Almar

[Da Coach]

What I noticed was the French players actually played good defense, which many of these U20 kids on other Euro teams play little of. Good defense negates much of the skills that the less athletic kids have.
Almar and his teammates got a lot of open shots and were able to get into the lane easily against the unathletic teams at the Nordic Championship last weekend, and against the Slovenia team. But that didn't work against the French team.
Like Max Ekono, Luuk van Bree, and others, Almar will need to get stronger, and keep developing his skills to adjust to the speed, size, and better defenses he'll face at Bradley.

[yoda]

knockout round is set
Iceland faces Greece Wednesday July 12 at 6:30pm local time
which would be 8 hours time difference, or 10:30am in Peoria.

https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u...ps#tab=round_B

Hey, it's Iceland, a tiny island nation that has 4 20-year-olds, 2 19-year-olds, 5 18-year-olds and one 17-year old - average age just a little over 18 y/o and maybe 2 who have DI talent..

France, a nation with 18,200% MORE population than Iceland, had ELEVEN experienced 20-year-olds, and one-19 1/2 year-old - and nobody younger - average age 20+ y/o - and likely 7 or 8 with DI level talent...including a starter at Stanford,
...one that's a junior at Arizona, others already playing top-level pro ball and one that's projected as a 2024 NBA Draft Pick.

The final result was not surprising.
What was surprising was that Iceland played even with the other two teams in their group

[LittleBrave]

Almar with 19 pts, 7 reb in 3rd qtr
Slovenia has a big size advantage, Almar usually guarding a guy that’s 6-10

Wow - that's one heck of a quarter! Nice!

[basketball nut]

After watching the Slovenia/Iceland game this morning Almar is impressive but has a lot of growing to do. Not a lot of "D" was played and a lot of his shots driving to the basket will get blocked in college as he was doing a lot of underhand scoop shots.
He is like so many of the foreign players in they have to get use to D1 basketball. I'm not sure how much he will help this season but then we have a lot of depth so wouldn't need to depend on him or possibly any of the freshmen this year. Burch might give us some quality minutes just because of his athletic ability.

[yoda]

Huge upset brewing in the knockout round at the Euro U20 Championships.- https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u...l#tab=overview
One of the co-favorites, Spain, going down to Israel, 58-52 with 42 seconds remaining.
(Iceland plays Greece at 10:30am)

edit - now 59-52, Israel with possession and only 25 seconds left.

[yoda]

Spain went 3-0 in group phase with all three huge blowout wins with >>20 pt margin and were co-favorites to win it all along with France.
They just went down to Israel 59-52, with Israel defending well and forcing 20 turnovers.
Spain's starters were held to 9-31 (29%)

[yoda]

here's the link to watch the Iceland-Greece game in half an hour at 10:30am
https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u...Greece-Iceland

the winners so far that advance to the round of 8 are
Germany, Lithuania, Belgium and Israel

Tomorrow, Israel faces Germany and Lithuania faces Belgium
I Iceland advances today they will face the Turkey/Montenegro winner

https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u20/2023/groups

[yoda]

again, Greece is bigger, older and more physical but Iceland holding their own.
(FIBA refs allow a lot of hard physical contact)
...biggest crowd yet is, of course, 99% for the Greek team.

End of 1st quarter, Iceland 24 - Greece 24

Almar with 6 pts, 2 reb, 1 steal and solid defense

[yoda]

halftime
Iceland 45 - Greece 41
Almar with 10 pts, 2 reb, 2 steals, 1 asst

[yoda]

Almar 3-8 from 3-pt

Greece gets away with a lot of elbows, reaching and over-the-back
..they are reaching & grabbing and creating turnovers and gaining advantage and it's not being called.
The Iceland players & coaches are really upset about it but Greece is the hometown favorite and getting homer calls

[yoda]

end 3rd qtr
Greece 65 - Iceland 56
Almar 15 pts, 2 reb and getting mugged a bunch with very few fouls called

[yoda]

Iceland within 6 pts with 3:15 to go

[yoda]

Almar will likely soon be heading to Peoria to join the Braves
Iceland loses 83 - 75
Almar with 19 pts, 5 reb - averaged 16 pts/6 reb thru the tourney

[Da Coach]

Iceland lead 45-41 at halftime, and the game stayed close until Greece opened a double digit lead in the last half of the 3rd quarter. Greece outscored Iceland 24-11 in that 3rd quarter with a number of steals, and easy baskets as Iceland went cold. Iceland shot 39.4% (26/66) for the game, but only 20.7% (6/29) from three, and they had 20 turnovers for the game, many of them in the 3rd quarter. The Iceland team has a couple nice players, including Almar, but they lack depth, and when their top players are not shooting well, or if they are forced to rely on reserves, they can't compete nearly as well.

[yoda]

20 turnovers for the game....

Iceland is not a big, strong and physical team and the way the games were called favored teams who were.
Lots of banging, reaching, and hacking were allowed and half those turnovers were when defenders reached in,
hacked across their arms or went over the back. It is good learning experience for playing in the NCAA.
Just now #1 NBA Draft pick Victor Wembayama agreed & said:
"the NBA is “less physical” than European basketball"