REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - The eight-team field for the 2014 Nike International Junior Tournament (NIJT) finals at the Euroleague Final Four is set as the four wild cards were handed out, with some good choices being made.

Joining the four qualifying teams Cajasol Seville, Real Madrid, Zalgiris Kaunas and Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) Telekom Belgrade are wild card recipients Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul, the defending champions Joventut Badalona, hometown representative Armani Junior Milan and Team Brazil - the first South American participant in the NIJT.

Let's start off with maybe the weakest choice of the bunch, Fenerbahce. With Turkish Airlines being the Euroleague official sponsor, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that a Turkish team was given a wild card. Fenerbahce do have a nice one-two power punch with Berk Ugurlu and Ayberk Olmaz. But they lost to Barcelona for sixth place in the L'Hospitalet tournament and had just one win in four games.

Euroleague could have chosen Unicaja Malaga, whose only loss in L'Hospitalet came against undefeated champs Real Madrid. They also could have brought Union Olimpija Ljubljana, whose only defeat was also against Real in taking third place - ahead of Joventut.

Bringing Joventut - three of the eight teams will have played at the L'Hospitalet tournament - isn't that big of a problem. They are the defending champions and have some solid talent in Sergi Costa and Marc Bauza.

Another possible selection could have been INSEP, who lost in the Belgrade final to Crvena Zvezda and also won the NIJT title in 2009.

There is no discussion needed with Armani Junior Milan. Euroleague always take a local team and they will obviously be the home side for the May 15-18 tournament. Milan also ended up in third place in the Citta di Roma tournament, during which they actually knocked off the eventual champions Cajasol.

Milan's only loss in the tournament came to Cibona Zagreb. The leader of the balanced Italian team is Alberto Cacace while Lorenzo Restelli is another key player for the Italians.

The final pick, Team Brazil, is definitely interesting. Euroleague invited Team China to the previous three NIJT finals and the Asians showed more and more improvement. But the move to the South American powers makes sense.

Brazil is an emerging market with the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics taking place there. There are also a number of Brazilians in the Euroleague competition. And Euroleague also brought back the Intercontinental Cup this season.

It's unclear which team the Brazilians will bring to the 1996-born tournament though it could be most of the U17 team from last summer, which included Wesley da Silva and Junior Duval. Another possible name is Daniel Bordignon, who played for Brazil at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship but plays his club ball in the Laboral Kuxta system.

The teams are broken into groups with Real, Zalgiris, Fenerbahce and Milan together while the other group has Crvena Zvezda, Cajasol, Joventut and Team Brazil.

The games will take place at the Tensostruttura Lido with the final at the Mediolanum Forum.

David Hein

FIBA

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