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Almar

Game story from Iceland autotranslated (photo is from last week's Nordic Championships)
https://www-mbl-is.translate.goog/sp...n&_x_tr_pto=sc

1426048.jpg
 
yoda said:
Almar is listed at 6-8 and Iceland only has 1 other player over 6-6, and he only played one minute, so Almar does the bulk of defending their big guys.
And Slovenia had lots of size- 7 players 6-7 to 6-11

Iceland was outrebounded & had 18 turnovers but shot well and won
Slovenia was sent to the FT line 28 times and 3 Iceland players fouled out,
Iceland got to the line just 12 times, and 10 of those were Almar

final box score -
https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u...a#tab=boxscore
https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u20/2023/game/0807/Iceland-Slovenia#tab=overview

good thing we got him signed and enrolled !

Player of the game-
Click to expand...

Oh Wow !!! Amen!!
 
Tough loss 83-81
Almar 17pt. 6 reb. 3 asst

but getting great experience competing against the best 20 year olds in Europe, many of whom are playing professionally
 
Good experience playing vs the best 20 yr olds in Europe

a couple of these kids playing U20 have done well at the top pro level, such as Thijs De Ridder, averaging 11 ppg/6 rpg for Antwerp Giants in Belgium, but among the ones who have been recruited to D-I, none among the players that I can find has excelled yet playing college ball. So watching them, I get the sense the overall level of play is maybe on par with mid-level juco or DII.... definitely a step below DI.

One kid that just helped Germany beat Iceland, Michael Rataj, who had 14 pts/5 reb vs. Iceland,
played last year for Oregon State and in 32 games - started 16 - and averaged 6.1 ppg/4.1 rpg, hitting 38% on 3-pointers.
..another is at Santa Clara and is the son of one of Valparaiso's all time best players, Chris Ensminger, who was their
career leader in rebounding when he finished at Valpo in 2006- a record that only one player has broken in the interval since
.....Alec Peters!! - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Ensminger
 
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It’s gonna be a good learning experience but the French team is so much bigger & more athletic. They are all very mature looking 20 year olds with long wingspans. They have 4 steals, 2 blocks & are outrebounding Iceland 14-7 after 1 quarter. Score France 20 - Iceland 11, Almar 2pt, 2reb
 
Iceland played almost the whole way with their subs since their spot in the knockout round was already determined - their got clobbered by a very good French team
 
What I noticed was the French players actually played good defense, which many of these U20 kids on other Euro teams play little of. Good defense negates much of the skills that the less athletic kids have.
Almar and his teammates got a lot of open shots and were able to get into the lane easily against the unathletic teams at the Nordic Championship last weekend, and against the Slovenia team. But that didn't work against the French team.
Like Max Ekono, Luuk van Bree, and others, Almar will need to get stronger, and keep developing his skills to adjust to the speed, size, and better defenses he'll face at Bradley.
 
knockout round is set
Iceland faces Greece Wednesday July 12 at 6:30pm local time
which would be 8 hours time difference, or 10:30am in Peoria.

https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u...ps#tab=round_B

Hey, it's Iceland, a tiny island nation that has 4 20-year-olds, 2 19-year-olds, 5 18-year-olds and one 17-year old - average age just a little over 18 y/o and maybe 2 who have DI talent..

France, a nation with 18,200% MORE population than Iceland, had ELEVEN experienced 20-year-olds, and one-19 1/2 year-old - and nobody younger - average age 20+ y/o - and likely 7 or 8 with DI level talent...including a starter at Stanford,
...one that's a junior at Arizona, others already playing top-level pro ball and one that's projected as a 2024 NBA Draft Pick.

The final result was not surprising.
What was surprising was that Iceland played even with the other two teams in their group
 
After watching the Slovenia/Iceland game this morning Almar is impressive but has a lot of growing to do. Not a lot of "D" was played and a lot of his shots driving to the basket will get blocked in college as he was doing a lot of underhand scoop shots.
He is like so many of the foreign players in they have to get use to D1 basketball. I'm not sure how much he will help this season but then we have a lot of depth so wouldn't need to depend on him or possibly any of the freshmen this year. Burch might give us some quality minutes just because of his athletic ability.
 
Spain went 3-0 in group phase with all three huge blowout wins with >>20 pt margin and were co-favorites to win it all along with France.
They just went down to Israel 59-52, with Israel defending well and forcing 20 turnovers.
Spain's starters were held to 9-31 (29%)
 
again, Greece is bigger, older and more physical but Iceland holding their own.
(FIBA refs allow a lot of hard physical contact)
...biggest crowd yet is, of course, 99% for the Greek team.

End of 1st quarter, Iceland 24 - Greece 24

Almar with 6 pts, 2 reb, 1 steal and solid defense
 
Almar 3-8 from 3-pt

Greece gets away with a lot of elbows, reaching and over-the-back
..they are reaching & grabbing and creating turnovers and gaining advantage and it's not being called.
The Iceland players & coaches are really upset about it but Greece is the hometown favorite and getting homer calls
 
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