European Prospects

We arrived this morning in the sunny Stockholm to cover for the first time the Nordic Championships. This tournament features the U18 and U16 Boys and Girls National Teams of the five Scandinavian countries: Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden as a host. Here is the roundup of the first day in the Boys competition.

• The first game of the Day was between Norway and Sweden in the U16 Category. Sweden won this one after a better second half where Nicholas Spires could show the talent level he has. The 2m07 tall forward from Södertälje was maybe not the biggest scorer of the game but he was really superior in terms of understanding and basketball knowledge. He finished with 9pts, 8rebs, 4asts and 1blk in just 21 minutes of play. He got some support by the athletic PG Papy Ndiaye who scored 14pts with 4asts and 4stls. On the Norwegian side, Espen Fjaerestad led the scorers with 15pts.

The arena includes an Indoor Track&Field space

• The day continued with Sweden U18 dominating Norway without playing a great game. Marcus Eriksson had 17pts (5/9 3FGs) in just 16 minutes while the versatile Viktor Gaddefors needed just 15 minutes to score 13pts combined with 4rebs, 2stls and 1blk. The highly regarded William Magarity was not really present and fouled out of the game with 6pts, 5rebs and 3blks. For Norway, we can mention Aly Hudgins who finished with 10pts and 6rebs.

Norway U18 – Sweden U18

• The most impressive performance of the day came from Denmark U16 that totally crashed a Finnish team that was far from being bad. But the Danish defense and offense was working very well and nobody could do anything against. 2m11 tall PF Rasmus Larsen looked excellent with 17pts 10rebs 3stls and 2blks and he will certainly be one of the most promising players of the tournament. He combines great size with excellent basketball skills. We will have more on him later on. Peter Moeller helped the Danish team on the offensive end as the scoring guard had 23pts and 8rebs. On the Finnish side, PG Severi Liljeberg was the best scorer with 16pts.

Two games are played together in a large dividable gym

• The last game of the day was also the closest one as Iceland U18 and Denmark U18 went to overtime. And here it was PF/C Kevin Larsen that sealed the deal with 23pts and 8rebs. He got good support from Soeren Doessing who had 21pts and 3asts while Niels Andreasen scored 17. For Iceland, Maryland bound Haukur Palsson finished with 35pts, 7rebs and 5stls while Kristofer Acox had 16pts, 9rebs and 4stls.
• The subject of the day was of course the massive performance of Rasmus Larsen from Denmark. The kid from Vaerlose presents a very rare combination of size and skills and he is already getting interest from the biggest European teams. The 1994 born played with Joventut Badalona the tournament in Massagno earlier this year and he even won the three point contest there. But next to his shooting and size, he presents also excellent athletic skills and can run the court. He is currently actively recruited by Joventut Badalona that tries to bring him over for next season.
• No NBA teams were present in the Arena but we could see scouts from Caja Laboral, Manresa and Barcelona. Manresa is trying to sign Marcus Eriksson from Sweden while all the teams were of course impressed with what they saw from Rasmus Larsen.