Game Day 1 - European Qualifiers

[Levenspiel]

the Euro qualifiers for 2019 Fiba world cup is one week away.

Good thing is that we'll see a wide-array of national teams facing each-other. Bad thing is obviously the absence of way too many players due to NBA schedule and ULEB/FIBA conflict.

November 24, 2017.

Israel - Estonia
Turkey - Latvia
Bulgaria - Finland
Czech Republic - Iceland
Poland - Hungary
Bosnia Herzegovina - Russia
Sweden - Ukraine
Kosovo - Lithuania
Germany - Georgia
Montenegro - Spain
Netherlands - Croatia
Serbia - Austria
Italy - Romania
Slovenia - Belarus
Belgium - France
Great Britain - Greece

PS. if there is interest, we can run a prediction game too.
PS2. We will have separate sub-forums for each of the 4 zones, so do not worry if the forum gets messy in the beginning.

[Dtown]

Ridiculously convenient for me as it's a day off for a lot of people in the States. Hopefully ESPN will have all these games available to stream.

[okanial]

Strong performance. Melih was great agaiin like most of the team. Batuk was only bad player today and Geçim must definetely play above him. Erden was also bad in his limited minutes. I don`t understand why he started over Şanlı as in Beşiktaş Şanlı is the starter. We don`t have a playmaker in the second unit so either Berk or Geçim must play against Ukraine

[Dtown]

Watching some of these home European crowds is pretty great. For all the faults of the set up, this is definitely one of the positives.

[usagre]

The national teams of Greece and Spain playing qualifiers simultaneously while Real Madrid plays Panathinaikos in the Euroleague. Strange days indeed.

[softice]

Great Britain - Greece 54 - 55 at the end of 3rd quarter
Overtime and GB has the momentum because he turned 10p difference in 1 min

[Dtown]

Oh wow I can't believe Greece blew that lead! Thought the game was done but we're going to OT.

[BiHBasket]

Russian players made some harsh fouls in the last minute of the game. Not sure did they tried to send BiH players to the free throws line, or to injury them

At least D. Kulagin was awarded with the unsportsmanlike foul.

[Dtown]

Greece survives a scare with an absolute monster 3 to win it in OT. 95-92

[softice]

Greece won 95-92 after a crazy game
Bourousis 32p

[JGX]

That'll teach me not to turn off the game with a minute left. Shame GB couldn't hold on for the win.

[Victorious]

It was actually nice watching the Greek NT in November. I couldn't believe Greece blew an advantage like that. But it was also exciting the way they won it. What can you expect though. Preparing a game like that in just a few days.

[Terrorizer]

Greece survives a scare with an absolute monster 3 to win it in OT. 95-92

Yep, that Athinaiou triple was terrific. I still feel poor for GB cause they've made such a comeback and were leading during the overtime. Okereafor, who mostly played solid before, was not able to control the tempo late in the OT, I guess he was exhausted at that point. By the way, I liked what I saw from the recent Mountaineer graduate Tarik Phillip. I've checked his stats in Hungary and was surprised once again to find out that these were pretty unremarkable.

Russia lost to a really mediocre BiH. I guess, quite deservedly but I had no nerves to watch the second half. Yet in the first one there was a errific amount of stupid mistakes and a complete lack of offensive organization from our side. Concentration also wasn't there. After a good qualification campaign for EB-2017 and a decent run there it all looks terribly familiar - it seems that we are heading back to the years after London Olympics. I won't be surprised if this would be followed by a row of scandals soon. Karasyov was included in the squad (it was close to optimal, only Shved and Mozgov were missed) but haven't played a minute for some reason. I don't know about this current situation (maybe an injury?) but this looks weird knowing how much his father and Bazarevich were rivals for Russian NT head coach position. Overall an absolutely shameful performance. It's a one thing to get ripped by Musa (who was mostly bad today) but it's quite an other thing to get ripped by the likes of Milosevic and friggin Stipanovic. Something tells me that we won't qualify.

Overall I've seen some glimpses of other games (including a good part of exciting Netherlands upset against Croatia, who was punished for sending their C squad as many core players who don't even play in NBA or Jordileague were mysteriously absent, an upset where a minor favourite of mine Yannick Franke shone bright) and now I think that generally this format was a good idea. The crowds in many places were numerous, active and these games, despite all the absences, definitely had a pleasant 'FIFA-qualies'-like atmosphere. That's a great thing. Even NBA absences won't spoil an excitement.

But IMG Jordileague scumbags did their best to rob many teams of their brightest stars. Why couldn't these scoundrels pause their retarded, tedious, laughable competition for just two games? I guess, it's not even about FIBA, it's their bitter enmity to the general idea of international basketball with its own face and character. These shameless bastards want to completely morph European basketball tradition into brainless, disgusting NBA-mimicking. But we are not Chinese for God's sake and even for them "poor man's NBA'' didn't become a competition to be proud of despite all the money it is generously awashed with.

[BiHBasket]

Terrorizer, Bazarevich said after the game that Karasev had a sudden fever. He also pointed out that it was a huge loss not just because he was seen as one of the key players, but he also looked great on the trainings. Bazarevich was obviously very disapointed with him not been able to play and I don't think there's anything mysteriously there.

[Terrorizer]

Terrorizer, Bazarevich said after the game that Karasev had a sudden fever. He also pointed out that it was a huge loss not just because he was seen as one of the key players, but he also looked great on the trainings. Bazarevich was obviously very disapointed with him not been able to play and I don't think there's anything mysteriously there.

Oh, thanks for the info (let's hope that what was said is true) and also congrats for the win. We didn't allow you to go to EuroBasket in 2017, your chances to do the same with our pariticpation in a World Cup in 2019 now are definitely high.

Argh, why after our NT does something good everyone here starts to pay zero attention to it and everything goes to shit in a blink of an eye? A rhetoric question, for sure.