Europe makes its mark at U19 Worlds

VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - There has not been a better, more enthralling game of international basketball this summer than the USA's 82-76 win over Greece in Saturday's second Semi-Final of the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship.

The atmosphere in the Heraklion Arena was hot, with a sell-out crowd that was 99 percent Greek, and the contest between the Americans and the tournament hosts was even hotter.

This is an event that has a big audience, and especially in the USA where fans are able to watch on television the players that have a year of college basketball under their belts, five-star players that universities have already added to incoming classes or hope to add.

A potential NBA lottery pick in the USA team is Jayson Tatum, who had a jaw-dropping dunk that left everyone buzzing in Greece and back in the USA.

The dunk left Greece's Thomas Kottas with a bloody nose and ended up as the play of the day on the tournament website.

Greece had a lot of positive plays on the highlight reel themselves.

Tyler Dorsey turned in several head-turning gems for the Greeks, including one at the end of the first half which ranked No. 2.

Dorsey, a five-star recruit from Pasadena, California, with Greek roots, has decided to play for the Oregon Ducks.

Dorsey's mother and her parents are Greek.

Amazing is the only way to describe his performance against the Americans.

Dorsey, a shooting guard, had 23 points and and six assists.

His defense was excellent.

The only blemish on his night was his free-throwing shooting because his misses came at a crucial time in the second half.

As a team, Greece were 18 of 32 (58%) and Dorsey had five free-throws that were off target, although he had 16 attempts.

The USA couldn't stop him unless they fouled him, though.

Twice, Terrance Ferguson fouled Dorsey while he was taking, and making three-pointers.

The California native is smart and appears to have had no difficulty in adapting to the tactical game of the Greeks.

Overall, the contest was a celebration of basketball.

There was a little bit of everything in this battle of unbeatens that was ultimately decided by the brilliance of Villanova Wildcats-bound Jalen Brunson.

Brunson, who finished with a game-high 30 points, is a name you are going to be hearing a lot for the next 15 years.

He is going into Sunday's action as a frontrunner for tournament MVP honors.

There is a big step to make for a lot of the players who want to go from the U19s to the senior level and in Dorsey's case, he is likely going to have to wait a couple of years before the senior team gives him a serious look with the legend that is Vasilis Spanoulis not ready to relinquish his hold as Greece's top guard.

Soon, very soon, Dorsey and fellow U19 star Vasilis Charalampopoulos, a Panathinaikos forward, will be in the team and it's easy to envision some of the other Greek youngsters getting a shot in a few years, too.

Croatia's Marko Arapovic positively dazzled for his country in Saturday's first Semi-Final, a 91-56 rout of Turkey.

The 18-year-old center had 25 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in the victory.

I am sitting courtside for all of the games and early on against Turkey, when Arapovic was tearing the opposing defense to shreds and setting the tone for victory, I couldn't help but look over my right shoulder at the section of the stands where the NBA scouts were sitting.

Basketball is in the Arapovic gene pool.

His father, Franjo, played for Croatia when they finished runners-up to the Dream Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

That was long before Marko was born.

Often seen just chatting with each other, each of the scouts had their heads down, scribbling away on their notepads to take information back to their clubs about the 2.06m Arapavoic, a player already with a year of Euroleague experience under his belt with Cedevita Zagreb.

Bearing in mind that Turkey will finish no lower than fourth (they will take on Greece in the battle for third place) and Italy will end up no lower than sixth (they face Canada on Sunday in the fight for fifth), Europe has really made its mark on the FIBA U19 World Championship.

Senior teams will be adding some very good players now, or in the not-to-distant future.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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