2021 FIBA U19 World Cup (Latvia, Jul 3-11)

[Toruko]

Serbia beat Japan just with 3 points. Japan didnt know how to defend at all. One of the weakest Serbian teams that I ever watched and I watched a lot. It seems that this Turkish team with no point guards (dont want to disrespectful to Berkay Yilmaz who is a good guy just younger and undersized) can reach semi finals. lol. Argentina todays opponent was beaten by 20 in a prep game but it says nothing.

[JGX]

Serbia doing just enough to win in every game, eventually it is going to stop working, right?

Australia a major disappointment.

Mali point differential in third quarters: -65
Mali point differential in all other quarters: -51

[JGX]

Looks like I was wrong about the US group being strong. At least not compared to the France group.

[haribi]

This turkish team is really bad. The same problem as every generation. Every player is slow as fuck, can't handle the ball and can't shoot. Just 12 role players, but I'm not even sure what their role will be.
The "sharpshooter" Tibet Görener with 23% from downtown in the torunament. That's how bad our youth program is. I have no idea what our youth development program is doing. Producing the same type of trash players for the past decade.

[Toruko]

Ömer Onans son is really bad. Also Ege Ülker is pretty weak for his age. Fenerbahce especially but all our youth club systems need renewal but Berkay Yilmaz is really fluent and has a great stroke but he is very small. I dont know if he has a future.

[Toruko]

Uff what a shot but also a pretty dumb game of our guys. They were not very eager to win. Its ok. To play with younger guys is ok but guys like Onan who dont deserve to be here shouldnt be here.

[JGX]

Elite youth basketball

[judasmartel]

What happened to Mali? Just 2 years prior they went all the way to the finals vs Team USA, beating EU teams, NZ, PR, and France en route there. But now, they couldn't even win a game, much less stay close, and that's with Oumar Ballo still on the team. Was the loss of their previous PGs like Siriman Kanoute that big for them?

[judasmartel]

Elite youth basketball

Senegal winning without a single 3 made by just pounding it inside, eh.

[Levenspiel]

This turkish team is really bad. The same problem as every generation. Every player is slow as fuck, can't handle the ball and can't shoot. Just 12 role players, but I'm not even sure what their role will be.
The "sharpshooter" Tibet Görener with 23% from downtown in the torunament. That's how bad our youth program is. I have no idea what our youth development program is doing. Producing the same type of trash players for the past decade.

Tibet is not living up to the expectations, but the way he plays/shoots and where the game of bball is going these days, I actually think he has a future. How bright, don't know, depends on his work ethics, but can be a great one. Mutaf is another kid who can make a living by his shot. These two are gonna be at least TBL players imho.

but yeah, Yigit Onan and Ege Yildizoglu are as talentless as guards come. incredible that they make the team at this level. Onan with 6 TO, all on dumb pass attempts ending up in opponent's hands, one in 3 vs 1 fast-break.

Argentina played better, imho. the last shot was a lucky one, but they passed really well inside and beat our guys on 1-on-1, ala Argentinian style.

[LuDux]

Lithuania was almost Goberted again

[mojo13]

Ooof - ugly win by Canada. Glad to see them tough out a win one a horribly ice cold shooting night. 1/16 from three isnt going to happen too often with elite shooters like Mathurin and Hosutan. However admittedly, Houstan is having a very poor shooting tournament so far for some reason. I am starting to question if he will get himself out of it, but at least he is playing very well in all other aspects of the game.

For a while there it really felt like another Canada game whether they had the vastly superior players/prospects but were going to lose to a more cohesive, better chemistry, smarter team. I suppose to helps to have some real centers on the roster that can pound it inside and get some points when the shots are falling.

[mojo13]

So the expected USA/Canada semi is set and France/Serbia on the other side. Some really interesting prospects in both semi's.

Not that anyone ever feels to good about facing the USA, I am not overly hopeful here for Canada. We have some excellent talent for sure (probably the most talented U19 team Canada has ever assembled), but they have never really looked like they gelled as a team and I'm not seeing either the game to game constancy among the best players nor the chemistry to expect that we have a good shot at an upset. The 2017 U19 team that won gold was clearly a better "team" although much less talented.

We have one PG in Ryan Nembhard and absolutely nothing after that. Coach Weir reverted to having Houstan play back up PG when Nembhard got into early foul trouble today. This is really going to leave us vulnerable to USA defensive pressure - and if Nembhard gets into any foul trouble, the USA should be able to blow things open.

Houstan has shot 8/40 on 3 pointers this tournament. He has a large body of work showing he is one of the best shooters in America at this age group. Mathurin, also known as a fantastic shooter (40%+ at Arizona), has not been much better. This tells me this Canadian team is not producing many good looks for these guys and they are being forced into tough shots. Not much ball movement and offense relying on individual talent and ISO per usual for Canada. I fear that won't change against the USA and if we don't have the three ball falling, we are not going to beat the USA.

Who knows - for once we can hang inside with USA and shouldn't get crushed on the boards and in the paint. It is a solid defensive team that could hold the USA in check better than any other team, and perhaps if the outside shots start to fall, we can pull off the upset. We are going to need most of Houstan, Mathurin, Edey, Nembhard and Fisher all to have good games though. Not 2 out of the 5 which has been the norm.

[Toruko]

It will end up like this.

USA
France
Canada
Serbia.

[JGX]

USA-Canada game is going to be interesting for sure. This has to be the least physically imposing front line for a US team in a while and they are going to have to come up with a big performance to contain Edey, or at least tire him out. Canada has the advantage of having won a couple tight games already, the US had a little trouble with Australia but has never had to sweat in the fourth quarter.

Today's US game was similar to the Turkey game, big first quarter and not great afterwards. Had a lot of trouble once Senegal went to a zone, even though they were shooting well from outside, because they kept ramming the ball into the crowded paint and missing tough shots in traffic.

I understand why Holmgren is so highly rated, but Wembanyama looks like a different level prospect.