EuroBasket winners

VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - The dust has settled on  EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia.

France captured their first European title and did so in the best way possible, beating nemesis Spain in their Semi-Final showdown and then Lithuania in the Gold Medal Game.

France's Tony Parker, Slovenia's Goran Dragic, Spain's Marc Gasol, Croatia's Bojan Bogdanovic and Lithuania's Linas Kleiza were all-tournament selections.

A player that should have been on the all-tournament team, Mantas Kalnietis, was Lithuania's most important player from start to finish.

He averaged 12.1 points, a EuroBasket-best 5.0 assists and 4.7 rebounds.

Kalnietis had 17, 18 and 19 points, respectively, in Lithuania's last three games.

Teams did not have to reach the podium to be winners.

Ukraine were terrific.

Their only defeat in the First Round was to eventual champions France.

Ukraine did have one very bad day at the office, against Latvia on 11 September in their first Group E game.

The Baltic side meted out the sort of punishment that one doesn't normally see in a EuroBasket game, romping to an 85-51 triumph.

The Latvians connected on 15 of 29 shots from long range and utterly humiliated the Ukrainians.

Instead of lashing out at his squad immediately after the game, Ukraine coach Mike Fratello stood at the edge of the court and grabbed each of his players by the hand, looked them in the eye and offered encouragement.

"We need to stay together," he said.

Forty-eight hours later and Ukraine beat Serbia.

They ended up getting to the Quarter-Finals and qualifying for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup by defeating Italy in their first Classification Round Game.

This is a major accomplishment for a national team that had not reached the Second Round of a EuroBasket before this summer.

It's also exactly what the country needed in terms of a momentum-building exercise because Ukraine are going to host EuroBasket 2015.

Finland and Belgium, a couple of minnows making their second straight appearances at a EuroBasket, deserve a lot of plaudits.

The Finns defeated Turkey, Russia and Greece - three teams in the top 10 of the FIBA Rankings men - in the First Round, and then walloped hosts Slovenia, 92-76, in their last game.

In that blowout of the Slovenians in front of a packed Stožice Arena, Finland hit 17 of 32 attempt from long range.

Finland had no chance of progressing with a win that night and the result had no bearing on Slovenia's campaign, yet it was a very important game and especially for the Finns since a lot of people back home were watching on television.

The Finns came up short of their aim of reaching the Quarter-Finals but nevertheless had a terrific campaign with five wins in eight games.

Belgium won twice in Group A and advanced to the Second Round where they almost surprised Serbia.

The Belgians ended their tournament on a high with a 60-56 victory over Latvia, a result that ended the Baltic team's chances of playing in the Quarter-Finals and allowed Ukraine to advance instead.

Croatia suffered blowouts at the hands of Lithuania and Spain in their last two games but overall, their tournament was a success.

Jasmin Repesa's squad had an eight-game winning streak.

The big mystery is why the team got next to nothing on offense from its all-Euroleague center, Ante Tomic.

On balance, a fourth-place finish at the 24-team EuroBasket was positive.

Shooting guard Bogdanovic was sensational.

The 24-year-old hit double-digits in points in all 11 games, showing a complete game offensively and he was also outstanding defensively.

At the business end of the tournament, France were the best.

Taking on hosts Slovenia in their Quarter-Final, France were superior from the start.

Despite trailing Spain by 14 at half-time in the Semi-Finals, Tony Parker and Co continued to fight and deservedly won.

Parker was amazing, scoring 32 points, but even more important was the support he received from warriors Florent Pietrus and Antoine Diot.

France thrashed Lithuania in the Final.

Soon after that title-clinching win, France coach Vincent Collet spoke to me in the mixed zone.

"How important," I wanted to know, "was Florent Pietrus to France?"

"Flo is the heart of this team," Collet said.

"He gets older and doesn't have as much talent as the others, but you know when you need a fighter, he is always the first one.

"He helped us in the Semi-Finals and in the Final. If we didn't have him against Spain, we wouldn't have made it to the Final. That's for sure."

Next year's FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain is going to be a different tournament.

If Tony Parker plays for France and doesn't take the year off, the French will be medal contenders.

Spain will be stronger with the expected return of Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, Felipe Reyes and Serge Ibaka.

Twenty of the 24 teams are known, with four wild cards still to be awarded.

For now, we must congratulate Collet and France.

They finally have a title to celebrate.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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