The 1992 generation has a lot of very talented players, especially on the inside positions. Lithuania is clearly the strongest country here though, so it is not a big surprise to see the Baltics organize the U18 European Championship this summer. Beforehand, several nations will already compete in the highly regarded Albert Schweitzer Tournament in April. Because of the limited number of players and nations I could scout of this age group so far, I limit the ranking to a Top 15.
- Lithuania
The Lithuanian 1992 born generation can become a dominator in the next years. Next to super-talent Jonas Valanciunas, several other great prospects are member of this age group. To name a few, there are of course Vytenis Cizauskas, Dovydas Redikas or Rolandas Jakstas. Everything else than a Gold Medal this summer at the U18 European Championship would be a surprise. - Turkey
Turkey has an extraordinary talent with Enes Kanter. The physical inside player chose the way over the Atlantic Ocean to continue his career, we will see how this changed his game. Together with Safak Edge, he forms one of the best 1-2 punches of Europe and makes Turkey a contestant for the U18 this summer. - France
The French 1992 generation was already a major factor last summer at the U18 European Championship and earned a Silver Medal. Leo Westermann, Evan Fournier and the long Vincent Pourchot will try to go for more this year. - Czech Republic
A great Silver Medal back in 2008 at the U16 level propelled the Czech Republic among the top nations despite the tragic loss of Milan Ryska last year due to an accident. Still, this generation is highly talented across the board with players like Ondrej Balvin or Jaromir Bohacik. - Spain
Miguel Servera had already some major impact last summer and saw also some minutes with Unicaja Malaga on the professional level. Together with Michel Acosta and Joan Tomas, this Spanish generation has some promise but needs the support of the Gold Medalist 1993 players to be a contestant at the U18 level. - Serbia
A 6th place looks like a disappointment for Serbia and this generation is probably not as successful as others. But still, players like Nikola Siladi, Djordje Drenovac or Nemanja Besovic represent a certain quality and should become interesting professionals down the road. - Germany
The Gold Medalist of the 2008 U16 B Division comes up very high in the ranking because of their major impact with the U18 team last summer. Philipp Neumann is the physical leader of the group that has excellent quality on every position. - Italy
Italy features some very interesting players in this generation and has one of the only players that has some major impact on the professional level already in Alessandro Gentile. However, the results on youth level have not really been great that far. - Russia
Dimitry Kulagin looks to be a very interesting PG prospect and together with some of the CSKA Moscow Juniors like Alexander Tikhonin, Russia seems to have a nice generation here but they need to confirm it with results in the different youth championships. - Croatia
The Croatian U16 team reached a good 7th place at U16 level with a generation without really outstanding prospects. Boris Barac was their scoring leader back in 2008 and he had also some minor impact last summer with the U18 team. - Ukraine
Vyacheslav Bobrov is the clear-cut leader of this Ukrainian generation. He reached a 9th place at the U16 championships in 2008. - Greece
This year should be the year of Linos Chrysikopoulos. The Greek forward was already the most talented player of the U18 team last summer and with one more year of experience, it will be interesting to see where he can lead Greece this summer. - Sweden
Despite a fourth place in B Division in 2008, Sweden has made it to our top 15 especially because of their win in the Baltic Sea Cup a few weeks ago. Behind Viktor Gaddefors, they improved in the ranking and move above Latvia. - Latvia
This Latvian generation seems a bit less loaded than other ones, but still earns a good 14th spot in the ranking. Edmunds Dukulis is the leader here and should also get some support from 1993 born Kaspars Vecvagars. - Montenegro
A third place at the B Division U16 in 2008 showed the potential of this generation for Montenegro. Once again across the board some talented players but no really outstanding prospects.
11 responses so far ↓
1 ahmet // Feb 1, 2010 at 2:54 pm
my english is bad but i will try…..can korkmaz(efes, current pertevniyal 2. division) in my opinion will steal safak edge the show in the albert schweitzer tournament if he get much minutes like edge from coach derin. i saw several matches of korkmaz, skinny like edge. stats of korkmaz: 12ppg, 3as, 4,5 ft-a-pg, 32% 3p%. edge: 9ppg, 3as, 21% 3p%. i think that the best way for the turkish team will be korkmaz as pg and edge as sg.
2 dimon // Feb 1, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Where is Vitali Liutych (Belarus)?
Top scorer of the 2008 U16 B Division.
3 Christophe // Feb 1, 2010 at 6:09 pm
@dimon
I know about Vitali but is he making a whole generation that big? The results of the youth national teams were not that good (6th in U16 B Division in 2008) so that i take the nation of Belarus in the ranking. he may be a great talent, but the rankings are based on the full generation, not on only 1 player.
4 Christophe // Feb 1, 2010 at 6:10 pm
@ahmet
thanks for the infos on Korkmaz. We will see in Mannheim then.
5 albiongate // Feb 1, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Siladji is a good player, but I don’t expect him to be our starting PF at the 2010 U18 European Championship, Bozo Djumic (206, 1992) is a far better prospect.
Two other serbian talents worth to mention are Stefan Nastic (C, 211, 1992) and Stefan Cvrkalj (G, 193). Duke, Maryland are highly interested to recruit Nastic while Cvrkalj (SG, 193) had offers from NorthWestern, Standford, Santa Clara, Lafayette Cornell and Auburn. Both grew up in Ontario and may unfortunately play for Canada.
Croatia had also two good prospects in USA. Duje Dukan (202, Deerfield HS) and Marin Kukoc (198, Highland Park HS). Duje is the son of Ivica Dukan who is currently director of international scouting for the Chicago Bulls. Marin is the son of Toni Kukoc. Both will in NCAA next year.
6 icetea // Feb 2, 2010 at 1:57 pm
What about Slovenia? As i heard there are some interesting prospects, but it’s true that they didn’t make any good result at Eurochampionships. Also my friend coach from Catalunya told me that Ljubljana team has some good players (they were runner up at Tenerife tournament).
7 albiongate // Feb 2, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Ljubljana has some good players but they aren’t slovenian (Radulovic, Petrovic, Micic, Morina, Kastrioti). The only good slovenian player in the squad is the point guard Span.
8 Christophe // Feb 2, 2010 at 9:36 pm
@icetea
indeed, Slovenia has some interesting players in the 92 generation like the beforementioned Jan Span, but also players like Jure Besedic or Marko Pajic. We will see how they perform this year at U18 level and then update the ranking
9 Boris // Feb 5, 2010 at 11:50 pm
For Croatia very interesting prospect is Toni Katic. He was MVP of Croatian U-18 junior championship, whille this year after la hospitalnet tournament they called him most talented guard in Balkans after Miljenovic. He plays very good in Croatian league for his Split. Tough it is week league, but still very good fro youngster.
Boris Barac is expected to grove latter like his brother Stanko center of Caja Laboral who was 208 when he was 18.
As Albion Gate metnioed Marin Kukoc, son of Toni Kukoc is very good prospect. They consider him D1 prospect in USA.
As for Duje Dukan I think he is 91. born and he alredy singed for Wisconsin from Big 10 conference. He is curentley 6’8,5 wich shold be about 204-205 and they compare his game to Turkoglu
10 albiongate // Feb 6, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Marin Kukoc is born in July 1992. And as far as I know Dukan is also born in 1992.
11 dimon // Feb 19, 2010 at 12:05 am
Vitali Liutych (198-G-92)The latter is the top-scorer of the League with 16.2 points per game. http://www.eurobasket.com/Belarus/basketball.asp?NewsID=184548
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