Recap: ANGT F8 Vitoria

Last weekend we had a chnace to follow the best European prospects on F8 Adidas Next Generation Tournament which was held in Spanish city Vitoria-Gasteiz. This year championship title went to Madrid. U18 Real Madrid had pretty convincingly mastered all the opponents who were on their way. We focused on Serbian players that stood out on this tournament.

Mario Nakic (Real Madrid)

(4GP, 23:38min, 17.3Pts, 6.8Reb, 4.8Ast, 1.5Stl, 4To, 0.8Blk, FCm/FRv, 1/6, 23.3Val)

After winning the Spanish U18 National Championship, Mario came to Vitoria with Real Madrid and won the Euroleague U18 Adidas Next Generation Tournament. Also he was rewarded for MVP of the tournament after he scored 33Pts, grabb 8Reb with value 41 in the final game against Mega Bemax. In the group stage he was quite constant as the whole team of Real Madrid. However, in the final match he was simply unstoppable, the real leader of the Real team. This is testified by the fact that he had 19 free throws in the final game and was stopped 10 times by the foul. What we might be noticed is that Mario like the transition basketball most suited to him, where he punished his opponents everytime when they back to defense slowly. Also, this guy showed us an incredible understanding of the game and good selection of finishes from the P&R game after which he either mostly came to easy points from the layup. Everything worked well in the game of Nakic with the exception of a three-point shot which was reduced to only 18.2% on the tournament.

Aleksandar Langovic (Mega Bemax)

(GP4, 22:24, 12Pts, 5.3Reb, 2.3Ast, 0.8Stl, 3To, 0.3Blk, FCm/FRv,2.3/3.5, 11.5Val)

With his height of 204cm and a good mobility, Langovic is able to attack from various positions. However, he mostly wanted to take ball on the low post. He was half-successful during the tournament. He mostly had problems with players who were physically dominant than him to build a good enough position for finishing, while he was more successful against the smaller players where he demonstrated the incredible feeling for the Hook shot. It’s not just a hook shoot. He had a soft hand, also Langovic confirmed on this tourament that he have a pretty good shots from the distance where he has a success rate of even 80% (3pt, 4/5). It was noteworthy that Langovic had a very good overview of the game from the post, where on several occasions he gave lucid assists to his teammates. It is undoubtedly that Langovic is one of the greatest Serbian potentials in the generation in 2001 and that we can expect him to be in the future.

Nemanja Popovic (Crvena Zvezda)

(3GP, 24:29min, 11.3Pts, 7.3Reb, 3Ast, 1Stl, 3To, 0.3Blk, FCm/FRv 2.7/1.3, 10Val)

He poorly opened tournament in the first game against Rytas in which he was a shot from the game (2/9). It seemed that he lacked concentration in the endings of the action, while in the defense phase he completely locked the rim and grab 7 defensive rebounds. Already in the next game against the team Valencia we saw the recognizable Popović. He was equally useful in the attack as well as in the defense. Strong blocks, good rolling from the P&R, he managed to close the racket, capture 7 rebounds and give 7 assists. And finally in the last game against Real Madrid if we were judge by the index(Val), we could say that he had a bad game. However, in that game Popovic and Karapandzic had been the bad game. However, in that game Popovic and Karapandzic had been the only players with idea how to make a points against Real. The biggest problem on this tournament for Popovic as well as throughout the season was a 3-point shot and that’s something he will need to improve in the future.

Filip Škobalj (Bayern Munich)

(3GP, 21:04min, 9Pts, 5Reb, 1.3Ast, 0.7Stl, 2To, 0.3Blk, FCm/FRv 2.3/2, 10.7Val)

He played this tournament for Bayern as invited player from BC Rostock. He played better as the tournament was going. He showed us that he has security in the game. He had excellent shots from the game 55% for 2 points (6/11) and 50% shot for 3 points (5/10). Although physically he could play on the post up game, it is obvious that he like to play more outside the perimeter. Because of his weight, Filip is a slower player but he uses his body well against oponents. He is using his body well in P&R game from which he could roll on the 3pt line and very easy to score especialy if his shoot is not garded. Škobalj does not belong to the rank of players who are natural scorers, but definitely with such high percentages he would have to take a more shoots in the future and need to be more agresive on the ball.

Mihailo Mušikić (Mega Bemax)

(4GP, 18:57min, 5.8Pts, 5.5Reb, 1.8Ast, 0.8Stl, 1.3To, 1.5Blk, FCm/FRv 0.5/3.3, 12.8Val)

This season Mihailo shown that it slowly evolves into the future really seriouse player at the center position. Progress under the rim is more than obvious. We could see how patiently he builds position on the post up, to have the ability to assist from the post up and he started to begins to recognize and use his physical potential on the right way. He was good on the def. rebound also he protected the rim well specially against Zalgiris where he had 5Blk. The worst game on the tournament he played in the final against Real. He got 10 minutes on the court in the finale but he was’t able to score the points, Garuba and Syla were to strong for him. Musikic ended final game with (2pt 0/2), 2Reb, 2Ast and 1Val.

Other players notable mentions: Aleksa Marković, Marko Andrić, Vukašin Mašić, Boško Bumbić, Nikola Manojlović, Stevan Karapandžić.