if the polish is almighty then there is a problem. France with their talent should have been able to obliterate every team in their group by 20 points at least but they had many close games. That's why I said the picture they have given until now it's not of a megabeast favourite. That doesn't mean they aren't favourites but it means that Turkey has chances still even if they are more inexperienced and with less talent they play more as a team and with better coach and system. Are you as a French satisfied by the picture until now or you expected them to show more?
Germany will try to host a Wild Card tournament for the Olympics, Dirk said he'd probably play in that case.
Anyone familiar with this 23 yo 6'7" Czech PG, Tomáš Satoranský? Dude is leading the tournament in assists with 8.4. Looks like the Wizards have his rights
Good athlete not good shoter. He has a potential to become a rotation player IMO. That's great, will be very happy to watch him once again.
if you get the wild card that means basically they are going to pay a huge paycheck. In which case I am fully on board. The german federation sold off for tickets to face Turkey and now have to pony up to host. There is not ONE single team from group D that deserved to qualify over Germany.( Lithuania has looked awful).
Yeah, France has a very strong defense, especially in the paint with the stifle tower. Parker, Diaw, and Batum have all been coasting so far, but interestingly De Colo & Lauvergne have stepped up the last few games. With that defense, they have the foundation to be competitive in the knock out rounds, but they still need their older stars to step up their game against more difficult opponents. Greece and Serbia seem to be the best team up to this point, but they have not been playing like juggernaut either, this year tournament is quite interesting !
Greece is not a good team because it can't shoot to save its life. My standings until now Serbia France ........... .... Spain Turkey Croatia Italy Greece Slovenia Lithuania Haven't watched Poland and Israel. Turkey has great defence. Italy hasn't good bench, good system,good coach and they don't know what is defence. But its a small tournament so who knows what can happen. Croatia is young but has good firepower they can play competent defence but they are too inexperienced and have horrible guards. Also they are still chockers until proven otherwise.
Refs missed f...ing clear goaltending and called techinal foul our coach. We lost the momentum and probably game too. Homecourt advantage ladies and gentleman.
Well Turkey fought very hard in the first but then it started getting out of hand. But for their youth they did very well. THey have a great future, only need to find some good guards.. The next phase pairs that will be played on Tuesday are Spain - Greece France - Latvia Tomorrow are the games Croatia - Czech Rep Serbia - Finland Israel - Italy Lithuania - Georgia The most interesting is the first and third. But Georgia can make the surprise and defeat Lithuania as well.
Despite the talent we've had over the years, we allways had a mental problem (see 2004 Tournament). At some point during the last EuroBasket in 2013 it clicked and we've been doing quit good. This year not only do we have a good starting 5 but our bench is quit deep. On the perimeter, while Batum has his ups and downs, De Colo has brought alot more to the table therefor we don't rely as much on Parker's scoring. Inside Diaw is doing the job and most of all Gobert is a huge difference maker. I'll let them off with the first game against Finland as Collet was looking for the correct rotation. But now we're rolling. Today's game was nasty.
Croatia weren't even contender status, no shock at all imo. And it's not like Czech Republic was a team full of scrubs.
It's their Balkan mentality. The media and public has been talking only about the quarter-final showdown against Serbia, forgetting that they have to beat Chech Republic first.
You are very wrong on all points. NOW it makes sense, but what you said would make no sense prior to Eurobasket. To me it is shocking
