U18 European Championship offering loads of intriguing names

REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Ah, what a great time of the year. The 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship is still fresh in our minds, the 2013 U20 European Championship has reached the Quarter-Final stage, and both the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women and 2013 U18 European Championship tip off today.

And man, oh, man is the U18 European Championship loaded with great talent. Here is a run-down of some of the more intriguing names in Latvia.

Looking solely at the names, it's impossible to miss Domantas Sabonis - yes, the 17-year-old son of the legendary Arvydas Sabonis. And the 2.05m center, who is plying his trade in the youth leagues of Spain, goes into the Latvia tournament after a strong showing last summer at the U16 European Championship, where he averaged 14.1 points, 14.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 blocks.

Lithuania are not expected to challenge for the title, despite taking silver at the U18s last summer as Lithuania do not usually push their players during the summer and the 1995 class is not that strong - though Sabonis is actually a 1996-born emerging star.

More indicative of which teams should contend than last summer's U18 European Championship was the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship where Croatia took bronze, Spain finished fourth and the Czech Republic were eighth - one spot ahead of hosts Lithuania.

Croatia may not have their superstar from the age group - Mario Hezonja - but they do have three players who teamed with Dario Saric at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship - Tomislav Gabric, Josip Gulam and Domagoj Bosnjak - not to mention 1996-born stud Marko Arapovic, the Zganec twins Karlo and Bruno as well as perhaps the next Croatian superstar-in-the-making, 1997-born small forward Lovro Mazalin, who collected 15 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists at the U16 European Championship last summer.

Spain meanwhile team together the strong trio of Ilimane Diop, Jose Nogues and Agusti Sans and those paying attention will also notice the name Juan Hernangomez - yep, the younger brother of Spain’s talented 1994-born center Guillermo Hernangomez.

Most of the Czech team that finished eighth last summer at the U17 Worlds is back and six of them also played at the just-finished U19 Worlds in Prague, where they took 14th place. While many in the host country may have been disappointed with the final ranking, it must be noted that five of the players were 1995-born and another from 1996 - in a tournament meant for 1994-born players.

Prokop Slanina was the Czechs' leading scorer and second-best rebounder while Martin Peterka was second in scoring and first in rebounding. Radovan Kouril is also in the mix as the fourth-leading scorer and top assist man while Jiri Soula led the team in steals. Adam Pechacek under-performed in Prague and 1996-born Matej Svoboda was a role player.

Turkey have some very intriguing talent, led by good-sized point guards Kenan Sipahi and Metecan Birsen. And another name many people will recognise is Kerem Kanter - the younger brother of Enes Kanter - who last summer played for the first time in Turkey's national team system at the U18 European Championship and had a solid showing with 7.1 points and 6.1 rebounds.

Serbia meanwhile will be missing some of their bigger names from the generation in Nikola Rebic, Dusan Ristic and Djoko Salic.

A couple other names to watch will be the Great Britain duo of Luke Nelson and Kingsley Okoroh, Damien Inglis of France, Bulgaria's Aleksandar Vezenkov and Alexander Gankevich from Russia.

David Hein

FIBA

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