By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Numerous matches all around the United States from the beginning of the 2018-19 season resulted to the best time of the NCAA season. Thirty-two colleges earned an automatic tournament bid winning their conference championship and a total of sixty-eight made out the postseason field. The 2019 NCAA Division I Tournament featuring the most of the next generation’s top talents is set to begin Tuesday night.
Among all the young upstarts ready to shine, thirty-seven are from Europe. France has the most representatives with five. Serbia and Great Britain follow with four each. The European bunch carries brothers of professional players, sons of former stars, NBA prospects and many more young athletes that have the opportunity to showcase their abilities at the highest level of competition for players of their age.
Looking for the next European NBA star, don’t search any further. Eurohoops gathered every European player of the NCAA tournament all of them prepared to extend their March Madness campaign until April 8th and the National Championship Final at Minneapolis.
The Bulldogs
First-seeded Gonzaga is among the favorites to go all the way and counts on three Europeans. Killian Tillie, brother of Herbalife Gran Canaria’s Kim, certainly catches the eye with his raw but intriguing attributes. The young French forward faced numerous injuries during his junior NCAA season and only averaged 6.2 points when available, but seems ready to take on the challenge of the NCAA tournament.
The Bulldogs need Tillie at his best to achieve their full potential. However, they have two more Europeans, Filip Petrusev and Joel Ayayi. The Serb forward averaged 6.5 points and 2.7 rebounds during his freshman season. The freshman French guard scored 1.7 points and grabbed 1.4 boards per contest.
Portugal strong
Three Portuguese players made it to the NCAA Tournament, two of them with Mountain West Champion team Utah State. Freshman center Neemias Queta is the one to watch. The NBA hopeful has rejected 2.4 shots per match this season, but his ability to stop opponents isn’t all he offers to the Aggies. His 11.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists averages prove as much.
The giant from Barreiro with his jaw-dropping wingspan has not reached his full potential, but has junior guard Diogo Brito at Utah State to keep him in touch with his homeland and also helps out the team with 8.3 points per contest so far. Colgate’s Francisco Amiel is the third Portuguese player of the tournament.
The Brazdeikis effect
Soon-to-be Lithuanian citizen Ignas Brazdeikis is among the top NCAA talents. He’s represented Canada at junior levels, but was born in Kaunas and his compatriots want him to follow in his mother’s footsteps and play for the Lithuanian National Team. However, Michigan’s NCAA tournament is first up.
With 15.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per match, Brazdeikis quickly established himself among the Wolverines’ main weapons. Michigan 2018-19 goals don’t end with the tournament bid and will rely on the Big Ten Freshman of the Year’s all-around effectiveness to march even further.
The next generation
Davide Moretti made sure Texas Tech secured a third-seed position in the NCAA tournament. The sophomore Italian guard, son of former player and current coach Paolo, is averaging 11.6 points this year sinking 47.8% of his shots beyond the arc. His biggest chance to date is here and he seems ready to turn even more heads.
Paolo Moretti isn’t the only proud father of a European player in the tournament. Stojko Vrankovic will have the chance to see his son Antonio, member of the Duke squad. The senior Croatian center had 1.4 points and 1.3 rebounds playing in sixteen 2018-19 matches.
Pusica headlines Serbian bunch
Filip Petrusev will play for Gonzaga, but won’t be the only Serb in the NCAA Tournament. Vasa Pusica is hot throughout his senior season with 17.8 points per contest. He was the leader of Northeastern in its Colonial Athletic Association title campaign and now hopes for some upsets starting off against Kansas.
The other two representatives from Serbia made it to the NCAA tournament with Iona. Freshman forward Andrija Ristanovic aided the Gaels to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title with 3.3 points per match and junior forward Niksa Nikolic averaged 2.8.
The trios
Besides Gonzaga, two more NCAA tournament sides have three European players. Among them, only promising forward Matthias Tass is geared up for a major role. The Estonian freshman helped Saint Mary’s advance with 3.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 14.5 minutes per 2018-19 game.
The Gaels also have Brit Aaron Menzies and Latvian Kristers Zoriks, but the two European players haven’t gotten any action all season after their summer transfer. Arizona State sparingly used Finn Elias Valtonen and Ukrainian Vitaliy Shibel, also carried Kosovan Uros Plavsic, on its way to the First Four.
Geared and ready
Not enough? Upcoming sophomore French forward Yves Pons will get his chance to shine in the NCAA tournament with Tennessee. Dutch seven-footer Matt Haarms hopes to build on his impressive sophomore campaign with third-seeded Purdue and in-form Spaniard Ivan Aurrecoechea sees no need to slow down ahead of New Mexico State’s postseason campaign.
LSU will want Brit Kavell Bigby-Williams’ scoring touch to make a long postseason run. Georgian Sandro Mamukelashvili of Seton Hall, Polish Dominik Olejniczak of Ole Miss, Slovak Marek Dolezaj of Syracuse and Swiss Anthony Polite of Florida State will also bring a European flavor alongside their already strong 2018-19 showings.
The rest of the European field
Bradley won the Missouri Valley Conference behind some European help provided by Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (Great Britain) with 8.6 points per game and Luuk van Bree (Netherlands) with 5.7. Freshman Francesco Badocchi (Italy), Shaquille Walters (Great Britain), Paul Djoko (France), Ingvi Gudmundsson (Iceland) and Josh Mballa (France) also made it to the tournament with Virginia, Northeastern, Northern Kentucky, Saint Louis and Texas Tech, respectively.
Dragan Bender’s brother Ivan (Croatia) will finish up his NCAA career with Maryland hoping for an extended run in the NCAA tournament after playing just four minutes per match and averaging 0.3 points this season. Minnesota’s Matz Stockman (Norway), Old Dominion’s Alfis Pilavios (Greece) and Oklahoma’s Hannes Polla (Finland) round up the European field.