• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

Almar

end 3rd qtr
Greece 65 - Iceland 56
Almar 15 pts, 2 reb and getting mugged a bunch with very few fouls called
 
Almar will likely soon be heading to Peoria to join the Braves
Iceland loses 83 - 75
Almar with 19 pts, 5 reb - averaged 16 pts/6 reb thru the tourney
 
Iceland lead 45-41 at halftime, and the game stayed close until Greece opened a double digit lead in the last half of the 3rd quarter. Greece outscored Iceland 24-11 in that 3rd quarter with a number of steals, and easy baskets as Iceland went cold. Iceland shot 39.4% (26/66) for the game, but only 20.7% (6/29) from three, and they had 20 turnovers for the game, many of them in the 3rd quarter. The Iceland team has a couple nice players, including Almar, but they lack depth, and when their top players are not shooting well, or if they are forced to rely on reserves, they can't compete nearly as well.
 
Da Coach said:
20 turnovers for the game....
Click to expand...
Iceland is not a big, strong and physical team and the way the games were called favored teams who were.
Lots of banging, reaching, and hacking were allowed and half those turnovers were when defenders reached in,
hacked across their arms or went over the back. It is good learning experience for playing in the NCAA.
Just now #1 NBA Draft pick Victor Wembayama agreed & said:
"the NBA is “less physical” than European basketball"
 
For such a tiny nation whose entire population is about equal to 1/10th that of just Paris or Athens and only 1/40th of Istanbul to compete as one of the best U20 teams in Europe is impressive
 
One of the Montenegrin players is already playing in the NBA G-League putting up 6 ppg
https://stats.gleague.nba.com/player/1641568/
several others have played professionally in Europe.

Halftime score
Iceland 42 - Montenegro 39
.. again, Iceland lacks a point guard, lots of turnovers
Almar 12 pts, 6 reb, 1 asst, 1 blk
Montenegro's Jovanovic 17 pts, 5 reb
.
.
.
.
answer...Bulls players from Montenegro (Montenegro used to be part of the "old" Yugoslavia for those who learned geography back in the 80's and earlier, Serbia is now what was the other half.)
Javonte Green
Nikola Vucevic
Nikola Mirotic
Marko Simonovic
 
After Quarter #3
Iceland takes a big lead 79-55
Almar 18 pts, 7 reb
teammate Orri Gunnarsson 7-9 from the arc and 25 pts
Iceland hot from long distance - 15/26!

Barring a collapse, Almar may rest much of the 4th quarter

a win here puts Iceland in the upper half of the consolation bracket so they will play Sat (vs winner of Italy vs. Poland)
& then Sun (times TBD) for 9th-thru12th place among the 16 teams.
 
final score
Iceland 99 - Montenegro 73

Almar with 21 pts, 8 reb, 2 asst, 1 blk, 4-11 from the arc (36.4%)
Iceland as a team was 16-34 from the arc, 47.1%
Almar's sharpshooting teammate Orri Gunnarsson was 7-12 (58.3%) from the arc and had 30 pts

*** there was an interesting altercation rght as the game ended - the coaches of the Montenegrin team came all the way across the floor diagonally and went after a couple of the Iceland U20 players and even threw a couple punched before they were then restrained and pulled away by THEIR OWN PLAYERS who were cordially congratulating their opponents.
 
If you watch a replay of the game the pushing and shoving starts at -2:40 of the video, as a few players are shaking hands with the refs as they are exiting the floor.
Then the Montenegrin players & coaches keep pushing and shoving until all the players are in the near left hand end of the court, the furthest from where the Montenegrin bench was located... but the pushing continues & one of the Montenegrin assistants in a red shirt jumps in and swipes at someone then is held back by two of his own players (#5 & #35).
The one Montenegrin player with a yellow shirt also tries to get into it then the Montenegrin head coach pushes all the way to the extreme bottom left of the screen (at -2:02) but it's hard to see if any of the Iceland players are even involved as they are all off the screen's view by then headed to the lockerroom.
Then the broadcast cuts away to replay highlights.
 
today's win qualifies the Iceland U20 team to stay in Division A next year, 2024, which are the top 16 U20 teams in Europe.
Teams from Division B (those European U20 ranked #17 thru 36 can move up with their play). Currently Great Britain, Netherlands & Finland are all in Div B


btw- no games Friday, and Saturday's game times are now set
Iceland plays Italy at 10:30am (Illinois time) - https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u.../Iceland-Italy

Italy is a very poor 3-pt shooting team, having only hit 24% thus far in their five games in Greece. (15th best of 16 teams)
Iceland ranks 2nd in 3pt% at 33.5%
Among all players at the 16-team event, Atlason is 5th in scoring at 17.2ppg. His teammate Gunnarson is 6th at 16.8ppg

Almar (15) and Gunnarsson (16) are #1 & #2 in 3-pt FG made in this tourney thus far.
 
LittleBrave said:
My Icelandic is very shady - anyone able to translate the article? ;)
THANKS YODA!
Click to expand...

it's mostly a video report but here's the text

"Almar Orri Atlason had a real big game for the Icelandic U20 national basketball team when they started the game in the A division of the European Championship 2023 with a narrow victory over Slovenia in Heraklon, Greece today.

News from mbl.is

Iceland won their first match in the group


Almar Orri is only 18 years old, raised in KR who has played with the Sunrise Christian Academy team in American high school football for the past year.
In Iceland's 70:68 win over Slovenia, he scored 27 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out three assists.
A fragment of Almari Orra's best from the game can be seen here:
​



 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top