2012 FIBA OLYMPIC QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT: GROUPS C & D

GROUP C

RUSSIA

Russian NT is the team to beat in the tournament.  Despite their usual offensive shortcomings, they are the most solid team and shouldn´t have any problem to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics. David Blatt keeps the block of players that got the bronze medal in Lithuanian Eurobasket 2011. Vorontsevich and Bykov are sidelined but C Sasha Kaun comes back to help the team in the paint.  

AK 47 Kirilenko and Sergey Monya are the best pair of Forwards in the tournament. In the frontcourt, the power and strength of Kaun, Mozgov and Khryapa will be a key factor in every game. In PG, Shved and Fridzon will lead the team and will have to play many minutes as Khostov and Ponkrashov, aren´t in the same level.  Let´s see if the newcomers Voronov, Karasev and Grigoryev can be helpful  from the bench.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Dominican Republic wants to get a ticket to London. Together with Venezuela, they should be among the underdogs of the tournament. Coached by John Calipari, they have shown last week in Puerto Rico´s Centrobasket that they are absolutely ready for this challenge.

With a fast and attractive style of play, the Dominicans have a great starting five. The electric PG Manuel Fortuna together with SG Juan Coronado will help talented NBA SF Francisco García from downtown.  Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks PF, and Jack Michael Martínez are the big names in one of the most powerful frontcourts of the tournament with Josh Asselin and Eulis Báez coming from the bench. 

If the Caribbean team increases it´s deffensive attitude, be careful with them as they have a lot of weapons to get into the semifinals.

KOREA

After winning the bronze medal in last year´s Asiabasket 2011, Korea NT arrives in Caracas thinking about the future with the big absences of experienced and talented PG Yang Dong-Geun, SG Moon Tae-Jong (aka Jarod Stevenson), F Cho Sung Min and PF Kim Joo-Sung.

In addition to all these important sidelined players, Sang Beom Lee, Korean HC, will have the serious doubt of Sek-eun Oh (the young talented C), with physical problems.  The Korean team will try to play fast, with many long range shots and being aggressive in deffense to compensate their lack of physical power. SG Lee Seung-Jun will be the only offensive reference from downtown.

GROUP D

FYR OF MACEDONIA

No longer underdogs, FYROM will play its first Official Tournament out of Europe after their big achievement last year in Lithuania Eurobasket. Few months ago, Marjan Lazovski became new Head Coach replacing Marin Dokuzovski. That won´t bring any important changes as Lazovski has been working with FYROM´s NT since 2006.

Again, Bo McCalebb will be the lighthouse of the Balkan team. One of the best PG in FIBA Basketball will lead the offense helped by Vlado Ilievski and Stojanovski´s brothers beyond the arc. In the frontcourt, one more time, the versatility of PF Pero Antic together with the big centers Gecevski and Samardziski will be the heart of the team.

They have been quite irregular in the preparatory games as Bo McCalebb arrived late due to the Italian Serie A Final Series.  However, they´ll give their best to get into the semifinals and we know that impossible means nothing to them.

NEW ZEALAND

Hard times for the Tall Blacks as SG Kirk Penney and PF Thomas Abercrombie won´t be available for this tournament. HC Vucinic will be without two of his most important players so New Zealand will struggle a lot in offense. New Zealand will fight and try not to be trashed by their rivals but they are so far away of being dangerous at all.

Lindsay Tait will be the most important player in offensive terms while Vukona and Casey Frank will add their experience and physical strength. In the paint, bic Cs, Pledger and Lou should give something better for the team as they did in previous tournaments.

ANGOLA

After being defeated by Tunisia in the last Afrobasket 2011 final, Angola NT will need a miraculous performance to qualify for London 2012 Olympics. With the scorer Armando Costa in the PG, the Angolan offensive game will mainly pend on the couple of Forwards formed by Carlos Morais and Joaquim Gomes. In the frontcourt, the experienced Eduardo Mingas should help Paulo and promising big Cs Moreira and Joaquim.

Angola NT is a limited height team, prone to disciplinary problems. However, they have always been tough customers for any opponent. Dangerous in the offensive rebounding, beware if they are inspired beyond the arc.