Focusing on the youngsters, we turn to Belarus, where we see an extremely intriguing young prospect making the rounds in the eyes of NBA scouts. His name is Alexis Manilov, a muscular 6'8" type who possesses solid triple-threat offensive skills at such a young age. Manilov can shoot from the perimeter at a solid clip and slash with the best of them. The problem is, his motor simply isn't that good, his feel for the game is simply average and he isn't able to harness all of his skills consistently over the course of the game. He's still a young, 1988 born, prospect, and is definitely tops in his 1988 draft class, but his need to develop consistency is key. He has a great body build and is capable of playing above average defense, as he showed last week for his team, Czenno Brienna, with a 13 point, 5 rebound, 3 block outing against Girzan. He can possibly be the first Belorussian to make it to the L.

 

England has also procured a nice prospect by the name of Irving Sommers. Sommers has a plethora of skills and frankly, a similar skill set to Manilov in terms of offensive game, but he brings less offensive polish but more height. Sommers can definitely be a matchup nightmare--he showed in his last game against Azille Karzan that he can take the ball to the rack and utilize his height and athleticism to get things done--but he is overly reliant on physical attributes and possesses little in the fundamental aspects of the game. He's clearly still learning the game, and as a 1988 prospect, he definitely has the potential to bring a lot to the table in the NBA. But that's a few years down the road. Anyway, Sommers produced with 21 points on 8-16 shooting against Azille Karzan to go along with 4 rebounds. Another note to mention is that his teammate, Jacob Harvey, a 6'9" 219 lb. PF, had 11 points and 12 rebounds. However, his scores were mostly within a 5-foot radius of the basket and his body development and athleticism are huge concerns.

 

We turn to Canada, where we see Carl Hoorsep spread out the floor with his clutch shooting and picture-perfect shooting stroke, as our own Buthel Dunlap saw last week. Hoorsep lit up his competition once again in the scoring department, attacking defenses, hitting very creative shots, shooting off screens, moving well off-the-ball and simply getting his shot off at will against the helpless Black Burn defense. Hoorsep scored 28 points on 10-16 shooting, 5-8 three pointers. He's still a bit too selfish and shows little in way of an all-around game, but his scoring definitely appeals to NBA scouts.

 

In Yugoslavia, we saw a big man who shined today in the youth leagues: Arven Majeri, and check his newly written profile by our fellow Yugoslavian correspondent, Jirun Yanzer. Majeri has always had the impressive build--well-developed at 250 lbs. on a 7'0" body--at only age 17!--but it was always about his rawness and lack of offensive game and defensive discipline. However, he made great strides to quelling those doubts tonight under the tutelage of his respected coach, Heldein Vroman. Majeri actually showed signs of defensive dominance against Slobari Imodan, getting 3 blocks in simply one possession utilizing his length, height and athleticism. Majeri gobbled up the boards and finished with a monster 9 points, 17 rebounds and 7 blocks at the end. Again, it's just junior competition, but his game has rapidly progressed. Palaj Terrin and Urstarv Ratari, two other youth league players, had off-nights, both being held to 6 points and 9 points, respectively, with little else.

 

In Lithuania, we see the Flasjas Narvu impress at the Lithuanian Global Summit Games against Greek competition. Narvu broke out of his shell, so to speak, of fairly invisible games (7 pts, 4 pts, 7 pts, 4 pts respectively over the past week) to finally put up a decent scoring night of 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. Elsewhere in Lithuania, Sheveri Debess had an off-night in terms of shooting, only hitting 1-8 for 3 points against Duluris, another team in Greece, as his team lost. Saras Kansiecis didn't perform up to par either, averaging just 5.6 points over the past week--his latest blow was simply only a 4 point outing, but only in 12 minutes due to foul trouble and rather erratic offensive play. In Estonia, Mojinev Khratstovev continued to show his lack of skills and polish, getting little playing time as a result to the tune of 2 points, 2 rebounds and 4 fouls.

 

In Spain, Felix Merres and Ludor Castro showed some level of ability to actually mesh each others' games and coexist with each other, as both got their fair share of shots. While Merres's talent has long been undeniable, Castro displayed more of his offensive game and showed some nifty post moves, utilizing his body well to get layups or short hook shots. Both are undeniably athletic, and they exploited that against Salvo Gispi's relatively unathletic team, Del Campo, tonight. Merres had 21 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, and Castro procured 15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block. Gispi himself didn't fare well, only scoring 6 points on 3-10 shooting, with 4 turnovers.

 

Germany was okay, but the story was Micos Schremvelt--the athletic defensive German guard had 8 points and 5 steals against Occormann, getting into the grill of Jaie Holzbinger, a 6'2" PG who could arguably be as talented offensively as Schremvelt's defense. Holzbinger only had 7 points on 2-9 shooting, but also 6 turnovers.

 

That's all for updates. See you next week!