REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - On Friday, just hours before either Serbia or Lithuania book a spot for the 2016 Olympics at EuroBasket 2015, the best young players from around Europe will steal the spotlight for a couple of hours. 

For the fourth time, Europe's elite talent will play in front of the EuroBasket crowd in the U18 All-Star Game. And there are some really great match-ups within the 2015 edition.

Twenty-two of the best 1997-born players and under will line-up in Red v Black game at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille. 

The most visible showdown will be in the blocks as Croatian big men Ante Zizic and Ivica Zubac will square off in the paint on opposing teams. The two Zs know each other well from battling against each other twice a day for their club Cibona. 

Zubac was able to take advantage of a Zizic injury at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship and showed all observers that he might just be Cibona's - and Croatia's - big man of the future. 

Zubac will also be going against another of his countrymen in the game as Zizic's Black Team teammate is Croatian wingman Nik Slavica - best known for his outstanding block on Jayson Tatum of the United States in overtime of the U19 Worlds Final.

Two other teammates who will likely line up against one another in Lille are France's Frank Ntilikina and Germany's Kostja Mushidi, who will be playing together this season with French side Strasbourg. Mushidi was already giving Ntilikina a tough time at All-Star Game practice the day before the game.

The exhibition game will be special for Ntilikina for another reason as well with it taking place in his home country. He has been teamed up with fellow French man Jonathan Jeanne on the Red Team and will Ntilikina and Jeanne will have compatriot Stephane Gombauld on the opposing team. 

Sweden's two U18 European Championship Division B All-Tournament Team members, Tobias Sjoberg and John Brandmark, will be playing together for Team Red.

Team Black definitely will have a fraction of players from the former Yugoslavia - with  Slavica and Zizic being joined by Montenegro's Ognjen Carapic and Serbs Vanja Marinkovic and Borisa Simanic. 

Team Red meanwhile has Zubac as well as Slovenian Blaz Mesicek as player from the former basketball superpower. Mesicek excelled this summer at the U20 European Championship for the Slovenians. 

The Reds also feature U18 European Championship MVP Vasilis Charalampopoulos of Greece as well two fantastic shooters in Verners Kohs of Latvia and Spain’s Xabi Lopez-Arostegui.

Rounding out the Red roster are Israeli point guard Tamir Blatt and Italian big man Leonardo Tote.

Team Black includes the only Turkish player in point guard Omer Al as well as Czech Republic big man Simon Pursl and Russia's Andrei Lopatin.

While those following the youth game will know many of those players, the Man of Mystery coming into the All-Star Game will be Azerbaijan's Endar Poladkhanli - the October 1998-born MVP of the U18 European Championship Division C. 

He's the player I'm most looking forward to seeing in the showcase. In practice on Thursday, the small forward nailed a bunch of three-pointers and also threw down a viscous dunk on the break over Marinkovic. Look for Poladkhanli to be one of the guys who really want to use the showcase to exhibit what he can do against high level players. 

The breakdown of the rosters has created a bit more intrigue into a game that will be missing many elite talents. Still, there are enough fantastic players on hand to let observers forget about Serbia and Lithuania - at least for a couple of hours.

Here the team rosters:

Team Red: Tamir Blatt (ISR; #4), Frank Ntilikina (FRA; #5), Blaz Mesicek (SLO; #6), John Brandmark (SWE; 8), Verners Kohs (LAT; #9), Xabier Lopez-Arosteguj (ESP; #10), Vasilis Charalampopoulos (GRE; #11), Leonardo Tote (ITA; #12), Jonathan Jeanne (FRA; #13), Ivica Zubac (CRO; #15), Tobias Sjoberg (SWE; #16).
Team Black: Omer Utku Al (TUR; #4), Ognjen Carapic (MNE; #5), Vanja Marinkovic (SRB; #6), Kostja Mushidi (GER; #7), Andrei Lopatin (RUS; #8), Endar Poladkhanli (AZE; #9), Nik Slavica (CRO; #10), Stephane Gombauld (FRA; 11), Borisa Simanic (SRB; #12) Simon Pursl (CZE; #13), Ante Zizic (CRO; #15).

David Hein

FIBA 

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