In a change from the normal format of tournament reviews, it’s time to bring you some general thoughts from the Spanish U13/U14 and U15/U16 Championships in Huelva.

With so many teams and an action packed few days over the ‘Three Kings’ holiday/festival weekend (200 games, 900 athletes, 4,000 people), it’s best that you use official resources to check out all the news and results.

Only dipping into the last few days of the competition for BlueStar Media off the back of my colleague Pierre Ploszajski being on the ground throughout the 2018 edition with his in-depth dive, there was still enough time in 2019 for things to catch my eye.

In a nutshell, this annual event brings together girls and boys teams from all the Spanish provinces/regions, with two different age categories being 2005-06-born (infantil) and 2003-04 born (cadete). In reality though, as the event is played the first week of the calendar year, it is important to remember that the actual ages of 90% plus of these players are actually U12/U13 and U14/U15.

The headlines from the event are two-fold in my opinion.

Firstly, Catalunya made the Final as favorites in both Finals, but in surprise results, they lost both the Infantil (to Madrid) and Cadete (to hosts Andalucia) in the title games. In the case of the Cadete, the locals celebrated with glee in a great environment which was raucous to say the least and in a great Final. The well known #FIBAU16Europe (Kaunas 2018) player Marta Morales landed a brilliant double-double of 31 points and 13 boards. Madrid won the Cadetes gold with a truly spectacular 5-31 blowout fourth quarter that was probably the most unexpected 10 minutes of basketball I have seen in a decade.

Secondly, the skills and fundamentals of these Spanish kids and especially Infantile – essentially girls turning 13 this year were simply insane (amongst the leading teams). So much so, I spent half of my time wondering how many of these provinces would actually beat full national teams from other countries and even those playing at older age groups.

Other thoughts/observations and focusing on Infantile…

After those main two things, my thoughts raced as to how there is no way that nations can aspire to hit this level at this young age. You can throw all the money and resources you want at it, but it would be a couple of generations before you would even get close to having players like Spain have at Infantil. As the esteemed @BlueStarEurope stated to me, these kids have seen so many before them set the high bar – they know what standards are required. Indeed, demanded.

The ball-handling, footwork, all-around grasp of the game and IQ was phenomenal for their age. It blew my mind seeing it up close.

One of the most eye-catching aspects of the tournament was the rules whereby players inbound their own ball without the referee touching it from all situations except where there is a stoppage in play (foul or substitution for example). I have to say I hated it at first, but when executed by the better teams, you could see the value around fitness, transition defense and so on. I remain yet to be fully convinced, but it was an interesting dimension.

I am not going to delve into individual players that I liked too much, since I did not see enough of them to make a full judgement and will enjoy looking back on my tentative selections and notes in future years and watching their development (to see if I did manage to pick out the better ones).

The organisation of the tournament was brilliant as always. The facilities were very good and Spain enhanced its reputation as an elite basketball nation. Congratulations to those involved. I have to say that this tournament is also so brilliant because of all the families who are there watching their kids and creating such a special atmosphere. Also there are no pretentions from coaches, Technical Directors and those in the Federation. Typically, everyone turns up, enjoys, supports, plays hard, goes home and works harder.

Last but not least, I drove away from Huelva in the Spanish sunshine with mixed emotions. Honored to have seen so many rising stars and exciting young talents that I hope to cover for BlueStar and/or FIBA at future #FIBAU16Europe tournaments.

But, also depressed that (as a Brit) these 12-14 year old girls would probably beat the Great Britain U16 team hands down and that people in the UK just don’t appreciate how far behind we are. They are stuck in their own bubbles and not spending time coming to tournaments like this and having their eyes opened.

Keep it locked to @basketmedia365