NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide) - The first phase of EuroBasket Women 2015 is in the books and there have been plenty of talking points thrown up in an exciting start to the tournament.

The biggest surprise for me has been Croatia battling through some horrific injury and personnel problems to win the two games needed to progress to the second phase. It has been reminiscent of 2011 when they had similar problems (although this time it is even worse) and made it all the way to fifth spot.

Asking for a repeat finish is wholly unrealistic and it is a minor miracle they have got this far. Huge respect must be given to head coach Braslav Turic in his first major tournament and also to his players - especially Iva Borovic, who is another first-timer at the event and has been superb.

Also huge congratulations are due to Iva Ciglar who not only made some tough plays down the stretch of the must-win game against Great Britain, but has now passed the landmark set by retired legend Sandra Mandir for assists at EuroBasket Women tournaments.

It was also nice to see former players Anda Jelavic, Ana Lelas, Antonija Misura and Marija Rezan all with the supporters during the first phase to support their country.

I previously wrote off Slovak Republic and Greece in terms of any chance of progressing to the last stage, but I am thrilled for two excellent coaches in Maros Kovacik and George Dikeoulakos that they have progressed to the Second Round.

The passion of Kovacik is all-consuming and I know those in Sopron loved watching him on the sidelines and the way his team performed - almost beating reigning champions Spain in addition to wins against Sweden and Lithuania.

Meanwhile Coach Dikeoulakos has to be the one coach in European basketball who really could squeeze blood out of a stone. He always gets the maximum out of the players he has at his disposal and he showed why Fenerbahce are fortunate to have him back at the helm for next season.

Latvia and Sweden were arguably the biggest casualties of those nations who were sent home early. It’s a real pity for the tournament since both brought a big number of fans along and each country was hoping they might make a run.

Sweden were always a little short-handed in terms of top talent after the withdrawl of Amanda Zahui and Farhiya Abdi which may have made a difference, but ultimately they just lost a couple of tight ones. They would have expected to win against Slovak Republic and Lithuania and on another day, may well have done so. This will hurt after their adventure two years ago in France when they got to the Quarter Finals.

Latvia played one poor game and paid the penalty. They were abject against injury-struck Croatia and as feared, it came back to haunt them. What made it most painful is that they were eliminated the day after raucous celebrations which accompanied their historic first ever win against Russia.

More disappointing is that I spoke with both Gunta Basko-Melnbarde and Anete Jekabsone after the game and both talked about how beating Russia had given them such a lift and justified their decision to come out of retirement.

I don't think any of us truly thought they would have potentially played their last game and it is regretful that such a landmark victory meant nothing in the context of the tournament and their respective international careers have probably ended while sat in a hotel on the outskirts of Szombathely.

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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