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Doesn't matter. Keep this subject on the FNT.
Thanks.
?? If you don't mind me asking, what did you do? How is he gone for good?
Doesn't matter. Keep this subject on the FNT.
Thanks.
I'm happy for the FNT. It seems like things might be finally coming together for them.
to me the core is parker, diaw and batum. nicolas batum really impressed me with his defense, rbounding and athleticism.
ok...sounds good...
I believe I got some laughs on this message board before Eurobasket began when I said I consider FNT the 2nd strongest contenders behind Spain even though they barely qualified for this tournament.
Ian didn't warm up.
Ya, I read that. I was just wondering if their were any reports of the injury being more serious than first thought. They said he warmed up the game before but "felt pain", so they sat him out.
Batum is playing great, but he lacks of experience.
The 4 others are the leaders on the floor, and in the locker too.
Did you see how TP was mad at Ian during half time of France vs Belgium during the qualification tournament, from the Canal+ video someone gave the link few pages ago?
He was yelling after him pretty rough.
I have the feeling that Ian is not ready to play at that level yet... and I'm not talking about physical issues.
well I don't know, Batum looks pretty mature on the floor, high IQ, very professional, doing the right stuff to help the team and not scared to take big shots either.
And he's got so much more talents and potential than Ronnie or Pietrus; no offense to them, I think they play great during this tournament, but they're rather limited when it comes to pure talent.
If the game was on the line, I'd rather have Batum taking the winning shot or the ultimate block or rebound, than either Ronnie or Pietrus.
Now I agree that in the locker room, because of the history of the FNT, Ronnie along with TP and Boris are the natural leaders, and Batum just a rookie.
TP yells a lot in FNT, it's the best player, the captain, and one of the older now. He explained it in an interview (video in French) it's part of his role, and can do it now that the previous generation (Foirest, Weis, Julian,...) is gone and replaced by the next generation (Batum, Diot, Mahinmi,...). It's for their own good, and not because he is upset.
Well I hope Ian is alright and it seems like everytime I read an update its "Parker scores X of his 20 points in the 4th to lead France to victory.."
http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/cid...366-E-6-2.html
13 September 2009
France Remain Perfect, Top Croatia
Game Summary
Turning point: In the 28th minute it was still a two point game in favor of France, but then Croatia's Marko Banic fouled out and Nikola Prkacin followed with a technical. France used that to reach an 11 point lead, and despite Croatia managing to come closer several times, the lead never changed hands again and France remained the dominant force.
Hero: Parker was the main man once again, but not only for the 24 points, six rebounds and six assists but the way he spread it. Half of his points were scored in the third quarter when his team turned a Croatian lead to a ten point game in their favor. In the last quarter he focused on anything but scoring and dished no less than five of his six assists in addition to three of his rebounds.
Stats: Croatia enjoyed a good shooting night with seven three-pointers on 54% shooting, but saw France better them with 12 long distance arrows. When a team like France shoot like that from distance, it's close to impossible to beat them.
-------------------------------------------------
After the second day of games in Group E in Bydgoszcz there's only one team perfect and that is France following an 87-79 victory over Croatia.
The French climbed to a 4-0 record, but still must beat Greece on the last day to secure the top spot.
Croatia dropped to an unexpected 1-3 record and must beat Germany on the closing day to avoid a shocking elimination.
There were two different halves to this game.
In the first Croatia played their best basketball so far in the championship, and reached a nine point lead behind great shooting led by Marko Popovic.
The sequel showed a tougher French defense and a big performance by Tony Parker who took over the game, and led his team-mates to a rare performance of eight three pointers on 66.6% shooting.
"At half time we decided to change our gameplan," said winning Coach Vincent Collet.
"We didn't play well in the first half and the fact we were down by just five made us happy.
"We knew that if we step up on defense we can come back and that's what we did."
After Croatia was the dominating force in the first half, France wrote two runs to put them on top.
They used a technical foul on Nikola Prkacin, who fouled out as a result, to open the gap Croatia never managed to beat.
Parker led his team with 24 points, six assists and six rebounds but spread them in a perfect way.
Half of his points came in the third quarter, just when France took over the lead, while five assists and three rebounds joined the stat line in the closing quarter.
Nicholas Batum followed behind with 18 points, half of them from distance, five boards and two blocks.
Boris Diaw added 15 behind four long distance balls in addition to six assists and four rebounds.
Florent Pietrus added 14.
Croatia enjoyed 30 points by Popovic - the second best scoring performance in the compe ion so far - who spread his points almost equally between the first and the second halves.
He actually started his scoring drive only with the last basket of the first quarter and scored all of his points from either the charity stripe or beyond the arc.
Roko-Leni Ukic added 11 and Marko Banic had ten.
"The first 20 minutes was maybe our best (we played) in this tournament, but we need to play like that the whole game," said Coach Jasmin Repesa of Croatia.
Already in the first quarter France collected three triples.
Diaw started with an air-ball but added two hits from distance down the stretch of the first quarter, and Parker showed his skills with an off-dribble shot.
Croatia at the other end attacked the rim time and time both with the guards and inside players.
Ukic and Planinic drove to the rim while Banic and Prkacin posted up to bring their team to the last possession of the quarter down by a point, 19-18.
Popovic beat the buzzer to give his team the first points behind the arc but kept that momentum into the second quarter.
Kus and Popovic added two more three-pointers and a minute inside the second quarter it was already a 29-20 Croatian lead after an 11-1 run.
Balls were jumping on the rim and out for the French side, while Popovic remained hot reaching 16 points before the break, and his team up by seven, 46-39.
Diaw hit two from the line and saw Batum block a Planinic attempt to beat the clock, as the teams separated by five.
"We missed many free throws in the first half and if we had shot better we could have held a ten point lead at the break," referred Coach Repesa to the seven misses his team committed in the first 20 minutes.
"What mostly concerns me is that our mental strength was very, very bad.
"Once things didn't work for us we lost control of the game," he added.
Just inside the second half France was back on top after Pietrus and Parker led a 10-2 run.
Yannick Bokolo, who did a great job limiting Popovic for some minutes in the third, recorded a big block on Ukic which kept France on top, but the following play got Croatia in trouble.
Banic fouled out and Prkacin's protest sentenced him to the same destiny limiting Repesa's options on the bigs.
Parker hurt Croatia with a three-pointer, Pietrus added some of his own and another 12-1 French run wrote a 63-52 difference late in the third.
The French defense continued to make it tough for the Croats until Popovic woke up with five points in a row and forced a time out by Coach Collet up by only five, 70-65.
Mistakes on both ends of the floor allowed Croatia to enter the last four minutes down 73-69, but a three point by Bokolo and a fast break lay up by Batum pushed it to nine once more.
Croatia cut it down once more to four inside the last minute before Diaw sank the decisive three ball that told the story of the game.
13 September 2009
Quotes Croatia vs. France
Roko Leni Ukic (Croatia):
"It was very tough game. They are a very athletic team. They have the incredible Tony Parker who is very hard to stop. They had a good shooting day, scoring a lot of points from the outside."
Vincent Collet (France Coach):
"We lost the first half. In the second half we went back to playing tough defense. We kept the control. We finished the game with a good shooting percentage."
Jasmin Repesa (Croatia Coach):
"I'm satisfied how we played the first 13 minutes. The start of the second half was the key point of the game. We lost control of the game and of ourselves. It was very difficult to get back into the game. The first minutes of the game were our best in Poland. The game against Germany will be the key one for us."
This time it was in the 3rd
I think what's more important is that Parker said today he'd do "anything" to lead France to victory. Collet strikes me as a good coach with a strategy and Parker is ok to follow that, apparently, including slowing down in the first half, taking over when needed. I think Parker is proving how great a player he s yet again, scoring when needed, distributing the ball when needed, being clutch, taking a back seat, etc.
TP is on his way to the Euro MVP
Nice win ! TP is doing fine he is showing how versatile and flexible he can be.
if France wins Gold (this is a huge if), is TP a lock for the HOF?
after a quick look at the list, i'd say yeah
Quite impossible to determine France's QF opponent, whether or not they beat Greece: Serbia, Spain and Slovenia may well all finish with 3 wins/2 losses.
Anyway, I am not sure it matters, I would be incapable of saying who's the best "fit" for France...
I wouldn't want to meet France in QF, even though I think if we stopped Tony, we shouldn't have many problems beating you. The thing is...I like your team. If we don't win it, I wouldn't mind France winning it all this year.
http://www.lequipe.fr/Basket/breves2...rs-a-onze.html
Collet worrying about Ian in lequipe.fr today.
"his absence is a bit harmfull" said the coach, who doesn't know what to think about the player. "It won't be easy for him to break the rotation in quarter-final"
Ian was cleared 6 days ago but still feels pain. It seems that he is reluctant to risk another injury right before training camp (my guess).
Which seems likely; and with Serbia beating Spain, Spain beating Slovenia and Slovenia beating Serbia, how do they break the tie and determine the ranking?
Is goal average the next criteria?
Turkey beat Serbia in overtime.
Spain is now 3rd but can eventually move up to the second place if Turkey beat Slovenia thursday or down to 4th if Serbia defeats Lithuania.
Anyway, it is totally impossible to guess the group F final ranking and thus trying to play it "smart" against Greece. The best strategy is always to try to win every game!
D.1 Procedure
Teams shall be classified according to their win-loss records, namely two (2) points
for each game won, one (1) point for each game lost (including lost by default) and
zero (0) points for a game lost by forfeit.
D.1.1 If there are two teams in the classification with equal points, the result(s) of the
game(s) between the two teams involved will be used to determine the placings.
D.1.2 If the points and the goal average in the games between the two teams are still the
same, the classification will be determined by the goal average of all the games
played in the group by each team.
D.1.3 If more than two teams are equal in the placing, a second classification will be
established, taking into account only the results of the games between the teams
that are tied.
D.1.4 If there are still teams tied after the second classification, then goal average will be
used to determine the placing, taking into account only the results of the games
between the teams still tied.
D.1.5 If there are still teams tied, the placing will be determined using the goal average
from the results of all their games played in the group.
D.1.6 If, at any stage, using the above criteria, a multiple team tie is reduced to a tie
involving only two teams, the procedure in D.1.1 and D.1.2 above will be applied.
D.1.7 If, at any stage, it is reduced to a tie still involving more than two teams, the
procedure, beginning with D.1.3 above, is repeated.
D.1.8 Goal average will always be calculated by division.
IF Lithuania-Poland-Turkey win 1.Turkey 2. Slovenia 3. Serbia 4. Poland
IF Lithuania-Poland-Slovenia win 1. Slovenia 2.Turkey 3. Serbia 4. Poland
IF Lithuania-Spain-Turkey win 1. Turkey 2. Spain 3. Slovenia 4. Serbia
IF Lithuania-Spain-Slovenia 1. Slovenia 2. Turkey 3. Spain 4. Serbia
IF Serbia-Poland-Turkey win 1. Turkey 2. Slovenia 3. Serbia 4. Poland
IF Serbia-Spain-Turkey win 1. Turkey 2. Slovenia 3. Serbia 4. Spain
IF Serbia-Spain-Slovenia win 1.Slovenia 2. Turkey 3. Serbia 4. Spain
IF Serbia- Poland-Slovenia win 1. Slovenia 2. Turkey 3. Serbia 4. Poland
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