[Round 1 - Day 3 - Group D] Ukraine - Estonia

[slice me nice2]

Estonia tasted the heavy loss today and I am not sure if they can cope with the mental damage that the game had created. Ukraine didn't seem that bad to me, especially they know what to do on the floor with some experienced guys. I want to see some Estonian magic here.

 

[Dreamcatcher2]

There were many Estonian fans and they whistled their team's players in the game vs Belgium. I do understund it, but the reality is that Estonia has only one solid basketball player - Vene. As i know, basketball is the most popular sport in Estonia (there are only few such countries in the world), but Estonians are not good enough in it to be competitive in EC even among 24 countries.

 

[ncjazz2]

It is kind of shocking to see that Fes is considered the leader of Ukranian team. Shame so many of their players said no to the team. When he was on the Utah Jazz he was considered extremely immature and not capable of being serious, but I am happy to see him perform so well. He has been a monster on the low block.

 

[Joško Poljak Fan2]

It is kind of shocking to see that Fes is considered the leader of Ukranian team. Shame so many of their players said no to the team. When he was on the Utah Jazz he was considered extremely immature and not capable of being serious, but I am happy to see him perform so well. He has been a monster on the low block.

Fratello builded a good "C-PG heavy" system which a big part of the Ukraine team, that got used to that philosophy, keeping it now after Fratello is gone and Fesenko is going more than just fine within that gameplan. Keep in mind also that without the defensive 3 seconds in Fiba, the whole concept of a good defending C is kind of changed there, he does a better job at Fiba than he'd even do in NBA. With the system kind of build around him and all the possesions he is having, his contribution is a logical result. If Ukraine were a complete team, let alone if Alex Len would play, his role and contribution would certanly decrease a lot.

And that's also the point where imo this game will be decided, teams with decent centers have big issues of how to cope with Fesenko, Estonia without some heavy-weighter imo doesn't have a succesfull tool for that. Even if they'd try to prevent him from receiving the ball in the post, he'll dominate the rebounding, I don't see a way where Estonia would stop that.


btw. welcome on interbasket ncjazz

 

[Demarr2]

There were many Estonian fans and they whistled their team's players in the game vs Belgium. I do understund it, but the reality is that Estonia has only one solid basketball player - Vene. As i know, basketball is the most popular sport in Estonia (there are only few such countries in the world), but Estonians are not good enough in it to be competitive in EC even among 24 countries.

Yep, probably true. No-one expected this embarrassing performances though.

Like I said earlier, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Latvia are all familiar teams to us that we have managed to beat in the near past. To get -30 beatings now.. that's just unbearable and unexplainable. The team wasn't mentally ready for this tournament. Sure - we were never the favourites to qualify from the group, but we have never played this bad before. Just a big mystery for everyone why the team has collapsed in such a bad way.

One can only hope the future will be brighter for us. We have a very promising U16 team coming up, who managed to beat Latvia and Lithuania in the summer and went on to win the B-division after that without a single loss. A lot of youngsters have signed for Italian or Spanish teams to get their basketball career going and they are problably the ones that are supposed to carry us out of the mud.

As for Vene, he has been doing well. Hope he goes on to have a good season with Žalgiris.

 

[Picek2]

Estonia won the third quarter 22-6

Up by 6 entering the fourth.

 

[Joško Poljak Fan2]

How the hell are they stoping Fesenko?

 

[Picek2]

How the hell are they stoping Fesenko?

I started the stream beginning of fourth when I saw the result and Fesenko was benched beginning of fourth so can't really tell..
really glad Estonia won, mainly because of their fans.
feel bad for ukrainians though.
three former soviet union countries are on 0 victories + Iceland.

Ukraine had it chances when they trimmed the deficit to 2 points on couple of occasions but couldn't turn it around completey.
Randle made couple of bad decisions down the wire.

 

[toliver2]

This was a much better performance by Estonia - one that we've become used to expect in previous years playing qualifiers. The guys were fighting for every ball from the first minute on and didn't give up when things went wrong (something that seemed to be missing in the first two games), and the fans were behind them again. Finally some things clicked too and Arbet had a game of his life for the NT (he does it every now and then for his club). Perhaps the way Ukraine plays suits us better or their defence is not on the same level with others, at least we were able to find nice shooting positions. Fesenko is big and scary, but not that quick, and probably not the best option to defend against our big guys all of whom can shoot three-pointers. In the end he didn't get that much playing time - only 17 minutes - and was wrestled off quite well by Toome and Kangur. Randle caused us a lot of problems in the first half, but in the second half Arbet (and Kurbas) managed to contain him too. We played with only eight guys, but it should be okay as there will be a rest day now.

 

[ncjazz2]

How the hell are they stoping Fesenko?

I think Fes ran out of steam in this one. 3 games in 3 days is a lot for him. Still does not appear to be in the best shape. I think towards the end of the game when UKR was down two they should have brought him in. I dont see who on Estonia could have stopped him.