European Prospects

What counted for the 1992 generation is also valid for the 1993 born players. Because of the limited number of times I could scout these players, the Ranking will only feature 15 teams. This generation will play the U17 World Championship this summer in Hambourg (Germany).

1. Spain
   Spain won the Gold Medal last summer during the U16 European Championship, and this is the reason why they top this ranking. Jaime Fernandez showed an excellent tournament finish and players like Daniel Diez may have a great feature. However, Serbia is just behind in terms of talent level here.
2. Serbia
   Despite only finishing with a Bronze Medal, I consider the 93 born Serbian generation as the 2nd best, if not the best in this age group. Nenad Miljenovic is the uncontested top-talent, even if his recent tournament played with FMP in Rome was not outstanding for his level. Together with Aleksandar Cvetkovic and Nemanja Bezbradica, Serbia has an excellent range of players that makes them one of the favorites for Gold this summer at the U17 level.
3. Lithuania
   Maybe Lithuania was awarded a bit too much with the Silver medal as they real super-talents lack in this age group. Tauras Jogela is considered being the leader but Tomas Lekunas seems passing him in terms of potential. Still, this generation is highly talented, they just lack a quality big man.
4. Poland
   The massive surprise of the U16 last summer in Lithuania was Poland that finished the tournament as the underdogs without a medal. Przemylsaw Karnowski is a huge Center talent and the generation features some additional highly talented players. Finally Poland sees a major generation of good prospects arriving.
5. Russia
   Russia features a highly interesting group of players here with the likes of Gleb Goldyrev, Andrey Loginov or Vladislav Trushkin. They could have been one of the secret candidates for a Medal this summer during the World Championship but their 5th place during the European Championship meant no qualification.
6. France
   A correct generation for France that has however some nice potential with the versatile big man Livio Jean-Charles or the scorers Hugo Invernizzi and William Howard.
7. Latvia
   This Latvian generation features two very intriguing players in Ojars Silins and Kaspars Vecvagars that both are highly scouted and recruited throughout Europe.
8. Sweden
   The 1993 born players represent probably the most talented Swedish generation for decades. William Magarity, Jonathan Person and Marcus Eriksson can all develop into high-level players, however the team could not managed to move up to Division A last summer in a B Division tournament of high format.
9. Turkey
   The Turkish U16 team won the Turk Telekom Tournament in 2009 but could only finish 8th during the European Championship. Those mixed results pushed them that low in the ranking, especially because the team highly profited from the talented 1994 generation.
10. Croatia
    A 6th place in Lithuania 2009 showed the regain of speed for Croatian youth generations. However, the 1993 born players do not feature that many high-level talent.
11. Bulgaria
    Pavlin Ivanov and Tencho Tenev are the stars of a highly successful team that won the Gold Medal in the B Division in 2009.
12. Germany
    The German team finished the U16 EC on a correct 11th place and had some good results during the Turk Telekom Tournament too. So a 12th place is appropriate for a team that will participate to the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament this spring in order to prepare the upcoming World Championships.
13. Montenegro
    Montenegro confirms their place among the top European nations in terms of youth basketball development with another early confirmation of non-relegation in Division A.
14. Denmark
    The massive surprise of the B Division in 2009 was the Silver Medal of Denmark. The future will tell if this generation is really outstanding and if they can confirm their status on the next level.
15. England
    The presence of an extraordinary talent like Devon van Oostrum together with other nice prospects for England helped them to reach this 15th place despite a mediocre result during the European Championships last summer.