Ahead of Thursday’s quarter-finals at the Fiba Under 17 World Championship, The Natoinal takes a look on who will proceed to the semi-finals:
United States v China
Yanhao Zhao is the leading scorer of this tournament. Jinqiu Hu is the leading rebounder.
They have a 16-year-old centre, Ziming Fan, who is 2.08 metres tall and another forward the same age, Hao Fu, who stands 2.06 metres.
All of their kids can play and against almost any team – as they showed in dismantling Italy in the round of 16 – they have at least a fighting chance.
Unfortunately for the Chinese, the US lies outside the almost-any-team category and, barring an unlikely, historic upset, they do not have enough to hang in all the way against the Americans.
Prediction - United States
Canada v Serbia
Since an opening-day loss to France, Canada have manhandled Angola and Japan and handily beaten a very good Australia squad. Recently, more than any team other than the US, Canada have been the senders of talent to the top of the NBA Draft.
Serbia have a whole roster of big kids with long arms – size-wise, they match up well with anyone. They also have not lost a game, or have even really been challenged.
This might be the closest of the quarter-finals. Serbia, though, does not have those one or two top-end talents who can carry a team by themselves when the going gets rough, such as Jamal Murray and Howard Washington have done for the Canadians and did against Australia.
Prediction - Canada
Australia v Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico have been the Cinderella story of the tournament, winning a tough group and making it to the last eight, but their brush with disaster against Egypt — when they needed a last-minute comeback and overtime to go through – showed that they struggle against a team with a big inside presence.
Egypt’s Ahmed “Bebo” Khalef helped neutralise Puerto Rico’s collection of 2-metre and 2.03m contributors, and 2.11m Isaac Humphries of Australia will prove even more difficult.
Ivan Gandia showed against Egypt that he can take on much of the scoring load when players such as Arnaldo Toro and Leandro Allende go quiet, but Australia has so many good secondary weapons – Dejan Vasiljevic, Tom Wilson, Kouat Noi – that the Puerto Ricans face a task that might literally be too tall.
Prediction - Australia
France v Spain
Probably the hardest match to break down.
Both teams have been enigmatic, with the French following up an excellent win over Canada in group play with a narrow loss to Australia. They looked world-beaters against Japan but came out lethargic against a Philippines team they should not have had any trouble with. Spain lost to both Puerto Rico and Italy in group play before edging Argentina in one of the uglier games of the tournament to reach the last eight.
In basketball pure talent usually rules the day and France’s best player, Stephane Gombauld, looks a notch better at the moment than Spain’s best player, Santiago Yusta.
Prediction - France
jraymond@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
