Eurobasket 2013 - Discussion

[TeoTheGreek13]

Israel vs Great Britain
Latvia vs Bosnia & Herzegovina
Georgia vs Poland
Turkey vs Finland
Belgium vs Ukraine
F.Y.R.O.M. vs Montenegro
Spain vs Croatia
Sweden vs Greece
France vs Germany
Serbia vs Lithuania
Czech Republic vs Slovenia
Russia vs Italy

I like your key absences chart Teo, the scariest part is just how stacked Turkey is. I thought you forgot about them on your list but nope, they are just that stacked right now. I think Turkey is the team to beat along with Slovenia because they are the hosts and also a damn good team.

The oddsmakers seem to think its Spain, Greece, France, Lithuania, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey in that order. Turkey only 7th? That's nuts, I'm not a betting man but if I were it seems like putting some money on Turkey may be a risk worth taking.

To be honest with you, I don't really see Turkey doing anything good. They were just as "stacked" in 2011 and they did nothing. I believe it's not coincidence that their only two distinction (medals) came in tournaments that were held in Turkey. They got some very good individuals with Ilyasova headlining the list (at least for FIBA basketball) but they don't have the depth and the experience to do something great and over-achieve. Their strongest weapon is their big guys and the packing of the paint and therefore their effective defense with Asik first and foremost and then Erden and Savas.

I don't know, I'm not sold on them.
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Yeah, Vilius contacted me some months ago as he saw I was visting the site from time to time and asked me if I wanted to join the team in order to maybe recruit some new members and also ban spammers and delete their posts and all that.