Last week, April 18th-22nd, took place in the cities of Parma and Salsomaggiore Terme (Emilia-Romagna, Italy) the “Trofeo delle Regioni” (“Trophy of the Regions”) or the U15 National Championship of Regions, organized by the Italian Basketball Federation (FIP, Federazione Italiana Pallacanestro).
First created in 1982, the tournament endured a hiatus from 1992 to 2001 but has been back running every year since 2002, making the 2019 edition the 29th of its kind. It is the most important event at youth level in Italy. It constitutes a real celebration, and showcase, for the entire Italian basketball family as all twenty regions are represented in both girls and boys categories. Close to five hundreds players (480), not counting the coaching and medical staffs, delegations, referees, officials attend the event, which takes place annually during Easter holidays. Despite the enormous amount of work regarding logistics and organization, the event was a real success, and both athletes and media were put in optimal conditions to work, with great ressources available ahead and during the competition, whether print or online.
On top of the five-days long competition, the Federation organized during the event, as signs of its vitality and voluntarism, a coaching clinic attended by some 200 coaches as well as the fourth session of the new federal program “Ragazze in tiro” (“Shooting women”) initiated by new senior NT Head Coach Marco Crespi in March 2018. The program gathers selected prospects aged 15 to 21 in few days long camps dedicated specifically to the fundamentals, skills and art of shooting in order to ensure Italy can be competitive and even have the edge at the international level in the years to come. It’s the newest testimony of Italy’s attention and dedication to grassroot work in their quest to producing elite players playing skilled basketball. As a reflection of this comes the observation that in this tourmanent even when actions didn’t meet success you could feel the hours spent doing drills and the care put into the execution. The attention to details is high on Italian development list. The issue is that basketball is far from being the number one sport for girls in the country, volleyball being much more successful, making the talent pool from which the Federation, through its regional committees, can pick thinner. Therefore it is not surprising that, barring traditional basketball hub such as Bologna (Emilia Romagna) or Schio/Venezia (Veneto) it is the regions with the biggest urban areas (Lombardia, Milano / Lazio, Roma / Piemonte, Torino) that manage to have deeper rosters in talent, quality and potential, when other regions can count on one or maximum two really impactful players.
I arrived on location for three days, on the 3rd day of action, right on time to watch the final phase. The tournament was held in multiple venues in the two cities of Parma and Salsomaggiore Terme which are 15 miles apart, making it quite a journey, always an interesting one, to go from game to game. For instance after two days of action I had already been to four different venues for as many games. On my menu was the creme of the competition: quarter finals, semi finals and title match. It is worth noting that the 2004 generation which was involved here already made strides last summer as a NT when they won the U14 Slovenia Ball in August finishing undefeated with statement wins against Hungary, Croatia and Israel.
From what I saw at the tournament I am not suprised at all by this result. When you cut down the 10-15 best players present you really have a very talented and skilled group for such a quite early age, boding really well for Italy’s long term ambitions. Italy’s chances at 2020 U16 European Championship will be strong, and even stronger at the 2021 edition with their 2005 generation. Moreover with geopolitics and the migration situation, Italy now has, yet quite raw at the basketball level, added forms of athelticism at its disposal, barring some paper issues as all players didn’t hold an italian passport at this point. This nevertheless opens new perspectives in the mid to long term for the Federation. The senior NT already starts to benefit from it with for example the coming into prominence of the well-documented on this site by both my colleague Paul Nilsen and I rising star Olbis Futo André who will make her debut at EuroBasket Women this coming June and is set to be Italy’s anchor in the paint for the next decade.
The system of the competition in Italy, unlike in other countries, looks very much like a bracket system instead of a typical round robin one: a ranking from 1 to 20 is established prior to the tournament based on past results by each region. This bracket is divided in four distinct blocks as follows:
#1-#4 / #5-#8 / #9-#12 / #13-#20
On day 1 teams within each block face other, i.e #1 vs #4, #2 vs #3 / #5 vs #8, #6 vs #7 / #13 vs #20, #14 vs #19 etc.
On day 2 all teams, besides the four losing sides from the #13-#20 block, got a shot at a quarter final spot, allowing to the less well ranked teams ahead of the tournament to still advance to the final phase. Thus winners from the #13-#20 block would cross with the #1-#4 block, same went between the #5-#8 and #9-#12 blocks.
The eight winning teams from day 2 set the quarter finals field.
The pre-tournament ranking was as follows:
1. Lombardia
2. Emilia-Romagna
3. Friuli-Venezia-Guilia
4. Veneto
5. Piemonte
6. Liguria
7. Marche
8. Sicilia
9. Toscana
10. Lazio
11. Campania
12. Sardegna
13. Puglia
14. Umbria
15. Trentino A.A
16. Abruzzo
17. Valle d’Aosta
18. Calabria
19. Molise
20. Basilicata
On day 3, the 8 quarter finalists were as follow: Lombardia (#1), Emilia-Romagna (#2), Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (#3), Veneto (#4), Piemonte (#5), Lazio (#10), Campania (#11) and Sardegna (#12), with the last three punching above their ranking weight.
The two better ranked teams here, Lombardia and the home team Emilia-Romagna, definitely had the two deeper and more talented rosters, combining for over 70% of the prospects present, unfortunately Emilia-Romagna’s defeat on inaugural day to Friuli-Venezia-Guilia prevented the tournament from seeing them face each other in the title match, but rather in the semi-finals. That game match-up turned out to be a high level contest, the real final ahead of time. Though these numbers dropped considerably later on, after 10′ the teams had shot 63% and 55% from the field, with all baskets well built, giving a glimpse of a strong future ahead.
Lombardia‘s game was paced by a trio of elite prospects in the backcourt with great feeling for the game and promising court-IQ, backed-up by quality and solid small forwards and power forwards. The superiority of their guards (combined for 57 of their team 60 points in the SF) proved to be enough to see all the other teams off, though Emilia-Romagna caused them much trouble with their size advantage and physicality. Thanks to their talent, Lombardia were the team who displayed better control of games’ rhythm, better floor spacing of all teams. A very dynamic, daring, inspired style. Intense at both ends of the floor. Very deserving champions. Visibly the better team. 4th consecutive title… 9th overall (in 29 edtions). Bravo campeone!
Emilia-Romagna could count on really talented guards as well, though one year younger than Lombardia’s, and were better equipped down low with strong, capable and physical bigs, giving them enough edge to compete with everyone. After losing only by 2 in the SF they went on to rout Piemonte in the 3rd place game, their defensive pressure proving way too much for the Piemonte guards. Overall a very talented and focused team with a real capacity to impact on the inside and on the outside both physically and skillwise.
Lazio had multiple quality players of which some real prospects. They were solid in their QF against Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and should have secured their W much earlier and clearer in that game, especially after FVG lost one of their best player to injury in the first half. When facing a less deep team, their numerous quality options allowed them to move the ball well and impact from various positions. One could vote them the most passionate team of all also, and you can easily imagine that the overall standard in that aspect in Italy is already pretty high, so it gave them a real edge particularly in their SF thriller win against Piemonte. But as soon as their opponent had as much quality if not more, then their game would become very off rhythm and forced plays prone. After winning the QF, they hardly were better than Piemonte, and came up with the hold up in that SF, edging their opponent, as mentioned above, only after a strong Q4 to move onto the title. The second semi final proving very different from the Lombardia / Emilia-Romagna one, with very low field goal percentage, respectively 15% & 22% at halftime for instance. Too many turnovers and poor recognition were the trends. The intensity and thrill of a tight game made it nevertheless interesting all along. In the title match they existed one half, surfing on their own defensive pressure before suffocating after the break, not able to control Lombardia’s defensive pressure strike-back.
Piemonte had solid and character full players, some of which promising, others a bit one-sided needing to prove as time will go by they’re able to evolve and add versatility to remain impactful. Difficult recognition, forced plays, turnovers were covered by valid-til-that-age-categeory individual feats. They had enough talent to understandably claim their semi final spot but their struggle to see off Veneto in their QF stressed the needed work that lay ahead of them. Their SF wasn’t any prettier, they lost a game they should have never lost, succombing to Lazio pressure and passion in the final 5 minutes, to eventually lose by 2
Friuli-Venezia-Giulia which I only saw play once saw one of their better player leave court to injury in the first half of their QF (she returned to action in classification games), and from what I saw were dependant on one very skilled elite prospect who had the capacity to lift her team on her shoulders and take over any responsability necessary from as many as four positions on the court from 1 to 4. But this lack of depth prevented them from competing with deeper opponents.
Taken into account my remarks concerning the size of the pool of players from which Italian basketball can choose from, and the disparity of forces between teams due to demography which shaped the background of this competition, the overall level was very promising. And all positions look covered as far as potential is concerned. The new richeness at the forward position must be stressed. As it is now it looks like both the short and mid terms should see Italy be able to compete face-to-face with any sides at the international level. How some of the elite prospects seen here will evolve in the long term at senior level is a fascinating unknown. Nevertheless much work remains in tempo control, ball movement, cutting forced plays, and spacing before these predictions fully come to fruition. Plus serious work on the FT front is mandatory as the 30%-40% have been reached way to often, and on high volume attempts.
I’ll leave the final words to Giovanni Lucchesi: Head Coach of Italy’s U16 NT, 2018 U16 European Champion, 2015 U17 World Cup Silver medallist, 2010 U18 European Champion, and one of the most involved protagonist in the Italian women’s game from youth to senior level:
“It was a well-played tournament with some excellent individualities. I saw many players who I think offer us good perspective for the future, even on a physical level. We must jealously preserve the enthusiasm of the girls. Demography and overall numbers of players do not help us, but I believe passion can overcome every difficulty.”
Results
Quarter Finals
Lombardia / Sardegna 82-41
Friuli-Venezia-Guilia / Lazio 43-54
Emilia-Romagna / Campania 64-38
Veneto / Piemonte 57-64
Semi Finals
Lombardia / Emilia-Romagna 60-58
Lazio / Piemonte 49-47
Title Game
Lombardia / Lazio 68-49
3rd Place
Emilia-Romagna / Piemonte 81-57
Final standings
1. Lombardia
2. Lazio
3. Emilia Romagna
4. Piemonte
5. Veneto
6. Sardegna
7. Friuli Venezia Giulia
8. Campania
9. Toscana
10. Liguria
11. Sicilia
12. Marche
13. Umbria
14. Trentino Alto Adige
15. Valle d’Aosta
16. Abruzzo
17. Puglia
18. Molise
19. Calabria
20. Basilicata
official site of the tournament: http://www.fip.it/trofeodelleregioni/trofeo-delle-regioni-2019-femminile.asp
