EM-Quali U18 Hommes Ruzomberok

Tom Schumacher best scorer of the U18 European Championship in Ruzomberok with average of 20,6 points in 8 games !!!!!!!!
11 ième place pour l´équipe U18 FLBB
tour final:
22.07. 14.45 hrs Estonia – FLBB 106 – 72
23.07 17.00 hrs FLBB – Sweden 55 – 71
deuxième tour:
20.07 17.00 hrs Rep. Tchèque – FLBB 67 – 79
21.07 17.00 hrs FLBB – Rép. Slovaque 59 – 57

premier tour
13.07. Pays Bas – FLBB U18 69-74
grande victoire contre le Pays Bas grace a une immense défense de l´équipe de Kresimir Basic
14.07. FLBB – Ukraine 60 – 76
Pays Bas – Angleterre 78 – 55
15.07. Irlande – FLBB 67 – 54
17.07. FLBB – Angleterre 75 – 61

Report about the U18 Boys European Qualification tournament in Slovakia 2005
Luxembourg played with the youngest and smallest line up of the competition: five players born 87, three players born 88 and five players born 89.
In order to prepare this competition we practiced once per week all year long, twice per week in the last 3 months and 3-4 times per week once the Championship ended. That’s also when the Senior players joined the team.
Our goal was to give our best comparing our size and to win 1 game. Since we don’t have a real inside player (Dominic Whicher 2.05m still doesn’t have the nationality) I had to make the selection on the way that I chose good shooters.
Our game was based 90 % on perimeter players. All tactical options were based on outside shooters, individual 1v1 situations and drive & pitch. We tried to take their big players out of the paint so we could face them and play them 1v1. On that way we forced 1-2 dribble offenses. Our sets were made to attack the opponents aggressively to arrange 1v1 situations. We had to use our quickness to create situations versus bigger players.
Our biggest problem was to get our players in 1 ½ month to adapt their individual play (some players like Schumacher / Rupert are key players in their Senior team) to our 1-2 dribble team tactic.
Other main problem was that from our Starting Five Schumacher / Ruppert got a lot of minutes in their club, Thill / Hoffmann didn’t play so much on the 1st team and Picard was only playing Espoirs.
We had to prepare our players psychically and physically to play for 2 weeks against international level and on the paper basketball wise much stronger teams. Each of our opponents had at least 3-4 players on professional teams or leagues.
During our preparation we had 4 preparation games versus other National teams (3 defeats: Slovakia by 3 pts, Portugal by 8 pts, Germany by 29 pts and 1 victory: Switzerland by 25 pts). The Nico Ney tournament was the 1st time our team was complete because Sacha Thill is in a Belgium Basketball School.
At Nico Ney we saw our disadvantage: our size! Our strengths were the outside shot and 1v1 situations.
The hardest was to convince all our players to believe in our team, in themselves and in the way we are supposed to play giving us a result.
In our team we also had a big difference in experience because it was a mixture of U18 & U16. It was the biggest challenge in their basketball career.
On defense it was very important to work together, give the maximum to compensate our size by quickness, agressivity and rhythm. Our defensive strategy was based on lots of different kinds of defenses: Fullcourt MvM & Zone presses (2-2-1, 1-3-1, 1-1-2-1); halfcourt MvM and Zone. We tried to confuse opponents by changing defenses. We didn’t let other teams pick up their rhythm.
This kind of defense is taking lots of energy so that we knew that we had our best chances at the beginning of the tournament when the players were still fresh. Looking through the results this had been the actual situation.

Game by game analysis
Luxembourg -Nederland (74-69)
This was the hardest game because it was the 1st. Everybody was nervous. We had all information about their strengths and weaknesses after consulting video and scouting report. The tactic was to take away their inside game by pressuring the guards and taking away the high-low. Great box-out and team defense gave us lots of fastbreak and offensive transition opportunities. How the game was going Holland was getting tired by our fullcourt MvM and Run&Jump defenses so that 5 minutes to the end we were up by 11 pts. Our lack of experience playing games on international level made us struggle on the end. But our free throws gave us the 1st victory in the competition.
Luxembourg -Ukraine (60-76)
It was our best game of the competition comparing the strength of the Ukraine team. It was a team without individual weaknesses, lead by amazing inside players. 3 players 2.23m, 2.11m, 2.07m were closing all key. After a 1st great quarter (leading by 1 pt) we were almost all game behind by 10 pts. Thanks to our incredible defense, everybody helping to stop their inside game by rotations our energy was going down.
Luxembourg -Ireland (54-67)
It was a strange game. We struggled 2 ½ quarters then picked up a 9 pts lead and 7 minutes to the end we stopped to play. In that period we didn’t score any basket and missed 7 free throws in a row. Our team was physically completely empty because it was our 3rd game in a row. On the other side Ireland played their best game of the tournament because they had 1 day of.
Luxembourg -England (75-61)
One day of helped us recharge our batteries. Combined with a great percentage of 3 pt shots this helped us play again a great game. There was never a doubt about our victory (leading by 27 pts). Again taller they couldn’t stop us in 1v1.
Because of a strange victory of Holland vs. Ukraine (Ukraine only scored 36 pts in 36′) we didn’t pass through into the first 8 group where we belonged for sure.
The next step was a group of 3 teams with Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Luxembourg -Czech Republic (76-67)
We had again a great performance against a team looking physically much stronger & taller and playing very dirty. They made dirty fouls nearly all of our offenses. Thanks to a great defense and an excellent percentage of 3pts we won our 3rd game of the competition.
Luxembourg -Slovakia (59-57)
Slovakia beat Czech easily by 30 pts and like Luxembourg unluckily didn’t pass into first 8. Both teams were very nervous and changed the lead quite often. There were lots of turnovers on both sides trying to finish too early. In a dramatic finish Tom Schumacher tied the game with a 3 pt shot 30 before the end. In the next Slovakian offense he stole the ball. In the last seconds he took two players on himself and made an assist to Sam Picard for one more Luxembourg victory.
Luxembourg -Estonia (72-106)
Still under the impression of the previous days and our 4th game in a row we had a very nervous start with missed lay-ups. Estonia also played aggressive and very dirty trying to provocate our best players. They took a 5 pt lead qt the start of the 2nd half. After 3-4 bad decisions of the referees who were in my eyes not treating both teams the same way the referees gave me 2 technical faults so that the team had to finish the game without me. This was probably one of the reasons of 30 pts defeat in the end.
Luxembourg -Sweden (55-71)
Both teams started on the same way. After 2 weeks of competition and practices our players mentally and physically couldn’t anymore keep up to the rhythm of the tournament. Our batteries were completely empty so that our defeat of 14 pts was inevitable.
Resume:
I must make a big compliment to my players for their great performance in Slovakia. Also I would like to thank my staff: my team manager Claude Birenbaum, my head of delegation and head coach in the last 2 games Fred Geib, our Slovakian Kiné Eric, my assistant coach Yves Grandjean who unfortunately had to cancel the trip in the last moment because of sickness and my U16 assistant Dan Becker who unselfishly helped whenever I needed him.
In the end I just want to stress out that such a positive result was just dreams 4-5 years ago. All people who even gave the smallest part can be proud.
Also this result can even be better in the future if we all start to work together to get all the best players together 3-4 days per week like other much bigger countries (Portugal, Sweden, Serbia, Ukraine, Iceland ) do. Those countries work in an Internat structure combining school and sports, a facility that must be created in Luxembourg too!
From this situation everybody gets profit: Good players get a better daily challenge, individually and tactically they will improve. Through all those competitions players will become a unity and they will feel proud to play for their country.
Everybody who is willing and interested to help us progress is always welcome and Luxembourg forever.