Recap: U19 ABA League 2019/20

1. Last weekend, leading clubs from the region competed in the qualifying stage for the final U19 ABA tournament for the 2019/2020 season. The first phase was divided as in the last year into two groups. The host of Group A was the basketball club Mega Bemax from Belgrade, which hosted 5 more teams: Igokea(B&H), Partizan(Serbia), Buducnost(Montenegro), Cibona(Croatia) and Krka(Slovenia). While the host of Group B was the Basketball Club Zadar and his rivals were:Crvena Zvezda(Serbia), Koper Primorska(Slovenia), Cedevita Olimpia(Slovenia-Croatia), Mornar(Montenegro) and MZT Skoplje(North Macedonia). Serbian clubs Mega Bemax and Crvena Zvezda have successfully completed the first phase of the tournament as they were the most dominanted teams in their groups and with all 5 wins they have completed the first stage of the competition, while basketball clubs Partizan and Igokea failed to qualify for the final tournament.

We will take a look at the most notable domestic players from this year’s qualifying U19 ABA league tournament:

Aleksandar Langovic:

PF/C | 2001 | 205cm | Mega Bemax

This was a very successful tournament for Langovic who is getting better and better games at KLS for the OKK Belgrad team. In this tournament he showed that he was one of the most experienced players and successfully justified his role in the team and he showed us that hi is good leader on the court. Langovic averaged 20.3 points, 10.3 rebounds with 3 assists and 2.3 blocks per game with a very high efficiency 31.3 per game for 26.8 minutes in the game. Good athleticism and mobility on the court provide him with the ability to be dangerous for multiple positions. While the strong in the contact game with good footwork gives him the opportunity to finish the actions with dunk or layup. Also he is very strong and technically well trained for the low post game. Evident is the progress of the three-point shot for Langovic. He locked the rim and take a lot of defensive rebounds, and with good positioning and high vertical jump, he made a lot of trouble to the defensive players on the rebound.

 

Nikola Manojlović
SF/SG | 2002 | 201cm | Crvena Zvezda

One of leading players of U19 Roda JLS, as well as the main player of the Crvena Zvezda in that competiotion. Manojlović was the most valuable player in Zvezda on this tournament too  and he had a noticed role in the team, demonstrating that he is one of the club’s major projects in his generation. Averaged he scored 13.4 points per game and with high percent for 2pt shots 78% and a solid with 3pt, although he didn’t take to many shots from a distance (3/10), 4.8 rebound and 4.4 assists with index 18.4 per game in the 22 minutes he spent average on the floor. What made him remorseful throughout the tournament was a good runing and a good transition game which was result with a lot of easy points. Understanding of the game and court vision with good and precise passes, helped Manojlovic to collect 22 assists in 5 games.

Stefan Todorović
SG/SF | 2002 | 198cm | Partizan

Upon his transfer to Partizan, Todorovic imposed himself as one of the team leaders alongside Nikola Radovanovic. Very good games in U19 Roda JLS recommended him as the leader of this team and on this tournament Todorovic assured us that he had a leadership personality. Averaged he scored 18,8 points per game with 4 rebounds,  5 assists with a utility index of 17,6 in the 33 minutes he spent on average on the court. He is offensive oriented player, which have very quick release shot. He have a good spacing, as also ball handling so he have a possibility to create position for shot or layup. What made his game on this tournament was a 3-point shots with solid numbers (11/45) as well solid number of assists (25). He played constant throughout whole tournament, without oscillation so we can say that he was the most consistent player for the Partizan team.

 

Vuk Bošković
PF | 2003 | 198cm |Igokea

Vuk Boskovic was the youngest player in the igokea team and he was the most efficient in his team alongside Djordje Topolovic. As Manojlovic , Boskovic wasn’t oscillate to much during this competition. he spent 33,6 minutes on average on the court per game and he scored 13,8 pionts, grab 6,2 rebounds with 5,2 assists and 16,8 efficiency. Boskovic have a very good court vision and feeling for the passes so he imposed himself as the main assistant in Igokea. He is very mobile player with his constitution and he knows how to give a good and stong block to the ball handler and he know how to roll to the basekt. He can be very dangerous in that position if he get ball against smaller player under the rim.

 

Nikola Radovanović
SF | 2003 | 204cm | Partizan

Partizan’s second most useful player in this tournament and most useful player in the domestic U19 Roda league in 5 games Radovanovic scored 14.6 points per game, 6.2 rebounds, making him best rebounder in team Partizan with 16.4 efficiency per game in average for 24,8 minutes on the court. One of the most attractive players in the tournament, failed to take his distinctive games and he had a lot of oscillations. He was trying to find his three-point shot,  however the shot did not serve to him except against BC Cibona. So he find a way to takes his points from transition and layup. The best game for Radovanovic was against Cibona and in that match he scored 25 points.

 

Other players notable mentions:

Marko Andrić | PG | 2002 | 189cm | Mega Bemax – 15Pts, 4Reb, 5,6Ast, 3Stl, 15Val

Petar Kovačević  | PF | 2002 | 203cm | Mega Bemax – 11,8Pts, 6,8Reb, 2,4Ast, 14,6Val

Petar Živojinović | PF | 2002 |199cm | Partizan – 9Pts, 5,8Reb, 14,4Val

Lazar Vasić | PG/SG | 2001 | 191cm | Crvena Zvezda – 11,6Pts, 2,6Reb,  3,6Ast, 2,2Stl, 12Val

Nikola Đurišić | SF/SG | 2004 | 202cm | Mega Bemax – 11,2Pts, 4,8Reb, 3,6Ast, 12Val

To remind , Mega Bemax and Crvena Zvezda as the first-ranked teams from their groups secured participation in the final tournament of the U19 ABA League for the 2019/2020 season and the opponents will be Cibona and Koper Primorska.