European Prospects

News about Young European Basketball Prospects

Slovenian U19 championships

April 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

This weekend were played the Slovenian U19 championships in a Final Four modus in the hometown of the Mario Primorac Basketball school. The former player of ALBA Berlin reached as coach the semi-finals of the championship with his team but lost there against KK Parklji. The Finals have been dominated by KD Geoplin Slovan.

We took a closer look to this Final game which you can watch online as well as all the other games of the final tournament. I was focusing especially on two players that can be considered as the most promising players in this game, I speak of Jan Vesely and Dino Muric.

Jan Vesely (2m11 – C – 1990 – Geoplin Slovan – Czech Republic)

The very long but very skinny Czech player is considered as the most promising player of the Final Four, essentially because of his nice height. Being pretty raw when it comes to an inside game, Vesely displays already a very nice shot, even going to the three point area. He can run the floor very well for his size and shows also nice athletic abilities and coordination; he scored on a 360 degree dunk in the fast break. Despite being the best rebounder of the Final Four, Vesely is not very aggressive in this area, something that also displays in his offensive game. He is barely going to the rim with power, more relying on his shot. The result is that he only shot 3 free-throws in the whole tournament, something he has to improve of course.

Dino Muric (1m98 – SF/PF – 1990 – Parklji Bezigrad)

The Slovenian forward who excelled already in the scoring area last summer in Spain had a tough job in the Finals as he was the only real scoring threat for his team. The left handed forward showed nice drives with his left hand where he could finish also driving layups high off the glass against the way taller Vesely. Muric was also particularly active on the offensive glass where he averaged 9 boards per game throughout the tournament. The forward has a correct shooting range, he can hit the three ball but he played essentially in the paint against the physically weaker competition. His future has to be however on the SF position if he wants to compete on the highest European level.

MVP of the tournament was Slovan’s PG Uros Zadnik. He displayed no extraordinary basketball skills but he is a solid PG that can set up the plays, hit some outside shots and drive and dish to his bigs.

Zoran Dragic came up with some late-game points after a nice defensive effort of Dino Muric. The younger brother of Goran Dragic played offensively on the SF spot but he should develop into a taller version of his brother without the PG skills.

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