The Kebab Krossover 3

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - Merhaba, we are just a few days away from the start of the FIBA World Championships and here I am back with another blog consisting of news and informations related to this year's major basketball event!

Let’s start off with hosts Turkey, who will be having a tournament in Istanbul (6.-8. August 2010) with Serbia, New Zealand and Iran as opponents.
After that, Serbia will be clashing again with the motivated Turks in a friendly before the Turkoglu-led team will be playing in Bamberg (Germany) against Germany, Lithuania and Croatia, starting the 13th of August.

Finally, the hosts from the Bosporus will be battling Argentina, Canada and Lebanon in Ankara on the 21st of August before the World Championships begin.

The young Germans are going against neighbours Belgium, The Netherlands and against Sweden in Leiden (Netherlands), starting the 31st of July. A better field is awaiting Germany in Cyprus (Nicosia), where they are facing Greece, Croatia and Russia on the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth of August.

The door for Joakim Noah to join France is still open according to head coach Vincent Collet. But the chances Noah joining the team are diminishing from day to day and it looks more than doubtful that he will be arriving in time, if at all.

African vice-champs Ivory Coast are heading now to Las Palmas on the Canary Islands for the next stage of preparations. The Elephants are supposed to play against the "A" and "B" team of Spain within the next days before returning to France for another tournament in Lyon.

The team consists now of 17 players with Guy Serge Touali being the only Ivory Coast-based player.

The Tunisians are reportedly headed over the ocean to Dallas, Texas where they are planning to stay twelve days in camp. Newbies Ziyed Chennoufi of Germany and Abdulai Jalloh of Sierra Leone are probably fighting for the "naturalized" spot on the team as Chennoufi represented Germany before while Jalloh is a native of Sierra Leone and The Gambia who initially tried to make the Ivory Coast national-team for the World Champs in Turkey.
A quick look at he latest results of Tunisia:
Tunisia -England 77 - 52 (Calais)
Tunisia -Finland 68 - 92 (Calais)
Tunisia - Ivory Coast 67 - 63 (Dunkerque)
Belgium - Tunisia 58 - 61 (Ostende/ Belgium).

Angola's head-coach Luis Magalhaes hast cut center Miguel Kiala and forward Simao Santos from the roster. Kiala netted 12,8 points and 13,6 rebounds per game for Angola's U-19 national-team in World Championships in New Zealand last year. The roster stands currently at 14 as college-hoopster Joaquim Valdelicio is still in the U.S.
The Angolans are now heading over to the United States before playing a tournament in Brazil later on and finally landing in Italy for a last stage before the World Champs.

Lebanon finished a series of three games against Japan in their favour (2-1). Jackson Vroman was Lebanon's go-to-guy in all three games while he got the support of William Pharis, Rony Fahed and Elie Estephan. No word so far on Fadi El Khatib joining the national-team.

Brazil and Argentina are currently competing in the South American Championships, but almost only with their "B" teams. Drawing any conclusions out of the FIBA Americas qualifiers is a tough task. Brazilian forward Joao Paula Batista sustained a foot injury while Murilo da Rosa and Jonathan Tavernari could be playing themselves into the final roster for Turkey. Also, Juan Gutierrez and Matias Sandes are candidates for Argentina's 12 for the WC's although the Gauchos lost to Venezuela 72-75 in the opener.

Puerto Rico is currently playing the Central American and Caribbean Games as a warm-up for Europe. A.D. Vassallo, Carmelo Lee and Daniel Santiago joined the national-team after passing on the Centrobasket earlier. P.J. Ramos, Larry Ayuso and Guillermo Diaz are still out with injuries.

So far, Puerto Rico won two out of two and should be easily winning the tournament, which is being held in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

On the negative side, it seems like Carlos Arroyo and Ricardo Sanchez are getting "amped up" for Turkey these days.




I’m out like slapping players in the face.