By Marti Artigas

 

Last summer in our trip to Strumica (FYROM) for the U16 Division "B" European Championship we saw a group of interesting prospects. One of them was Luka Mandic ('96). 6'9'' swiss power-forward sent us good details, and a few weeks later he landed in Cibona Zagreb youth teams. Now he has returned to Switzerland to join the U16 NT, currently playing in Bucharest (Romania) for the U16 Division "B" EC. Swiss squad is still unbeaten (3-0), with Mandic averaging 14.7 points and 7.3 rebounds, even only 36% FG. Eurohopes talked with him.

 

-Three victories in three games. How can you resume swiss performance these first days?
We are not so good individual players, but a good team. We fight much on the court and so we won our first three games and we want to continue with this strike.

 

-How do you see the tournament and the rivals? What is your goal as a team?
The tournament rivals are good, but if we play smart we can beat them. Our goal is to go to the second round and so far as we can. Switzerland is not a basketball country so if we go to the top-8 it would really be good for us, and maybe we can reach the semifinals with much luck.

 

-Last summer you signed for Cibona. How has been your season in Zagreb?
The season was good for me. First I didn't play until Christmas because of FIBA papers, but then I started to play, every game better and better. I improved much this year with my basketball IQ and individual (ballhandling and shooting is much better now). We won the croatian U16 championship and it was really cool for me to play with guys like Marko Arapovic and Lovro Mazalin. We're good friends on the court and also very good outside. So we have a good chemistry together and I think our team could beat every U16 team in Europe.

 

Twitter of the author: @marti_artigas