Summer sees youngsters shine bright for their countries
REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Most basketball fans know the names of Enes Kanter and Jonas Valanciunas as the world’s elite young emerging basketball stars. But what about Augusto Matos, Matthew Dellavedova, Kelly Olynyk, Satnam Singh Bhamara, Tornike Shengelia or Devon van Oostrum? Some may have done better on that quizz than ...
REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Most basketball fans know the names of Enes Kanter and Jonas Valanciunas as the world’s elite young emerging basketball stars.
But what about Augusto Matos, Matthew Dellavedova, Kelly Olynyk, Satnam Singh Bhamara, Tornike Shengelia or Devon van Oostrum?
Some may have done better on that quizz than others. But consider this a quick trip around the world to catch up with those youngsters who excelled during this summer’s FIBA continental championships.
The defending world champions USA, already qualified for the Olympics, did not play in the FIBA Americas Championship therefore the American U21 talent was left off this list. Fear not, something tells me you will hear about a couple soon enough.
Here is a breakdown, continent by continent, of some of the top players 21 years and under who pulled on their senior national team jersey in 2011 – though it seems a couple of 22-year-olds must be mentioned and hopefully you understand why.
There's a very good chance you might have heard Valanciunas' name before. The home fans’ favorite (the kid has a song devoted to him) dominated at times as a 19-year-old. At one point he had a stretch of four double-scoring games in five contests.
He also double-doubled his way to the FIBA U19 World Championship title.
Turkish sensation Kanter looked good in shaking off the rust of two years with no action and scoring at least 11 points in five of Turkey’s eight games.
Then there are a few players you may find difficult to believe are quite so young such as Ricky Rubio, Milan Macvan and Serge Ibaka.
Van Oostrum, Shengelia, Nihad Dedovic, Nikola Vucevic and Tibor Pleiss are arguably lesser known youngsters, but still promise plenty.
The Greeks are in the midst of a renewal process and Kosta Koufos and Nick Calathes, both 22, played a massive role in securing an Olympic Qualifying Tournament place.
Mar del Plata had plenty of exciting talent on show.
Vitor Alves Benite played a big role in getting Brazil to the Final, where they lost to hosts Argentina.
The 21-year-old shooting guard scored 19 points against Cuba then torched Uruguay for 21 points with his great three-point stroke in averaging 7.4 points per game.
While the Cubans were bounced after just four games, Juan Pablo Pineiro will have gained some great experience for the future, which his performances suggest will be bright.
Canada's Olynyk made a name for himself against gold medalists Argentina with his 19 points and 12 rebounds.
Cory Joseph, Mathias Calfani and Gregory Echenique are some more examples of promising talent in the Americas.
Twenty-one-year-old Arsalan Kazemi - the first Iranian-born student-athlete to play NCAA Division I basketball - was one of the rare positives for Iran to take back from Wuhan following their disappointing fifth-place finish.
Jordan had an amazing tournament as they fell narrowly to China in the Final. Mohammad Hussein, 21, showed plenty of promise.
Even if he had been six years older, India's Satnam Singh Bhamara would have been included in this list. The 15-year-old was trusted enough to be given a full 32 minutes of playing time.
Jong-Kyu Kim and Khalifa Salem are a couple more names which might be worth remembering.
OCEANIA
Down under, Dellavedova turned 21 during Australia's series against New Zealand.
On this occasion the young point guard did not shoot well but did everything else superbly, while New Zealand's hopes of disrupting Australia's domination lie with youngsters that include Robert Loe, who did well during limited playing time.
AFRICA
Macram Ben Romdhane, is one of the rare 22-year-olds to squeeze in here. While about a year older than many of the players we will have picked out, he deserves mention for his excellent stats, but most of all because he was so important in Tunisia capturing their first-ever AfroBasket crown and breaking Angola's awesome winning streak.
Mozambique's 19-year-old sensation Augusto Matos is another to look out for, having torched fourth-place finishers Nigeria for 20.
Among the African rising stars Valdelicio Joaquim, Cameroun Bradley, Thierno Niang and Assem Marei impressed.
FIBA