2016 U20 European Championship - Finland

[Levenspiel]

Ukraine with an impressive win over Serbia: 90-69; and Israel over France (86-66)!

For Turkey, Germany proved to be a tough opponent. It was a game with big swings in each quarter. The somewhat controversial prospect of Turkey, Tolga Gecim, is now playing with much more confidence, probably due to his experience with Banvit last year.

[Levenspiel]

yesterday's spectacular team Czech Rep is terrible today so far. They keep turning the ball over and shooting 3s (and missing them), Sweden is up 29-10. Drammeh is in control.

[slice me nice]

I really liked Mahir Ağva once more again. He showed excellent all-around offensive show against us, he is extending his range to 3-pt line, solid post moves, acceptable mid-range shot and can go physical against any center in this tournament. In these first two games, he has managed to be one of the most valuable members of German team. As I stated before, this guy should wear Turkish NT jersey. He is showing very good uptrend with his performance.

[Levenspiel]

I was thinking the same thing, if we could steal him, but he seems completely Germanized (his social media accounts does not even give a clue about him being Turkish). I doubt Germany would let that happen anyway.

BTW, with the support of home crowd, Finland escaped with a victory in OT against Spain. Markkanen with a huge game, including the winning basket (33p, 40 rkg).

[Dirtyh]

One of the best basketball games that I have ever seen. Group B is very strange situation after two days. Spain or France could very well finish last of the group and Israel is close to win.

Markkanen is outstanding player who can offensively do pretty much everything. He needs to get his defense better but his attitude is great so I guess it's only matter of time. I can only wonder why he gets zero attention here when people are talking about most talented players of '97 generation.

[turk-jugoslav]

I was thinking the same thing, if we could steal him, but he seems completely Germanized (his social media accounts does not even give a clue about him being Turkish). I doubt Germany would let that happen anyway.

BTW, with the support of home crowd, Finland escaped with a victory in OT against Spain. Markkanen with a huge game, including the winning basket (33p, 40 rkg).

I remember him tweeting in Turkish and replying some tweets of Egemen Güven. He speaks Turkish quite well but obviously he's Germanized.

[Levenspiel]

Hungary got demolished again, this time by 59 points (yesterday by - 48 pts). This generation apparently is not on DivA level, but might have a great shooter in Bálint Mócsán (32pts, 6/7 beyond the arc).

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Dirtyh, it's hard to keep track to all the younger players unless you're doing it proffesionaly, that's why Markkanen isn't getting that much praise among the 97 born over here. If he played for Barca, Real or one of those euroleague NIJT teams etc. no doubt he'd get much more recognition. I personaly have only watched him 10-15 minutes last year and that definately isn't enough to make any statement regarding his upside the way I look at it

Latvia was deservingly better than Slovenia in second game, with the rebounding dissadvantage and poor shot Slovenia actualy fared pretty well with only -7. Šiško finaly showing his superior game understanding, while Čančar off for the second game in a row.

[the_black_planet]

Croatia won the derby of the B Division, a bad quality game as far as I watched... Why Mazzalin is so mediocre in this tournament??

[slice me nice]

I was thinking the same thing, if we could steal him, but he seems completely Germanized (his social media accounts does not even give a clue about him being Turkish). I doubt Germany would let that happen anyway.

Last year or this year, he said that he wants to play for Turkey in one of his interviews. I don't know if he is Germanized or not but I don't expect him to say 'How a happy man who says I am a Turk' type of thing. If he plays for a Turkish team, everything can be easier assuming that the federation would show some interest for him.

I can only wonder why he gets zero attention here when people are talking about most talented players of '97 generation.

Bias coming from his nationality may be an answer. When a Serbian player rises to prominence, he can be touted as the new Divac or Teodosic or a Lithuanian player as the new Sabonis or Jasikevicius. When it comes to hype a player who is coming from a strong basketball culture, it is always relatively easier to bet on him and be enthusiastic on him. It is different for a Finnish player. He is for sure extremely talented, but as he is not playing in US or not belong to a strong basketball culture, there may occur some unnecessary doubts among people. He needs to prove more things than those guys to not pale into insignificance. Sounds strange but believe me it is true.

[BiHBasket]

Croatia won the derby of the B Division, a bad quality game as far as I watched... Why Mazzalin is so mediocre in this tournament??

Mazalin is "mediocre" like since U16 EC 2013, that was last level on which he was great. And also, our Atic was in best five of the U18 EC 2015 division A but he sucks on U20 EC 2016 division B. That happens.

[Picek]

Croatia won the derby of the B Division, a bad quality game as far as I watched... Why Mazzalin is so mediocre in this tournament??

he is not a basketball prospect anymore or not a good one atleast..
I can not write player as he never was a basketball player but an extremely good prospect..
he is not even that anymore.
he has been stagnating since he moved to Cedevita, in love with an owners daughter, not living basketball etc.
another talent we lost before he became a player.

[GEORGE_4]

Czech youngs play suprisingly good - simply and effective, with great effort in rebounding... except some horrible TO ´s in every game... finally we have really good coach (former czech NT 1st PG), who feels the game and can explain every player his role in the team... hope, we don´t say last word

[the_black_planet]

Thank you Picek and BiHBasket, I had no idea, I remember him having a few good games statisticaly with Cedevita when given playing time, I remember he wasn't good in the 2014 U18 competition but he wasn't that bad, he had a very good game against Greece. Very sad, huge waste of talent, all the hopes on Bender now!

[gockun]

Thank you Picek and BiHBasket, I had no idea, I remember him having a few good games statisticaly with Cedevita when given playing time, I remember he wasn't good in the 2014 U18 competition but he wasn't that bad, he had a very good game against Greece. Very sad, huge waste of talent, all the hopes on Bender now!

I remember that times when he dominated, people were saying that he plays good only because he had early developed body and his game would decrease with time. the same situation with turkish 99' born prospect Ahmet Can Duran.