In Reply to: LIVE - Türkiye v Serbia FIBA U17 Semi-Finals posted by Dr.Bruin on July 04, 2026 at 10:55:50
The best news is Serbia eked out a win over Turkiye, the home, which means we will have chance to see NK against the US team. That game is tomorrow, after which, it is likely Nikola makes it official.
Serbia was clearly the better team today, but apparently no one on the Serbia team knows how to attack a zone.
The US is crushing everyone, winning by 30 to 60 points. I don't expect Serbia to
Once again, NK was the leading scorer with 25 points, but he needed 20 shots and 14 free throws to do it. 9 of those 20 shots were threes, and me missed them all. He can make them, since he has shot a respectible 36% for the tournament on 39 attempts.
His best offense, by far, is still driving toward the hoop. He has a good first step, and his size makes him hard to start. We will see how he does against Big Ten defenses.
He had only 5 rebounds for the game, but a couple of them were very pretty. He still needs to learn to block out. In fact, he has a massive amount to learn in every facet of the game.
Turkish player Omer Kutlay was really impressive. He scored 30 points and had 11 assists and no turnovers. That is his 4th 30+ point game in Istanbul. For the tournament he has had 61 assists and 17 turnovers. That's a 3.6 A/TO ratio. We should take a look at this 17-year-old.
Another young Turk to keep an eye on is 6-9 Besir Briant. He's a very athletic 16-year-old, who might get taller.