09-06-2007, 12:33 PM
|
 | Contributor | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Kiev -> Farmington Hills -> Santa Clara, CA
Posts: 7,079
| |
| Re: Darko's Value
Quote:
Being swept in their group has left Serbia out of the competition and out of the top-12, an almost unthinkable circumstance only a few years back. Never since 1951 had Serbia, or its predecessor Yugoslavia, failed to make the top-12 in the Eurobasket (of course, we're not counting the 1992-94 period when they were banned due the Balkan war). Even if we consider young squads, only twice did they fail to make the top-12, in 1998 and 2002 at the U-18 stage. Actually it's an interesting fact, since the generations that played those years (including names such as Milos Vujanic, Vladimir Radmanovic, Kosta Perovic and Darko Milicic) should be among the ones carrying the load at this moment.
The Serbian Federation and coach Slavnic knew the risks of calling a very young squad, with seven guys born in 1985 or later. Despite their dominance this summer in youth competitions, they are not the next coming of the unbelievable generation featuring Divac, Djordjevic, Kukoc or Radja that led Yugoslavia to the 1989 European title while being around 20 years old. Mix it with such inconsistent and not very smart players leading this team such as Marko Jaric, Darko Milicic and Milan Gurovic, while also facing a very tough group that included Greece and Russia, and it was the perfect recipe for disaster.
| DraftExpress: EuroBasket 2007 Notebook: Preliminary Round  |