It was not the usual trip I might have planned between Christmas and New Year, but the Olympic Hopes Tournament in Levice, Slovakia was worth the trip to see some interesting prospects.

Taking place in a small town a couple of hours away from the capital Bratislava across three days and involving four nations – namely the hosts Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, it was also a competition for boys as well as the girls.

The tournament offers an early heads up for a quartet of teams who will compete during the 2020 #FIBAU16Europe competitions, with the rosters predominantly 2004 born players, with a few other 2005’s thrown in. Three of the four competing nations in Levice will play in Division A next summer and Slovakia in Division B.

As anticipated, Hungary and Czech Republic were a cut above, while Poland were sadly without a couple of notable Blue Star 30 Europe Gran Canaria (2019) campers which made them mediocre at best. Slovakia had a real standout and outside of that, it was slim pickings.

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One of the most pleasing aspects was actually the opening game, which saw a really classy showing between the two favorites Czech Republic and Hungary. I was scribbling my notes frantically with plenty of nice players on show. Not least, Virag Pfeiffer, the sweet lefty playmaker who was in Granca in this past summer attending the Blue Star 30 camp. She showed out in a big way with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, while continually stuffing the highlights reel. Although was not quite able to inspire Hungary to the win as they only just fell short 80-77.

Watching Czech Republic gave me an avalanche of déjà vu moments. With the long-serving and excellent Richard Fousek at the helm, who is an expert at this age group (he won the title with his country at #FIBAU16Europe a few years ago in Matosinhos in one of the most memorable youth tournaments ever) it was standard Czech basketball. Team-orientated, with no massively outstanding individuals, but all competent and technically sound(ish) players who all got buckets and did their thing.

Hungary had the better individuals by far, but they didn’t go as deep and with the officials giving them the thin end of the wedge, it was such a 50-50 game.

The evening contest on the first day epitomized the difference in quality. It was actually a decent game in the end between Poland and Slovakia, but the overall quality was dreadful if the truth be told. Yet there were a couple of diamonds in the rough and the purpose was to check out for those individual stars coming over the hill and in that sense, the box was ticked as Poland took the game 60-59.

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The rest of the tournament panned out very predictably in terms of performances and results – almost to scrip. Perhaps with the exception of Czech Republic only just scraping past Poland. The reason was probably down to more bench players being put on the floor for longer.

There was one nice experience on the Sunday I have to confess, which was simply seeing Slovakia playing Czech Republic in a derby. It was not lost on an old man like me that not so long ago in history, these girls would have been on the same team ie Czechoslovakia. Which threw me straight into the fun task of putting together a joint team in 2019 versus what I was seeing. I think I had 9 Czechs and just 3 Slovak girls.

In summary, it was great to get eyes on another four teams ahead of this year’s #FIBAU16Europe . There were 3-4 very, very good talents and as an experience, I have to say congratulations to those involved in Levice at doing a great job with the competition.

As for the details of those who starred outside of Pfeiffer, you know what to do, since it ain’t a case of cut and paste anymore!

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