REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Three down and one to go as Belgrade takes center stage in the Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) series, as we look forward to the fourth qualifier for the ANGT Finals at the Euroleague Final Four in May.

If things go as recent history, then Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade will be celebrating at the Basket City arena on Sunday. And it would be a surprise if Crvena Zvezda don’t take their fifth straight Belgrade ANGT title

After all, Crvena Zvezda bring back three of their top four leading scorers from a loaded team that won the Finals championship last May, when they beat Real Madrid at the Euroleague Final Four in Milan 55-42.

Back for Crvena Zvezda are Finals MVP Vojislav Stojanovic as well as Aleksandar Aranitovic. The latter scored a team-high 15 points in the final win over Real, despite being two years younger than the rest of the competition. All told, Crvena Zvezda have seven players back.

Not only do Stojanovic, Aranitovic and company have the experience of winning the final Nike International Junior Tournament title - the competition was re-branded and re-named with Adidas as main sponsor - but many of the players also have gained international experience since then.

Nikola Rakicevic was named to the All-Tournament Team in helping Serbia to a third-place finish at the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship. Also on that team were Stojanovic, Aranitovic as well as Crvena Zvezda teammates Stefan Kenic, David Miladinovic and Nikola Popovic.

Aranitovic added a second international tournament later last summer, playing at the U16 European Championship where the team was a mild disappointment in finishing sixth. Also on that team were Crvena Zvezda teammates Aleksa Radanov, Borisa Simanic and Matja Radovic.

That is a lot of experience - not to mention a lot of talent. So, Crvena Zvezda are definitely the favorites going into the tournament, which runs from February 27-March 1.

Crvena Zvezda are in Group A along with German club Alba Berlin, Mega Leks Belgrade and Vaerlose BBK of Denmark. Group B features Partizan Belgrade and Zemun Belgrade of Serbia, Italian club Umana Reyer Venice and Spanish side Canarias Basketball Academy.

The top two teams advance to the semi-finals with the final scheduled for March 1 at 15:00 local time.

The Belgrade ANGT winner will book its spot at the Euroleague Final Four along with the winners of the three previous ANGTs - Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome (Rome ANGT), Real Madrid (L'Hospitalet) and Zalgiris Kaunas (Kaunas). Euroleague will award wild cards for the other four spots in the eight-team Finals.

Some observers consider the Belgrade ANGT field weak as far as top level talent. Still, there are plenty of interesting players to watch.

Zemun have Nikola Cirkovic, who could be the leading scorer of the tournament after playing last summer at the U17 Worlds for Serbia. The club also has Vuk Vulikic, a 1999-born youngster who played at the recent Pinar U16 International Tournament in Konya, Turkey.

Sticking with Belgrade clubs, Mega Leks also have a great scorer in 16-year-old Novak Music, who was one of Serbia’s leaders on the U16 team last summer. And the way he plays reminds some of Vassilis Spanoulis. Also on the Mega Leks team will be 1999-born Nikola Miskovic, who showed some nice flashes of his skill set at the Pinar U16 Tournament.

Going into the Belgrade ANGT, it would seem that most likely two players from Crvena Zvezda will make the All-Tournament Team. But for me, a dead lock is Partizan's Vanja Marinkovic, who is appearing at his third ANGT. He averaged 18.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in last season's Belgrade ANGT and then helped Serbia to second place at the U18 European Championship and third place at the U17 Worlds. Despite only turning 18 on January 9, Marinkovic has already become a regular rotation player for Partizan in the Adriatic League and Eurocup. He has had a 19-point game in the Eurocup and a 20-point showing in the Adriatic League.

The other Partizan player who will be on my radar is big man Milos Glisic. The 2.05m was supposed to be the starting center for Serbia at the U17 Worlds but broke his leg a day before the team travelled to Dubai. It will be great to see how far along he is in getting back to his former high level prospect status.

This column is starting to get long, so I will kind of run through the rest of the teams quickly. 

Alba Berlin have an enticing talent in athletic power forward Moritz Wagner and Venice's Leonardo Tote faced high level competition last summer playing for Italy at the U17 Worlds.

Vaerlose have Jacob Larsen, who is the younger brother of 1994-born Rasmus G. Larsen. The 2.06m Jacob had a strong showing for scouts at the recent Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp in New York City. The Danish club also has a player born in Greenland, 1998-born Alexander Agerskov.

And last but not least is Canarias BA. The internationally renowned program has 2.10m red head Dutch big man Menno Dijkstra, who is the latest in the line of big men the academy has developed following Slovakian Norbert Janicek and Yankuba Sima.

Also interesting are Irish talent Jordan Blount, Spanish point guard Jon Pena and 1998-born Chinese center Wang Yixiong. 

Observers may call this Belgrade ANGT a weak one talent wise, but there is still more than enough to watch - and dream on.

David Hein

FIBA

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