After having presented the different guards and wings, today’s article will feature the big guys that played in Metz and Hagondange. In this area, there is a large number of quality talent present, so read on if you want to become familiar with the most interesting inside players of the future.

Dejan Musli (2m14 – C – Serbia – 1991)

This tournament did not really gave new hope for all those people that are not that big on Dejan Musli as he can use less and less his physical strength that made him dominator the years before as he was matched here with two other very strong inside players in Kanter and Valanciunas. However, Musli showed some development in his game and is still one of the strongest post players in Europe in Youth categories.

His game is so much based on positioning in the paint where he has nearly nobody that does it as good as he does. Once positioned in the low post and not double-teamed, he can score the ball with too much of a problem by either a jump hook, or turn around jump shots. Sometimes, you can see him face his defender and go for a jump shot but nearly never he is attacking the defense facing. His jump shot around the key falls on high regularity and he starts to net in a three pointer here and there. It would not surprise me to see him in 2 years going for one or two long distance shots per game.

A major problem that Musli is facing right now is that he sees a double team on nearly every time he touches the ball in the post. He struggles also when he is front in the low post. When the lob pass is coming to go over the fronting defender, he grabs the ball very low and needs to go down a bit in order to take his shot or attempt the dunk. This gives the possibility to the help side to recover and play the steal or at least put him in trouble to go up. You could observe a multitude of times where Musli could not come up with a good shot out of these situations and starting to complain because no fouls were called.

His lack of explosiveness is a problem for him in those situations and he seems to be aware of so that he is developing his passing skills. A multitude of times, you can see him go for opposite passes out of the post that create big gaps for his wings to take the open three pointer. On the downside though is the fact that he tries them in no-look fashion a bit too often which explains his very high amount of turnovers. Defensively, he was unable to stop Enes Kanter in the semi-finals individually; he gave him some space to bang in the post or take the open jump shot. I don’t know if that was a tactic set up by the Serbian coach but at least it looked like Musli did not really want to play defense down low. This gave him the possibility to be very present in shot blocking as he had the necessary room to make a step to get up for rejecting either Kanter’s shots or be present on help side defense.

Stats: 14.8ppg (58.3% 2FG – 50% FT), 11.2rpg, 2.2apg, 2.4bpg, 4.6topg

Enes Kanter (2m08 – PF/C – Turkey – 1992)

Enes Kanter finished the tournament with a deserved MVP title as there was anybody that dominated the game on the same level than he did. Next to his low post game, Kanter starts to develop a face-up game which will make him even more difficult to guard in the next years.

But first of all, Kanter is a low post banger. He loves to use his body to play with the back to the basket, even starting way out and backing down low. The usage of his body goes sometimes a bit too far in my opinion as he will face tougher defenders in the future but on this level it worked to perfection. He can finish those low post plays with jump hooks or turn around jump shots. When he is open in the paint, he dunks the ball very hard with two hands. He protects the ball very well and he does not come in the situations that Musli struggled with on double team situations. His large body is of course helping him in that domain too, he looks a bit more shaped and ripped too than I had him in my memories.

But when we come to the part of the game that has impressed me the most, it is his face up game where he clearly improved over the year. Not only that he can hit the jump shot around the key with a nice high shooting curve, he can eventually also hit a three pointer as his shooting mechanics in catch-and-shoot situation look perfect. His base line jump shot is very regular too and he starts even to beat his opponents of the drive which is pretty new in his repertoire.

He seems also have gained in explosiveness as he is very quick when he has to go for the offensive rebound on his own misses especially. In defense, this gain in speed helps him to play a lot of interceptions on the drives as he does not go up for the block shot every time but prefers to wait until the last moment to deflect the ball as the opposing driver does not know what to do with the ball once in the air. His lateral speed in defense is correct too as he could guard the much quicker Valanciunas on his drives.

He has also become a real team leader now despite being a very calm person in general on the court. You can see him shout at his team mates giving them instructions in a pedagogical way, firm but always in a positive way. Giving a team mate a tap on his back even after a bad decision in offense underlines this newly gained leader qualities. The education may be one of the reason for this positive attitude, Kanter being the son of a recognized Turkish Biology and Veterinary professor. You can find more on Kanter in a recent article published by True Hoop.

Stats: 18.6ppg (54.3% 2FG – 70% FT), 16.4rpg, 1.8bpg

Jonas Valanciunas (2m09 – PF/C – Lithuania – 1992)

The most impressive player of these three big guys was maybe even Jonas Valanciunas. The long Lithuanian born player may have the biggest long term potential as he combines the skill set with a highly athletic body. Additionally, he showed some very nice progress since the last time I saw him, and that was back in May only.

Not only that Valanciunas is very present in the paint, he is developing a very effective face-up game where he can go for the jump shot or for the drive. He displays very good speed on his drives and with his athleticism, he can pass his defenders combined with a good first step. A play that is still in my memory is how he posterized the French defense on a baseline drive going for a one handed lay-back dunk. His great wingspan helps him in those plays but that’s not all.

Valanciunas faces his defender nearly every time he gets the ball in the low post as his back to the basket game is not that polished right now. He uses a lot of head or shot fakes in these situations to see what the defender does and use it. He loves to drive baseline and score on layups or dunks. However, you could see him to go the other direction and scored on some floating hook shot. His jump shot looks still like a work in progress but he scored with extraordinary percentages both from 2pts and from the free-throw line. Here may be his biggest potential as he should be able to improve his shooting mechanics and develop a face-up game until the three point line.

He can right now even knock down the jump shot out of the drive when coming from the high post or pass it out to the weak side for the three point shooters. Valanciunas goes very hard to the offensive glass where he uses his great touch to tip in a lot of opportunities. If he can grab the offensive board, he holds the ball very high and does not need to go down to get the necessary power to score the layup.

On the defensive end, his wingspan helps him to be a huge shot blocker. He seems to have understood too that he can be a tremendous defender in that area and he blocks the ball so that he can recuperate the possession afterwards which is at least as important as the rejection itself. He is not afraid of contact and he even goes for blocking dunk attempts. His defensive rebounding can still be improved as he struggles sometimes to box out which is probably a combination of some concentration gaps and a still growing physical force.

However, while Dejan Musli looks already like an experienced low post player that raises his level in the necessary moment (it was him in the end that had the Gold Medal), and Enes Kanter being at the beginning of developing a game next to his great physical abilities and scoring in the paint, Jonas Valanciunas may have the biggest potential as he combines the size, the shoot and the speed and right now only starting to beef up his athletic body.

Stats: 19.3ppg (72.1% 2FG – 79.4% FT), 10.6rpg, 2.6bpg

Branislav Dekic was present when it counted the most finishing a tournament where he showed once again what a nice talent he is but also that he is still not a leader of a team. He combines a very good length with good athletic abilities and a shot that has become reliable until the three point line, especially from the top. He plays under control, makes a lot of fakes and can dominate inside when he is guarded by a shorter player. He needs to improve his passing on high-low situations with Dejan Musli but he uses his verticality in order to be very present in defense and especially in shot blocking.

Nikola Rondovic started the games for Serbia on the PF position but he was mostly used as an outside catch and shoot player than as an inside force. His impact on the team was not that big as for Dekic but Rondovic was one of the only players capable of giving good high-low passes to Musli from the top of the key. He can post up against smaller players but he does not use this that much and prefers to play out on the wing to drive or shoot the ball. He has great height though to play.

Fabien Paschal can be considered as one of the major surprises of this tournament as the skinny French PF was nearly unknown before at the international level. He was the only regular inside scoring option for France and he impressed me with his already surprisingly polished back-to-the-basket game where he scored on several different options; mostly using some kind of underhand score though. His shooting mechanics are not very stable at the moment but his speed and driving skills can make him a very versatile player in the future. Defensively, he was not always very present but when it counted the most, he used his nice wingspan and good defensive positioning to give a tough reply to the opposing more physical centers. Additionally, he is an amazing offensive rebounder as you could see him emerge on a lot of possessions for tip ins. He looks smart in what he does but inexperienced.

Vincent Pourchot was of course one of the attractions of the whole Championship as the 1992 born player was born in the region of Metz but also was the tallest player with 2m20. He showed that he actually is also a basketball player as his height caused a lot of problems to all team attacking him. Even if he may not be the fastest guy around, he can be a good low post defender against big and slower guys,he did a great job on Musli during stretches for example. Offensively, he displays already a good shooting touch and can net short shots up to 3-4 meters from the top. Additionally, he uses his length well when it comes to positioning as he can score on a some kind of slow motion jump hook.

Ignacio Llovet was one of the reasons of the Spanish run to the fifth place as the physical PF/C dominated regularly in the paint. Despite not being very tall, his already well built body helped him to overpower some of his opponents and score through physical play and mid range jump shots. He is a surprising ball handler as you could see him go for drives or even coast-to-coast plays from time to time. Defensively, he was very present as an overplay defender in the low post where he had a multitude of steals during the tournament. His offensive game is more on the floor, fundamentals based than above the rim and this may hurt his future potential. Right now, he is a beast, but in 2 years already, this dominance may have gone when his opposition has reached his physical level.

Ivan Lazarev had the same destiny than fellow countryman Pavel Antipov as injuries kept him away from displaying his game over the whole tournament. Lazarev is a fairly athletic guy who displays a nice turn around jump shot in the post. With his long arms, he is present in defense but is quite foul-prone right now. He can drive with the ball but unfortunately, I could not see more of him because of the above mentioned injury stuff. But I wanted to mention him as he looked like a very interesting prospect to me.

Dragan Sekelja was the Croatian version of Ignacio Llovet but with some additional centimeters. A physical inside player that plays more foot on the floor than above the rim. He showed a multitude of ways to score in the low post like underhand scores, jump hooks or jump shots. Most of his face up plays go however over the right hand. He can attack the rim coming from the three point area but he has no long distance shot right now. Despite having a huge body, that is however not really in perfect shape, Sekelja looks like lacking a bit of power in the paint. Maybe this is a reason why he likes to step out at times to attack the rim of the dribble.

Philipp Neumann displayed a nice potential on the German team as the 2m10 tall Center was the top scorer and rebounder of a young team. He has different offensive possibilities with either the jump shot or the powerful play in the post. For the moment, he has to polish a lot his low post game though as it is based on physical and athletic abilities and Neumann uses way too much his body right now. Catching the ball means for him that he has to score and the pass out is not option for him. He even lowers his head on those plays so that he is not even capable of seeing open team mates (only 3 assists in 8 games). Being one year younger than the competition, it will be important to see his development over the next year because if he can take away these negative parts of his games, he has the potential of being one of the best inside players in Europe of the 1992 born.

Martins Meiers was an interesting player coming from Latvia who displayed a good combination of physical presence and will to fight. Meiers is great rebounder and has also some impact on the offensive end. He has some soft shooting touch and can hit the jumper around the key. His presence on offensive rebounds gives him a lot of second chances and because he goes immediately back up after the offensive rebound, he has the necessary space to finish these plays. His ball handling is good for a player of his size and he has also a good block shot timing where he can go up very quickly to reject the ball.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

The first day of the Nike International Junior Tournament is history and the day ended nearly with a massive upset as the 2008 champ FMP Belgrade won against the hosts of ALBA Berlin by only 1 point.

• It was Branislav Dekic that scored the game winning layup with 5 seconds to go in a thriller game that was dominated by the ALBA defense and Dejan Musli’s offensive presence. A last second three pointer by ALBA missed its goal and the Serbian could celebrate their first victory. Dejan Musli had no opposition in the paint as ALBA had only one real Center and the Serbian big was guarded mostly by PF shorter than 2m. That’s why we saw ALBA set up different defenses in order to slow down the FMP game. Malte Ziegenhagen scored 4 out 6 three pointers to be the main offensive threat for ALBA while Niels Giffey was off with only 3 out 12 shots from 2.
• Unicaja beat Montepaschi behind the efforts of their bigs Augusto Cesar Lima and Malick Fall.
• For Lietuvos Rytas, it was Osvaldas Matulionis that helped them to overcome Hemofarm Vrsac, despite being fouled out in the final minutes. Jonas Valanciunas was present in the rebound but had also foul trouble and did not finish the game. Hemofarm had a good team effort, but it was not enough to come up with the win at the end.
• I can add nothing about the first game of the tournament as it was already over when I arrived at the gym. A gym that saw lots of fans and executives right from the first day on. Multiple NBA teams are in the arena too and the number of representatives will increase by tomorrow. Unfortunately though that the games are played simultaneously on two courts so that it is impossible to follow all the games during the day.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

This Thursday starts the Nike International Junior Tournament in Berlin and features some of the best U18 Club Teams in Europe. Three qualification tournaments and two Wildcards later, 8 teams will fight in 2 groups to get the trophy. I took a quick look at the teams and tell you who are the prospects to follow this year.

Group A

Union Olimpija Ljubljana is one of the two Wildcard teams. They did not manage to qualify despite playing two tournaments and despite having a very interesting group of talent. However, the total absence of inside impact players makes them vulnerable. The main player to follow of course in Mirza Sarajlija who had already some Euroleague games. But the quick guard is questionable for Berlin because of a small knee injury. So the main roles offensively will be taken over by the Ukrainian guard Andriy Lebedintsev, who is a nice scorer but also a great defensive pressure guy, and by wingman Matic Sirnik. The younger players of the team feature also some interesting guys and it is especially the 1993 born Djordje Micic who already attracts the interest of the international scouts.

Lietuvos Rytas had already a great team during last year’s NIJT built around a back court that put tremendous pressure throughout the game. With the addition of the top Center prospect Jonas Valanciunas (MVP of the U16 EC in 2008), the team looks like on the favorites for this year’s edition. You better be prepared to see full-court pressure of Ovidijus Varanauskas, Augustas Peciukevicius and Mantas Kadzevicius during 40 minutes and three point bombing by Osvaldas Matulionis. Definitely, Lietuvos Rytas will be one of the teams to watch during the 4 days in Berlin.

Caja de Canarias Gran Canaria was a big surprise for me when they qualified during the Stella Azzurra tournament in Rome this winter. But this team is probably the closest one to a perfect team chemistry. A true Point Guard in Oscar Alvarado (MVP of the Stella Azzurra tournament) who won’t impress you with flashy passes, crazy scoring but with basketball knowledge, game temp control and defense; Alejandro Lopez who is an off guard that can score and runs the break. The wings are occupied by true team players while the inside is composed of three highly different player types: a shooting seven-footer from the Czech Republic in Milan Jaros, the rail-thin and raw but highly athletic Bakary Konate and the hard working powerful Samuel Dominguez.

KK Hemofarm Stada is more unknown to me as I never saw them play and they have no outstanding superstar talent. But their team basketball helped them to qualify through the FMP Tournament in Belgrade. Petar Lambic is one of the more interesting players of the group, he played for example during the Jordan Brand Classic in 2008.

Group B

Unicaja Malaga impressed during the Hospitalet tournament with a team built around Tautvydas Sabonis, the son of the great Lithuanian Center and the Brazilian inside player Augusto Cesar Lima. Sabonis plays the SF position and has a good basketball IQ and can connect on long distance shots. Lima is more of an inside presence on both sides of the court. Having never seen them play in person, I am looking forward to see these guys in action in Berlin.

FMP Belgrade is the 2008 champion and will try to defend the cup this year in Berlin. Probably the most impressive team in the paint with Branislav Djekic and Dejan Musli. But the guard positions around Nikola Vukasovic and the wings  around Strahinja Mladenovic will not be far behind in terms of talent and basketball skills. But I see nobody in the tournament that can match the power of Musli and FMP looks like a highly likely title candidate.

Montepaschi Siena is the other big team of the Group B and they will play for the first play too. The guards Simone Centanni and Nunzio Sabbatino can both score at will, but being very different in their style, Centanni being more of a shooter while Sabbatino is a pure drive specialist. Tommaso Ingrosso is a very versatile forward while the Georgian big guy Nika Metreveli is one of the NBA prospect of the tournament because of his interesting combination of size and skills.

ALBA Berlin will play its first NIJT with a Wildcard as host of the tournament. The team finished 9th in Rome but they can be considered stronger than that. Next to the ALBA players around the athletic forwards Brian Wenzel and Niels Giffey, the team features additional players coming from the partner academies of ALBA Urspring and Central Hoops Berlin. Kevin Bright and Justin Raffington are the guys to watch coming from Urspring, Bright being a versatile athletic defender while Raffington gives the team the necessary size and physical presence in the paint. Head Coach Henrik Rödl will certainly try to impress the local fans with good basketball.

You can find additional information on the tournament in the official Media Guide that can be downloaded here

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

After watching several games of the first two days of the NIJT in L’Hospitalet I had very mixed feelings about the tournament and the level of play in the tournament. Teams like Joventut Badalona, Lietuvos Rytas, FMP Belgrade, BC Khimki, Real Madrid and Unicaja Malaga very undoubtedly the teams with the most interesting players on their rosters.

I will just give you a short review on the players that I liked in these games. It could be that I missed some guys as several teams did not really show their best games over the first two days as some of the close or surprising results of the tournament show.

Joventut Badalona
Badalona was very impressive as expected. From their pre-game preparation to the end of the game they seemed very well organized and professional. It seemed like almost any player on the team would be able to come in and produce right away.

German F/C Alexander Andreev seemed to not have found is comfort zone on the floor in the setting of Badalona yet, but it was obvious that he has a nice set of skills offensively and defensively to become a good player in the future. It will be interesting to see how he develops in the next 2-3 years and at which position he will be playing in the near future.

Dutch Forward Max Van Schaik has impressed me with his style of play. He hasn’t scored much, but has shown a lot of heart and did not mind to sacrifice his body. His skill set was obvious, but he needs to become more consistent and reliable when trying to create for himself or shooting from the outside. He had my play of the day on day 1, when he got hurt under the basket on the defensive end, it was obvious that he was in pain when staying on the floor as the game continued on the other end. Although he was hurt he got back up quickly when the opposing team had a chance for a fast-break and took a charge, which showed his heart and will to sacrifice himself for his team.

Marko Todorovic and Joan Tomas besides others were two other very promising players that should be followed.

Lietuvos Rytas
Rytas impressed as a very well coached and deep team. They were able to go to their bench to get quality production and to be able to keep the pressure up at all times. Post player Jonas Valanciunas has been a real presence and showed a good post moves on the offensive end, but still needs to work on his shot from mid-range. Defensively he was a real factor changing shots and making it difficult for his opponents to get comfortable.

Guards Ovidijus Varanauskas and Augustas Peciukevicius were very present and seemed to be in control of the game at all times. Both have shown very good court-vision and make very good decisions when passing, driving or shooting the ball. Defensively they both put a lot of pressure on the opposing guards and made it very difficult to set up the offense. Their anticipation and understanding of the game always had them in a position to interrupt the play of the opposing team. Varanauskas has a quick first step and is able to get to the basket to finish strong. His shooting seemed to be a little inconsistent at times, but it was obvious that he can shoot the ball.

Forward/Guard Dovydas Redikas is a strong and athletic forward with a strong drive to the basket and a consistent outside shot. Was a very reliable player on the defensive end and is willing to sacrifice his body to get stops.

Unicaja Malaga
On Malaga it was Tautvydas Sabonis and Augusto Cesar Lima that impressed me the most with their style of play and possible upside. Sabonis showed a good understanding of the game and made some tough shots from the outside. It seems like he still needs to get a better feel for his body and it will be interesting to see, if he will grow a lot more. He has good moves when driving to the basket from the outside to separate himself from his defender.

Lima has been very present on the offensive and defensive board. He was hustling at all times fighting for position and rebounds. He showed solid post moves and it looked like he is able to shoot from mid-range.

FMP Zeleznik Belgrade
FMP looked very well structured and had a pretty strong S5. Players that stood out to me were PG Vukasovic and Dekic. PG Nikola Vukasovic showed very good court-vision and made some incredible passes. He controlled the game very well and was able to create for himself as well as his teammates at all times. His outside shot looked very shaky though, so it seems as if he will have to work on that a lot to reach his full potential as the bad shooing % continued throughout the tournament.

Branislav Dekic has been dominant scoring and rebounding the ball and has been the key player for FMP during the entire tournament.

Real Madrid
Madrid had the Player of the tournament in Nikola Mirotic. He was by far the most talented player in the tournament. His height paired with his athletic ability and creativity made him a very difficult player to stop. He showed a nice post up game as well as a soft outside touch. It seemed as if he was able to create for himself at all times. In the first game he played he seemed a little soft at times and complained too much, but on the other hand it’s always tough for a player who is the cornerstone of the entire team and with most of the focus on him. He did a good job focusing again after tough situations and was able to produce.

Guard Nikola Rakocevic was very active on the defensive and offensive end. He applied pressure on the ball at all times defensively and his good footwork and anticipation made him a real factor defensively. Offensively he did a good job shooting the ball and driving to the basket to create room for his teammates.

I did not see much of Zadar, but liked left-handed forward Ivan Batur who was impressive shooting the ball from long range and driving to the basket. He created well for himself and made good decisions with the ball. It would be interesting to see him more.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

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.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

Today started the FMP Junior Tournament (City of Belgrade Tournament ) in Belgrade. The tournament is also a qualifying event for the Nike International Junior Tournament to be played in Madrid during the Final Four. We took a look at the different rosters and the first results.

Twelve team compete for the two spots that are awarded in Belgrade and the tournament is of course dominated by the traditional Balkan forces. Bosna Sarajevo, Crvena Zvezda, FMP, Hemofarn, Union Olimpija and Partizan will compete with Benetton Treviso, Khimki Moscow, Montepaschi Siena, Prokom Trefl, Lietuvos Rytas and Fenerbahce Ülker.

While the last one will not be in full force as their best players are actually competing at the AST, the same counts also for Khimki probably. And after the first games today, it seems that FMP, Lietuvos Rytas, Hemofarm and Crvena Zvezda are the strongest teams.

The first ones feature of course some top talent like Dejan Musli, Branislav Djekic or Andreja Milutinovic who already dominated during the Hospitalet event in January. Lietuvos Rytas went for a big win over Partizan to win its group behind a 38rkg effort by 1991 born Osvaldas Martulionis. Nemanja Arnautovic led Hemofarm in the next round while Crvena Zvezda came up with more of a team effort.

As I don’t attend the event, my coverage will only be very limited and I will come back with a final report after the tournament. More infos can be found on the Euroleague website or on the official website of the tournament.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

First of all, there is probably the best U18 Club tournament that will be held: the 29th edition of the Hospitalet Tournament. This year’s edition will be played from the 3rd to the 5th of January and features some top flight talent from different Spanish and European Club teams. When you fly over the different rosters, there are some names that pop up like Dejan Musli and Branislav Djekic from FMP Zeleznik, Alejandro Hernandez from Barcelona, Tomislav Zubcic from Cibona Zagreb, David Jelinek, Alexander Andreev and Josep Franch from Joventut Badalona, Nikola Mirotic from Real Madrid or Bozhidar Avramov from Pamesa Valencia.

Of course a lot of other players will be present in L’Hospitalet but those names seem to be some of the most promising before the start of the action. I will try to keep you updated the best possible as I will not be in Spain but there is normally a very good media coverage as Canal+ Spain is broadcasting some of the games this year.

One the other hand, during the same days, there will be the Sarajevo Youth basketball Festival with compiles U18, U16, U14 and even U12 tournaments for both boys and girls. For this website, the U18 and in a minor scale the U16 boys tournaments will be the most interesting. For the U18 division, the participants will be Playoff Sarajevo, Ulm, Barking Abbey, Austrian U16 NT, Inzersdorf, Kamnik and ALBA Berlin. The last ones can probably be considered as favorites when you check how the locals and Barking Abbey played at last week’s Interperformances Cup in London.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.