By Ruben Alcaraz
Some of Eurohopes staff members attended the Nike International Junior Tournament of Hospitalet, probably the best of the four NIJT qualifying tournaments. Real Madrid beat Unicaja Malaga in the final and Jonathan Barreiro (’97) was the best player of the game. FC Barcelona’s guard Marc García (’96) was named MVP of the tournament. Besides him, the All-Tournament team was completed with Unicaja’s Francisco Alonso (’96), Brose Basket’s Andreas Obst (’96), Union Olimpia’s Vasilije Vucetic (’96) and Real Madrid’s Jonathan Kasibabu (’96). This time we bring a report of four players unranked in our rankings that had a great weekend in Hospitalet:
-Zoran Nikolic (’96): Born in Montenegro but playing the previous seasons in Spain, 6’10 Nikolic played for the first time this season with U18 Joventut of Badalona team. He usually plays with C.B. Prat, linked team of Joventut that plays in LEB Silver, where he is a key player averaging 9.4 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Even though he averaged in the NIJT worse numbers, his body and his talents are undoubtable. A 6-foot-10 pure center, who possesses a big and strong body that can post over any junior center in Europe, looked strange that his team didn’t search him more to feed him. Nikolic has good touch in the paint and sometimes takes open shots. He’s a good finisher and has good and multiple post moves. He could become a better rebounder.
-Andreas Obst (’96): The 6’3 German wing of Brose Basket -at the poc- was a scoring machine in Hospitalet averaging 22.5 points per game, and the most outstanding player of a team that deserved more than a 7th place. Obst is a sniper, 19 of 43 beyond the arc in only four games, good working off-the-ball to get good shots. He doesn’t use a lot the drive, even he has a good and powerful lower body, but is a good finisher. Not a great defender, has nose to steal the ball, getting two steals per game.
-Francisco Alonso (’96): The 6’4 point guard was the key for Unicaja Malaga to reach the final game. He averaged 16 points, 3 assists and 2 steals per game, highest on the team. Alonso is not a playmaker, he is always aggressive towards the basket trying to score or give the definitive pass. He likes to play in transition where he is a good finisher thanks to his strong body. Alonso has multiple tools to score using ball screens, driving or shooting with a long range but he prefers to shoot from the 3 point line, 13 of 37 from beyond the arc and 13 of 23 in 2 point shots during the weekend.
-Emanuel Cate (’97): 6’7 Rumanian forward looks bigger than he really is. With a wide upper body, Cate always attacks the rim using his strength. Cate doesn’t possess great skills or a great touch, but sometimes he shots from three point line, 1 of 3 during the event. Average rebounder, sometimes disappear in the game but he was the most efficient player of Real Madrid in the final.
Twitter of the author: @Filipy09
Photo: David Grau / passioesportiva.cat
