Today Croatia is playing the Ukraine in the 2013 Eurobasket in Slovenia. Tensions are high and the stakes even higher when both teams needing the victory for any chance of a medal. The competition has had its fair share of surprises what with Serbia sniping France and Slovenia beating Spain. Nevertheless the basketball fan had something to watch this preseason with the best of Europe duking it out. The most recent with Italy blowing Spain out of the water was a shocker to team, Spain could really be loosing the top spit this year.
The Ukranian team do not look like they will be able to put up much of a fight against Croatia who have been winning 7 straight in the tournament. Croatia have managed to claw their way this far past some of the stronger teams but failed in the opener against Spain.
I , like most supporters of the Croatian team are hungry for a medal and believe we can do this time around. Luckily avoiding some of the top teams early on gave Jasmin’s boys a good chance and Ukraine has been the objective for the last couple of days It is a must win game and if the team go in strong and play strong D we can control the tempo.
What did take me by surprise when checking the Ukrainian roster is that former NBA coach and broadcaster Mike Fratello is the head coach. I do not know what they were thinking bringing him on board when the roster has no foreign names of mention. How the managed to get this far in a way is a testament of his abilities but against Bojan Bogdanovic, Dontaye Draper, and a motivated Zizic in defense should do the trick. I am only hoping that Ante Tomic brings some of the OT physical play tonight in that arena and hitting a few free throws wouldn’t hurt.
My predictions is that Mike will want to have Croatia running up and down the court early and force the guards to get fouls. Isolating the guards and Bogdanovic will make it hard for the big men to do anything under the boards. If I was betting I would put money on this going into over time with Croatia bringing home the W.
Mic's corner 