By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
The current Eurobasket competition system deletes everything that happened in the first round by the teams which didn’t get the ticket to the second round. The 12 teams that qualified will continue their race to the quarterfinals by keeping their results against each other for the first group phase and will add to them three gamedays that will lead to eight nation left standing.
That means that three teams have already the advantage and four points already in the standings. Italy in Group F and two teams, Serbia and France, in Group E. On the contrary, Greece enters the standings in Group F just with one point, like Latvia and Belgium in Group E.
The complete standings are Italy (4), Spain (3), Slovenia (3), Finland (3), Croatia (3) and Greece (2) in Group F. In Group E the situation is the following: Serbia (4), France (4), Lithuania (3), Ukraine (3), Latvia (2), Belgium (2).
The story of the last day
Because of this format, four Monday games didn’t have any significance for the future of the competition. On the contrary Lithuania and Bosnia battled until the end with Mirza Teletovic’s team winning (72-78), but a point difference less than 10 points traslated to the losing side getting the ticket to the second round.
The biggest upset of the day was the clear victory of Finland over defence-less Greece (86-77) which enters the second round with its back against the wall and the worst possible conditions in the standings.
Croatia was also fighting for a ticket to second round against Czech Republic and got it with a 70-53 win and also Ukraine by beating Great Britain (87-68) has a reason to smile. Latvia secured its spot by a win over already disqualified FYROM (76-66).
Belgium had the luck to know that it got the qualification before the tip off of the game against France, because of Israel’s and Great Britain’s defeats. As for Serbia and Slovenia, they lost, but to teams that didn’t had a chance to qualify and those bad results will not follow them to the new groups.
MVP
Peteri Koponen: He single handedly dismantle Greek defence, he exposed the tactics of coach Andrea Trinkieri and he was just unstoppable against a team which knew that he had to be contained. His 29 points on 10/15 shots tell the story. Finland is ready for the next level and Koponen is its natural leader.
Best Five
1. Τony Parker: How can we leave him out? France was losing by 12 points in the half time and Parker was there to save the day once more, despite not having any real help this time not even from Nikolas Batum.
2. Πeteri Koponen: Yes, he is also a point guard, he plays like one in his team, but for sure he can be also an excellent shooting guard…
3. Dario Saric: In this tournament Croatia is transforming from a team with just good players to a real solid unit. On the same time Saric is maturing from a kid to a man and he proves on the highest level what he can do. He had 11 points, 5 rebounds, played solid defence and made the two three pointers that broke open the game against Czech Republic.
4. Linas Kleiza: He is not in the best condition of his career, but he was there was Lithuania needed desperately someone to score and with two crucial three pointers he was decisive, despite losing two important free throws. He finished the game with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
5. Τibor Pleiss: Germany is out, but he is our choice in center after having in total a great tournament. In the win against Israel he had 14 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocks and he finished the tournament with a double double average (11.6 ppg, 11 rpg).
The fate of a (crazy) bomber
Μirza Teletovic has the gift to make shots from anywhere in the floor, under incredible conditions. He showcased his range, he lef his team, Bosnia, to 14 points lead that was enough for the qualification against Lithuania, but ultimately he couldn’t make every shot, specially from 10 meters away from the basket. He scored 31 points, his team won, but he couldn’t celebrate.
Μedals, FIBA World cup and Wild cards…
Twelve teams are heading home, twelve other are travelling to Ljublana for the second round of the tournament. The main goal remains for most of them the medals, but also the six – seven if you count also the host Spain – tickets for next year’s FIBA World Cup are also a good consolation prize, or else they will take next summer off. And with China, Turkey, Brazil and Russia already missing out on those tickets, the four avaible World Cup wild cards are already a hot talking subject.