BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

The Wingate Sports Institute of Netanya has joined the impressive-looking U18 bracket of the Rinus de Jong Invitational to be played in Den Bosch in late December. The Israeli side entered the tournament after the withdrawal of the Khimki Moscow Region team “without mentioning a valid reason,” according to organizers.

The U18 portion of the annual tournament is now comprised of Atletas Kaunas, VEF Riga and Canarias Basketball Academy. On the U21 side, Eiffel Towers Den Bosch, Canarias and Wilbraham & Monson Academy from the US and an as-yet unnamed fourth team will compete.

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The Canarias Basketball Academy will again be present with two teams in the Rinus de Jong Invitational, the men’s youth basketball tournament to be held in Den Bosch, the Netherlands from December 27 to December 30. In the first edition of the invitational, Canarias won the competition in the under-18 category and finished second behind Mega Vizura Belgrade in the U20s.

The participation of both Canarias Academy teams offers the home crowd the opportunity to see a great number of their better national talents in action. Those gifted Dutch players are now trying to improve their skills at the famous basketball school of Rob Orellana, the American owner/trainer. At least eight Dutchmen will wear the CBA jersey in the Rinus de Jong: Quincy Treffers, Matthias Runs and Joel Brandt will join Canarias’ U21 squad while Shane Hammink, Jito Kok, Floris Versteeg, Stefan Topalovic and Mekbib Anthonisse will represent their academy in the U18 competition.

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Kevin Harley, who France-based Basket Europe acknowledges as a “future star du basket français,” is currently playing with Poitiers’ junior team, where he’s earning a reputation as quite the high-flier.

Check out the below video for Harley on a breakaway jam, reaching a stratospheric height to slam home an easy two – and then check out the gray hair-inducing manner in which he falls to Earth like Icarus. Luckily, notes Basket Europe, Harley was “more frightened than hurt” and was able to finish the game.

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Yesterday, I was looking over the scores nationwide from the England Basketball National League Under-14s, as a coach of a U14 team myself, I find it useful to plan for the future and see what how my potential playoff matchups are doing in their respective divisions. I Tweeted “Wow an Under 14 team won 133 – 8 this weekend… 1st quarter score 51 – 2… ridiculous.. How does that help development in any way!!” Os instantly came back and asked me for a writeup. So here it is…

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The movement from the U.S. to Europe within the basketball world is still in motion, and so BallinEurope presents a quintet of stories (and highlight clips) involving American players from the NBA level to prep schools playing abroad.

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‘Tis the season, BallinEurope supposes. Organization and publicity for Christmas season invitational tournaments has begun in force; one such entry in the young basketball scene this December is the Rinus de Jong Invitational scheduled for December 28 and 30 in Den Bosch, Netherlands, with four-team competitions for the U18 and U21 age groups.

Three teams have thus far confirmed their participation in the tournament, with BC Khimki Moscow Region confirming its spot in the U18 division. Fans of youth ball will want to note the promised appearances of Team Russia’s Stanislav Ilnitskiy and Vasily Martynov on this team.

Hometown club/reigning Netherlands U20 champions Eiffel Towers den Bosch will be represented in the U21 category; in last year’s inaugural edition of the Rinus de Jong, the Dutch side finished third behind Mega Vizura Belgrade and Canarias Basketball Academy.

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BallinEurope received a brief email from an enthusiast of Morayoninuoluwa “Mo” Soluade, currently starring for Team England in the B Division of the FIBA U16 European Championship.

“Check out Mo Soluade with a triple double tonight against the Netherlands,” the missive implored. “He is someone to watch with real potential.” Unfortunately, since video of the game is sadly lacking on the interwebs at present – c’mon, FIBA folks, learn to love your YouTube account – we’ll have to make due with a box score, which incidentally also indicates that Soluade added four steals to his line of 11-10-11.

The Netherlands game was a bit of a novelty for other reasons in addition to being Team England’s fifth consecutive win in this tournament; official national team website England Basketball notes that “Incredibly, England never took a free-throw in a game where the Dutch were called for just five fouls, but 52 percent floor shooting and a rebounding margin of 43-36 proved the difference.”

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Which player was the sensation of this year’s U19 European Championship (and the guy whose arrival Toronto Raptors fans should be anticipating with optimism)? Jonas Valanciunas of Lithuania, of course! Today, Sam Chadwick takes a look at this rising star and his recent successes in youth tourney play.

Name: Jonas Valanciunas
Country: Lithuania
Club: Lietuvos Rytas
Position: PF/C
Height: 6’11” (2.10 meters)
Age: 19 (born May 1992)
 
Last year’s U18 European Championship had one dominating force, a player literally and figuratively head and shoulders above the pack. Jonas Valanciunas became the overall no. 5 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, going to the Toronto Raptors in the 2011 NBA Draft; some see him as a potential bust and some see him as the best thing to come out of Europe since Dirk Nowitzki. 
 
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You want your future prospect? BiE’s got your prospect right here; BallinEurope’s man in England, Sam Chadwick, today analyzes the recent performance and the near future of Tobias Borg, a 17-year-old who made some waves at this year’s Future Stars International Basketball tournament in the UK and is currently competing for Team Sweden in the FIBA U18 competition currently going on.

Name: Tobias Borg
Country: Sweden
Position: SG
Height: 5’9” (1.82 meters)
Age: 17 (born in November 1993)
 
I had the pleasure of watching Tobias play at the Future Stars International Basketball Tournament on the 9th of July at Brunel University; I was impressed by how well he shot the ball firstly in the warm-up and then in the game, how well he played denial defence and hustled. He scorched the USA Select team to the tune of 33 points, including seven threes in addition to some emphatic breakaway dunks and steals.
 
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Congratulations from BallinEurope go out to KK Zagreb Croatia Osiguranje, who are the 2011 Nike International Junior Tournament champions after defeating Žalgiris Kaunas, 76-65, in the championship match this morning. A few observations on the match, if you will…

• First and foremost, there’s Dario Saric. You don’t need BiE to tell you to believe the hype on this dude billed as the next Toni Kukoc after he notched a triple-double of 15/12/10 in this game, but whoa was Saric head and shoulders above the field today.

Saric displayed an incredible all-around game featuring rebounding, leading the fast break, beating his man off the dribble and gorgeous no-look passes – and all this came on the first two Zagreb possessions. Even when his shooting touch was off early (he went for just 3-of-12 shooting in the first half), Saric still established himself as a serious presence in the middle that forced the ball into Žalgiris’ undersized guards’ hands. And the Lithuanian side managed just a woeful 2-of-18 outside the paint in the first half as a result.

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