PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - The last two weekends I was fortunate to commentate two tournaments in Pau and Antibes which saw seven participants in the upcoming FIBA Basketball World Cup prepare for the competition.

These tournaments featured France, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Australia and Ukraine who are all legitimate outsiders for a medal behind the two mega-favorites from the USA and host nation Spain.

I also saw the Phillipines with their typically Asian run-and-gun style built around their naturalised NBA star, Andrey Blatche, who fit in well but they probably won't be playing for a medal even though a qualification for the second round remains a possibility.

Concerning the six outsiders, Serbia, Ukraine and Australia seemed the most advanced in their preparations, as they all beat a French team that is trying to find its way without Tony Parker and Nando De Colo (out with a fractured hand).

Hopefully for France, the next 10 days will be enough to correct their tendency to play up and down. When they defend aggressively and play up-tempo on offence, the European champs can be brilliant but too often a lack of concentration and some childish mistakes can lower their level, according to coach Vincent Collet.

In a two-point loss to Australia on Sunday, the good news was that Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw played some of their best offensive basketball in years!

The Aussies have a nice mix of young and old to play their physical, pressing style and Aaron Baynes is a dominating presence in the paint. However, young prodigy Dante Exum who has the morphology of a teenage Scottie Pippen, will need to work on his outside shot and finish stronger at the rim if he wants decent playing time in Spain and with the Utah Jazz next season.

His potential is evident and I would say the same thing about Croatia's Mario Hezonja.

Hezonja is an up-and-comer who plays for Barcelona and is known for having played for Croatia at U19 level when he was only 16! He has no fear bombing away with success from three-point range or calling for high-flying alley-oop passes from his teammates. He ressembles Ukraine's rising star Sviatoslav Mikhailiuk, who put on the same kind of show against the Phillipines in Antibes.

Wow, those two youngsters can jump and shoot with the best! The 2.04m (6ft 8in) Kansas shooting guard is considered by many to have the same kind of potential as Croatia's Dario Saric but with a less muscular build. One thing is for sure: the NBA-heavy coaching staff of Ukraine is getting the most out of the team's talent, bravo gentlemen!

After talking about all these precocius gems, I would also like to highlight the enormous potential of Greece's two lightning- fast giants running the wings, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Kostas Papanikolaou who will leave Barcelona for the Houston Rockets next season.

If Greece can go against its natural tradition and tendency to play slow-it-down basketball, these two space-eaters can produce a lot of easy baskets with their steals and fastbreaks because they go coast to coast with just THREE dribbles!  Once again, Pippen comes to mind.

Last but not least, I continue to be impressed by the two players that share the same last name, Bogdanovic, without being related.

I believe the Croatian, Bojan, will continue to lead his country in scoring before becoming an exciting and dangerous scorer off the bench for the Brooklyn Nets next season. He's got the full scorer's package, inside and out and the size and technique to create his own shot in the NBA style.

Bogdan, the Serbian, scored, oddly enough, exactly the same amount of points as Bojan in the Euroleague last season with an average of 14.8 per game.

Bogdan will replace Bojan at Fenerbahce next season and delay his NBA career for a year or two, similar to Saric.

In any case, all these up and comers give us even more reasons to get psyched up for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain!

George Eddy

FIBA

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