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U21 continentals

Pool A:

Results:

Costa Rica 107 at Bahamas 85
Bahamas were leading at half, but Costa Rica wasn't about to be one of the rare teams that lose to Bahamas and came through in the 2nd half and eventually winning comfortably. Both teams used the same effort level and the ratings were ot so great, but Costa Rica will take it, any day. POTG: Richard Carmona had 21 points, a team high 16 rebounds and a 9.5 rating.

Uruguay 145 at Barbados 61
Uruguay put up some really impressive ratings, although it wasn't necessay as they play woely Barbados. Barbados put up ratings that U21 teams should never ever put up as they were embarassing! Either way Uruguay won and improved to 2-0. They scored 30+ points in every quarter ucomplete control. POTG: Edgardo Molina had 17 points, a game high 7 assists and a 13.0 rating.

Canada 94 at Venezuela 89
The ratings put up in this game were good ratings, this game was very eventful as well. Venezuela held the lead after the first quarter, at half and after three quarters, however Canada staged a comeback in the fourth quarter in which they seemed unstoppable, they couldnt miss! Outscoring venezuela 33-11 on route to the come from behind victory.Pawel Niestepski had a team high 23 points, a game high 17 rebounds and a 12.0 rating in the win.

1.Uruguay U21(2) 2-0 266 117
2.Canada U21(1) 2-0 205 137
3.Costa Rica U21(5) 1-0 107 85
4.Peru U21(3) 1-0 87 77
5.Venezuela U21(4) 0-2 166 181
6.Bahamas U21(7) 0-2 141 228
7.Barbados U21(6) 0-2 109 256

Picks:
Barbados(92) at Costa Rica(71)
When one of the two opponents is Barbados you know the other team is the favourites,unless its Bahamas against BArbados, however Barbados' opponent is Costa Rica, not bahamas and so in that case.... My pick: Costa rica wins with ease.

Bahamas(96) at Peru(31)
Peru with HCA against Bahamas, that is all I need. My pick: Peru dominates improves to 2-0 and Bahamas gets closer to their epic Barbados vs Bahamas game.

Venezuela(70) at Uruguay(23)
Venezuela was able to put a scare into Canada, and I see Uruguay as a weaker Canada. I think Venezuela tries to put up a fight. My pick: Venezuela puts in more effort, but their injury and their GS update is not good enough to beat Uruguay who win this one.

Worlds writeups tomorrow!

cool

Well here it is the world championships writeups, let us all take a moment right now... ok enough of that my first worlds writeups! Exciting, especially because Canada is still in it, without further adieu, here we go!

World Cup:

Pool A:
1.Italia
2.Chile
3.Uruguay
4.Phillipines
5.Australia
6.Misr

1.Italia has to be the favourites in this pool. They have no weakness anywhere. They have a great player at every position and they have depth at every position as well. They have 12 players on their roster so they have space for callups if necessary, I think Italia should do very well this season and itll start with a pool win.

2.Chile, like Italia, have no weakness and are strong at each position, however they are a little weaker at each position which helped me choose Italia over defending champions Chile. One thing that was also a factor was the fact that Chile only has 7 players on their roster, while they do have space for callup(lots of it!) they have no depth at all and that could be a factor, hopefully their players have good stamina ;).

3.Uruguay is a deep team with a very strong roster, even at this level and they have a very strong inside attack. Unfortunately they are a bit weak at the shooting guard position as one of their shooting guards is out for a month and another is having GS issues, hopefully theyll be able to hold the fort without those two, but it could be their doom.

4.Philippines was hard to choose. Australia was making a very good case for fourth, but I felt Phillipines has a stronger team. Two negatives about Philippines right now are they have 17 players already so only one more callup slot left, and they have two big men and a shooting guard with mediocre GS that could hurt them.

5.Australia is only down here because even though they do not have any defineite weaknesses they are weaker at each position then the teams ahead of them. They have 15 players on their roster leaving space for 3 more callups if needed and I think they may have to use them. They have an injured shooting guard at average GS, two point guards at average GS, a shooting guard at average, a big man at mediocre and another big man at average. Not too great for them.

6.Misr is actually a pretty strong team, they are the African champions at the moment and their roster is strong They hava definite inside presence, but are lacking in the outside deparrtment and it will be their downfall. Being the African team is harder, I think this team is strong enough to steal a win or two however, watch out.

Picks:
Italia(4) at Philippines(17)
Italia is the strongest team in this pool and while Philippines is a strong team they just can't handle Italia at each position. This week I think Italia will attack from the outside as they have great players who have great GS this week so an outside attack is eminent. My pick: Italia wins.

Uruguay(15) at Misr(34)
Uruguay is definetely the stronger team and can handle the bigs of Misr so this game seems pretty straight forward. My pick: I think Misr uses some extra effort, but Uruguay can handle them and wins.

Australia(8) at Chile(1)
Chile is the defending champions of the world and have another strong team this season, I think Australia is the weakest non-African team in this pool and that Chile should take care of business and could do it any way they want to. My pick: Chile wins this one and saves some effort for later on in the tournament.

World Cup:

Pool B:

1.Poland
2.Espana
3.China
4.United States
5.Canada
6.Al Maghrib

1.Poland has HCA, and a very strong inside attacck, they should be able to beat everybody in this pool and advance to the 2nd round of the World Cup.

2.Espana has a deep, strong team and will definetly challenge Poland fir the number 1 spot and are contenders to be world champions.

3.China has a pretty full roster and it is a deep roster as well, they have a few GS issues though and it could cost them a game or two.

4.United States has a good outside attack, and good current GS. One bad thing is that they have a weak inside attack for this level competition and it could be their downfall this tournament.

5.Canada has a balanced roster, but are not deep inside and it is something that can hurt them in a competition like this. Their outside attack is strong and could be their saviour, I think they can get the win against Al Maghrib but that might be it.

6.Al Maghrib is the African team, they have a very weaak team for this level of competition and should get dominated this tournament.

Picks:

Canada(12) at Al Maghrib(61)
Canada gets the easy matchup to start off and should be able to save up some enthusiasm in this one. My pick: Canada withstands an Al Maghrib team usig extra effort.

Espana(5) at Poland(9)
The big matchup to start off the tournament? Love it. Espana has some GS advantages and frankly are stringer outside. Poland has HCA and an extremely strong inside attack. My pick: Poland and Espana use the same effort level, but Polands inside attack and HCA is enough to get the victory.

China(2) at United States(11)
United States has some really good GS situations right now and Chinahad a really bad GS update. United States has a very strong outside attack that cannot be matched by many teams, but China is one of the few teams that can match them, however the bad GS that China's outside players have is going to be a huge problem. My pick: United States wins, but uses more effort, China will pick its spots.

Sorry that this one was much more basic, but I have to rush its getting late :P

Bang on write up for our pool, please predict Canada by a large margin in the near future, my heart cant take it.

This week I was not able to get the writeups done as I was busy all long weekend, next week they should get done however. sorry.

I will be waiting them, they are great =P.

Worth noting that the Australia vs. Italy game was fantastic. The last few minutes of regulation and overtime was insane, kept me on the edge of my seat.

As an Australian, you must be mad the way the game ended..

Bit of an anti-climax! Would have been better if they made a shot! We had 3 chances to win the game and didn't, that's our fault.