Almar this summer, 2024

[yoda]

Today's games
Iceland drops a tough one to Belgium 74-73, Almar has 19 pts, 5 reb
Italy loses to Poland 74-63, Timoty van der Knaap played almost 5 min and was scoreless

[yoda]

Iceland is playing Serbia right now
streaming for FREE

https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-u20-eurobasket-2024/games/121670-SRB-ISL

[yoda]

Iceland's young big guy Frithrik Curtis is getting some minutes...
He is strangely listed as 6" - 12"

Da Coach has been mentioning him

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/520844-almar-this-summer-2024/page2#post520989

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/520844-almar-this-summer-2024?p=520991#post520991

https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-u20-eurobasket-2024/teams/iceland/320789-frithrik-curtis

[yoda]

1st quarter score
Iceland 26 - Serbia 22

Serbia is a bigger team and getting to the basket easily but Iceland is shooting very well from deep (6-9 from 3pt)
Almar has 5 pts and is 1-2 from 3pt

[yoda]

wow- Almar draining logo 3's a la Caitlin Clark!
Now has 12 pts early in 2nd qtr

[yoda]

wild scene-
Almar blocks a guy's shot then a rebounder Filip Jovic from Serbia punches Pallson from Iceland TWICE- once even after being T'ed up

Refs did a great job controlling things then reviewed the video and ejected Serbia's Jovic, their big man and leading scorer.
Iceland now up 42-35

[yoda]

Iceland has a lot of trouble containing opponents with size...
They are so dependent on hitting 3-pointers.
15 of their 26 shots thus far are 3-point attempts but they've hit 9-15!

[yoda]

Serbia 51 - Iceland 46 at half
Almar 13 pts, 2-5 from 3-pt, 2 reb, 1 asst and 3 blocks...
Serbia is 28-12 on points in the paint and 10-0 on 2nd chance points off offensive rebounds.
Serbia outrebounding Iceland 28-12 and 10-2 on offensive rebs
Iceland is really lacking one or two talented BIG guys...

[yoda]

Iceland is still within single digits but it's pretty one sided - with Serbia shooting 60% from everywhere and getting to the hoop at will,
and owning a 32-14 rebounding advantage & a 40-12 points in the paint advantage
Almar has 16 pts

[yoda]

Gotta be frustrating for Almar & his teammates. They are NOT playing a bad game. They are shooting almost 50% overall and
52% on a large volume of 3-pointers (14-27), and yet they're trailing 81-64 in the 4th quarter due almost exclusively to lack of size & rebounding, and a little bit of lack of depth.
Very few whistles despite a very aggressive and physical style of play by Serbia - giving them a hug advantage against
Iceland who don't play very physical at all.

Both teams playing their bench more - with 2 min to go, Iceland down 20, Almar has 20 pts, 3-7 on 3-pointers, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal & 4 blocks - and only 1 foul despite being one of Iceland's few bigger guys having to defend the paint much of the way.
Maybe Coach Wardle will fly from Vegas to Poland to watch Almar play, ya think?

[bradleyfan124]

Almar had some nice assists in the game

[yoda]

no games today at the U20 Championships,
but Iceland will play early Saturday for places 13-16...facing North Macedonia,
a team they already beat very handily 71-53. - WATCH

Thus far after 5 games, Almar ranks 3rd in scoring average at 16 ppg

Italy is playing for the 9-12 spots, and face Serbia later of Saturday. WATCH
Timoty van der Knaap is averaging 2.5 ppg in 8.7 min per game.

The South Sudan Olympic team has a game Saturday vs the US Olympic Team on Fox at 2pm - LINK

The OKC Thunder Summer League team plays again tonight at 9:30pm Central (Malevy)
It apparently is only carried on ESPN+

[yoda]

Game just finished and Iceland clobbered North Macedonia 116-87
Iceland played their bench a lot because of the blowout, but Almar played 25 min,
and had 12 pts, 3 reb, 5 assists and 3 blocks, and he was 3-8 from 3-point

BOX SCORE

They will play their final game Sunday (8:30am Central) vs the winner of Montenegro vs Turkiye (just about to start)
to determine 13-14th place
Turkiye would be a strong favorite, as Montenegro has not won a game yet and their closest game was an 18-point loss.
Their average margin of loss in 5 games is 30 pts.

[yoda]

Update---
Italy beats Serbia 71-63 today, & will play the winner between Israel & Germany (just now starting) for 9-10th place.
Timoty van der Knaap again did not play. He was dressed and went thru warmups, so he was definitely available,
but Italy played only 10 players.
The final game for 9th place starts tomorrow morning at 9am Central Time.


One last thing- in the Championship bracket - one of the semi-finalists is determined:
Slovenia beat Belgium 91-79 to advance to the Championship game tomorrow at 1:30pm Central Time
The other semi-final game, France vs Greece, is starting right now - the winner plays Slovenia tomorrow.

[yoda]

Iceland finishes up beating Turkiye 96-95
Almar 21pts, 3-8 from 3-pt, 13 rebounds, 2 asst, 1 steal, 2 blocks
Turkiye’s big man launched a desperation heave at the final buzzer for 3 points but they unfortunately needed 4.
Almar’s 3-pt play with 5 seconds to go was the game winner.
Turkiye made a furious run from 12 pts down in the final 3 minutes, but Iceland held on for 12th place.

Italy beat Israel 69-58 to take 9th place
Timoty van der Knaap played almost 12 min, scored 4 pts, 2 Reb, 1 asst, 1steal

one more note
Malevy Leons played well in his summer league game last night,
11 pts, 7 Reb, 3 blocks, 3 steals in 29 min in a starting role,
as the Thunder beat the Mavericks 88-79