Bosnia & Herzegovina league and NT

[Bosnian 23]

Mirza Teletovic has officially signed with the Brooklyn Nets. The deal gives him a 3 year tenure in Brooklyn, along with a nice paycheck of 15 million dollars. Hopefully Teletovic does well there. I will try and go to his game in Sacramento, and bring my Bosnian flag with me.

[Bosnian 23]

Well, the Bosnian NT has begun training for the upcoming Eurobasket 2013 qualifications, which begin next month on August 15. The team is preparing for the qualifications in Sarajevo. I really hope we can pull off a good showing in the qualifications and qualify directly through to the Eurobasket in Slovenia for next year.

[Bosnian 23]

Siroki Brijeg WWin have signed both Vedran Morovic (point guard) and Marko Sutalo (point/shooting guard).

Vedran Morovic played with Siroki last season, winning both the league and cup for Bosnia. In the Adriatic League, Morovic averaged 15.2 points, 4.3 assists, and 3.5 rebounds every game. He has played for other Ex-Yugo teams in the past part of his career, including Cibona and Union Olimpija.

Marko Sutalo is coming from Hemofarm (one of the best clubs in Serbia) to Siroki Brijeg. Sutalo averaged 8.9 points per game and 2.8 rebounds per game in the past season for Hemofarm in the Adriatic league.

[Bosnian 23]

Some updates for the NT...

NT Friendlies

We were in a friendly tournament in Italy to prepare for the Eurobasket 2013 qualifications. We first beat Montenegro 83-81 on the first day, and Mirzaa Teletovic scored 28 points. We played Italy the next night, losing very closely. The final score was 84-81. That wasn't a bad result considering they had a home crowd to play in front of and they pulled out a victory from the group of death at Eurobasket last year. Nihad Dedovic had 29 pints, while Teletovic scored 19 points. Then, we lost to Finland 71-60, but our second-best player, Dedovic didn't play. On the other hand, our best player, had 29 points, another great offensive display for Teletovic. Nice result for missing one of our top-two players, and we lost buy almost 30 at Eurobasket to these guys.

U16 Division B European Championship

At the U16 Division B European Championship, we played the team of Macedonia in the first round of the 5th through 8th place classification play-offs. A win versus the Macedonians meant that we got to play the winner of Israel/Portugal for fifth place. It eneded becoming Israel who won that match, and we defeated them for fifth place in teh tournament. It's amazing how close were to getting promoted, yet so many youngsters of our own played for other teams in the U16 Euros.

The fifth-eighth place play-offs reminded me of Eurobasket 2007 qualifications, btw, when all of BiH, Macedonia, Portugal, and Israel were in the same group. We missed out on the Eurobasket that year due to Portugal beating Israel on the last day. We got the best of these teams this time.

Club News

KK Igokea signed a youngster from Clemson college named Cliff Hammonds. he is a guard and will help with the depth at the position. KK Radar signed Jozo Brkic, who is a 6'11'' power forward who brings some nice size to this club. And finally, OKK Sloboda signed Nermin Hujdurovic. Hujduorivc played at St. John's for one season in the USA. Sloboda was relegated to the second league because of large debts not being payed off.

(see post above for more club details/signings)

Adecco Ex-Yu Cup 2012

Coming tomorrow, the second edition of the Adecco Ex-Yu Cup will take place, in Ljubljana. Here is the match schedule:

Petak, 3. avgusta:
18.00: Hrvatska - Srbija
20.45: Slovenija - Bosna i Hercegovina

Subota, 4. avgusta:
18.00: Srbija - Bosna i Hercegovina
20.45: Slovenija - Hrvatska

Nedjelja, 5. avgusta:
18.00: Slovenija - Srbija
20.45: Bosna i Hercegovina - Hrvatska

Seems like Macedonia and Montenegro won't be competing this year. We did beat Croatia at Eurobasket, don't see why we can't do it now, with Sinanovic replacing Bavcic at center for us now. Dedovic has vastly improved froom lasts ummer as well. This should be a good warm-up before the Eurobasket 2013 qualifications begin, on August 15 (we play Latvia at home). To bad we'll be missing star power forward, Mirza Teletovic, who is out with an injury...

[Bosnian 23]

Game 1:

Slovenia 79-80 Bosnia

A nice little surprise there, us beating the tournament hosts. Sloevnia was actually the best team coming into the tournament, looking at the Eurobasket 2011 rankings. And we were the worst from all teams in this Cup, coming from the Eurobasket 2011 last summer. Good to see us pull off a solid victory.
Game 2:

Serbia 101-91 Bosnia

The score looks worse than the game really was. It was back-and-forth, lots of offense. The leads were usually around four-five points, and that;s how much Serbia should have won by, but our head coach (petrovic) got a technical foul, leading to four free throws for our opponents. Then we fouled them again, costing us two more free throws. I liked the performances of Zach Wright, Nihad Dedovic, Mirza Teletovic, and Elmedin Kikanovic today.

Game 3:

Bosnia vs. Croatia

Should be a high-paced match and fun to watch. Last year, we beat Croatia at Eurobasket, and I expect the same result from our side, this year. It'd be nice to finish off 2--1 in this tournament, and get a silver medal. Good luck to our whole entire team tomorrow night, hope they pull off a good result.

[Bosnian 23]

I am really happy we won against Croatia, 78-68. Teletovic had 25 points, Wright had nine rebounds, and Dedovic had four assists. We finished second in the tournament, could have been first if we beat Serbia yesterday. Well, the final table:

1) Serbia / 3-0 / +31
2) Bosnia / 2-1 / +1
3) Slovenia / 1-2 / +1
4) Croatia / 0-3 / -33

Serbia is seventh in the world, Slovenia is 17th, and Croatia is 19th. We are 50th (somehow, even though we should have gotten points from 17th place at Eurobasket). With these victories, I am very optimistic that we can win our qualifying group or finish second for a direct qualification.

[PooshiKooratz]

Bosnia is probably top 5 in the world

[rikhardur]

Bosnia is probably top 5 in the world

Must be in some sport other than basketball

[PooshiKooratz]

Must be in some sport other than basketball

No, in Basketball. I mean, Serbia is 8th and we practically beat them without our key players like Preldzic,Bogdanovic,Begic

Also we're #1 in the world in Volleyball I believe

and we're top 20 in handball for sure.

[Bosnian 23]

Don't overrate our teams like that, dude. In basketball we are top 30 or 35, at best. We never beat Serbia, we almost beat them, but that doesn't count as a win. We are top two in sitting volleyball, you know, like at the Paralympics? We always win gold or silver there.... In handball, again, we are top 30 or 35 at best. We have never qualified for a major competition in handball, just like football.

Btw, welcome.

[Bosnian 23]

NT forward, Ante Masic, has agreed to a deal with Cibona today.

[PooshiKooratz]

Don't overrate our teams like that, dude. In basketball we are top 30 or 35, at best. We never beat Serbia, we almost beat them, but that doesn't count as a win. We are top two in sitting volleyball, you know, like at the Paralympics? We always win gold or silver there.... In handball, again, we are top 30 or 35 at best. We have never qualified for a major competition in handball, just like football.

Btw, welcome.

How!!?!?!?

We lost to World No 1 in handball by 3 GOALS.

We eased past 17 and 19 placed teams in the FIBA rankings, we are definitely in top 15 in handball and basketball and football

[Bosnian 23]

We beat the 17th in the world, Slovenia, by one point.

In handball, that was a good performance but in the qualifiers before that, we got one point in a group with Estonia, Macedonia, and Hungary.

In football we haven't qualified for a major tournament yet. We're definitely on the verge of top 15 in football, though.

[Bosnian 23]

We beat Austria, today, in a friendly, 82-69. Mirza Teletovic had 13 points and 10 rebounds, Nihad Dedovic had 26 points and eight rebounds, Zach Wright had 10 points and seven assists, and finally, Elmedin Kikanovic had 14 points.

[Bosnian 23]

We defeated Portugal 91-81 today. I am feeling very confident heading into the qualifiers.