European Prospects

The 1991 generation features a very dominant Serbian team that had no competition for the first spot. The nations behind are all having strong 1992 born players that helped them to reach their respective Medals in the different European Championships.

1. Serbia
   The Serbian 1991 generation is on a way of domination like the 1987 born players, grab three Gold Medals in all three competitions. Dominating inside players like Dejan Musli and Branislav Dekic are already getting their first minutes on the professional level in European competitions. They have good support from long-distance shooters like Danilo Andusic and their guards have the necessary skills to bring the team to the Gold Medal.
2. France
   France reached the 2nd place in the ranking because of the Silver Medal they won last summer at the U18 level. There are some interesting players in their 1991 generation like Mael Lebrun or Fabien Paschal but they got massive support from their 1992 born youngsters.
3. Spain
   Spain started strong with their 1991 born players as they won the Silver Medal on the U16 level but it was not enough to go better than a 5th place last summer. Alberto Jodar and Josep Franch are probably the most interesting players.
4. Lithuania
   A third and a fourth place are the results of a generation driven by excellent defensive guards like Augustas Peciukevicius or Mantas Kadzevicius but also the highly talented but 1992 born Jonas Valanciunas. The wings also feature some interesting potential.
5. Turkey
   An average Turkish generation that was however driven by 1992 born Enes Kanter to a third place last summer. Maxim Can Mutaf or Furkan Aldemir are the players from 1991 that are among the most talented and successful so far.
6. Italy
   Italy is lead by the top-talent Nicolo Melli who is doing also a lot of damage already on the professional level. But he gets good support from players like Riccardo Moraschini or Simone Centanni and Andrea de Nicolao is doing very well so far for Benetton Treviso.
7. Russia
   Despite the injury of some of their players, the Russian U18 team reached a nice sixth place on the U18 level last summer. They were lead by the highly talented Pavel Antipov and the long Ivan Lazarev who may develop into interesting players down the road.
8. Croatia
   Croatia has a nice 2-men punch with Toni Prostran and Dragan Sekelja to reach two times the 8th place on U18 and U16 level. While Sekelja is going through freshman duties at Baylor, Prostran has so far missed the full season due to an injury.
9. Latvia
   Latvia is comforting its place among the Top 10 nations in Europe also in this generation behind some players like Martins Meiers or Armands Osins who reached a 9th place on both U18 and U16 level.
10. Czech Republic
    Despite some mediocre results in general, the Czech Republic has been ranked on the 10th place because of the extraordinary talent of Tomas Satoransky who did not compete for example with the U18 team last summer.
11. Slovenia
    Slovenia could do a lot better as the talent of Mirza Sarajlija is uncontested but the scoring guard has not confirmed yet what he showed with Union Olimpija in the Euroleague.
12. Greece
    A mediocre generation for the Greeks has reached a good 7th spot at U16 level but will probably not bring out high-level players for their own high standards.
13. Ukraine
    Ukraine also confirms their position among the top 15 countries of basketball talent with yet another generation having correct results. Andriy Lebedintsev is a nice scoring guard who can develop into a good player in the next years.
14. Germany
    Despite a disappointing 10th place in the B Division on U16 level, the 1991 born players in Germany have some good potential behind Niels Giffey who comes back strong after a months-long illness.
15. Sweden
    The Swedish U18 generation reached the Gold Medal of the B Division European Championship this summer and has some interesting players like the Davidson recruit Christopher Czerapowicz or Andreas Person.
16. Poland
    Sebastian Szymanski is the leader of a Polish generation that marks the beginning of better results in the youth competitions.
17. Israel
    Carmel Bouchman is the leader of an Israeli generation that had to go down though at the U18 level last summer.
18. England
    The 1991 born players from England have a clear leader with Ryan Richards. But even with him only playing 2 games on the U18 team this summer, they reached a good 4th place.
19. Bulgaria
    The Bulgarian U18 team did a nice job this summer with a 10th place at the European Championships. But the disastrous result at U16 level brought them back to the 19th spot.
20. Montenegro
    The Balkan 1991 born generation could not manage to bring their U18 team on the A division level but a Bronze Medal is a good result in a year where B division was pretty strong.