07/11/2017
Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide
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NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen’s Women’s Basketball Worldwide) – There was me thinking I had done all the hard working during the past couple of weeks in choosing my All East and All West European rosters.
Wrong.
HELP: Who wins 5 game series? Would love your opinion for @FIBA
— Paul Nilsen (@basketmedia365) November 3, 2017
➡️RT for West ➡️❤️for East #EuroBasketWomen #EuroLeagueWomen #EuroCupWomen pic.twitter.com/ltjtYlN5vS
The tough part is right now, not only choosing who would coach the respective sides in this [fantasy] game/series, but somehow, predicting who would actually win the contest?
Coaching
Starting with the proposed play-callers, I think the West has an absolute lock in the ‘Women’s Basketball Alchemist’ Lucas Mondelo of Dynamo Kursk and Spain.
He is the one man who could handle all that star dust like a dream and deliver as he always has. ‘El Crack’ gets the thumbs up from me.
As for the East, I was torn between four leading candidates in Ekrem Memnun of Turkey, Marina Maljkovic, Martins Zibarts of Latvia and Natalia Hejkova. I have always liked Memnun a lot on and off the court, while the dynamic of pitching Zibarts, who has been assistant to Mondelo at Kursk, is such an intriguing one. Maljkovic could surely do what she did with Serbia and let the stars breathe and do their thing without being suffocated too much.
But, the nod goes to Hejkova as she has won a stack of EuroLeague Women titles and is such a legendary and veteran coach still doing great things, so she deserves the coaching reins.
Now let’s get to the crunch – how do the teams match-up? My fellow EuroBasket Women 2017 Media Guide contributor thinks it might be close!
East by 1 in game 5 after 3OT.
— Pierre Ploszajski (@pierrepiotr_) November 4, 2017
Backcourt
It is Anna Cruz, Olivia Epoupa, Marine Johannes and Marta Xargay going up against Nika Baric, Courtney Vandersloot and Ana Dabovic. That means the West have a few more options perhaps and probably go one deeper in this area. They are also more predictable and steady, which lends itself to a series, rather than a one-off game. Then again, if they have talented wings and a superior frontcourt, having defense and reliability is the most important thing.
Vandersloot, the naturalized player from the East, who for me is arguably the most in-form guard in the women’s game right now would be huge. Additionally, the versatility of Dabovic to also handle the ball in the clutch is big. There is an argument that Epopua and Johannes are not yet proven at the very, very highest level (yet) and that is also something to consider. Verdict: East
Wings
It is Kim Mestdagh, Cecilia Zandalasini and Alba Torrens going up against Evgenia Belyakova, Alina Iagupova and Sonja Petrovic. I will say this right from the outset, you just can’t separate these respective rotations for the wing positions. Sure, some players are more 2 or 2/3 and others 3 or even 3/4 but as respective rotations, they ooze quality.
Both have specialist three-point shooters in Mestdagh and Beliakova who can kill you in a couple of plays, while Zandalasini, Torrens, Iagupova and Petrovic are the absolute top drawer players in the women’s game. All are for crunch time, love taking the big shots and turning up in the big games. There is heavy scoring both ways and this is a battle to stuff the highlights reel for sure. How about we just have a 3x3 with these as a separate competition? Verdict: Draw
Frontcourt
It is Emma Meesseman, Sancho Lyttle, Endy Miyem, Ann Wauters and Amanda Zahui going up against Alena Hanusova, Jelena Milovanovic, Maria Vadeeva, Jelena Dubljevic, Anete Steinberga and Anastasiya Verameyenka. This is an interesting one as I feel that the West are more one-dimensional as a unit, but have the superior all-round strength in terms of rebounding, defense and experience.
The East frontcourt is more diverse and quite an eclectic mix of players who can all do very different things, from the athleticism of Hanusova to the scoring touch and range of Milovanovic and consistency of Vadeeva for example. However, I think the West could just get the edge on the block and on the glass. Verdict: West
Summary
So with one vote each and one draw, that brings us no closer right? My head says that over a 5 game series, the presence of Coach Mondelo gives the West an edge and that their superior defense and frontcourt experience would wear the East down. In a one-off All-Star game, I am going for the East because they are just so explosive! Equally it might be said that if the 5 game series went to a decider, then the East would be in a great position because they have more game-winners in the clutch.
So, my verdict is that the West would win a series and the East would win a one-off game!
Either way, these two rosters are sensational and one day would love to see something similar to this actually happen. Thanks to those who got involved in the debate and lastly, apologies to the multiple number of top quality players who didn’t quite make the cut!
Paul Nilsen
FIBA
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