The Lithuanian guard is on fire during the beginning of this season so it was time to take a closer look at the Lietuvos Rytas player. Martynas Gecevicius, who I follow for quite a few years now is finally getting the playing minutes with Rytas to show what he is able to do on the highest European level.

The first thing you see when Gecevicius is on the court is of course his shooting skills. The 1m93 tall player has probably one of the quickest shot releases in the Euroleague, even if he is firing up a bit low, the ball not being above his head when taking the shot. But despite doing so, he is able to make the long distance bombs even with a defender on him. This does not change the mechanics he has on his shot which are totally automatic and consistent what ever happens. His open three point shot from the corner falls right now nearly automatically too; even with a poor 1/6 long range effort, he is at 50% from behind the arc in the ongoing Euroleague season.

Another important thing about Gecevicius’ shot and release is that he can go for an immediate shot after the catch. He does not really need to prepare his shot as he is always waiting in the perfect position to take it. This is highly helpful for him in order to knock it down during the short moment he will be open after the catch. He is mainly a catch-and-shoot player from behind the arc for his team, but he can convert he mid-range jump shot as well, also on the fast break. He moves very well without the ball in order to be in the perfect passing angle for the dribbling player and to get the open position against the defense.

When it comes to the penetration plays, Gecevicius looks a bit more limited as he barely has a left hand. A large majority of his drives go over his right hand, where he can create the open spot for himself or for a team mate. His ball handling on those occasions is quite ok, you can see him go for cross-over or spin moves, but mostly on his right hand alone. When going to the left, he does it for getting the one-dribble jump shot, where he is not that automatic right now.

During certain moments, Lietuvos Rytas uses him as PG, a role where he is still learning and that may be his future. Despite being quite a good but also fast passer on the swings for example, his limits on his left handed dribbling make him quite predictable in what he does so that the defense can put a lot of pressure on him and force the turnovers. You could see him however score an underhand floating layup of the glass out of such a PG situation where he use a horn-setup to get open.

Gecevicius is not a liability on defense at all. He has improved his lateral speed and can now guard quicker guards. He may not become a lock-down defender probably, he misses the athletic abilities to do so, but his long minutes on the court show that his coaching staff is not using him just as a pure offensive player. If he continues his Euroleague season on the level where he started it, he may be a hot candidate for the Euroleague Rising Star trophy this season, a nice symbol in a year where he is automatically eligible for the NBA Draft.

Today, the German Basketball federation officially announced the 16 participating teams of 25th Albert Schweitzer Tournament that will be played from the 3rd to the 10th April 2010 in Mannheim.

The 2010 edition of the tournament will feature 7 non-European teams with Argentina, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Two teams have been added that will come for their first ever participation with Brazil and Japan. Of course, there is a Team USA participating. On the European side, the organization managed to bring in the following teams.

France will be present with their highly talented core around Evan Fournier, Leo Westermann and the very long Vincent Pourchot. The defending champion from Greece may be a less talented than in 2008 but the squad still features one of the most promising players of the 1992 generation in Linos Chrysikopoulos. Italy will probably built around the scorers Alessandro Gentile and Nunzio Sabbatino and the hard working Tommaso Ingrosso. Spain features the talented wings Miguel Servera and Joan Tomas while Turkey may be one of the favorites if they bring Enes Kanter and Safak Edge. Israel and Croatia will certainly fight hard for earning a good spot on the tournament.

Germany will be present through two teams. The U17 team that prepares for the U17 World Championship will participate next to the highly talented U18 team that features the promising Wendt twins, Matthis Mönninghoff and inside presence Philipp Neumann. It looks like the 2010 edition of the tournament should be a bit stronger than in 2008 as the 1990 generation was not among the strongest in Europe. The presence of the 7 non-European teams makes the tournament highly interesting as it gives an opportunity to see a lot of players that are normally not that often in Europe.

More information can be found on the official website: www.ast-basketball.de

The French guard Jonathan Bourhis died today in a car accident. The 1990 born player from JDA Dijon crashed on the way back from a game at 6 o’clock this morning.

I scouted him not later than during the game he played on Saturday against Hyères-Toulon where he saw his first important professional minutes with JDA Dijon. He was a member of the 4th place French U18 team in 2008 and participated in the 2009 U19 World Championships in New Zealand. He was considered as one of the most talented French players of his generation. R.I.P. Joanthan Bourhis.

The young French Center of ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne signed his debut in the Euroleague this week in the tough overtime home loss against Fenerbahce Ülker. The 1989 born and 2m12 tall player used the minutes he got because of the injury of Curtis Borchardt and it may remain his only major minutes of the Euroleague as ASVEL just signed a replacement for the former ACB player. However, I took a close look at what Fofana did during his 11 minutes on the court.

The first impression you get from Fofana is of course the very long body that he has. In fact, Bangaly Fofana is listed with 2m12 and has nice long arms. His body is still a bit underdeveloped physically which put him in difficulties against the bigger Fenerbahce players. But after a first half where Fofana had some trouble to adjust, he showed during the 2nd half that he can have some impact in the next games for his French team.

Fofana entered the court in the first half when ASVEL was playing man-to-man defense and he had to take care of Emir Preldzic. He did a nice job to defend against the tall wing as his correct lateral speed and long arms prevented the Slovenian player to attack him on the drive. While he was nicely present on the defensive end where he changed the shooting selection of his opponents, his offensive presence was not that good. He started with a bad passing decision as he saw the cutter but he could not adjust his pass well enough as it was intercepted. He missed a two handed dunk out of a Pick and Roll situation where he may have been touched slightly on his left arm.

In a second offensive tentative, he saw his attempt badly reject by Omer Asik, a move that made it to the Euroleague Top 10 this week. Fofana got subbed by Vincent Collet later on but the French coach was not afraid to bring him back in the last minutes of the 2nd quarter. The Center had a final opportunity to score his first bucket of the season but his right handed jump hook from the top was a bit short and looked somehow soft and not that powerful. In general, you could see a player that is still very raw in his offensive attempts, but can run the court extremely well for a player of his size.

During the second half, Fofana showed a much more intense presence on the court than during the first 20 minutes. He started with a nice effort on the offensive glass where he worked very hard and used his good speed and nice timing. He showed good pivot moves to pass out the ball to the open shooters. On another shot attempt of one of his team mates, Fofana could capture the offensive rebound high above his defender and put the ball back with a nice two handed dunk and the foul. After missing the Bonus free-throw, he put nice pressure on the Fenerbahce rebounder and was close to gain the ball back. His second hoop of the game came from a two handed tip dunk where he recognized the moment very well to leave his defender to score the basket.

Defensively, he showed a very nice block shot on a dunk attempt by Semih Erden. The good thing of this block was that Fofana appeared from the side with a big step to explode up straight for the perfect block shot.

Now, Bangaly Fofana needs to continue with his performances in order to gain the necessary playing time to develop. You could really see how Fofana improved throughout the game and learned how to play on this level. If his learning curve on a long term is in relation with the one he showed during this game, he may have a very bright future. Pierre Grall, the executive director of ASVEL, says about Fofana that he is doing his best every on practice on the highest level and that he needs now to make the next step and confirm his qualities as defensive rebounder in the game.

Davis Martens from Germany is a bit of a different case than the previous players presented in this series. The 2m04 tall forward played last season at the Patterson Prep School in the United States and so it won’t be a real Rookie Season for him. However, the Siena freshman will need to sit out the first 12 games of the season because of his presence with the Cologne 99ers professional team back in 2007-2008.

Davis Martens is an athletic inside player who is still in a process of getting to know his body better and improve his basketball skills. His main offensive skills are his versatility and his outside shot. On the other hand, he needs to work on his passing skills and improve his in-game toughness. This is something that his coaches at Siena try to teach him during the pre-season as points out assistant Andrew Francis to the local press.

He can make plays when he puts the ball on the deck. We’re just trying to get him more under control with his jumps, his turns and his pivots. He’s made a lot of strides just in the few weeks we’ve had him. He’s bigger than people, but sometimes he plays smaller than he is.

But the hopes on Martens are pretty high as the 1989 born forward showed a lot of promise during the practices these days. Davis Martens himself is way more humble when it comes to his personal expectations for his College career.

I can not really speak about a specific goal, I think every one has the same dream but you need to be realistic and see after the work done where you are and what possibilities you have.

I decided to continue my career in the NCAA because a lot of players made it from here and I have more time to develop. But next to basketball itself, it is a great opportunity to study and play basketball at the same time.

Davis also told europeanprospects.com why he chose the five-time NCAA Tournament participant.

Siena offered me the best situation to show my talent and to improve. Additionally, it is directly localized on the East Coast which is closer to Germany than a school in the West. The difference in time zones of 6 hours instead of for example 9 hours is a bigger advantage than one may think.

We wish Davis Martens a good season in Loudonville. Watch here a report on the opening practices of the Siena College for the 2009-2010 season.

Today, I take a look at two young French PGs that play interesting roles in their respective teams. While Thomas Heurtel has already a full season of ProA basketball behind him (and a relegation with Pau-Orthez), Andrew Albicy has his first ProA season in front of him after a ProB campaign crowned by first regular professional minutes and a team success.

Thomas Heurtel (1m88 – PG – 1989 – SIG Strasbourg)

After a very active summer both on (Silver Medal with the French U20 NT) and of the court (Transfer from Pau to ASVEL and then loaned to SIG), Thomas Heurtel has earned the Starting PG job of a SIG Strasbourg team coached by Fred Sarre. The player from Southern France came of an interesting first professional season in the Béarn that he finished with 10.0ppg and 6.2apg and he is considered as one of the most talented PGs of the future.

Heurtel displays a nice understanding of the game and through his handles and speed, he can create a lot of open opportunities for his team mates. He excels in Pick and Roll situations out of which he has the eye for the weak side pass, his own drive or the open picker on the roll or the pop. With his cross over dribbles, he can put his defender in big trouble and give himself also good looks for his own scoring. Despite being not really physical, he is not afraid to drive to the hoop but prefers to go for tear drop shots or mid range jumpers. However, he struggles some times to keep his balance when going up out of full speed for the mid-range shot.

From long distance, his catch and shoot three point shot looks particularly well as he can shoot with good height and despite being guarded by a taller player. Additionally, he has a good scoring mentality as he takes a good amount of shots without falling into a too bad shot selection for a player of his age. Heurtel wants to have the ball in the hot moments and he displays some coolness on the court that will probably help to become a decisive player in the future.

On the downside, the PG needs to develop his left hand, especially when it comes to finishing close to the basket where he goes mostly of his right hand despite coming from the left. Additionally, his strong drives are going most of the times on the right hand after faking the left handed penetration. Heurtel also needs to put down his turnover numbers where he is again on a very high level so far for this season (14 out of three games after averaging 3.0TOs per game last season).

Heurtel has however managed to become a starter for both of his seasons on the professional level so far. He has the qualities to become a vocal and playing leader on the court. His sometimes cocky playing style gives him star potential as he can go for the crowd-pleasing plays and big important shots. At the age of 20, he has already gained a lot of international experience and the fact that he entered the basketball scene only late (like Nando de Colo for example) compared to other French prospects gives him some major upwards potential. ASVEL has probably done an excellent move by signing him on a long term contract and loaning him away to a smaller team. But Heurtel needs to prove now that he can also lead a team and avoid relegation. He did not succeed last year with Pau-Orthez and so far, SIG Strasbourg has come up with 3 defeats out of 3 games.

Stats (after 3 games): 29mpg, 9.0ppg (50% 3FG, 33.3% 3FG), 1.7rpg, 5.0apg, 2.7spg, 4.7topg

Andrew Albicy (1m78 – PG – 1990 – Paris-Levallois)

Andrew Albicy sees his second full professional season with Paris-Levallois this year. After a first one in the ProB which was crowned by moving up to ProA, Albicy plays now on the highest French level in a role as back-up PG for the experienced Jimaal Ball. Two short-sized PGs that even see minutes together on the court during stretches for a Paris-Levallois team that opened its season with two wins and a very short loss against SLUC Nancy.

Albicy’s main strengths are a his tight defense where he can become a real threat for the ball-handling offensive player because of his quick hands and close to floor play. However, he is not going that much for the steal and losing control in defense therefore, but being more of an aggressive defensive player who makes it hard for the offense. He avoids it also very well to get posted up despite his short size as he is rather strong and has an excellent defensive positioning of the ball.

Offensively, Albicy lives mostly from his jump shot. Because of his reduced size, he is not attacking the basket that much and prefers to go for the mid-range jump shot, a domain where the young French guards in general have made a nice development over the last years. With his excellent speed, he can split defenses in pick and roll defensive hedging situations and stop around 4 meters to hit the jumper. He can nail those also when being out of balance or under pressure.

Through his nice ball handling, he can create open space for himself, even on the three point line to fire his long range jump shot. He shots the ball with good percentages, especially from the three point line where he is around 40-45% over the last competitions. He is a real team leader which he showed during the U19 World Championship this summer where his coach Richard Billant considered him as the main player of his team and already close to the French Senior NT.

Being in a different role than Heurtel who has played as starter nearly all of his games with Pau-Orthez and Strasbourg, Albicy has an experienced PG before him in the rotation who can help him to develop over the next years. This factor may give him a certain advantage in a long-term projection for the next years. However, the size may hurt Albicy to become a top-level player. But in a French League that loves short-sized PG, he should be able to become a major player, at least.

Stats (after 3 games): 18mpg, 6.3ppg (45.5% 2FG 40% 3FG), 1.3rpg, 3.0apg, 0.7spg, 0.7topg

Today started officially the Euroleague season 2009/2010 but we also got today the first names of teams that have been invited to one of the Nike International Junior Tournament Qualifiers. In fact, Brose Baskets Bamberg announced that they have once again been invited to participate at the FMP City of Belgrade Tournament in February 2010.

The German team that features the highly interesting German Center Philipp Neumann and the 1993 born guard Deon McDuffie as its leaders will face in Belgrade the following teams according to their Press Release. Next to the hosts of FMP Belgrade, there will be ASVEL Lyon, Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, BK Ventspils from Latvia, Buducnost Podgorica, Partizan Belgrade and the French INSEP Academy.

This tournament looks pretty strong as it features the classic Serbian powerhouses but the addition of INSEP Academy is probably the most surprising but also one of the best news for the tournament in general. The tournament will be played in Belgrade from the 12th to the 14th February 2010.

(Yarone Arbel) Israeli players don’t go often to college. In the holy-land after graduating from high-school it’s compulsory to join the army for three years. Since the option to stay amateur until the age of 21 isn’t practical for those who wish to make a living from pro basketball, and with the new rules by the NCAA in the last years making a sandwich on a road game trip a reason to doubt your eligibility, there aren’t many options for the Israeli kids.

The only option that does exist, other than moving out of the country before the age of 15, is to postpone the army service, and start the process right after they return from college. Very few athletes of all sports get this clearance every year, mostly the very top notch of them. In the case of Carmel Bouchman it was clear that clearance will be granted, as he was projected as the “next big thing” in Israeli basketball from a young age.

The 205cm forward from Tel Aviv won titles throughout his entire junior career both with his high school and the Maccabi Tel Aviv team. In the last two years he missed just one title among high school league, national league and national cup. It was a loss in the finals of the high school league, in which the team’s co-star, Nimrod Tishman, got injured in the second quarter and Bouchman had to play by himself. That game exampled his great talent, when he had to play five positions, but it wasn’t enough to win. Nevertheless, his junior career was more productive and glorious than probably any other player of Israeli basketball in the last decade, even Omri Casspi and Yotam Halperin.

Yet the level of junior games in Israel isn’t much of a story to tell. The number of players with the size of Bouchman can be count on a hand of someone who likes to deal with explosives. As a Junior in high school he led his team to win the title when he wrote 18 points, nine assists, six blocks and no less than an all-time record of 30 rebounds, but he’s far from being monster rebounder. Playing with people much smaller than you usually helps.

Don’t take this the wrong way. Bouchman is a very skilled and promising player, yet college is the first where he’ll have his first real test.

We’re talking about a 205cm decently athletic player with long quick arms and a true winning spirit. His a very smart player with great understanding of the game, and has one of the best passing skills for a player in his size, and can really come out with some great passes some that would make some point guards turn green. It made people in Israel to compare him with Nikola Vujcic, only the Croat is a legit 212cm center while Bouchman is still looking for his position.

That hunt might take a while, and will be shaped in Temple, as Bouchman is the player with the least position you may have ever seen. He played the center and power forward positions in Israel, but that was a big sin for his future as he’s not the physical or aggressive type of player. He got the length for a PF, but his width is edgy and his lack of toughness won’t hold in the highest levels for that position.

He is quick and athletic but not in an extent to be a clear-cut small forward. Has no real post up moves, and not a clear jump shot, although he can surely score facing the basket even from the arc. He can put the ball on the floor, but still need to pick up how to finish it, as he hardly played that role in the Israeli Junior league. His passing skills can make him more unique at the four obviously, and are good enough to play as a guard, but his rebounding might be only solid for a four and great for a three. His ball handling is also better than the average power forward, but not good enough yet to be a real threat from the back court.

The debate over what is the real position of Carmel, either the small or the power forward or maybe even something else can go forever. He’s a probably a combo forward without any real spot on the floor, which made one college coach who tried to recruit him during the summer say: “I don’t know what position this kid is playing, for me he’s every position and no position, but he’s one hell of a player.”

What makes him such a great player? The fact he’s so versatile, intelligent and unique makes him that intriguing, but the coaching staff at Temple will have to make a very delicate job with directing his game to the pro career, as one wrong turn can make Bouchman a player with the right skills in the wrong position or vice versa, and that could be problem.

If there’s one role model Bouchman would need to adopt it’s Dejan Bodiroga’s game style at the top of his career. Bodiroga as well didn’t play with a true position. He was everything from the 1 to the 4, but none of the above at the same time. How he got his game going was by working on the mis-matches created according to the opponent’s line-up and his defender. If Bouchman would try to beat his guy with traditional basketball, sooner or later he’ll face problems. His only way to make it big would be to adopt the style of the great Serb.

Don’t expect him to be a 20 point guy or the main offensive player on any team. Carmel’s line in a good game would probably be 12 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks, while on a huge night his points might jump to the early 20s but the others will tickle Mr. Triple or even Quadruple-double.

The fact he’s as hard worker as one can be, a magnificent human being with great social skills, who always look for the best interest of his team and gets upset if one team-mate dares to put himself for one second above the team is another positive aspect that will help a great teacher as Coach Dunphy to shape Carmel’s future.

Carmel had looks also from bigger schools with bigger tradition, bigger chances to go big in present but chose Temple as the school with the right staff, conditions and conference to develop his game.

written by Yarone Arbel

The Canarias Basketball Academy is probably the team that brought the most players to a Division 1 Scholarship this summer; there were 6. Here we go for a short video review on 5 of them and also present what the Canarias Basketball Academy is about.

Video Report from Basketball 24/7 about the CBA

Daniel Thompson (English – 1m93 – Guard – 1989) – Fordham

Jason Beharie (English – 2m04 – Forward – 1988) – Morehead State

Menelik Watson (English – 2m00 – Forward – 1988) – Marist College

Fahro Alihodzic (English – 2m07 – Center – 1989) – Fordham

Ben Daniels (English – 2m00 – Forward – 1989) – Houston Baptist University

Tomas Bruha (Czech – 2m13 – Center – 1988) – USF

no video footage available

The website of the French Espoirs League has published recently an article about the 5 former Espoirs players to follow this season. I took the freedom to translate the article into English and tell you about the 5 players that want to confirm their potential this year.

Kevin Séraphin (2m05 – PF/C – 1989 – Cholet Basket)

Kevin Séraphin is without any doubt one of the most promising players of the French ProA League, he is the symbol of the 1989 generation that has won the Silver Medal this summer at the U20 European Championship in Greece. After having integrated Cholet Basket in 2006, Séraphin has improved every year and is now at the edge of having an impact on the professional level. He finished the Espoirs League with 15.8ppg and 8.3rpg last year and led them to the National Championship in his age category.

Séraphin has a tremendous physical presence for a player of his age. He knows how to use it and took profit out of in the different youth championships. However, when he will play against professional players, this advantage has gone. He needs to polish his inside game in order to have different scoring options. Right now, he mostly scores on jump hooks, coming of both hands. In the season opener for Cholet last weekend, Séraphin did not play though.

Steeve Ho You Fat (2mo1 – Forward – 1988 – Antibes)

Ho You Fat played together with Séraphin in Cholet last season but he decided to leave his team on loan to the ProB squad of Olympique Antibes. The athletic and versatile PF made this choice in order to get playing time, become stronger and to confirm his talent. He is an excellent shot blocker, has a good touch in the paint and can also score from mid range. He started his season nicely with an average of 21 minutes per game. During the time on the court, Ho You Fat managed to scored 8.0ppg and grab 3.7rpg so far.

Seidou N’Joya (1m89 – Guard – 1989 – SLUC Nancy)

The Espoirs League 1st team member Seidou N’Joya is now ready to make the next step and get minutes with SLUC Nancy. He has so far been blocked by his nationality as he occupied one of the foreigner spots being from Cameroon. But this season, the SLUC staff decided to bring him as 2nd PG of the team. He has dominated in the Espoirs League where he finished the season with 12.4ppg (65.2% FG), 5.9apg, 2.1spg and 6.6rpg which are huge statistics for a PG. His season opener with the professionals was however not crowned with success as N’Joya could not avoid the defeat at home and played only 7 minutes for 1 point.

Nobel Boungou-Colo (2m02 – Forward – 1988 – Hyères-Toulon)

Nobel Boungou-Colo was the reason why Orléans had a nice season in the Espoirs League and finished the Trophée du Futur at the second place. The highly athletic wing finished his season with 15.7ppg, 8.6rpg and a stunning 4.2spg. Boungou-Colo lives essentially from his physical abilities and his speed which gives him the possibility to beat his opponents on the drive and finish close to the basket. He absolutely needs to develop his outside shot to become a player on the professional level. But he has all the tools to become a high-level defender and the move to sign with HTV is certainly a good decision even if he had only 4 minutes in the opening game of the ProA League.

Bangaly Fofana  (2m12 – Center – 1989 – ASVEL)

Probably the biggest long-term potential of this group of players is the 2m12 tall Bangaly Fofana. Displaying extraordinary athletic abilities, Fofana will already earn minutes in the plethoric ASVEL roster this season and gain in experience for the future. His basketball technique is not yet developed because of his only recent integration of high level basketball but players with his combination of size and athleticism are rare and attract observers from all levels. He will play both Espoirs and professional team with ASVEL this season and after the excellent opening at the “Match des Champions” where he scored 10pts in 19 minutes, Fofana was calmer once the regular tipped off two weeks ago. However, he is the only one of all these five guys to play on the highest European level as he will be a member of the ASVEL Euroleague roster.