Shortly after the Balkanic Next Star Cup concluded in Cluj-Napoca, Romania hosted another exciting international youth tournament in the southeastern city of Targu Jiu: the YDF U15. It was the second edition of this tournament after the inaugural one took place in Sofia, Bulgaria in September (coverage of which, courtesy of my respected colleague Paul Nilsen, you can find here: bit.ly/2Di7w4h)
The Youth Development Program (YDF) is a new 2 years long project (2018-2020) funded by FIBA Europe to attract new players to basketball, through promotion of basketball in schools, grassroots events, strong focus on mini-basket activities, coaches and educators trainings etc., as well as to create new youth tournaments.
The YDF U15 emerges out of this latter goal. It involves five Federations (Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, MKD and Kosovo) who each will host one tournament during the season. All the players are U14 (2004 born) at the beginning of the 2018-2019.

The initiative is fantastic as at this crucial young age of 14 it is uncommon to have the opportunity to play repeatedly at the international level and it will certainly be beneficial in the long term for all Federations concerned. Being able to gather their prospects in camps prior to the tournaments multiple times during the season will accelerate the players’ learning process and facilitate team-chemistry building, allowing each country to eventually arrive to European championships in a couple of years better prepared and stronger. Invaluable opportunity for all actors concerned.
The disparity of sizes and strengths of the Federations here involved also gives the chance for smaller, on paper weaker, countries to face stronger opponents and thus improve their competitiveness. Of the five, Turkey is the only country to play in division A at the U16 level. Romania (who suffered relegation to division B in 2017) and the other three countries compete in division B, a level Kosovo is just starting to discover as they took part until summer 2017 to division C action.

The first edition saw Bulgaria finish first on home soil, winning all of their games including a remarkable and prestigious rout of Turkey (+29). Targu Jiu was no different and Bulgaria again finished first and undefeated, consolidating their momentum. While they might have come up with a hold-up in their confrontation with Turkey overturning a 7pt deficit midway through Q4 to a 4pt lead 5 minutes later, mostly due to Turkish players misplaying and losing focus in the crunch, they did it without the presence of two of their best performers from the first edition: Radina Ilieva and Deana Stoyanovska, who after shining in Sofia got an invitation to join Bulgaria’s U16 team in Cluj-Napoca. Without these two, Bulgaria still showed an interesting and balanced roster full of athletic and in-shape players, not the tallest but very dynamic. Zehra Salim and Yana Karamfilova on the wings (both already impactful in Sofia), Gergana Zashova at the point and Margarita Ivanova under the basket were their most productive players during the tournament. Salim posted a couple of double-doubles (14-14 vs TUR ; 17-10 vs ROM) along the way, Karamfilova thanks to her length, tonicity and court-smartness is already capable to score in double digits (11 vs KOS), therefore a player to follow in the future. So is Ivanova whose size, frame and mobility will be great attributes in the paint moving forward. In the other three games, their intense defense, unselfish play and multiple offensive threat options saw them easily pass through Romania (+25) and Kosovo (+30), though Kosovo resisted well for a whole half before succumbing to Bulgaria’s full-court defensive intensity. Against MKD the contest was a closer one but they eventually prevailed by 8 points.
With their U16 team having displayed quality basketball in Cluj-Napoca, Bulgaria might be on the verge of being able to count on successive generations in order to improve their European ranking at U16 level.

Turkey will feel they blew a big opportunity to reclaim their favorite status in this tournament as they looked like the better and deeper national team of all five. But not just in the clash against Bulgaria did they struggle in the fourth quarter. What cost them the game (and first place) in that contest also allowed Romania to come back from a looking-strong 15pt deficit to a 7pt one in the last 5 minutes of the game. Against Kosovo, it was in the third quarter that Turkey didn’t manage to stay in their game, losing by 7 points that quarter against a team who finished winless in four games and had a consequent physical disadvantage on their opponents. Despite these alerts and concerning signs, that Turkish team looked very interesting. In all four games they got contribution from their entire roster, making them hard to predict and guard. Only in the game against Romania did two players reach double digits, otherwise the scoring was nicely shared by all players, with between 10 and 11 contributing 4 points or more each game. It was a very fit and athletic Turkish team who could count on some creative and bold players to impact their opponent’s defenses. Guards Dilay Usta and Derin Bulut, SF’s Eda Balkani and Selen Bass, center Zeynep Celik could be the ones worth to mention. Compared to recent Turkish U16 teams, this generation, who might be lacking potential standouts (like Erdogan, Yilmaz, Uzunoglu from last summer’s U16 semifinalists), seems ahead in terms of preparation and fitness, something Turkey has been struggling with in recent times. I could still put a coin on Balkani and Celik transforming into interesting prospects in the future. Time will tell.

The home team Romania finished with a balanced record of 2W-2L. Losing heavily to Bulgaria (-25), saving face against Turkey (-7), winning by a very small margin, although they had the game seemingly under control (leading by between 7-11 points in Q4 before going cold in the last minutes) against MKD (+2) and finally prevailing by 21pts against the talent wise short-handed Kosovo side. One player stood out from the pack: center Diania Balasiu, a tall, thin, long lefty who displayed very good mobility, nice basketball IQ and a good touch, which includes a promising mid range game. She finished in double-digits rebounding wise multiple times and posted a strong 21-10 effort in the tight win against MKD. Maria Pop was solid at the PG position but the rest of the team, though with some interesting profiles, is yet too erratic and insecure on the court. This translated in a large amount of turnovers (26 per game if you take away the game against Kosovo where they had just 11) and a low FG percentage around 30% an outing. But thanks to the YDF program Romania will have the occasion to gather again soon and keep improving. At this age a few weeks/months can make a huge difference.

MKD, but for one game where they got outpowered by the physicality of Turkey and crashed by 39pts, always gave a hard battle to their opponents, while seeing off Kosovo by 19pts. They couldn’t count on the depth of Bulgaria or Turkey but an active defense, some hard will and a trio of solid and interesting guards in Anja Daniloska (double digits in points in multiple games), Nina Zatirova (scoring + 9 assists vs KOS) and Mihaela Aleksovska, without whom no MKD action was happening, allowed them to stay in games. Their 8pt-only defeat against Bulgaria will give them motivation to keep working for the next tournament. Another country who can improve thanks to this new series of tournaments.

On the one hand you can look at Kosovo as the team with the, understandably, shortest roster, basically relying on the skills of two guards Astera Tuhina/Dije Daku, and on the hard work/good positioning of one center, Anita Grainca ; on the other hand you can also look at Kosovo as the country that had the most talented player of the whole tournament: the aforementioned Astera Tuhina. Either way, they lost all of their games by rather big margins, not coping for a whole game with their rivals. The closest contest was surprisingly against the tall and athletic Turkey (-13), but it came thanks to the brilliant display by Tuhina in that matchup. Their first 15 minutes against Bulgaria, where they were 23-27 will also serve as motivation to keep working, before they crashed to score only 8pts in 25 minutes.
Tuhina, Daku and Grainca, despite being just 14, have already been playing internationally with their country’s U16 NT, all three having taken part to #FIBAEuropeU16 division B last summer. If that is already a feat, then Tuhina who was already making an impact the summer before, at just 13, during #FIBAEuropeU16 division C, is at another level. The young PG and do-it-all backcourt was sensational in Targi Jiu posting repeated performances: 26-11-3as vs TUR, 4-8-9as vs BUL, 15-10-4as vs ROM & 18-7-5as vs MKD. There still is much work ahead for her, as for now, her ball-handling, feel for the game, speed, change of pace, touch are really promising though perfectible. Her great motivation and will help her to be everywhere on the court, and she equally enjoys scoring and dishing. While it’s still a long way for Kosovo to erupt on the international scene, the fact that their U18 NT won their first game last summer during an official competition, plus some promises coming from their youngest, one will probably hear more about the country in the future.
Back-court partner Daku, though less fancy, is a very solid complement to Tuhina for scoring and for taking care of the ball, both setting a strong tempo to their team’s offense. More players will have to improve until next toutnament if they want to potentially defeat one of the other four countries. But this is why these events are for.

Results

Dec 19th
Bulgaria – Romania 55-30
Kosovo – MKD 42-61
Turkey – Bulgaria 47-51
Romania – Kosovo 55-34

Dec 20th
Turkey – MKD 50-11
Bulgaria – Kosovo 61-31
MKD – Romania 46-48
Kosovo – Turkey 41-54

Dec 21st
Romania – Turkey 63-70
MKD – Bulgaria 39-47


1/ Bulgaria 4W-0L
2/ Turkey 3W-1L
3/ Romania 2W-2L
4/ MKD 1W-3L
5/ Kosovo 0W-4L