always 100%.

Niels Giffey (ALBA Berlin – 1991 – 2m00 – SF)

The most important player of ALBA Berlin. He has grown particularly quick into the role as team leader this season and is the current top scorer of the team.

Robert Huelsewede (Paderborn Baskets – 1990 – 1m98 – SF)

The skinny forward shows the versatility of the Paderborn team. He can dominate in the paint but also score from outside.

Max Schulze-Pals (Phoenix Hagen – 1990 – 2m01 – PF)

Schulze-Pals is a big fighter and gives always his maximum, characteristics that always are the trademark of the Hagen team.

Femi Oladipo (Eisbären Bremerhaven – 1990 – 1m99 – PF)

An incredibly strong athlete who is barely unstoppable on his way to the basket. He is also a member of the professional roster of Bremerhaven.

Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann (Bonn/Rhöndorf – 1990 – 2m05 – C)

He does not play organized basketball for a long time and has made his way from the tiny team of BSV Roleber to the AST and NBBL Top4 in a very short time. Dirk Bauermann considers him as a legit future Senior NT player.

Team SOUTH

Simon Schmitz (BIS Speyer – 1990 – 1m88 – PG)

28.5ppg 6.5apg 7.5rpg – Schmitz has the whole package. Two times player of the day and big time minutes with Speyer in the ProB show how important Schmitz is to his team.

Daniel Schmidt (Breitengüssbach – 1990 – 1m86 – PG)

He is the head of the division leader and distributes 6.4 assists per game. Additionally, he scores 10.2 per game and has already been a member of the Brose Baskets roster.

Akeem Vargas (ALBA Urspring – 1990 – 1m93 – SG)

He is not the guy you see on the court, but he is even more effective. Vargas is known for his great defensive presence.

Kevin Bright (ALBA Urspring – 1992 – 1m98 – SF)

The NBBL Rookie of the Year shows already good maturity and excellent body control. He has already a huge impact on his team despite being one of the youngest players around.

Filmore Beck (Eintracht Frankfurt – 1991 – 1m89 – SF)

The 6th best scorer of the NBBL who likes to shot from downtown and hits with great accuracy. He might be the leader that bring Eintracht Frankfurt for the first time into the Playoffs.

Tobias Korndörfer (Bayern München – 1990 – 2m02 – PF)

He is a hard worker in the paint and had already three 30+ games this season. He is doing all the work to hold the Bayer Munich team in the playoff race.

Robin Christen (Giessen 46ers – 1991 – 1m98 – PF)

Christen delivers strong 18.1ppg and 7.8rpg and he is the main reason why the Giessen 46ers can still dream of reaching the Playoffs this season.

Alexander Heide (Ulm – 1991 – 2m04 – C)

Heide is the shooting star of the Division South. With his 13ppg and 8.4rpg, he has transformed Ulm into a team that is difficult to beat.

Maik Zirbes (Trier – 1990 – 2m05 – C)

Physically, he has nobody to match with in the whole NBBL. He averages a double-double (22.0ppg and 11.0rpg) and has already played minutes in the Bundesliga with TBB Trier.

Erik Land (Breitengüssbach – 1990 – 2m05 – C)

Erik Land averages a double-double too (16.2ppg 10.6rpg). He is the most important player of the Division leaders and has played already a NBBL Top4 last year where his team finished 3rd.

NB: All the scoutings have bee translated from German as they have been announced officially by the NBBL organization.

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The 22nd Douai World Tournament started yesterday evening but before the official opening, Team USA played an exhibition game against Adidas Nations Africa.

And it was Africa that defeated the USA in this first game 66-63. Team USA played reportedly without two of their announced top stars, Demar DeRozan and Tyreke Evans who only will arrive today.

On Day 1, Croatia destroyed Team USA while Lithunia had a short win over Israel in the group phase. Germany had a nice win against Turkey, a team they lost against in the Albert Schweitzer Tournament a few weeks ago. Erik Land was the top scorer for the Germans with 18pts. France had not too many problems to beat Team Africa where Mamadou Samb had a game high 30pts and 13rebs.

Day 2 saw a 3 point victory for Lithuania against Croatia while Team USA defeated Israel. This means that the Lithuanians are already qualified for the semi-finals. Team USA will play Israel on Friday in order to have a slight chance to advance to the  semi-finals in the case of a eventual defeat of Croatia against Israel. In the other group Germany defeated France and qualified a bit surprisingly for the semis. France and Turkey will most likely play a sort of a final in order to qualify for the last four on Friday evening.

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In 10 days, the NBBL Top4 tournament will be played in Langen. On the 31st of May and the 1st of June, the German U19 champion will be decided. And the first thing to remember is that three of the four semi-finalist have already been at this stage of the competition last season. But let’s check the teams in general.

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.

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Here is also a recap of the four series of the South teams in the NBBL. Here also, some surprises arrived and we also had some impressive individual performances.

The apparently the most uninteresting series before the start could have been the matchup between BBLZ Mittelhessen and Urspring. But the team from Giessen managed to go for a win against the academy team, the first ever loss of Urspring at home in the NBBL. With the return of Thierno Agne and Akeem Vargas and a lot of energy, Urspring destroyed Mittelhessen on Saturday behind an impressive performance of Christian Standhardinger who scored 37 and grabbed 22 rebounds (55 efficiency). Agne took care of the top scorer of the first game Benjamin Lischka and Maurice Stuckey added 15 points to the scoreboard.

The runner up of the Mitte Division MTV Kronberg had no problems to win against Basket-College Rhein Neckar in two games. The team around Jonathan Meshgna and Yannick Schicktanz that had the addition of Amil Klisura before the playoffs looks now like a serious contestant for the next round where they will probably play against Urspring.

BIS Speyer has to go to a decisive game at home against last year’s Final Four team Breitengüssbach. Elias Harris and Simon Schmitz came up with 22 respective 21 points but Erik Land looked like the king of the paint with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Land, who will play with the U18 National team in Mannheim is really improving this year and his performances in the NBBL and the ProB look promising. The shooters Daniel Leithner (5/7) and Stefan Dinkel (6/8) need to hit like that again next week in order to have a chance to qualify for the next round.

Favorite and Final Four organizer TV Langen cleared its series in two games against Bayern München. Robin Benzing is still playing in the cruising mode with 23pts in 29 minutes. Ruben Spoden helps out under the rim while Marco Völler missed along with the two PGs Kai and Nico Barth. With its complete roster, the team should be the favorite for the next round and qualify for its hometown Final Four competition.

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The last day of the regular season of the German U19 NBBL has been played last weekend. So it is time to check who were the best performers of the last weeks and see where is the top talent of the 1989 and younger German generation.

Matthias Hurst (1989 Center – 2m05 – BG Karlsruhe)

Maybe it can be considered as a surprise to see Hurst at the top of the Efficiency ranking. This can of course be explained by the reduced playing time of some of the top performers in the league like Harris or Standhardinger, but it is essentially the result of a very good improvement by the 2m05 tall inside player. Hurst is in fact a very consistent inside scorer. He never scored less than 11pts and went as high as 35 during the season. But his main gift is his rebounding where he averaged a huge 18.0rpg. He is in his last season to play NBBL so now he has to improve his physical abilities in order to see more playing time at the next level with the ProA team.

Tibor Pleiss (1989 Center – 2m08 – Köln 99ers)

Pleiss could only play 7 games in the NBBL this year. In the beginning of the season, he was only playing with the pro team but then joined the NBBL squad in order to improve their record. So he went for 7 games to show his great talent on the Center position and averaged 23.3ppg and 13.3rpg in just 30 minutes per game. Then he got injured in the worst moment as with the leave of some of the star players, he could get important minutes on the pro level.

Florian Trmal (1989 Forward – 1m94 – Bayer Leverkusen)

The big surprise of the season in my eyes. The Austrian forward started the season slowly in order to adapt to the new situation he faced. But then he started to play at an impressive level. He went even for an incredible career high efficiency rating of 55 against Hagen where he scored 32pts, grabbed 21rebs, stole 6 balls and even went for 3 rejections. However, Trmal is a bit short for playing the PF position, he has to develop a more consistent outside shot where he went only for 6/23 from behind the arc.

Maik Zirbes (1990 Center – 2m06 – TBB Trier)

The massive Center from Trier was fulfilling the high expectations that the officials had in him. Being one year younger than most of his opponents, but physically already very strong and heavy with about 120kg, Zirbes was the main offensive threat for his team with 22.0ppg. He got also selected for the U18 NT in order to play the Albert Schweitzer Turnier and he should also enter the professional team of TBB in the next weeks as his NBBL season is already over. He has one more year left to play NBBL, so he should be among the best performers next season.

Azeez Oladimeji (1989 Center – 2m08 – Oldenburg)

Oladimeji, who is originally from Nigeria only joined the German team this summer. But the least you can say is that he made some impact in the North. Being an All-Star, he showed impressive numbers over the regular season essentially based on well developed physical abilities. During the game where I scouted him, he had not a very impressive showing though being extremely raw on the offensive end and having no chance to stop faster players by defending them face to face. However, he is working extremely hard in the paint and his presence is making an impact on both ends of the floor.

Simon Schmitz (1990 Guard – 1m85 – BIS Speyer)

A very interesting player on the guard positions is the U18 National Team player Simon Schmitz. Having also been voted Youngster of the month of the ProB division, Schmitz is showing a lot of versatility on the court. Being listed as a SG, he is of course a very good shooter. However, he will probably move more into a PG as he is one of the best assist givers of the whole NBBL. 12.1ppg 6.5rpg 4.1apg and 2.9spg are the numbers that look very interesting for somebody who has another season to go in the U19 league.

Erik Land (1990 Forward – 2m04 – Breitengüssbach)

Another member of the U18 National team that is putting up interesting numbers in the NBBL is Erik Land from the Brose Baskets Bamberg farm team. 14.0ppg at 66.7% in just 24 minutes are already very good for the 17 year old forward who is also adding 9.8rpg. He should be one of the top performers of the Gemran U18 team this summer as he showed all his potential at the Onil Tournament a few weeks ago against top European nations.

I deliberately let away some players as they can already be considered too strong for the NBBL and only had limited playing time due to the huge domination of their teams. I speak essentially of Christian Standhardinger, Elias Harris or Robin Benzing. This list is also far from being representative as I could of course not see all the players so far. So I limited myself on the top performers of the 1989 as well as of the 1990 generation. I will come up with more information about different players as soon as the playoffs go ahead and of course I will be attending the Final Four of the NBBL that will be played on the 31st May and 1st of June.

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The Spanish PG Alejandro Hernandez, a NBA Basketball Without Borders participant in 2006 and member of the Youth teams of FC Barcelona, got elected MVP of the tournament. He has been joined in the All-Tournament team by his team mate Ignacio Esteban as well as by the German Power forward Erik Land who finished the tournament with 16.0ppg and 9.0rpg.

Unfortunately, I could not find out who were the two other members of the All-Tournament team but my guess would be Mario Delas from Croatia, Melih Mahmutoglu (16.0ppg) or Erdinc Balto (12.3ppg 3.0bpg) from Turkey. The Turkish team that did not feature Birkan Batuk however.

UPDATE: Crobasket.com reports the trouble that Croatia had during this tournament. And they also give the information that Mario Delas was a member of the All-tournament team. So my guess was right

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