With Eurobasket getting set to start on Monday, I figured I should write a little something about it. So, a preview of every group for the next four days, leading up to the competition itself. Excited? Well, half interested, at least? Come on. Please? Scroll down. Motherfuckers.
(clears throat)
CROATIA
Perennial mediocrities, Croatia have a nice, balanced squad that looks poised to improve upon recent...mediocre...showings at major international tournaments. They recently won the Efes Pilsen Cup, a warmup for Eurobasket in which they triumphed over Lativa, Germany, and groupmates Macedonia. Roko Ukic and Nikola Vujcic lead a squad made up primarily of solid contributors at big European clubs.
Their Roster: Zoran Planinic (CSKA Moscow), Marko Popovic (Unics Kazan), Roko-Leni Ukic (Milwaukee Bucks), Davor Kus (Cibona Zagreb), Marin Rozic (Cibona Zagreb), Marko Tomas (Real Madrid), Nikola Prkacin (Cibona Zagreb), Krešimir Loncar (Unics Kazan), Marko Banic (I.Bilbao Basket), Sandro Nicevic (Benetton Treviso), Nikola Vujcic (Olimpiacos), Mario Kasun (Efes Pilsen), Ante Tomic (KK Zagreb), Mario Stojic (Vive Menorca), and Damir Rancic (KK Zadar).
GREECE
Alright, it's a bit like being Phil Mickelson behind Tiger Woods, but Greece are likely second favorites in this competition. Although they've perhaps disappointed since their second place finish at the 2006 World Basketball Championship, this is still a stacked squad. The major question facing this Greek team will be whether youngsters such as Nick Calathes and Kosta Koufos can really contribute off the bench, to supplement a very solid starting five. Also, if Sofoklis Schortsanitis can return to the form that has in the past made him a terror to face, he will give them the sort of option no other team in the competition can present.
Their Roster: Andreas Glyniadakis (Olympiacos), Nikos Zisis (Montepaschi Siena), Konstantinos Kaimakoglou (Maroussi BC), Nick Calathes (Panathinaikos), Ioannis Kalampokis (Pallacanestro Treviso), Kostas Koufos (Utah Jazz), Ioannis Bourousis (Olympiacos), Efstratios Perperoglou (Panathinaikos), Georgios Printezis (Unicaja Malaga), Vasileios Spanoulis (Panathinaikos), Sofoklis Schortsanitis (Olympiacos) and Antonis Fotsis (Panathinaikos).
ISRAEL
Israel have done well to consistently qualify for Eurobasket over the years, with this being their ninth consecutive appearance. Traditionally, they've not done too well once they've gotten there, and don't expect it to be terribly different this time around. They have a decent squad, the vast majority of which comes from the Ligat HaAl. Lior Eliahu and Yotam Halperin are the team's big names, and the squad's only members from outside Israeli clubs because Omri Casspi has decided to skip Eurobasket. This team will need to beat Macedonia in order to to get into the next round, and quite a bit of luck to find a way into next year's World Basketball Championship.
Their roster: Tal Burstein (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Lior Eliyahu (Caja Laboral), Yaniv Green (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Yotam Halperin (Olympiacos), Elishay Kadir (Galil\Gilboa) Uri Kokia (Hapoel Holon), Ido Kozikaro (Maccabi Haifa), Raviv Limonad (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Gal Mekel (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Moshe Mizrahi (Maccabi Haifa), Yuval Neimi (Hapoel Jerusalem), Yogev Ohayon (Ironi Nahariya), Guy Pnini (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Moran Rot (Hapoel Jerusalem), Robert Rothbart (Ironi Nahariya), Amit Tamir (Ironi Ashkelon)
MACEDONIA
Alright, honestly? I don't know anything about the vast majority of their players. But they do have a couple stars. Vlado Ilievski has enjoyed a nice career with a few different big clubs, as has Vrbica Stefanov, the country's biggest basketball legend. Jeremiah Massey...isn't Macedonian, obviously, but he'll be taking up their foreign player spot (I'm not sure how helpful that passport is...shouldn't he have gone for somewhere in the EU? whatever.), and will likely have to do most of the scoring. They'll have to beat Israel to go through, and would need even more luck than the Israelis to somehow make it to Istanbul next year.
Pero Antiḱ (Lokomotiv Rostov), Pero Blaževski (Helios Domžale), Aleksandar Dimitrovski (KK Rabotnički), Todor Gečevski(KK Zadar), Vlado Ilievski (Caja Laboral), Jeremiah Massey (Real Madrid), Dimitar Mirakovski (CSKA Sofia), Predrag Samardžiski (FMP Železnik), Darko Sokolov (MZT Skopje), Riste Stefanov (Lukoil Academic) Vrbica Stefanov (ViveMenorca) Damjan Stojanovski KK AMAK SP) Vojdan Stojanovski (KK AMAK SP) Dime Tasovski (KK Strumica) Bojan Trajkovski (KK Rabotnički)
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