France, Serbia seem destined to battle for Group D top spot
SAMSUN (FIBA U18 European Championship) - Group D of the FIBA U18 European Championship 2016 seems like it will be decided by the final game of the group - with France facing Serbia, likely for first place in the standings.
Hoping to keep one if not both of those powers from the top two spots in the group - and subsequent passage into the Quarter-Finals - are Slovenia and Russia.
France are the European champions of the 1998 generation, having won the FIBA U16 European Championship in 2014. Les Bleus are missing the major leader from that team, MVP Killian Tillie, who is playing collegiate basketball in the United States.
But head coach Tahar Assed does have a high-quality roster with two of the most exciting players in all of Europe.
Frank Ntilikina is already playing a major role for SIG Strasbourg in the Basketball Champions League but he will be the undisputed boss for this French team.
Re-joining Ntilikina are fellow 2014 U16 European champs Bathiste Tchouaffe, Jules Rambaut, Elhadji-digue Diawara, Adam Mokoka, Abdoulaye N'doye and Timothe Vergiat.
The French team also includes Ivan Fevrier, who was one of France's best players at this summer's FIBA U17 World Championship.
On top of all that, many European fans will also get their first glimpse of Sekou Doumbouya, the Guinea-born emerging star talent who will not turn 16 until 23 December and is already playing in France’s ProB.
Can Ntilikina, Doumbouya and Co. lead France to their first U18 European crown since 2006?
One team standing in their way - at least in the group stage - is Serbia, who are out for their first title in this age class since 2009.
This is a very loaded Serbian team for coach Milan Gurovic, led by star forward prospect Borisa Simanic, who is one of the top-rated players of his generation.
But this team has much more than just Simanic. Aleksa Radanov is a wing who can handle the ball, Milos Glisic is a beast in the post and Nikola Miskovic and Aleksa Stepanovic are weapons that can attack outside and inside. Stefan Djordjevic is a quiet worker in the low block.
One issue with Novak Music and Aleksa Uskokovic manning the point guard position is that neither are particularly tall. One solution could be 2.03m playmaker Lazar Nikolic, who is back in the Serbian youth national team ranks for the first time since the U16 European Championship in 2014.
One player missing from the Serbian roster is Aleksandar Aranitovic, who tore his ACL for a second time just a couple weeks before the tournament - just days before he was going to return to the court from the first ACL surgery.
Slovenia return to Division A after two summers in Division B, and coach Tomaz Fartek has four players back from the team that earned promotion in 2015. Gaber Ozegovic was the second leading scorer on that team with 10.3 points and also played this summer's FIBA U20 European Championship, while Matic Vesel averaged 7.1 points and 4.7 rebounds in 2015. The other two players were Matej Janezic and Aljaz Bratec.
Znana dvanajsterica reprezentantov za U18 evropsko prvenstvo divizije A. https://t.co/bn2TGVUGfp pic.twitter.com/QVzkcVzSKn
— Košarkarska zveza SI (@kzs_si) December 13, 2016
Another key player for Fartek's team will be 1999-born guard David Kralj, who was the leading scorer of the U16 team in 2015.
But the Slovenians will have a hard time cracking the top two in the group.
Russia meanwhile have not reached the Quarter-Finals since 2013. And they definitely face an uphill battle against France and Serbia.
The leader of the team will likely be Andrei Lopatin, who played in this competition in 2015 as a bottom level player.
Задача - выйти из группы! #командаРоссии отправляется в Турцию на #FIBAU18Europe. Первый матч уже в эту пятницу.@russiabasket pic.twitter.com/HhfiCW4pMD
— Olympic Russia (@Olympic_Russia) December 13, 2016
Lopatin also will have the comfort of playing with a couple of his former teammates from the U16 European Championship in 2014 including Sergey Klyuev, Denis Velichkin, Semen Barashkov and Kirill Popov.
Another player who could have a factor in the Russian game is Mikhail Andrianov of CSKA Moscow.
FIBA