FIBA U17 - Matic breaks down U17 World Championship for FIBA

KAUNAS (2012 FIBA U17 World Championship) – Renowned Serbian coach Veselin Matic has been at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship on behalf of FIBA, breaking down the level of play displayed by both teams and players at the tournament.

The former national team coach of Yugoslavia, Poland and, most recently, Iran was called upon by basketball’s world governing body to compose an internal report on his findings in Kaunas.

“As opposed to the U19 level where many players are already ready for the national team, the 17-year-olds have only been recently selected for the national team and have to continue to develop to become senior players,” said Matic.

In three years (2009-2011) with Iran's national team, Matic helped them successfully defend the continental crown they won in 2007 at the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship. The result meant that the Iranians qualified for the 2010 FIBA World Championship - their first appearance in FIBA's flagship event.

Having experienced a wide amount of success at both club and national team level, the 51-year-old is as well placed as any to break down the participants in the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.

“We are seeing a lot of zone defense. The zone defense is important because teams do not have enough time to work on individual defense,” said Matic.

He also broke down the teams individually, highlighting Egypt, the United States, Argentina and Australia.

“Egypt really fought, but you can see that the technical level of the team is not outstanding. It can be much better. If the technical level is developed, the physical quality is very good. They have the talent to play against any team,” said Matic, who also used of his time in Kaunas to participate in a three-day coaching clinic that coincided with the Final Round of the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.

The coach said the reigning champions USA were physically much stronger than the rest of the competition – especially in terms of depth – but that the skill level was higher as well.

Still, Matic questioned pegging some players into certain positions at this early stage.

“In basketball at this level today we usually only want to select the point guards and maybe the centers. All the other players have to be in between and be able to play a number of positions in the future,” he argued.

Matic was surprised with the power of the Argentina team.

“A very important part of the program is the power practice work on strength. And we can see that. All the players are fighters, though the team is not great,” he said.

The U17 finalists Australia have been a surprise for Matic.

“They really have their own way. They fight on defense and are a solid team. They don’t have a special big guy but all have good skills,” he analysed.

“Technically and tactically, they are very good. They have lots of players who can play more than one position. You can see the organized work by the Australia Institute of Sports and Basketball Australia.”

Matic also offered his top starting five of the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship, going with Conner Frankamp of the USA at point guard, Croatia’s Mario Hezonja at shooting guard, USA's Jabari Parker at small forward, Marko Arapovic of Croatia at power forward and American Jahlil Okafor as center.

FIBA