The sixth Future Stars took place over the weekend 29th June to 1st July at Brunel University and featured an International U18 Tournament, National Coaching Clinic and FIBA 3×3 Tournament.
International U18 Tournament
Ukraine celebrated their first victory at the Future Stars International tournament after beating the Netherlands 66-57 in the final. In the third pace game Denmark overcome England 73-59. England’s efforts were dictated by a slow start when England found themselves trailing 22-6 at the end of the first quarter. England started the second half with a far more aggressive approach which started paying dividends reducing Denmark’s lead to single digits. However that was as far as Steve Bucknell’s team could go in terms of challenging the Danish team and the 14 points margin probably correctly reflects the difference in class between these 2 outfits. England’s best performances came undoubtedly on Friday during the qualification rounds. Firstly they dispatched Sweden 62-55. Then came their performance of the tournament when they defeated in a very impressive Ukraine 84-76.
In the fifth/sixth place two game series Sweden completely overpowered a depleted London-United-Harefield Academy team. The Londoners after losing 3 starters in their first game against Holland were reduced to mere observers of the proceedings for the rest of the tournament.
National Coaching Clinic
The second day of the event included the National Coaching Clinic run in conjunction with England Basketball. Over 150 coaches invested in their own development and had the opportunity to listen to the lecturers and network with guest speakers Slava Medvedenko [Winner of two championship rings with the Los Angeles Lakers and currently working with Ukrainian Basketball Federation], and coaches from the National Teams Peter Hoffman and Olle Lunden. American coaching philosophies were also represented by Chris Hackett and British born coach working in the NCAA as Head Coach of Frank Philips College in Texas.
The coaches were initially treated to an on court clinic from NBA veteran Stanislav Medvedenko on the finer points of rebounding, creating contact and correct use of pivots. After leading last year’s clinic the Swedish U18 coach Olle Lunden, provided an informative session on point guard development, an issue in every country across Europe. Olle questioned coaches on their own responsibility in creating point guards and not just handing the point guard responsibilities to either the fastest or strongest player on their team.
After lunch Peter Hoffman shared his experiences as Head Coach of the Danish National Teams on playing without the ball – reading the defence and encouraging offensive decision making in players.
Chris Hackett, head coach at Frank Philips College in Texas, then presented an interesting and lively session on attacking the zone defence. Chris also answered a number of coaches’ questions on his progression to head coach and the characteristics and requirements of foreign players being recruited in the US.
Delegates then had the opportunity to watch the coaches in action at the Future Stars International U18 Tournament
FIBA 3×3 Tournament
The last day of the competition was marked by the first ever FIBA 3×3 tournament which attracted over 70 teams from London and the South East. Teams competed in U14, U16, U18 and Open Male categories and Open Women’s. The Open Men’s category was one by Green Light who will travel to Switzerland to represent England in the FIBA World Tour Challenger.
Director of Future Stars Jack Majewski was absolutely excited when he offered this comment “We had absolutely no idea what to expect when we started an initial conversation with FIBA about this tournament. Now we know that this concept really works and we are already planning for a much larger and better event next year. We are very lucky to be able to use the Indoor Athletics Centre at Brunel University, a World class training facility making us completely independent from the weather, which obviously is a concern in England. Next year we easily can expect more than 100 teams’.
For a video recap of the final day of the Future Stars event please click here.