Courtesy of www.womensbasketball-in-france.com

FIBA Europe has announced that the FIBA Europe Executive Committee approved the proposal made by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation to play the EuroBasket 2011 Final Round with 24, instead of 16 teams.

The Executive Committee was backed in its decision by a majority of the FIBA Europe Board Members, who were also present at the meeting in Istanbul.

“The expansion is meant to follow the rapid development of European Basketball.” commented FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin.

“Proof for this development can be found at the FIBA World Championship where 9 of the 10 participating European Teams advanced from the Preliminary Round to participate in the Eight-Finals.”

FIBA Europe President Olafur Rafnsson added: “After it was clear that EuroBasket 2013 will be played with 24 teams we are now even more pleased that the expansion could be carried out two years earlier.

“European Basketball is stronger than ever and now the time has come to stay abreast of changes and, together with our Lithuanian friends, organise the biggest and best ever EuroBasket.”

Spain:
P Gasol – 22.97 – 3rd amongst PFs, 10th overall
Fernandes – 13.10 – 36th amongst SGs
Calderon – 16.58 – 15th amongst PGs

From that, as you might expect, advantage Spain, if Pau Gasol is in the line-up. This isn’t a surprise, the elder Gasol is one of the best players in the world. He was the difference at Eurobasket 09 between GB pulling off the biggest upset in recent basketball history, and Spain sneaking out with a win. He is long, agile, nimble yet powerful. He’s the main reason the Lakers won the NBA championship last year, and we don’t have anyone who can stop him. Neither does anyone else in FIBA play other than the Americans. What is interesting, is that GB’s big three all come in around the same rating.
Ben Gordon is a volume scorer, which is rewarded by the rating system. But if he can reign in the tendency to be a ball-stopper, and use his explosiveness not only to get to the rack, but to draw defenders and dump off to Pops, then GB will have a legitimate chance of making the medal round. He comes in as the 9th best shooting guard in the NBA in ‘value added’ – which is the estimated number of points a player adds to a team’s season total above a ‘replacement player’ ie the 12th man on the roster, would add. That’s incredible. That’s ahead of guys like Kevin Martin, Jason Richardson, Manu Ginobili, Eric Gordon and OJ Mayo. I don’t think people realise just how much of an impact Ben Gordon can make the GB team, particularly in a backcourt which is currently way below the level of Europe’s elite. Incidentally, Pau Gasol is also 9th at his position in value added.
Spain have cause to be worried about the performance of two of their NBA stars. Rudy Fernandes has gone stale in Portland, and this malaise seems to have followed him to Turkey. His future is uncertain, and while he would like to go back to Europe, the Trail Blazers will want something back in return. Calderon has been injured this summer and may lose his starting job to Ricky Rubio. The latter is undoubtedly a magnificent talent, but is also turnover prone and has not yet had to handle the pressure of being the lead guard for the national team.
Now for the caveats: last time I checked though, basketball was 5-on-5, and you probably need 8 elite players and a further couple capable of contributing. Spain have the luxury of calling on whichever of Rubio/Calderon doesn’t start, Juan Carlos Navarro, Felipe Reyes, Jorge Garbajosa, Marc Gasol, Raul Lopez… all veterans of the absolute highest level of European or NBA basketball. GB will probably round out the starting line-up with Joel Freeland in the middle and Nate Reinking at the other guard. Freeland is incredibly promising and already playing at the highest level in Europe in the ACB. Reinking, and whoever rounds out the PG by committee role from Lenzly, Hart and Adegboye, will hopefully benefit from defenses clogging the lane against Pops and Deng to knock down open 3s, but none of those guys is a great perimeter defender at the top level. Off the bench, Dan Clark could develop into a great stretch 4, but was inconsistent in qualification. Andrew Sullivan provides defense and hustle, while Achara, Boateng and Bryan-Amaning will probably stay glued to the bench.

Also, I realise this is not the NBA game we are talking about. However, with the changes to the key and 3 point line that will be introduced following the World Championships, the two games will begin to harmonise. The new, bigger, rectangular key and longer 3 point line have already been introduced to some lower leagues, like the Spanish second division, and on first glance (see clip here, skip to 1:55) the new dimensions will open up space between the painted area and 3 point line and make it more difficult to clog the lane, opening up space for Deng and Pops to go to work, allowing the latter to set up deeper in the post, provided that we can space the floor (which is where Gordon comes in, a career 40% three point shooter from the NBA line). The Spanish, like many top European sides, have been playing together for a lot longer than the GB squad will have done, unable as they will be to even draw on the experience of this summer, if the absentees return as they hopefully will. That said, the prevalence of international talent in the NBA has caused more and more players to miss summer tournaments. Slovenia, for example, will have just as many new faces to re-integrate as GB if they take their strongest squad to Lithuania.
Is this mostly conjecture? Yes. Have I cherry picked stats that suit the argument that GB could push the likes of Spain next year? Yes, probably. We don’t have room here for a full statistical analysis, and what’s more I’m probably not the person to do it. What it does demonstrate is that if GB have their best three players together, it is not stupid to say that we could be competitive with the best teams in Europe.
So, GB don’t have the strength in depth of Spain (or Greece, or Serbia). But it is undeniable that if Gordon finally suits up in Lithuania, opposing coaches will be looking at him, Pops and Deng, and wondering how to come up with a defensive scheme that will stop them. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Despite controlling the game Bulgaria only led by 52-42 at half-time with the visitors knowing it could have been a lot worse.
When Marcus Faison scored five points to start the second half for Belgium, a comeback looked to be coming but it was as near as they would get as the home team squashed their revival hopes.
They shrugged off their lax start to the third and shifted through the gears smoothly to head into the last quarter 73-57 ahead, meaning they could canter to victory.
Kaloyan Ivanov produced a nice cameo for Bulgaria with nine points and 11 rebounds while Lauwers finished with 21 points for Belgium.

Georgia kept their hopes alive after a pair of sparkling double-doubles by Zaza Pachulia and Nikoloz Tskitishvili secured a comfortable 80-57 success in Portugal.
Pachulia finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Tskitishvili claimed 12 points and 15 rebounds.
The visitors never looked back after a 22-8 first period, and although Portugal pulled it back to a ten point game going into the locker room at half-time, a 13-0 run ended the game as a contest.
Miguel Miranda finished with 20 points and eight boards for Portugal.
Belgium host Poland on Sunday evening knowing a win will send them to the finals. If they lose, it will go down to a three-way tiebreaker between the Poles, Belgians and the winner of Sunday’s Georgia versus Bulgaria match-up.