First round observations

PARIS (The Monday International Show) - After three high level games in three days, the teams must be happy to travel today and get a breather!

Of course, four teams are travelling home which is no joy ride but all four leave Poland with the satisfaction that they put a scare into a few favorites (i.e. Great Britain vs. Spain, Bulgaria vs. Lithuania or Latvia vs. Germany) or simply came within one shot of qualifying (i.e.Israel losing by only three to Macedonia).

Frankly, there are no big surprises concerning the eliminated teams but there were some incredible oddities concerning the mega-favorites from Spain!

Who could have predicted the young squad from Serbia would dominate the Spaniards physically and tactically the first day and who could have imagined that G.B. would be ahead with three minutes to go against Spain the second day?

On day 3, Scariolo was obliged to tire out his main guns to squeak by Slovenia in overtime. Of course Lorbek committed an enormous traveling violation before tying the score in the last one- hundredth of a second in regulation but Dragic and company mounted an incredible comeback succeeding in creating Spanish panic and numerous turnovers in the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately Slovenia stills has a tendancy towards angry nervousness when things turn sour. Spain showed poor conditioning and a dangerous tendancy to look too far ahead. In their own minds, they were probably already in the final before they played the first game!

Other favorites like Turkey and Greece were much more prepared and consistent as they crushed all their opponents. It could be tempting now for the teams in group E to keep an eye on where Spain finishes in group F in order to avoid them in the quarter-finals!

France won all three of its games but with alot more difficulty depending often on Parker's money time heroics to wrestle away victories after poor first halves.

Poland's upset of Lithuania was a big surprise and that win gives them a good chance to make the quarters.

From a coaching standpoint, I was highly impressed by Blatt, Bauerman and Ivkovic squeezing the most out of limited rosters (where practically all the NBA stars were absent) by imposing extraordinary collective discipline on offence and defence.


Those coaches' teams play hard D on every possession and limit bad shot selection through steely patience. Their ultimate limitation is their lack of offensive talent and firepower.

I still foresee Spain vs. Greece in the final whereas Turkey should give France and Croatia some stiff competition for the bronze medal.

I think it is fair to say that the top 5 players after the first round were Parker, Spanoulis, P.Gasol,  Turkoglou and Gortat, all of whom play or have played in the NBA.

Looking forward to the second round, we can start salivating already about dream match-ups opposing Turkey and Spain and Turkey and Slovenia in group F.

In group E, France's games vs. Greece and Croatia should be beauties! Another thing that sticks out after the first round are the enormous differences in the way the game is refereed compared to the NBA.

I still have a dream that one day we'll all play with the same rules notably concerning travelling, moving picks, away from the ball contacts, technical fouls, shot blocking and protecting offensive players in the air with the ball in hand.

The way my top five players adapt to these differences is proof of their excellence! I'm waiting with delectation for your comments.

Georges Eddy