By Luca Virgilio

Budapest is becoming one of the most important reference point for the European youth basketball movement, and this is certainly thanks to the great work of Vasas Academy which last weekend hosted the Euroleasing International Cup U15. This tournament was won without too much trouble from Partizan Belgrade, who won all the matches thanks to very talented players like Sava Dukic ('98), Milos Glisic ('98) and Srecko Gasic ('98). This was a very intense competition with very tough games and, although the level was not very high, it was very interesting to see. Now let's find out more about the most interesting players who played the tournament in Budapest:

 

Ivan Corovic (Guard, 190 cm, KK Podgorica):  shows interesting offensive skills as evidenced by the 16.5 points per game with a high of 26 against Stellazzurra Academy.  He is definitely a good Guard and he can be dangerous with strong penetration in the area and with shot from long distance. He is physically very sturdy especially in the upper part of the body and this thing allows him to resist the contacts and to attack the basket effectively. 

 

Scott Ulaneo (SF, 196 cm, Stellazzurra Basketball Academy): has not played the tournament with high level performance but he showed some really interesting skills for a player of his height. Ulaneo has the perfect his features to become a top prospect because he has an enviable physical with long arms and legs, with plenty high growth potential. I think that he needs to work on defense and he needs to improve his shooting mechanics in order to be able confirm himself at high levels.

 

Sava Dukic (PG,182 cm, Partizan Beograd): I was enchanted by his maturity despite his young age: he is the prototype of the playmaker dreamed by all the teams in Euroleague. Dukic is a very orderly player who does not miss a passage and he does not make turnovers but this do not mean that he isn't a good scorer because he showed in this 4 games all his offensive repertoire with 11 points per game. Another aspect that impressed me was his leadership and his ability to lead the team at any moment of the match.

 

Ruben Calo (SF, 196 cm, AJ Milan): he was a real surprise to me and he with Toffali was the main reason of the good tournament of AJ Milano. First of all, Calò is a good striker and he scored 13,5 points per game in Budapest but he's the classic kind of player that can do everything on the floor: catches rebounds, makes assists, runs in open space, good one against one in offense and in defense. I believe that he has the right skills to become a good prospect and I hope that he will grow up of around 10 centimeters in the future.

 

Srecko Gasic (C, 205 cm, Partizan Beograd): was unstoppable during the tournament especially for his physicality significantly stronger than his opponents. He besides being higher than the others is also much heavier than any other center and for him it was easy enough to catch all the offensive and defensive rebounds. I think he needs to improve his shot from mid-range to confirm itself at a high level in the coming years.

 

Gabor Rudner (PF, 197 cm, Vasas Academy): he was the soul of the hungarian team and he played every single game with a lot of intensity. He has a nice body structure and a very good movement of the feet, but the thing that impressed me the most was his ability to do the right thing at the right time with excellent results. In the tournament he scored 20 points per game and has always marked the clutch points for Vasas. 

 

Milos Glisic (SF, 202 cm, Partizan Beograd): was awarded as MVP of the tournament and best scorer of the competition with 28 points per game. I believe that he is predestined and that if he will continue to work hard in the gym and he will have no injury problems he will play at the highest level in Europe. He is a deadly shooter from any position and from any distance and this because his shooting mechanics is perfect. For Glisic scores points is not a problem and all the balls that he touches almost magically come into the basket. Partizan is doing a great job also from the point of view of the physical structure because you can see how he is treated perfectly in every part of his body. I think he's one of the best European players born in 1998 and now I understand why he was the only player born in 1998 called at the last Under 16 European Championships.

 

 

All-Star Tournament:

 

Sava Dukic (Partizan Beograd)

Davide Toffali (AJ Milan)

Gabor Rudner (Vasas) 

Milos Glisic (Partizan Beograd)

Andrea Valentini (Stellazzurra Basketball Academy)

 

Final Standings:

 

1) Partizan Beograd, 2) AJ Milan, 3) Vasas Academy, 4) Stellazzurra Basketball Academy 5) KK Podgorica

 

 

The next appointment in Budapest will be the Euroleasing International Cup U14 in the first week of February with Vasas Academy, AJ Milan, Cibona Zagreb and Crvena Zvezda.