Spain are once again Europe's finest basketball team

Did you follow the EuroBasket? You know, that thing featuring the best basketball teams in Europe, and the best European basketball players, and some incredible hoops in Lithuania the past three weeks? No, LeBron and Kobe weren't there. They didn't need to be: as the EuroBasket 2011 proved, we have come a long way in the last two decades. Basketball in Europe was always competitive and featured high-quality, but now, it is becoming mainstream too, and in my opinion, more exciting than ever.

With the NBA lockout threatening to keep us away from high-quality basketball for a long, long time, there was no better place to see the next best thing of competitive world class hoops action than the EuroBasket. No fear, NBA-philes, for there was a healthy representation of the league in this championship. The Final of the EuroBasket featured the two teams with the most NBA players: Spain and France. What does that prove? Well, first of all, NBA teams know what the hell they are up to and are signing the world's best players. And secondly, it's showing the confidence that European players are gleaning from their time in the NBA, which is helping up dominate back home.

The champions were once again Spain, who have now won the EuroBasket for the second time in a row, and are perhaps the world's best team outside of the mighty USA, and were the only team to push the 'Redeem Team' to the brink in the 2008 Olympics. Don't worry, Spain fans, your team will get that chance again: by qualifying for the EuroBasket finals, both Spain and France also booked their place for the 2012 Olympics. USA are already there because of their World Championship victory.

But back to the EuroBasket final, though: it was a fair final, featuring two of the best teams in the competition. Spain's NBA representation came in the form of the mighty Gasol brothers (Pau and Marc), Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, and newly nationalised Serge Ibaka. Funny, because the one man this list doesn't mention is the man who was actually named MVP of the tournament, Juan Carlos Navarro.

France had the likes of Tony Parker, Joakim Noah, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, and Kevin Seraphin. Mikael Pietrus, another talented French player in the NBA, missed the tournament due to injury.

The final was more or less the Navarro show, as the talented swingman carried off the momentum he had going in the semi-final to pour in 27 points and added five assists in the final. The Barcelona player known as "La Bomba" had 35 points against Macedonia in the semis just a few nights earlier. The EuroBasket MVP averaged 18.7 ppg in the course of the tournament, but saved his biggest performances for the end.

Spain led most of the way and won the game 98-85, which is quite a high-scoring result for an international game. Pau Gasol, who I still believe is Spain's most important player, seemed to be playing hobbled through the course of the tournament, but he still poured in 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Final. Gasol averaged 20.1 ppg and 8.3 rpg in the tournament.

Tony Parker was easily the best point guard in Europe in the tournament, and scored 26 points in a losing effort in the Final. Parker was the leading scorer at the EuroBasket, averaging 22.1 ppg.

One of the stories of the championship was the team from Macedonia. Completely underrated, Macedonia had a fairy-tale run into the Semi-Finals, which included an incredible victory over the hosts and superpower Lithuania in the Quarter-Finals. Macedonia were led by Bo McCalebb, an American born Macedonia-nationalised player, who averaged 21.4 ppg in the course of the tournament.

And then there was Russia: a team which quietly and efficiently went about their business, losing only one game, that a semi-final to France, en-route to a third place finish in the tournament. Russia were led, as usual, by the brilliant Andrei Kirilenko (who has unfortunately not been that brilliant for the Utah Jazz over the past several years). Russia defeated Macedonia in a close game 72-68, to win third place.

The biggest disappointment of the EuroBasket was found in Spain too, and he went by the name of Ricky Rubio. Few 20-year-olds have had this many pendulum swings in individual form, team success, and public opinion than Rubio. A player who became a star at 15, was troubling the world's best at the Olympics in 2008, was drafted by the Timberwolves in 2009 and didn't show, won a lot with his club and his country, but somewhere in between, completely lost confidence and now seems to be a ghost of a player we once saw. And all this before he can legally buy himself a drink in America: which is something he should be thinking about right now, since Rubio is finally making his trip to the NBA to play for the T-Wolves when and if the Lockout ends. Rubio had a horrible championship, but hey, he was the point guard / floor general of the best team in Europe. His talent will never be statified, so I won't even try: you have to watch him play and see the team results to decide how good or bad he is.

So, to sum it up, Rubio was bad at the Euros, but he was good enough to win!

The other disappointment was Turkey, who, after a brilliant silver-medal performance at the World Championship, couldn't even make it past the group stage in this tournament, and ended at 11th place.

In the earlier rounds, players like Luol Deng for Great Britain and Dirk Nowitzki for Germany carried their teams as far as they could with good individual play - Dirk had a little more help by Chris Kaman in his side, actually.

Here are the final standings:

1. Spain

2. France

3. Russia

4. Macedona

5. Lithuania

Here is the All Tournament team:

PG: Tony Parker (France)

SG: Bo McCalebb (France)

SF: Juan Carlos Navarro (Spain) - MVP

PF: Andrei Kirilenko (Russia)

C: Pau Gasol (Spain)

Lithuania win gold at 2011 FIBA Men’s U19 World Championship

Lithuanian superstar and captain Jonas Valanciunas continued his dominant streak into the Final of the 2011 FIBA Men’s U19 World Championship to help his side secure the gold medal on Sunday night after defeating Serbia 85-67 at Riga, Latvia. This was Lithuania’s first gold medal at the event.

Lithuania went on an 18-3 run to end the third quarter which killed off the game. Valanciunas, who had been dominant throughout the tournament, finished with 36 points and 8 rebounds. The young star, who was the named the fifth pick at this year’s NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors, was named MVP of the tournament after leading all players in points (23.0), rebounds (13.9), and blocks (3.2).

Earlier in the day, Russia beat Argentina 77-72 to win the bronze medal.

All Tournament Team:

Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania)

Aleksander Cvetkovic (Serbia)

Dmitry Kulagin (Russia)

Hugh Greenwood (Australia)

Jeremy Lamb (USA)

Russia win EuroBasket Women 2011

Russian Women defeated Turkey in the Final of the European Women's Basketball Championship - or EuroBasket Women - to win the tournament's 2011 edition, which was held in Poland from June 18 - July 3, 2011.

In the Final, Russia were led by a 18 points and 12 rebounds by Maria Stepanova, as they eased passed Turkey, 59-42, to capture their third EuroBasket Women's title. Russia's Elena Danilochkina was named the MVP of the tournament.

Russia won the tournament's gold medal, Turkey was given the silver, and France defeated the Czech Republic to secure bronze.

The 'All Tournament' team was: Maria Stepanova (Russia), Elena Danilochkina (Russia), Nevriye Yilmaz (Turkey), Eva Viteckova (Czech Republic), and Sandra Mandir (Croatia).

Alexsander Bucan: Bringing in a foreign coach doesn't guarantee that the quality will improve

Krishnakumar KH from Express Buzz interviewed Alexsander Bucan, the head coach of the Indian Men's basketball team, during Coaches Coaching Clinic in Kochi a few weeks ago. Bucan, an experienced Serbian coach, has been in-charge of the Young Cagers for around two years. Here are some excerpts from that interview:

India, says Bucan, has the potential to bloom in the ‘simple’ business of getting through a maze of giant bodies to ram a huge ball through a basket raised high on a pole. Easier said than done, he accepts. But if China, Russia and Iran can do it, so can India, feels the affable Bu­can...

“The Russians and the Chinese are not the biggest of people,” he points out. “But they have tall players in their basketball and volleyball teams. That means they identified talent at an early age and put them through scientific training to produce world-class athletes. The same is possible in India.” But Bucan contends that producing world-class athletes requires an overhaul of the “amateurish system” in India. “It is professionalism that gets you results,” he says. “You need to begin early and find young talent with the right build. Then they need systematic training that includes fitness training, nutritional care and psychology sessions.” The Serb has no doubt India has the talent. “I ha­ve seen many talented players at the school and college levels in India. Some are more gifted th­an the national players. Sadly, most of them drop off the game to further their studies or go looki­ng for jobs. No one is rea­lly interested in leaving everything else behind and concentrating solely on the game.”

“There is no way the team can impro­ve without playing stro­ng opposition regularly,” he says. Further, Bucan is not one to boast without a blueprint — infrastructure, academies, age-gr­oup tournaments, camps, a professional national league at the senior level and cheering crowds.

“Just because you bring in a fo­reign coach, for any ga­me, there is no guarantee the quality will improve,” he says.

However, the national coach is quick to point out the improvement made by the cagers in the past few years. “There has been a big difference in standards in the past two years,” he says. “But the real difference can be made only with long-term strategies. Stress should be laid on the under-16 level to unearth players with potential.”
The most significant achievement during the past two years is the triumph of the Indian under-17 team at the 2008 Asian FIBA 33 championship — which allows just three players per team. It was the first time an Indian basketball team at any level had achieved such a feat. “We beat the Philippines, where basketball is as big as cricket in India,” says Bucan.
Regarding coaching, he feels it is tactical play that requires greater attention once the basics are in place. “We are far behind world-class standards in terms of contact play,” he says. “Also, there has to be more set play than what the players are used to here.”

Read the full article here.

What I found particularly interesting about this interview was Bucan's admittance that bringing in a foreign coach doesn't neccessarily guarantee an improvement. We Indians have historically had a niggling inferiority complex to foreigners, and this is true in sports, too: Gary Kirsten has managed to steadily improve the cricket team, but the credit for that should go to the captain MS Dhoni as much as the coach. Sure, it is neccessary for our coaches to learn new skills and techniques from around the world, but it is also important for the coach to know about local knowledge, playing styles, and conditions, to offer a holistic improvement of the team.

I also hate to say this, but in more cases than not, a positive fact about bringing in a foreign coach is that he or she is free from the political pressures and the corruption at every rung of the ladder that Indian coaches have to suffer through. This freedom tends to insinuate misunderstanding or jealousy amongst their local counterparts who are already used to a certain system, but in the end, the priority is to worry about a degree of professionalism in team selection and play.