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U20 European Championship 2009
#1
It's a bit late to start a thread as it's only semi-finals and final remaining but I must share my emotions about quarter-finals after watching Lithuania - Italy game live.

First of all I should mention that our team won silver in previous championship. This year they declared that they are going for gold this time. That's a bit unusual from Lithuanian teams to make such comments ahead of any competition. Though they didn't really look like a potential winners during the games played until quarter-finals. So it looked like they will turn on the upper gear when the important games start.

But that wasn't the case. Donatas Motiejunas gave an interview to FIBA before the quarter-finals claiming that he won't play for youth teams any more (supposedly he is too good for that). What we saw on the court today? Italy started well making an impressive 11-3 run. It must be noted that they have a small squad and try to play fast taking many three-point shots. So it was clear that Lithuania will try to play through their big men especially as they have such talent as Motiejunas. There was no such thing in the first half. We caught Italians and eventually took the lead 25-18 after the first quarter. The whole game had many ups and downs by both team but in the end Lithuanians had the control. We had quite comfortable 14-point lead before the final period. But we lost hopelessly 7-22. Italians hit a three-pointer with 10s left to play to take the lead. Last attack by Lithuania was a total failure.

Some things that are worth to be mentioned. Coaching was very questionable. When Italians started their spurt in the 4th quarter our coach did nothing. The only time out he took was after their three pointer with 10s till the final buzzer! The players could barely get past the middle of the court. They were totally lost. Italians defended very well plus our players were making unforced mistakes.

Motiejunas is not a center and he doesn't like to play in that position - that's my impression after today's game. He grabbed just 4 rebounds throughout the game when he had no serious opponent guarding him (especially in terms of height). He doesn't know how to take a position for a rebound either. He doesn't play under the basket and is running around the free-throw line instead. After seeing him play you would never believe that he averaged over 20 points per game in LKL! This was very funny after his comments and I dare to say arrogance too.

I doubt there are any teams in the competition that has point guards that have played in Euroleague. We did. Janavicius looked so confident about his skills, actually over confident, that to every shot that he scored he responded with a turnover. He made 6 of them in total.

Another thing to be noted is that we used 8 players despite having a better team on paper while Italians used the whole squad.

In the end I can say that I was not sad at all to see them lose. A team that considers themselves contenders for gold can't play such pathetic basketball.

Spain 77-60 Turkey
France 68-47 Montenegro
Croatia 68-77 Greece
Lithuania 68-69 Italy

Semi-finals

Spain - Greece
France - Italy

My prediction that this summer will be a disaster to all the national teams of Lithuania appears to be correct. The reason of such prediction is simple. After our teams have a good year they always fail in the next competition. Last time all of our youth teams won medals:

U-20 - silver
U-18 - silver
U-16 - gold
Universiade - gold

Now, it would be normal to expect these teams to fight for medals after such performances, wouldn't it. Especially with the players that they have. They might not necessarily win but getting to the semis for at least some of them is likely. What are the results so far?

U-20 - knocked out in the quarter-finals
U-19 (World Championship) - knocked out before quarter-finals
Universiade - knocked out in the quarter-finals
U-18 - ?
U-16 - ?
Men - ?
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#2
Some weeks ago I was catching up with a basketball freak, like myself, in Athens and we were discussing Lithuania's U19 failure with Motiejunas. Again, it is the same story. The same story that happens in every Olympic Games and so on...

And it may sound harsh, but I think that the entire Lithuanian basketball system is arrogant starting from the base which are the fans.

For example last year in this forum a Lith fan was ironically questioning me if I thought that the Greek NT was better that Lithuania. And I thought that based on the latest results in a period of 4-5 years yes they were..

You know, because basketball is #1 sport in Lithuania and the nation has so much talent doesn't make you basketball Gods, nowadays nothing is granted and nothing is won without pain, in all aspects of life.

On the contrary a nation wherebasketball is #2 and has less talent and produces better results deserves to be more proud and arrogant...

So I think that this is a good lesson for Lithuania.

And unfortunately I think that the same story will repeat in Eurobasket 2009. Or as George Clooney once said "No Saras, no party."
Respect and thanks for everything:

Alvertis, Bodiroga, Jasikevicius, Radja, Wilkins, Vrankovic, Fotsis, Rebraca, Kattash, Gentile, Koch, Middleton, Kutluay, Rogers, Papadopoulos, Becirovic, Tomasevic, Siskauskas, Pekovic, Lakovic, Vujanic, Chatzivrettas, Maljkovic, Spanoulis and many more to follow in the near future.
[Image: vspa.jpg]

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#3
I am watching some serious talent in the greek nt. Looks like a great generation is coming up for the greeks Smile
Schwach wie flasche leer
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#4
Quote:I am watching some serious talent in the greek nt. Looks like a great generation is coming up for the greeks Smile

I totally agree. I like Bogris, Kaselakis (Panathinaikos), Sloukas (Olympiacos) and Pappas (Bilbao)
Respect and thanks for everything:

Alvertis, Bodiroga, Jasikevicius, Radja, Wilkins, Vrankovic, Fotsis, Rebraca, Kattash, Gentile, Koch, Middleton, Kutluay, Rogers, Papadopoulos, Becirovic, Tomasevic, Siskauskas, Pekovic, Lakovic, Vujanic, Chatzivrettas, Maljkovic, Spanoulis and many more to follow in the near future.
[Image: vspa.jpg]

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#5
Quote:I totally agree. I like Bogris, Kaselakis (Panathinaikos), Sloukas (Olympiacos) and Pappas (Bilbao)

Bogris i don't like. I think the best players are Pappas, Papanikolaou, Kaselakis, Sloukas, Jankovic. In that order...
Schwach wie flasche leer
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#6
can we watch the games on the ınternet?
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#7
Belgium squad was a disappointment Jorn steinbach is a big talent but apparently he is a turnover machine. Only Quinten Serron did decent(good percentages and few TO)
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#8
Greece champions!
Respect and thanks for everything:

Alvertis, Bodiroga, Jasikevicius, Radja, Wilkins, Vrankovic, Fotsis, Rebraca, Kattash, Gentile, Koch, Middleton, Kutluay, Rogers, Papadopoulos, Becirovic, Tomasevic, Siskauskas, Pekovic, Lakovic, Vujanic, Chatzivrettas, Maljkovic, Spanoulis and many more to follow in the near future.
[Image: vspa.jpg]

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#9
I think this is the best greek generation ever at this age. Btw the spanish youth has an even worse behaviour than the seniors... A whole new generation of assholes
Schwach wie flasche leer
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#10
Congrats to Greece Thup we might even get an interview from the assistant coach of Greece U20 in the coming days Wink

Quote:Some weeks ago I was catching up with a basketball freak, like myself, in Athens and we were discussing Lithuania's U19 failure with Motiejunas. Again, it is the same story. The same story that happens in every Olympic Games and so on...

And it may sound harsh, but I think that the entire Lithuanian basketball system is arrogant starting from the base which are the fans.

For example last year in this forum a Lith fan was ironically questioning me if I thought that the Greek NT was better that Lithuania. And I thought that based on the latest results in a period of 4-5 years yes they were..

You know, because basketball is #1 sport in Lithuania and the nation has so much talent doesn't make you basketball Gods, nowadays nothing is granted and nothing is won without pain, in all aspects of life.

On the contrary a nation wherebasketball is #2 and has less talent and produces better results deserves to be more proud and arrogant...

So I think that this is a good lesson for Lithuania.

And unfortunately I think that the same story will repeat in Eurobasket 2009. Or as George Clooney once said "No Saras, no party."

Some fans are indeed arrogant. There's no need to deny that. But that can't be said about the players. Well, at least our current men's team with an exception of Kleiza probably. There were never comments from any player that they are the best or that their opponents are weak. Nothing. There were no signs of arrogance. Of course that doesn't mean that some players are not arrogant sometimes in their minds. And if they are arrogant then as a result they overestimate themselves and underestimate their opponents. And that is a straight way to failure.

Majority of the fans are simply proud of the national team(s) but there is a part that are arrogant.

If we speak about U20 I think that the main reason of the failure was poor coaching and arrogance of some players because of which they felt way better than anyone else. Motiejunas used to be a modest guy judging by his comments in the past but this year he was affected by the hype too much. He obviously felt too good for U20 level and was very poor after all.
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#11
Congratulations to one of our 'own' guys. Coach Dikeoulakos, who is the TalkBasket's "Ask the Coach" was the assistant of the U20 Greece NT!
Respect and thanks for everything:

Alvertis, Bodiroga, Jasikevicius, Radja, Wilkins, Vrankovic, Fotsis, Rebraca, Kattash, Gentile, Koch, Middleton, Kutluay, Rogers, Papadopoulos, Becirovic, Tomasevic, Siskauskas, Pekovic, Lakovic, Vujanic, Chatzivrettas, Maljkovic, Spanoulis and many more to follow in the near future.
[Image: vspa.jpg]

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#12
A very positive sign for the future of Greek basketball, congrats.
Die Liebe wird eine Krankheit, wenn man sie als eine Heilung sieht.
: BASKET-SPOT : - Global Basketball
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