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Cringe2
Guest
So weakest group in history could turn out to be the strongest one in 2015 
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Shawshank2
Guest
Nothing new: 2 best elite team to face in playoofs Croatia and Slovenia.Always breaks down under pressure.From 1996 croatia won one 1/4 playoofs game and slovenia won one (against croatia) 1/4 playoofs game all other 15+matches sum up together they lost...No matter who is oponenets,they just meltdown...
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Dreamcatcher2
Guest
Has anybody said about a "weak" D group or i'm the first one?
Czech team has very good chemistry, pg, c, and some shooters like Jelinek. Win by Lithuania against them for the 1st place in the group looks like a real win, not what it ws supposed to be before the tournament.
Congrats Czech Republic and wish to go on in basketball. There is smth as well in youth basketball.
Czech team has very good chemistry, pg, c, and some shooters like Jelinek. Win by Lithuania against them for the 1st place in the group looks like a real win, not what it ws supposed to be before the tournament.
Congrats Czech Republic and wish to go on in basketball. There is smth as well in youth basketball.
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Big Lebowski2
Guest
Well done, Czechia. It seems the Curse of Podium keeps on running for Croatia: not-listening the anthem of the same people, you know the rules about politics, thx
JPF.
JPF.
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Svajunas2
Guest
Ok I gotta say this. It is disgusting to read these trolling comments from both serbians and lithuanians. No real discussions can go on, basicly just comments with hate and belittling.
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galahed2
Guest
Similar situation was in Lithuania during eurobasket2013. Kazlauskas and Sabas even started some kind of conversation with major media portals and papers whats wrong with them, that constant negativism, big headlines, overrated ctisism etc. What's the purpose of this. And it got better for a while, and it is better this year actually. But of course there are various bloggers and all kinds of experts writing all that shit "how to play better", "what is done wrong and how has to be done". But thats the reality, there always will be people who know everything not being in a team or even near it.
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Modis2
Guest
there you go - . Lithuania played a hard group. Group D is outplaying Group C. Latvia defeat Slovenia. Czech Republic defeat Croatia. All its left is Lithuania to defeat Georgia.
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miloje2
Guest
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Modis2
Guest
omg some of you guys will really make me to cheer for georgia, so it willl be 2:2
No it will be Group D 3-1 Group C.
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Hepcat2
Guest
Let's not crow before the match. There will be plenty of time to congratulate ourselves if we win.
Precisely. That's all this type of taunting accomplishes.
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AirBall2
Guest
Its always the same with Croatians, great individual potential and terrible team... There is no positive energy and I am sure that their kids Saric and Hezonja will continue losing streak...
They have losing mentality, its not easy to change...
They have losing mentality, its not easy to change...
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Levenspiel2
Guest
Croatia should upgrade the u19/u20 team directly to play the next Eurobasket. The best Euro team of that generation and they seem to be winners, too.
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Oly_fan2
Guest
Maybe to a lesser extent, this is also happening in Greece. There could easily be 7 or 8 european countries all feeling entitled to a medal.
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Joško Poljak Fan2
Guest
How come Šarić singlehandedly won the ABA 2 years ago in a manner only Popović with Zadar managed to do 13 years ago
those 2 were among the toughest balls exhibitions in basketball I've seen.Croatian problems with this game were obvious.
-Czechs are occasionaly playing superb defense, switches, Vesely down low, their height and they've got good legs
-CZE have added some double teams to their repertoire to which Croatia didn't respond passing the ball outside in some minutes when that would really matter
-With the Czech D and mobility Croatia was caught off guard and they became nervous, the "pogrom" after their loss vs. Georgia didn't help there
-they switched to zone, where Jelinek had a good moment and Perasović switched to 1on1 instead of keep trying
-increased individual effort in those 2-3 actions out of the next 10 was just enough for Czechs to increase the lead
-due to lack of discipline and Simon's injury (see what CoachZ says about creation) they stopped believing they could turn things around in the 3rd which costed them the game
-they tried with the zone again and it was obvious why that's prefered way to play against Czechs, you limit Satoransky and partialy Vesely, while Cze are also largely reliant on the mid range shooting and it continuous zone showed some result, which for some reason Perasović didn't seem to aknowledge
-Stipčević prolongued the hope with those 2 threepointers, but with some running away from the ball too many actions inevitably resulted in what all have been saying is one of Croatian weaknesses, attempts to solve the situation by individual effort (Šarić, Hežonja, Bogdanović) which became increasingly apparent when they were trailing
My conclusion, eventhough pressure played a noticable part there is that Croatia was just much more limited of a team than most of, especialy their own fans, were willing to admit, PG, cohesiveness, discipline... I've read on some Croatian forum that they're not exactly sure at which stage of the menstrual cycle Tomić is supposed to be today, while Bilan only got some scraps of minutes through the tournament.
Other than that, even if Slovenian fans can be simmilar, but to a smaller degree, the way these guys are treated after every such loss, I assure you that if Ivanišević, Blanka Vlašić, Janica & Ivica Kostelić, Mirko Filipović or Ivano Balić would have the same pressure upon themselves for loosing a game, they would underperform just as well. Georgia reminded them of that and that was fatal.
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Joško Poljak Fan2
Guest
Still no PG that might develop into some extra player, Skokna and Marinelli maybee, but I'm not sold on either of them. At U18/19/20 a lot depends on the big man you've got present there and as long as PG's can deliver them the ball and defend, you're generaly fine most of the time, that changes at senior level, when a PG needs to do a whole lot more than that.
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Modis2
Guest
Not sure how much by this Croatia was effected. But I knew they will underperform in the last 16. They had a huge home court advantage in front of their fans in their group. And the loss to Georgia before the last 16 .
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Levenspiel2
Guest
True. I guess they need to go after a naturalized player for that. I just refuse to believe they're doomed to be "losers" forever with such an amazing generation coming up.Joško Poljak Fan;1001764 said:
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CoachZ2
Guest
They played in half empty halls except vs Greece and Slovenia. Also the atmosphere for the most part was theater like, nothing close to the crowd in Riga
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CoachZ2
Guest
It's a ssytem that needs to be devloped, and efos to be held in check, You can be a champ with elite roster and average PG BUUUUUT those Egos have to be in check and still give 100% support to the PG and stand behind him as a leader. We had teams with pretty average PGs and stars in other positions and still were much more competitive.
Here no PG is given a chance to shine or improve, but their system rather hides him. They take away the ball fro them and then ask Bogdanovic, Hezonja and others to create. Players who are not creators. Like JPF said, unfortunatelly there is noone in hte system to take over from youth in that position. The only elite Pg prospect at this point in U19 bball in the balkans is Doncic, everyone else is nowhere near.
It takes vision, creativity, feel for the game, passing ability to be a PG and mostly those things can't be coached, they aree a part of talent.
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slice me nice2
Guest
Congratulations to Czech Republic. I am contributing for a draft site, we had some debates there about Osman-Hezonja comparison. I still think Hezonja is not that good where people adore him and betoken him as a superstar candidate. I am saying those stuffs because Hezonja had been far away from being a rising star and couldn't have helped his team. He hided himself most of the times, sometimes he was captured by his unnecessary ego. Osman did his job well and sold himself short. Hezonja's potential looks limitless however his mental and way of viewing for basketball seem so worrisome. I hate to compare those two players but under these circumstances, Osman is much more effective player than him. At least he knows his place and playing according to this. With this mentality, I am pretty sure Osman will take a good place in NBA two years later. Hezonja needs to change his attitudes and should realize his place for now.
Hezonja: 6,7 PPG, 4,3 RPG, 1,2 APG
Osman: 12,7 PPG, 5,0 RPG, 2 APG
Hezonja: 6,7 PPG, 4,3 RPG, 1,2 APG
Osman: 12,7 PPG, 5,0 RPG, 2 APG