I love it when a plan comes together. David Hein, he of heinnews.com, FIBAEurope.com and probably 10,000 other outlets, has wrapped coverage of the just-completed FIBA U20 European Championship Men. Having returned home to Germany from the competition in Rhodes, poor David sought ideas (more of them, i mean) for another basketball column to which to set his rapacious urge to sportswrite.
I skyped him: “Since you introduced us to all these fresh new players that are moving into top professional leagues – you know, guys like Georgios Bogris – during the U20s, why don’t you write a roundup of where they’ll be in future?”
And shazam! Hours later, Mr. Hein had produced a swell column entitled, “Where U20s are heading next season.” From Bogris to Vucevic, the list of names you’ll surely be seeing next year is the following.
The 2009 edition of the FIBA U20 European Championship Men is in the books, with unstoppable Greece topped France thanks to five starters scoring in double figures for the gold medal. For the bronze, Spain barely held off yet another comeback from surprising Team Italy to win.
With game threes in the book, the qualifying round of the FIBA U20 European Championship Men heads into the home stretch. Yesterday’s games had hometown Greece overcoming Russia in a real nail-biter, 73-71; Spain held off a frenzied Italian comeback to win 62-60; Croatia overcame Montenegro, 76-70; and Turkey destroyed Ukraine by a frankly unbelievable score.
