Olympic Qualifying Tournament - CROATIA

[Levenspiel]

The tournament will be held in Split, Croatia between June 23-28, 2020.

A	Germany	18th at the 2019 WC	18th
A	Russia	12th at the 2019 WC	9th
A	Mexico	Wild Card	25th
B	Croatia	Wild Card	14th
B	Brazil	13th at the 2019 WC	11th
B	Tunisia	20th at the 2019 WC	33rd

The first two teams of each group qualifies, and play each other to reach the final. The winner of the final goes to the Olympics.

[Dtown]

I honestly think this is the most open group. I could see Croatia, Germany, Brazil, Russia, and yeah even Mexico coming out of this. Croatia's got the home court so that makes me think they'll have a slight edge.

[journorias]

Why Is It Important For A Guard To Shoot 3pts?

CAN MAKE THE OTHER TEAM PLAY "HONEST DEFENSE"

The ability to make a 3 point shot gives you three abilities in the offense. You get an ample space where the bigger player in your team can play under the basket. Your playmaking guards get the seam they need to drive the ball to the basket. But most importantly, the other team needs to play honest defense because the 3 point acts as a punishment to them for giving too much space to the shooter.
The strength of the team comes from having a multi-skilled guard who can shoot 3 and drive the ball as well. This way, they can post the feed and penetrate at the same time to make the score.

[Mindozas]

Brazil coach Aleksandar Petrovic announced 25 name roster for qualies. As always some long living veterans, few NBAers, few ACB players, some local league stars. They can compose quite interesting roster again and maybe make some noise like in 2019, as always they are a bit unpredictable team, can beat some favs, can lose to some underdogs

Anderson Varejão
Augusto Lima
Alexey Borges
Alex Garcia
Bruno Caboclo
Cristiano Felício
Caio Pacheco
Didi Louzada
Guilherme Santos
George de Paula
Jhonatan Luz
Lucas Dias
Lucas Mariano
Léo Demétrio
Léo Meindl
Márcio Henrique
Marquinhos
Marcelinho Huertas
Raulzinho
Rafael Luz
Rafael Hetsheimeir
Rafael Mineiro
Scott Machado
Vitor Benite
Yago dos Santos

[ChuckDiesel2]

Unfamiliar with anyone on the Croatian squad who didn’t play in Rio or the NBA, which is most of them. Anyone have thoughts? Kind of intrigued by Dominik Mavra based on some very cursory browsing.

[guilherme.rcf]

We have no chance at all.

[Katastroika]

UKIĆ Roko Leni – Split
ROGIĆ Roko – Mitteldeutscher BC
KATIĆ Toni – Dinamo Sassari
GNJIDIĆ Lovro – Cibona
KRUŠLIN Filip – Dinamo Sassari
SIMON Krunoslav – Anadolu Efes
DREŽNJAK Mateo – Cibona
JORDANO Antonio – Zadar
PERKOVIĆ Toni – Split
TIŠMA Boris – Real Betis (Real Madrid)
BOGDANOVIĆ Bojan – Utah Jazz
HEZONJA Mario – Panathinaikos Athens
MARČINKOVIĆ Pavle – Split
RAMLJAK Ivan – Slask Wroclaw
GABRIĆ Tomislav – Baskets Oldenburg
PERASOVIĆ Ivan – Split
ŠAKIĆ Željko – Avtodor Saratov
BENDER Dragan – Maccabi Tel Aviv
BILAN Miro -Dinamo Sassari
PLANINIĆ Darko – Cibona
ŠARIĆ Dario – Phoenix Suns
ZUBAC Ivica – LA Clippers
ŽIŽIĆ Ante Toni – Maccabi Tel Aviv

Ukic - Simon - Bogdanovic - Saric - Zubac sounds like a good starting five. Maybe less mobile and physical than other teams but somehow talented and with potential for grind also (what Croatia lacks a little the last years). Surprise for me is that Prkacin isn't on the list. Also on the bench a lot of young talents and with Miro Bilan one of best players of Italy this year, duo from Maccabi etc. A team that really can achieve something if they finally build some cohesion and define their proper roles internally. But as it seems the circus already begun because some players are not happy that Hezonja has been invited. Split is a very hot ground for a tournament, if there are spectators of course - but one of hottest in all word 100%. If Croatia wants to achieve something they will have to stick their asses together and build a group and yeah, Bogdanovic should be alpha and omega of this group. Biggest gap is playmaker of international quality, everything else is there. In theory a great team that maybe lacks a little physicality and potential to go uptempo. But highely talented roster. All the best for Croatia. We all can hope that they make the next step and their fans would deserve it.

[Mindozas]

Here comes Mexican extended list. If I didn't miss anyone, there are all the best players available: starting with GSW's Juan Toscano, legendary veteran Gustavo Ayon, former NBA guard now playing in Europe Jorge Gutierrez, other European based guys who should lead the team like Alex Perez, Francisco Cruz

[Katastroika]

Great South American rosters both Uruguaian and Mexican.

I am happy we will play Mexico in Athens. As far as I remember we never played them last 30 years but I love their sports culture a lot. Can't wait.

Mindo, thanks for sharing this rosters with us. Updates are great.

[Mindozas]

Great South American rosters both Uruguaian and Mexican.

I am happy we will play Mexico in Athens. As far as I remember we never played them last 30 years but I love their sports culture a lot. Can't wait.

Mindo, thanks for sharing this rosters with us. Updates are great.

No probs, mate You added up Balkan stuff, I can do some Latino. The more info we have, the better. Can't wait for it all to start And yeah, Mexico is quite rare guest on world wide bball scene, but they are surely not pushovers, we played them in 2014 world cup and it was far from an easy game, it took time for us to break them. Sure, Don Gustavo was younger, but I think they might be pain in the ass if they'll get the best roster possible. Btw, their group rivals Russia also announced the list yesterday:

Khvostov (Zenit), M.Kulagin (Enisey), Strebkov (N.Novgorod), Kardanakhishvili (CSKA-2), Umrikhin (CSKA-2)
D.Kulagin (without club), Ukhov (CSKA), Baburin (N.Novgorod), Komolov (N.Novgorod), Motovilov (Kuban)
Kurbanov (CSKA), Astapkovich (N.Novgorod), Kvitkovskyh (Avtodor)
Vorontsevich (N.Novgorod), Zubkov (Zenit), Antonov (CSKA), Valyev (Khimki), Gafurov (CSKA-2)
Bolomboy (CSKA), Mozgov (Khimki), Ivlev (Parma), Gontar (N.Novgorod)

No Shved as expected, no Karasev, probably also decided to rest as it was injury plagued season, no veterans like Fridzon, a bit surprisingly to me that some Zaytsev wasn't called up, he did really well in Khimki with Shved out. But there's Mozgov, who was back and played with Khimki lately. Interesting how D.Kulagin will look like who skipped all season, he suppose to be one of the key guys there

[Katastroika]

Since I follow basketball I cannot remeber a weaker Russia nominally and I follow since USSR times (which were of course another dimension).

With this team I cannot think that they will make it in very tough Croatian tournament.

[Mindozas]

Since I follow basketball I cannot remeber a weaker Russia nominally and I follow since USSR times (which were of course another dimension).

With this team I cannot think that they will make it in very tough Croatian tournament.

Yeah, thats weak, to me it's between 2019 and this roster as the worst one. In 2019 they had no proper PG, two guys from 2nd Russian division, no C so Vorontsevich had to play as one, Karasev totally out of shape. But this roster can match it. Only good thing for them could be all that NN crew, that was a club with probably only 1 foreigner, Russians had lot of playing time, which is very rare thing to happen. And they made it to BCL final stage, gave a good fight to CSKA in VTB, even snatching one game. But that's probably only one positive thing and hardly will be enough

[Toruko]

Yeah this happens if you dont let a young russian prospect play in the Russian VTB. Russia maybe havent reached much in the youth tournaments in the last decade but they always had competitive teams and promising prospect like Nikita Mikhailovski, Alexander Shashkov, Pavel Savkov and my boi Iaroslav Niagu who made a huge jump this season but most of the hasnt been playing.

Maybe the Russian guys should follow the Turkish path and go to weaker leagues where they can take bigger roles and more responsibility.

[Mindozas]

Tunisia will start 2nd phase of preparations soon, Dirk Bauermann announced the list of 17 players that will join in. As always all the veterans are there, some already 40yo. Salah Mejri should join as well. Still no Michael Roll of course, but not sure if he will join at all

https://www.ftbb.org.tn/liste-des-joueurs-convoques-%f0%9f%87%b9%f0%9f%87%b3-pour-le-deuxieme-stage-de-preparation/

[Mindozas]

Brazil's coach Aco Petrovic travels to Europe with 17 players. Didi who had a stint with New Orleans in NBA asked not to be invited, the same like Gui Santos. Then other players left out were Augusto Lima, Scott Machado, Alexey Borges, Jhonatan Luz, Rafael Mineiro and Marcio Henrique. These are 17 remaining:

Marcelo Huertas (Tenerife,SPA), Rafa Luz (Nevezis,LTU), Yago dos Santos (Flamengo)
Raul Neto (Wizards,NBA), Vitor Benite (Burgos,SPA), Georginho (Sao Paulo), Caio Pacheco (Bahia,ARG)
Marquinhos (Flamengo), Leo Meindl (Fuenlabrada,SPA), Alex Garcia (Bauru)
Bruno Caboclo (Limoges,FRA), Leo Demetrio (Flamengo), Lucas Dias (Franca)
Anderson Varejao (Cavaliers,NBA), Cristiano Felicio (Bulls,NBA), Rafa Hettsheimeir (Flamengo), Lucas Mariano (Sao Paulo)