The 2011/2012 edition of the Nike International Junior Tournament is still several weeks ahead. But after the Euroleague officially announced the dates, we checked which teams will normally participate in the four Qualification Event for the NIJT 2012 in Istanbul. Please note that the official participants will only be announced in the next weeks and that there might be some changes to the names published here.
NIJT in Rome: 27th – 29th December 2011
The opening event in Rome features the current champion KK Zagreb around the two Croatian jewels Mario Hezonja and Dario Saric. It will be interesting to see if Saric will play the tournament as he is already a key rotation for the Senior team. Fenerbahce will come with a team built around James Metecan Birsen while Dnipro has Volodymyr Gerun in its ranks. Virtus Siena has the surprise of the U18 European Championship Amedeo Tessitori as inside option while Maccabi Tel Aviv and Gran Canaria look a bit more like outsides in this event together with the traditionally hard fighting hosts from Stella Azzurra.
- Maccabi Tel Aviv
- Stella Azzurra Roma
- Fenerbache Ulker Istanbul
- Virtus Siena
- KK Zagreb
- Gran Canaria
- Virtus Roma
- Dnipro Dnepropetrovsk
NIJT in l’Hospitalet: 4th – 6th January 2012
The tournament in Hospitalet will of course be dominated by local Spanish teams with the two big names FC Barcelona and Real Madrid and their multitude of talents. Additionally, Cajasol Sevilla and Joventut Badalona are known for their youth sections and will certainly try to play a major role as well. Next to the traditional Lietuvos Rytas, there will be the team of Cedevita Zagreb that showed a lot of promise in their 1994 generation. Additionally, there will be the Bosnian newcomers from OKK Spars Sarajevo that will compete for the first time in a NIJT Qualification event.
- FC Barcelona
- Real Madrid
- Joventut Badalona
- Lietuvos Rytas
- Cajasol Sevilla
- KK Cedevita Zagreb
- CB Hospitalet
- OKK Spars Sarajevo
NIJT in Kaunas: 10th – 12th February 2012
A new tournament has been added to the calendar and the event in Kaunas also features a large number of newcomers to the competition. Elan Chalon, Vaerlöse, Canarias Basketball Academy and TopSportSchool have never participated in a NIJT event. Chalon will be built around the Swiss prospect Clint Ndumba-Capela, Vaerlöse has the Danish top prospect Rasmus Larsen in its team while the Canarias Basketball Academy has built a name of a NCAA scholarship facilitator over the last years. USK Future Stars and BC Khimki have played the NIJT tournaments already several times while VEF Riga and the hosts from Zalgiris will be the guarantors for displaying the best prospects coming from the Baltics.
- Zalgiris Kaunas
- TopSportSchool
- BC Khimki
- Elan Chalon
- USK Future Stars
- Vaerlöse
- VEF Riga
- Canarias Basketball Academy
NIJT in Belgrade: 24th – 26th February 2012
The final event of the Qualification phase will again be played in Belgrade under a bit different conditions as FMP and Crvena Zvezda merged this summer. So next to the hosts, the level should be extremely high this season with the addition of Mega Vizura and Hemofarm Vrsac, both known for being talented teams. Vasilije Micic is one of the names to follow in this event next to the always highly talented INSEP squad built around Mam Jaiteh this time and Partizan Belgrade. Olimpija Ljubljana, Unicaja Malaga and Brose Baskets look a bit less competitive in this environment even if they are far away from coming with bad teams.
UPDATE (29th Nov 2011): ALBA Berlin will replace Unicaja Malaga
- Crvena Zvezda
- Mega Vizura
- Partizan Belgrade
- Hemofarm Vrsac
- Olimpija Ljubljana
- Brose Baskets Bamberg
- INSEP
Unicaja Malaga- ALBA Berlin
8 responses so far ↓
1 dadwawdawd // Nov 14, 2011 at 11:07 pm
I dont understand why Efes isnt invited. They have such a good team with Tayfun Erülkü, Burak Can Yildizli, Cedi Osman etc.
2 ahmet // Nov 15, 2011 at 6:30 am
efes would probably be the second best team after zagreb.
3 ahmet // Nov 15, 2011 at 6:34 am
efes would probably be one of the best teams. maybe they will be there in istanbul thanks to a wildcard.
4 Boris // Nov 15, 2011 at 5:05 pm
ahmet
Hezonja and Mavra are injured, Saric in senior team, don’t know will they put him to play this tournament
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Cedevita has great roster 94., 95., 96., but no “stars” besides maybe Beslic 96. who is most talented in Croatia in that generation besides M. Arapovic. gets regular minutes in junior team
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Spars from B&H? “strange” ? since Siroki last year won evrey titele in B&H in all categories. complete domination
5 duche // Nov 16, 2011 at 10:58 am
Red Star Belgrade and Hemofarm has great teams!
6 Senay demiryontan // Nov 16, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Yes Efes should have been also invited but I was amazed about the comment made as if they are better team than Fenerbahce.They should refresh their memory from the last match between both teams in two nations cup.Fenerbahce swept the Efes and Metecan dominated the tournoment
7 Aaron // Dec 2, 2011 at 6:07 am
Looking forward to more coverage of these events as they start to take place later this month! Thanks in advance.
8 nick111 // Feb 18, 2012 at 10:06 pm
Vasilije Micic pick up an injury, actually it is his knee, they guess that he has to break for 6-8 minths and that says that he cant play. Also, crvena zvezda, hemofarm and partizan including mega vizura have great rosters and big question is who gonna win that tournament.. I think, Zvezda or Mega Vizura, maybe Hmeofarm and Insep.. Just one question, how many teams will participate in Istanbul, 4 or 8??
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