REGENSBURG (David Hein’s Eye on the Future) - Not every team still had a chance to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in the final European Qualifiers window. But the final two gamedays were definitely thrilling for a number of big talents who made their senior national team debuts.

Israel star prospect Deni Avdija, France’s prized talent Theo Maledon, Henri Drell of Estonia, Spain’s Carlos Alocen and Morgan Stilma of Netherlands were among those who got to wear their senior national team jerseys for the first time.

Deni Avdija, 18 years, Israel

Avdija has had a pretty wild past seven months and facing Germany at home in Tel Aviv and playing Serbia in Belgrade in two must-win games in World Cup qualifying seem like the fitting next step. On July 22, 2018, Avdjia helped Israel win the FIBA U20 European Championship 2018 - the country’s first title in a FIBA competition. Avdija was also named to the All-Star Five of the tournament - as a 17-year-old. Less than two weeks later, Avdija was with Israel at the FIBA U18 European Championship 2018, Division B and the Israelis ended up missing the Quarter-Finals by just a single point as they were in a three-way tie in the group stage with Netherlands and Czech Republic. Then in November 2018, Avdija made his EuroLeague debut with Maccabi Tel Aviv - nearly exactly a year after making his Israeli league debut. In his senior national team debut against Germany, Avdija, who turned 18 years old on January 3, scored 1 point on 1-of-2 free throws as he missed his two three-pointers to go with 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 10 minutes. And then against Serbia, Avdija picked up 10 points on a perfect shooting (3-of-3 fields, 2-of-2 three-pointers, 2-of-2 free throws) and 1 assist in 16 minutes.

Theo Maledon, 18, France

Maledon was close to making his France senior national team debut in the November/December 2018 window but head coach Vincent Collet did not give the youngster the chance. But the 18-year-old point guard rewarded himself for an excellent season and got in both games for France in February. His debut ended up being a loss - 76-69 to Finland - but he had 3 points and 3 rebounds in 15 minutes. In the win over Czech Republic, Maledon, who helped France to second place at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018, picked up 8 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist in 17 minutes. Maledon has been playing all season in the French first division for ASVEL, averaging 7.2 points, 2.2 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 16 minutes.

Henri Drell, 18, Estonia

Drell is just the latest to make his debut in the Estonian national team as the Nordic country had three 19-year-olds play in this window, including future star point guard Kristian Kullamae, who has averaged 8.7 points, 2.6 assists, 2.2 rebounds and 0.8 steals in nine games in the qualification campaign. The other two are Sander Raieste and Kaspar Treier. The 18-year-old Drell is based in Germany in the Brose Bamberg youth system. The small forward collected 4 points, 1 rebound and 2 steals in 8 minutes against Serbia and then against Georgia Drell picked up 14 points and 1 steal in 18 minutes - both wins for Estonia.

Carlos Alocen, 18, and Xabi Lopez-Arostegui, 21, Spain

Spain head coach Sergio Scarolo used the final window to give a couple of youngsters a chance to make their senior national team debut. The 18-year-old Alocen, who helped Spain win the FIBA U16 European Championship 2016 and played at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2016, played 2:21 minutes against Latvia and missed his only shot. He has already played 17 games in the Spanish ACB for Zaragoza, averaging 4.5 points, 1.8 assists, 1.6 rebounds and 1.0 steals. Alocen wasn’t the only youngster who made his debut in the last window as 21-year-old forward Xabi Lopez-Arostegui picked up 4 points in 10 minutes against Latvia and had 5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assists and 1 steal in 15 minutes against Turkey.

Morgan Stilma, 18, Netherlands

Netherlands were already eliminated from contention for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 and that gave more chances for some of the country’s up-and-coming talents to play senior national team games. Stilma is based in Spain, playing for Unicaja Malaga, and he debuted against Poland, scoring 2 points with 2 rebounds in 11 minutes. There were actually two 17-year-olds who played for Netherlands in the window as Rienk Mast played his second and third games, picking up 13 points and 7 rebounds in 47 minutes over the two qualifiers while Keye van der Vuurst de Vries had 9 points and 4 assists against Poland - his third game for the Dutch.

Debuts for Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina both used the European Qualifiers as a chance to let young talents get a taste of the senior national team. The 20-year-old shooting guard Toni Perkovic made his debut against Poland while 20-year-old Kresimir Ljubicic and 19-year-old Toni Nakic both got their maiden cap against Hungary. For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the 19-year-old duo of Kenan Kamenjas and Njegos Sikiras both played 50 seconds against Bulgaria for their first senior national team appearance.

Others

The window also saw Slovenian 19-year-old Miha Skedelj make his debut while 18-year-old Adam Somogyi, who is based in Spain, played for the first time for Hungary’s senior national team and Bulgaria’s 20-year-old Yordan Minchev wore his country’s senior team jersey for the first time.

David Hein

FIBA

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