By Marc Kongsgaard
The ’97 generation from Denmark has already shown their worth this summer. With a victory at home in Denmark in the Copenhagen Invitational Tournament the team seems to have a skilled roster with great height and potential. Three players from the ’97 generation was a part of the roster as Denmark used to the U16 European Championship. All three players did a great job and helped Denmark to be placed at number 13 in the B division.
The 6’7” SF/PF Tage Lihn Dembele has a nice 7’0” wingspan and is very flexible on the court. He loves to work in the post and is natural good inside player. With his super wingspan and almost perfect physique it all makes him to a dangerous shot-blocker and a great rebounder. He always tries to play aggressive and crash the board. To the U16 European Championship Tage averaged 0.9 blocks in only 7 minutes. Tage has nice hands and uses them to a great ball handling and has a cool jumpshot. With his speed and athleticism he gets plenty of space to use his jumpshot and is not afraid to shoot the 3-pointer. Right now Tage is playing on a basketball school in Denmark, but he hoops that he already next year can play basketball outside Denmark.
The hustler Jacob Glarbjerg Larsen is perhaps overshadowed by his brother Rasmus Larsen which is one of the best players from the talented generation ‘94. The 6’9” Dane is not afraid to be the leader on the court, and is playing almost the same style of basketball as his brother did in his age. Jacob is very in the low-post game, and loves to post up and play back to basket. Larsen created a name for himself at the U16 championship in Romania this year. He averaged 12.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in only 28.3 minutes. In addition to these impressive stats he also shot 62.9% from the floor and 73.1% from the free throw line. Beside this fantastic effort in Romania, Jacob was also named to the all-star team at Copenhagen Invitational together with Tage. Right now Jacob is just focused at playing basketball and develops his game, so he can be even better in the future and then takes the next step from there.
In the shadow of these two big men we find another player from the ’97 generation over 2 meters, namely Kasper Victor Christiansen which is around 6’8”. Kasper is playing the SF/PF position and loves to play outside the paint, and he uses his great jumpshot to deep range with a great touch. With his long arms and height he has an advantage with his defends game and in the rebound situations. To the U16 European Championship he averaged 0.7 blocks and 0.5 steals in only 4.8 minutes, and was also shooting 50% from downtown.
With these three “big men” has Denmark already a good fundament, but they have also a couple of great Guards. One guard that springs to mind is the 6’1” SG/PG Sikander Tajik Nielsen. With his only 15 years old, he has already played games in the best basketball league in Denmark. Right now he has played three games for Hørsholm in the best league, and average 0.7 points and 1.3 rebounds in 11 minutes. Sikander has a great jumpshot and is not afraid to take it to the rim. He can shoot from every spot on the court, but still he loves to pass the ball to his teammates. Sikander has been named to the all-star team at the Scania Cup (Which is one of the biggest tournaments in Scandinavia) three times, and has won the “Scania King” title two times. Right now Sikander tries to develop himself so much as possible and practices hard to perform his biggest dream, which is he one day will move overseas and play NCAA division 1.
Twitter of the author: @MKP79
