FIBA U18 Europe 2024 (2006 born or younger)

[Ridirkulous]

First ever German boys title in any under category. We like to play Serbia in finals the last two years it seems. Let's hope it happens again in the Olympics. Christian Anderson and Jack Kayil are our post Dennis Schroeder hope!
Next year with the addition of Mathieu Grujicic and Eric Reibe should be a very very fun U19 World championship.

[Srle]

Too bad Mitar Bosnjakovic got injured in the semifinals and he couldn't play in the finals. As I expected we went to the finals. There is lots of potential for us in this generation and we could even be better with some extra additions next year at U19 championships. We should contend for the finals there too. The biggest disappointment of the tournament is Spain again, they barely survived staying in division A. The biggest surprise is Sweden , they had a great tournament.

[thiago94]

Good first half, unfortunately our coach decided to threw the lead away with his terrible lineup management. I mean, look at the plus/minus numbers, our starting five is outperforming Serbia, whereas our bench loses all the advantage. I do not blame them, but coach cannot play with Kayil or Anderson and four bench players, it is too much. You have to cross the bench players with at least two starters. In addition the quality of the referees is very low, but it's the same story every youth tournament. Serbia has to suffer from bad calls as well, but both foul calls on Steinbach were wrong and he is crucial for us.

[pohani komarac]

Croatian youth summer is from horror not even satan could write. U20 could not qualify for A division, U18 relegated to B division and I expect same with U16. And worst is that all the best prospects actually decided to skip NT. Ružić, Jerkić, Katanović in U18, and Jelavić and Krajnović U18. It say something that problem is much deeper.

[Toruko]

Never saw such a soft Spanish team.

[Srle]

Spain's summer from hell in the youth competitions is continuing. They came to both competitions as one of the favorites to wins it all. No medals and no spot at U19 world cup for them. On the other side, Slovenia summer of luck at youth competitions is strongly marching on They had no business winning the quarterfinal game against Poland at U20 tournament and against Latvia yesterday, they had even more luck and more stupidity from their opponents. Latvia had plus 6 points,14 seconds before the end of the game and they wasted all of that and eventually lost the game in the overtime. Those were the two dumbest losses that I have ever watched in the basketball games by far.

[Toruko]

Indeed, may be the best player here. He scored 40 pts and Israel disappointed Spain in 1/8.

He is amazing!

[Dreamcatcher]

Ben Saraf is a top play maker prospect. Very mature and polished game.

Indeed, may be the best player here. He scored 40 pts and Israel disappointed Spain in 1/8.

[Toruko]

Ben Saraf is a top play maker prospect. Very mature and polished game. His level of self creation is amazingly good. Adler of Finland is also very polished. His decision making was superb for his age.

[Srle]

Luka Markovic is Stanojevic teammate at Joker club. He's two meter tall wing, a strong athlete with the very nice build ,good shooter, he can put the ball on the floor as well. Him and Radosic were good duo several years ago at Vizura , they won Serbian U15 championship back then. Kondic is also wing but they use him as PF in Vojvodina. He used to play at PG at KK Star before he moved to Vojvodina. He's about 2 meters tall, maybe even taller than that with the crazy length. A solid three point shooter, good passer and defender. In my opinion he should be the member of our U18 squad. Also Lazar Stojkovic should have been included here.

[Serbian_Layup]

Radosic,Bundalo and Markovic will be great reinforcement for the team that was competing in Germany few months ago. I am mad that people from our federation are overlooking Dimitrije Kondic which in my opinion is the top player in our 2006 generation.

Could you write a few words on Markovic and Kondic? I'm not that familiar with their game.

[Serbian_Layup]

Interesting tournament ahead. LTU, Serbia, Spain will have super stacked teams.

From what I see Jakucionis>Drezgic, Kostic (more or less) = Indrusaitis and I think Juzenas (more or less) = Bosnjakovic. It's hard to measure rosters overall cause the depth is immense for LTU, but so can be the case with Serbia. I have no idea which frontline is better too.

Spain with Gonzalez and Mario Saint-Supery (and others) also is hardcore backcourt.

As well as off course France will be tough to contain. Nolan Troare is likely the best guard in the tournament even though Jakucionis was more efficient overall in ANGT finals. France got silver in U16, now Traore and some other players potentially will be more matured and ready likely.

Interesting that this 2006 Serbia team blew it in U16.

I still have LTU as the main contender with best or second best guard in the tournament Jakucionis (the best facilitator in the tournament by far) and overall most impressive guards line - Jakucionis, Indrusaitis, Juzenas, Buika. Good depth and high upside bigs as Raupelis, Butajevas.

But France, Spain, Serbia are from the same tier and who knows maybe even better teams. So really hardcore tournament this time. A lot of guys who can be even lottery picks as Traore, Gonzalez, Jakucionis.

This is not the same team. Only Drezgic, Plisnic, Sojic and Radosic (who got injured and didn't even play in knockout phase) were on that team. 2 years is a big difference in youth categories and it will show on this Serbian team, probably 8-9 new players compared to that team. That's big difference.

Aside from Jakucionis, I'm really not familiar with the rest of those kids, so I have no idea how they compare to Serbian talents. I will get better picture when tournament starts.

[Srle]

Radosic,Bundalo and Markovic will be great reinforcement for the team that was competing in Germany few months ago. I am mad that people from our federation are overlooking Dimitrije Kondic which in my opinion is the top player in our 2006 generation.

[Straight forward]

Drezgic-Kostic (Radosic)-Bosnjakovic is surely one of the best perimeter lineups in this tournament.

Interesting tournament ahead. LTU, Serbia, Spain will have super stacked teams.

From what I see Jakucionis>Drezgic, Kostic (more or less) = Indrusaitis and I think Juzenas (more or less) = Bosnjakovic. It's hard to measure rosters overall cause the depth is immense for LTU, but so can be the case with Serbia. I have no idea which frontline is better too.

Spain with Gonzalez and Mario Saint-Supery (and others) also is hardcore backcourt.

As well as off course France will be tough to contain. Nolan Troare is likely the best guard in the tournament even though Jakucionis was more efficient overall in ANGT finals. France got silver in U16, now Traore and some other players potentially will be more matured and ready likely.

Interesting that this 2006 Serbia team blew it in U16.

I still have LTU as the main contender with best or second best guard in the tournament Jakucionis (the best facilitator in the tournament by far) and overall most impressive guards line - Jakucionis, Indrusaitis, Juzenas, Buika. Good depth and high upside bigs as Raupelis, Butajevas.

But France, Spain, Serbia are from the same tier and who knows maybe even better teams. So really hardcore tournament this time. A lot of guys who can be even lottery picks as Traore, Gonzalez, Jakucionis.

[Serbian_Layup]

Preliminary roster of Serbian U18 team:

Andrej Kostić (Crvena Zvezda Belgrade)
Savo Drezgić (Partizan Belgrade)
Aleksa Dimitrijević (Partizan Belgrade)
Stefan Plisnić (Partizan Belgrade)
Aleksa Stanojević (Joker Sombor)
Luka Marković (Joker Sombor)
Miloš Šojić (Beko Belgrade)
Aleksandar Vojinović (Vojvodina Novi Sad)
Marko Tofoski (BKK Radnički)
Luka Solomun (Mega Belgrade)
Ognjen Srzentić (Mega Belgrade)
Aleksa Vlajić (Dynamic Belgrade)
Andrija Djurić (Zemun)
Uroš Ivković (Borac Čačak)
Uroš Šuput (Dunav 2014 Apatin)
Luka Jovanović (Žarkovo Belgrade)
Ognjen Radošić (Igokea Aleksandrovac)
Mitar Bošnjaković (Real Madrid )
Nikola Džepina (Valencia)
Nikola Bundalo (Western Reserve Academy)

Very talented team, should be among contenders and with good chance to repeat. On the first look, it's great to see Bundalo on this roster, this probably means that he has chosen to represent Serbia. Probably huge addition for this team and quite possibly for senior team in the future.

Drezgic-Kostic (Radosic)-Bosnjakovic is surely one of the best perimeter lineups in this tournament. Dimitrijevic-Stanojevic-Bundalo-Plisnic-Sojic round out versatile frontcourt. Srzentic and Dzepina add size and skill at SF/PF position.

In fact, I think there is a little bit too much firepower here, it will be hard to make a cohesive unit out of all these talents. Some talented players might be cut for the sake of the team, addition by subtraction formula. Essentially, it only matters which players project to make a leap in senior basketball. Anyway, I think Kostic is primed to have a big tournament.