On Saturday, the DBB’s U18 team will kick off its European Championship campaign against Italy. After poor preparation and some personnel concerns, there are still many question marks.
The German U18 team has big shoes to fill. Just over a year ago, the team won the title for the first time in the association’s history in Tampere, Finland, dominating throughout. Christian Anderson, Jack Kayil, Ivan Kharchenkov, Declan Duru, and Hannes Steinbach were already established college players and BBL players at the time, all of whom have a chance of making it to the NBA. That caliber is simply not represented this year.
Mathieu Grujicic is clearly the best and most exciting player on the DBB side. The burly forward already caused a stir at FC Barcelona and will be hunting for points for Ohio State University next season. He was also the only German to shine at the “Basketball Without Borders” camp in the USA a few months ago. After that, the talent pool thins out considerably.
Davi Remagen, nominally the second-best player, is out with an injury (hand), and the loss of Julis Baumer (torn ligament) is also painful, as the shooter played well for Ludwigsburg last season.
Others will have to pick up the slack, with Skyliner youngsters Ivan Crnjac and Jamie Edoka leading the way. Both made their BBL debut last season and dominated the youth ranks: European Championship captain Crnjac was MVP in the junior Bundesliga (NBBL), while Edoka was Rookie of the Year. Now they are looking to take the next step on the international stage.
Question marks also behind coach Arigbabu
But it’s not just within the team that there are question marks; on the coaching side, too, things are far from settled. Stephen Arigbabu, who has played 166 times for his country, only took over the U18 team this year and is still finding his feet with his new team. It helps that he knows many of the players from his time as assistant coach of the U17 team. “That makes it easier to get started and builds trust. The players don’t have to get to know each other completely from scratch, which is a big plus given our limited preparation time,” he said. However, his last position as head coach at the professional level was several years ago (Rasta Vechta 2014/15).
The preparation was correspondingly mixed. The U18 team recently played three test matches in Riga, Latvia, twice against Latvia and once against Georgia. The DBB team won only one of the three games, even though the first game against the hosts ended with only a one-point difference.
The defeat in the last game against Georgia was also avoidable. Germany was behind from the start and made life difficult for itself with unnecessary mistakes. “Too many defensive mistakes and a lack of punch in attack ultimately led to defeat. Now we have to learn the right lessons from this so that we are in the best possible shape for the European Championship opener against Italy in a week’s time,” Arigbabu analyzed after the game.
U18 European Championship: DBB must aim for a perfect tournament
Germany cannot afford to make such mistakes at the European Championship, as the group will not forgive them. Italy (2024 U17 World Cup runners-up) is a tough opponent to start with, and Israel could also pose a threat to the DBB team, while Bulgaria is a must-win game.
However, the German team cannot be eliminated in the group stage. In the round of 16, all teams get the chance to qualify for the rest of the tournament in a knockout duel. Of course, the final ranking is decisive here. If the team performs poorly in the group stage, it could face a really tough task in the round of 16 or quarterfinals (for example, Spain, Serbia, or France).
Unlike in the last tournament or the U19 World Cup, everything has to go right for Germany in Belgrade, Serbia, if they are to win another medal. There is no abundance of star players who can decide games on their own. Depth is also a problem; behind the trio of Grujicic, Crnjac, and Edoka, hardly any players have professional experience.
The team will have to hope for the magic of big tournaments and an outstanding performance from its top players. Arigbabu knows this: “I am convinced that we will only be successful if we perform as a team, play together and fight for each other. Maybe you can win one or two games with individual performances, but in the long run, it’s all about team spirit,” he explained.
