Today is the off day at the FIBA u19 Women’s World Championships. As the only person here outside the USA contingent and the parents who came on this trip, it was nice to have the day to relax after three straight days of full days of play.
Not as bad as your typical summer travel team event where you go from 8am to 10pm this was a little more relaxed situation for everyone. The weather has been cool and mostly sunny with little rain. The best is being able to come out of games at 10:30pm (mostly after the USA plays the late games) and still being light outside. Because we are so high up in latitude in the Baltics, the sun sets late and high to the point that even at 2am you can still see twilight on the horizon while the full moon rises on the other side. Pretty awesome for those not familiar with the “White Nights.”
Pretty awesome has been the play of the u19 USA Women’s team led by NCAA Division 1 Women’s Championship game MVP Breanna Stewart from UConn and fellow freshman teammates Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson. These three along with vets Candace Agee (Penn State), Bashaara Graves (Tenn), joins with college newcomers Linnae Harper (Kentucky), Alexis Jones (Duke) plus three high school phenoms Brianna Turner (TX), Gabby Green (CA) and A’ja Wilson (SC) for a gold-medal prospecting team.
This team has dominated Pool D play against Lithuania, China and Mali scoring over 100pts per game and limiting the teams to under 56 points. Everyone on the roster has been contributing points in most of these blowouts but the dominate player has been Stewart. The 6-3 all-everything from North Syracuse, NY has been spectacular even in limited play averaging 21 ppg and second highest scorer in the event. The team has been loose and having fun under the watchful eye of Miami FL Coach Katie Meier (assisted by LSU’s Nikki Caldwell & Gonzaga’s Kelly Graves) who has her core of Stewart, Tuck, Jefferson, Agee and Graves to chase her second FIBA youth gold medal.
Preliminary medal round play begins on Monday in Panevėžys Lithuania where the USA has played the entire event. The other side of the bracket prior to the next round has been in Baltic city port of Klaipeda about 3hrs away which I feel has a better arena and atmosphere. The USA squad will face a young Netherlands which has 8 members of it’s 2012 u17 team on the roster. The will know the USA team as Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman is an assistant for the team. On Tuesday when college coaches can attend this event, the USA will face a tough Canada squad with a lot of college prospects on it. On Wednesday the last prelimary round game will be the biggest test in France.
The French which has the most talented rosters from Olympic (silver medal in ’12 London) down to Youth and Cadets will feature enough athletes to contend with the USA players. The big advantage for USA (as it was in London) will be the ability of the USA’s entire roster to step up and score points which the French do not well because of their equal-opportunity offenses and philosophy. College will be in awe of this talent, especially the starting five of 5 Epoupa, 11 Ayiya, 7 Turcinovic, 14 Gaye and 15 Sissoko plus 8 Toure, which is locked into the French Academy system where the “school” is paid when the talent is signed with a French team. Also, those who traverse the program must be able to turn down a lucrative European pro contract if they wanted to go to college in the US where each of them are impact D1 college players. Simple math and dollars make it rare for a top flight French player to make it into the US college ranks today.
The same goes for Australia where this country of limited population is turning out massive amounts of bigs with ability and talent. If you are that good, that big, that talented you’re in the AIS program (Australian Institute of Sport) or signing with one of the nine Aussie WNBL women’s pro teams. This team is huge with 8 of 12 players 6-0 and over. They lost to the USA team a week ago 71-66 (USA beat Canada, Spain also) in Lanzainote, CI on opening night holding a lead midway through the 4th quarter. (France was only top team in Lithuania not to play the USA in the Lanzainote Tournament last week.) This Saturday the Aussies lost to a guard dominated Spain team 81-63. After watching the Aussies player on Friday it was still obvious from 2012 with the u17s that they lacked the athletic, savvy guard play to match their wonderful forwards-post like 6-6 Mijovic, 6-2 Garbin, 6-0 Samuels and 6-1 Talbot. With so many bigs there’s a lack of an offense built about outside offensive ability. Regardless there are players like Louise Brown (AIS) and Maddison Penn (AIS) would be great USA college recruits. (review my SocialCam w L.Brown from u17s last August).
The players now making it from a never-go-to-the-USA country to abandon ship is Spain. With the demise of the Spanish economy, also went the demise of women’s professional basketball in Spain. A lot of the top Spanish players hold what spots are left in the Liga Femenina de Baloncestoor or head overseas to roster spots in Turkey, Russia or any Euroleague or EuroCup teams. Spain is one of the top contenders to reach the final after beating Australia by almost 20 on Saturday. This is a young team with four from last year’s FIBA u17 runnerup to the USA in Amsterdam. Their four starters are going to US colleges in Romero (Kansas St.) Gari (UTEP), Faussurier (Arkansas) and Pujol (South Florida). The fifth player is 6-6 phenom Astou Ndour from Senegal (who I saw dunk on tape at 14) and the Canaries. She is a difference maker on this quad and could give a lot of teams, including France, some problems. This is a big guard team with game savvy and a big. They lost to the USA in the Canaries tournament 78-49 and to Australia 75-58 but got revenge on Saturday 81-63. A number of coaches will be babysitting their players and looking for other talent from other teams on Tuesday.
Canada is the best prospect for prospects when they play the USA on Wednesday. This team lost to France in a tough game 65-60 after taking a 13-0 lead and 25-8 after the first quarter. The French put the heat on the Canadian and event top scorer Jamie Weisner (Oregon State) who’s averaged 23.5 ppg and limited her to just 14pts. Canada has interesting talent in 6-5 Emily Potter, 6-0 Kaylee Halvorson, 6-5 Emma Wolfram and 6-4 Saicha Grant-Allen. This is not as tough an inside group with last year’s u17 FIBA 3rd place finisher without the 6-2 Caron-Goudreau twins, Audrey-Ann and Khaleann. Even with 5 other returners from the u17s it hasn’t been enough to overcome loses to the USA and France. Coaches will still be here following the Canada team as it has height that’s usually unrecruited by the D1 top 10 programs.
Other teams of interest for college coaches are a very guard weak Russia team with 6-2 post Albina Razheva, a battler on the boards. Serbia which was a disappointment despite it’s size and length lacked game heart and fight losing two games after winning early. This is a place to get talent if you have and make the relationships. Look at 6-2 scorer Natasa Kovacevic and bigs 6-3 Katarina Vuckovic and 6-5 Jelena Ciric which might be pros. Japan has one of our favorite players from last years’ u17s in 5-10 USA-born Yunika Nakamura from Huntsville AL who’s a steal is you chase her. Netherlands has 8 players from it’s u17 making this trip with Slim going to Syracuse and others open for recruiting including 6-2 post Emese Hof, 6-3 sub Charlotte van Kleef and 5-11 Lisanne de Jonge. There are others worth looking at for roles and mid level play. Brazil has four tough players in 5-10 beast small forward Isabela Ramona, 6-3 post Maria Carolina De Oliveira, 5-11 vet forward Vanessa Goncalves and tough guard 5-7 Carla Lucchini. Most play some level of pro in Brazil but might be convinced to come North. As for Mali and Senegal, both have some big but are too raw and lean to contribute to a D1 program without major sit-out and work. Host Lithuania has a couple of big forwards but more suited for mid D1. China is the heart-breaker of the event as they have trio of smooth bigs in 14 6-4 Hengyu Yang, 12 6-3 Yaoming Hu and 7 6-0 Jiahe Zhang. The small forward game here is more fluid and athletic than the past but the issue is still sporadic and stiff guard play. South Korea has a very young big worth following in 6-4 Ji Su Park born in December 1998.
I hope this gives you a real look at what’s going on here in the land of the midnight twilight this week at the FIBA u19s.
