2011 U20 European Championship

[elaj]

Jure Besedič, 205 cm, PF, 92'
Jaka Brodnik 203 cm SF 92'
Nejc Buda 210 cm C 91'
Tadej Ferme 187 cm PG 91'
Žan Jerman 183 cm PG 92'
Aljaž Korošec 188 cm PG 92'
Gezim Morina 204 cm PF 92'
Edo Murič 202 cm SF 91'
Mitja Nikolič-Smrdelj 200 cm SF 91'
Alen Omić 213 cm C 92'
Marko Pajić 204 cm PF 92'
Klemen Prepelič 189 cm SG 92'
Bojan Radulović 210 cm C 92'
Jan Špan 189 cm PG 92'

Only 4 91' born guys in the team, Buda got injured if I remember correctly and left the team, Mirza Sarajlija missed the training camp and was left out.

Edo Murič and Alen Omić will be the guys to look at from Slovenian NT in this championship. Overall I don't expect some extra results although there are some players that might evolve nicely in the senior competition.

I've got much bigger hopes next year with Morina, Korošec, Prepelič, Pajič, Špan and Omić. All of them are 92 born and should be important in rotation in this championship already... finaly a good generation again

Kosovo Albanian Gezim Morina (204cm, 1992) of Union Olimpija got his Slovenian citizenship. Due to the fact that this was his first citizenship and registration under FIBA he counts as "true" Slovenian and not as naturalized. So both Omić and Morina will be able to play for Slovenia... probably also other Olimpija's Kosovo Albanian Erjon Kastrati (200cm, 1994) in the future. source: kosarka.si

Srečko Morina from this day on... Gezim means Lucky in Albanian... so it's Slovenianized as Srečko.

[carlo]

Yesterday Italy was defeated by Slovenia 72-70 in a preparation friendly game played in Domegge (I).

Box score:

Italia - De Nicolao 8 (1/4, 2/5), Tommasini (0/1), Melli 10 (4/9, 0/1), Fontecchio 4 (1/3), Mian 1 (0/1), Moraschini 4 (0/3, 1/6), Tourè, Polonara 15 (4/8, 1/2), Cervi 2 (1/5), Gentile 14 (4/9, 0/5), Ceron 10 (2/3, 2/6), Gazzotti 2 (1/1, 0/1).

Slovenia - Prepelic 6 (1/3, 0/3), Brodnik, Nikolic-Smrdelj 10 (4/7, 0/3), Muric 5 (2/5, 0/1), Ferme (0/1), Span 4 (1/2), Omic 23 (8/13), Pajic 15 (5/8), Korosec, Besedic 3 (1/1 3pt), Buda 4 (2/3), Morina 2 (1/3).

In another friendly game of the same tourney Greece won with Sweden 86-82.

Source: FIP - Federazione Italiana Pallacanestro

[carlo]

Spain won its first preparation game defeating Russia in Logrono tournament 85-66.
Next match with Turkey, then France.

[Toxicity]

Italy won the Domegge tournament after defeating Greece 77-53 tonight.

Italia-Grecia 77-53 (14-24, 24-12, 20-10, 19-7)
De Nicolao 3 (0/1, 1/3), Traini 6 (0/1, 2/6), Melli 13 (4/6, 0/2), Fontecchio 1 (0/2), Santiangeli (0/1, 0/1), Moraschini 14 (5/8, 1/3), Baldi Rossi (0/5), Polonara 13 (6/7 + 14 rimbalzi), Vitali 3 (1/2 da tre), Cervi 2 (1/4), Gentile 22 (7/11, 1/5) , Ceron (0/1). All. Sacripanti
GRECIA: Psaropoulos 9 (2/3, 1/2), Ioakeimidis (0/1), Antonakis 3 (0/1, 1/3), Motsenigos 2 (1/3, 0/3), Papantonakos, Papadyonisiou ne, Kanonidis 5 (1/2, 1/4), Koukoulas 10 (5/7), Ntiallo ne, Georgakis 4 (2/7), Chrysikopoulos 8 (3/6, 0/3). Katsivelis 12 (2/5, 2/4). All. Missas

After a 1st quarter down 14-24, Italian NT held Greece to just 29 points in the final three quarters thanks to a nice difense and the game changers Moraschini and Polonara...

Solid games as usual by the players with most pro experience Gentile and Melli.

[carlo]

After the brilliant win over Russia (85-61, with 28 pts by Nikola Mirotic) Spain lost yesterday to Turkey 67-59 in Logrono.
Mirotic was held to only 6 pts and the only Spanish who scored in double digits were Franch (17) and Gil (11).
Turkey's Mutaf and Edge bombed Spain with threes finishing with 20 and 11 pts, Aldemir also scored 15.

In another game in Logrono France crushed Russia 81-48 (43-24), led by Evan Forunier (11).

[Levenspiel]

Thanks for the updates, Carlo.

Safak Edge and Furkan Aldemir are the biggest Turkish prospects of this generation (Not counting Kanter). We all expect these three to be special. Mutaf played in a few EL games with Fener, but he's not that exciting yet.

[wardjdim]

Mirotic will definitely be the "face" of this tournament. Yet a guy like Aldemir and maybe the likes of Fournieur, Gentile, Nedovic or Musli from Serbia, Batur or Prostran from Croatia. This tournament looks rather interesting and definitely open

[Srle]

I am expecting Nedovic to dominate at the guard position. He's too athletic and talented. I wish Duda invited him to training camp with the senior team .

[pohani komarac]

Prostran, Došen, Juričić, Rogić, Mikulić, Babić, Brnas, Dukan, Petrović, Buva, Bubalo, Čutura, Vrlika, Batur

last 14. Coach Velić said Boris Barać will join team when U-19 championship ends

[Italian Pride]

i like italy under 20,i think that we can do a good european championship,i hope in medal,but is very hard....

[serbianhoops]

Prostran, Došen, Juričić, Rogić, Mikulić, Babić, Brnas, Dukan, Petrović, Buva, Bubalo, Čutura, Vrlika, Batur

last 14. Coach Velić said Boris Barać will join team when U-19 championship ends

which one ? Marko or Filip

Only Barac , Katic also deserves to join your U20 NT. He is far better far Dosen, Juricic or Rogic.

[pohani komarac]

which one ? Marko or Filip

Only Barac , Katic also deserves to join your U20 NT. He is far better far Dosen, Juricic or Rogic.

i realy don't know

kosarka hr. wrote filip, but that is strange sice he is bosnian serb as i know (maybe mother side?), but then i would not be surprised velic had influance on him? + aco petrovic, marko's father is not in best relationship with our basketball federation. hi is not on bosnian u-20 team if i'm right

katic is of corse better then those 3, he might be better then unlucky prostran to but our nt's are not built on best players, you should know that

[carlo]

In the last day of the Logrono torunament Spain fell to France in the ot 66-64 after a close game that ended 56-56 after the regulation time. Evan Fournier had 18 for the winning team and Nikola Mirotic 20 for Spain.
With this win France went 3-0 after beating Turkey and Russia and triumphed in the tournament.

[sagenas]

Here's current roster of Lithuanian U-20:

C: M.Kupšas, G.Staniulis
PF: G.Biruta, S.Kulvietis, K.Brusokas
SF: D.Tarvydas, M.Kumpys
SG: P.Dambrauskas, O.Matulionis, T.Rinkūnas
PG: A.Pečiukevičius, O.Varanauskas

(6 players played all season long in LKL, 1 player played in NCAA, 1 player in both LKL and NKL and 4 in NKL.)

Head coach: M.Linartas

When U-19 World Championship ends, some players of this roster may be cut because coaches may add some of A.Butkevičius, D.Redikas or V.Čižauskas.

I consider this roster quite strong but it's very hard to say - is it possible to fight for the highest goals because interesting thing is that we lack front-line players. Our main C M.Kupšas last season played in 2nd Lithuanian division (NKL) and even had not very role in the team while his substitution G.Staniulis played quite well in LKL but after few injuries he seems to do very hard. Besides all that, we have not so much options under the basket - S.Kulvietis isn't pure PF and he mostly prefers playing as SF while K.Brusokas isn't very good option because of his physical status.

Another thing which makes me wonder very much is our shooters. While T.Rinkūnas has no experience and probably isn't good enough to play at that level, P.Dambrauskas is mostly used as PG (he has good penetration skills but he is quite bad shooter) same A.Pečiukevičius and O.Varanauskas can't make shots one after another as well. M.Kumpys is more defensive player and he prefers to use his physical abilities to outplay his opponents so all we have are D.Tarvydas (36% last season) and O.Matulionis (only 28% last season) who both aren't very stable. Probably our 3rd most accurate player is our PF-SF S.Kulvietis. However Redikas could be added to this team, he may help with this but still this team has players who can shoot well and I hope they will make their shots.

P.s. this list misses M.Kadzevičius who had not bad season in LKL. Last year he played for Lithuanian U-20 team but right now he has some problems with injuries as I've heard. Too bad for us.

[Dreamcatcher]

Sagenas

Matulionis PF (In a club and in the youth NT) No way sg at all...

[sagenas]

Sagenas

Matulionis PF (In a club and in the youth NT) No way sg at all...

Matulionis? Osvaldas Matulionis? He played as SF in Šiauliai last season, in game against Argentinian U-19 he played as SF in U-20, too. Just I wrote him as SG because it would look that SF position is too much because Tarvydas and Kumpys showed they can play, same as Matulionis. Time should be given for all three of them that's why I'd like too see one of Matulionis or Tarvydas (who both are SFs) as SG.

[Dreamcatcher]

Matulionis? Osvaldas Matulionis? He played as SF in Šiauliai last season, in game against Argentinian U-19 he played as SF in U-20, too. Just I wrote him as SG because it would look that SF position is too much because Tarvydas and Kumpys showed they can play, same as Matulionis. Time should be given for all three of them that's why I'd like too see one of Matulionis or Tarvydas (who both are SFs) as SG.

Maybe he could play in Siauliai also as sf, not only pf. I remember the game against USA, where he changed Biruta, who is surely not SF. Of course, he's not a classical big man, because he shoots three (as same as Kulvietis), and he's not tall enoug. It's possible to put him in perimeter as sf, but he usually plays as pf (again, as Kulvietis does).

By the way, he 100% played as PF in Akademia some years ago, when Zalgiris signed him. I can't claim, that NOW he plays only as PF, though.

[sagenas]

Maybe he could play in Siauliai also as sf, not only pf. I remember the game against USA, where he changed Biruta, who is surely not SF. Of course, he's not a classical big man, because he shoots three (as same as Kulvietis), and he's not tall enoug. It's possible to put him in perimeter as sf, but he usually plays as pf (again, as Kulvietis does).

By the way, he 100% played as PF in Akademia some years ago, when Zalgiris signed him. I can't claim, that NOW he plays only as PF, though.

NOW he really plays as SF all the time, I can guarantee you that.

By the way, you remember something wrong Matulionis didn't play against USA, he played against Argentina. And yes, he substituted Biruta but only because Kulvietis was injured at that time. As long as I watched him playing, he is real SF player.

[carlo]

Here's current roster of Lithuanian U-20:

C: M.Kupšas, G.Staniulis
PF: G.Biruta, S.Kulvietis, K.Brusokas
SF: D.Tarvydas, M.Kumpys
SG: P.Dambrauskas, O.Matulionis, T.Rinkūnas
PG: A.Pečiukevičius, O.Varanauskas

(6 players played all season long in LKL, 1 player played in NCAA, 1 player in both LKL and NKL and 4 in NKL.)

Head coach: M.Linartas

When U-19 World Championship ends, some players of this roster may be cut because coaches may add some of A.Butkevičius, D.Redikas or V.Čižauskas.

....

It's basically the players roster that crushed USA U19 in the friendly game.

Wouldn't be better leaving out the U19 players, as they would have really little time to rest !

[sagenas]

It's basically the players roster that crushed USA U19 in the friendly game.

Wouldn't be better leaving out the U19 players, as they would have really little time to rest !

Yeah, none of players who played against USA were cut. However, to beat USA U-19 at that stage is nothing..more interesting will be how they can play with other U-20 teams.

Of course it would and IMO there's no chance for Butkevičius to be selected because we have enough SF players and Kumpys plays very similar to Butkevičius. However, Redikas may be asked to play because he can shoot and do a lot things on the court what others of U-20 can't. And chance to see Čižauskas playing for U-20 is questionable. I think, it depends on how coach Linartas thinks about Varanuskas. Last year Varanauskas was cut from U-20 team as last, 13rd, player and I don't see that coach believes in him as much as in some other players.