FIBA U19WC rest day review: Swiss, France and the favorites
And then there were eight - we've reached the Quarter-Finals of the FIBA U19 World Cup 2025. Let's examine where we are in the tournament after a wild end to the Round of 16.
We have reached the second rest day of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 and that gives us a chance to catch our breaths and review what has happened thus far in Lausanne.
Phew, what a tournament so far. Switzerland pulled off one of the biggest surprises in tournament history and find themselves among the top eight teams in the world. France meanwhile are reeling after another FIBA Youth World Cup embarassment.
Those are the two biggest storylines and while other nations are making noise - for good and bad reason - it seems like this event will come down to the two favorites - United States and Germany.
FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 bracket
Swiss sensation
Going into the tournament, this is what I wrote in the Power Rankings for the event website:
”Switzerland will be making their debut and while they are placed at 15th in the Smart Power Rankings, there is some solid talent on this team with the likes of Dayah Nessah, Lucas Namiema and Dario Cokara. What is lacking is big game experience - and actually for some of the main players playing time this past season.
The main goal for this team will be to play hard and inspire future generations of youngsters in the country.”
Switzerland’s talent was there and the work was being done (here my article about the development in the country), but my biggest question was if they could close games. Well, Switzerland definitely has shown the world they can do that. Just ask France.
France seemed in control in the Round of 16 against the hosts with a 12-point lead and only 5 minutes to play. Switzerland were pushed by an amazing Lausanne crowd (not just in the Round of 16 but really all tournament long and not just for Swiss and USA games) and reeled off the final 12 points of the game. Ivan Rudez’s team even had the last shot to win the game but couldn’t connect and the game went to overtime.
The French failed to score for almost 3 more minutes and the Swiss run had extended to 18-0. Yes, you read that right - 18-0 over more than 8 minutes. The Swiss ended up winning 86-79 in OT and had booked a ticket to the Quarter-Finals.
This is Switzerland - a country that has never played a single game in Division A in a FIBA Youth EuroBasket. But … it’s also Switzerland, who has two NBA players and now that Yanic Konan Niederhauser has been drafted the country has produced two draft picks in the last two years.
And this U19 Swiss team has some intriguing players with USA college players Dayan Nessah and Andrin Njock as well as Lucas Maniema at Gran Canaria in Spain. There are also Oliver Sassella and Austin Ouko. Unfortunately Dario Cokara (who is headed to Paris Basketball next season along with Melvine Mbamen Tchouda) is injured but his fellow 2008-born talent Klark Riethäuser has definitely opening his eyes with his potential.
How much further can the Swiss go? They will face New Zealand in the Quarter-Finals and the situation is perfect. First off, the game comes after a rest day. So the players can actually enjoy the victory a little bit and then the team can refocus. And second off, the Swiss face a New Zealand side that they definitely can beat - though it won’t be easy at all.
Oh là là France
On the other end of the perspective was France. Oh, là là.
This is definitely not what France basketball wanted at this event, especially after what happened last summer at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2024. France’s ultra-talented 2007 generation - plus Hugo Yimga and Cameron Houindo from the 2008-born group and 2009-born star talent Nathan Soliman - were expected to actually challenge USA for the title. But the French were tripped up by Puerto Rico in the Round of 16 and France’s dreams were ended. They would eventually bounce back and finish ninth, but the damage was done.
Fast forward one summer and here we are again - and again in the Round of 16. France cannot lose that game. Nothing against Switzerland, but the French simply cannot drop a game in which they are up by 12 points with 5 minutes to go.
Don’t say, well if they had Nolan Traore, Noa Essengue and Joan Beringer. Those guys were never going to play in Lausanne. That is clear. But the French federation could have made brought some other players who would have never allowed their team to go scoreless for more than 8 minutes.
Maxence Lemoine, Akram Naji, Theo Guedegbe, Yannis Allard, Adam Atamna and Christopher Ebunangombe are just some of the guards who were not considered. Many of them are in the running for the France team at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2025. And 2009-born star point guard Aaron Towo-Nansi will be be playing at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2025 along with Soliman.
Other leadership players who would have gone all out to score and stop a drought would be Yimga and Houindo as well as 2007-born center Jahel Trefle.
This is a really bad result for France, who came into the Switzerland game not with highest of confidence anyhow after beating Cameroon by 25 points in the opener but then losing by 31 to USA and falling by eight points to Australia.
Oh, and France came into this tournament having finished third in 2019 and reaching the Final in 2021 and 2023.
Even ninth place will not be easy as Serbia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Cameroon and Mali are all in Classification 9-16 action.
Serbia crash to historic losses
Speaking of Serbia, the Balkan country was probably the biggest disappointment in the tournament before France crashed through and took that status.
Serbia came into the event as the runners-up from the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024 and part of the second tier of contenders behind USA and Germany. But things started horribly from the beginning.
Mali pulled off a shocker as they beat Serbia 72-70 - for the country’s first-ever win over the Balkan nation in any competition, men or women, youth or senior. A day later Argentina registered their first-ever win over Serbia in a FIBA youth event. That left Serbia already last place in Group A.
The Serbs, who had Savo Drezgic, Andrej Kostic and Aleksa Dimitrijevic, ended up finishing the group stage on a high note with a win over New Zealand. But waiting in the Round of 16 was a Germany team that was rolling.
Serbia were clearly missing the winner mentality and big play-maker Mitar Bosnjakovic and probably their best player in the first two games was Nikola Dzepina, who left Zemun Belgrade for Valencia midway through the 2023-24 season. Drezgic stepped up against New Zealand and was the main guy in keeping Serbia close against Germany. But the Germans were just too much for Serbia - even with the Serbs out for revenge after losing the FIBA U18 EuroBasket Final the summer before.
So Serbia are also out of the picture.
Other Classification 9-16 teams
Before we get to the other seven teams - along with Switzerland - who are in the running to win the crown, let’s just run down a couple of quick tidbits about the other teams looking to finish the tournament with three wins and ninth place.
Going in alphabetical order:
Argentina: Tyler Kropp was a stud and the Filipe Minzer, Ivan Prato and Thiago Sucatzky axis has been fun to watch. But they couldn’t get past Slovenia in the Round of 16
Cameroon: It was tough to see Cameroon lose to Israel in the Round of 16. Lots of really interesting guys - Amadou Seini, Gedeon Basson, Franck Belibi and then also German-Cameroonian Noe Bom. The debutants hopefully leave their first U19 World Cup with at least one win if not more.
China: Just goes to show you that all the prep in the world doesn’t guarantee you anything. Jacob Zhu and Boyuan Zhang will play for the country for a while as will Sinan Huan.
Dominican Republic: Man, talk about tough-luck losers. The Dominicans lost to Switzerland and Israel both by four points - hitting only 15 of 38 free throws (39.5%) vs Israel - before falling to Australia by 10 points. Just great effort and fight from the team.
Jordan: Participating matters and these guys will forever be able to say they played against USA and at a FIBA U19 World Cup. They were by quite a margin the least-talented team in Lausanne.
Mali: I thought they would do a bit better - especially after beating Serbia on Day 1. But the team never really were able to control the ball that well. The talent is definitely there.
Heavy-hearted Israelis
What a performance thus far by Israel in Lausanne. Sure, they were drawn into the easiest group but they took care of business. They beat hosts Switzerland by 25 points and then were awarded a 20-0 win over Jordan due to forfeit before surviving a battle against Dominican Republic.
Israel then went through another challenge, overcoming the much stronger and more physical Cameroon in the Round of 16 to reach the Quarter-Finals. This came after uncertainity in the build-up to the event due to the war going on in the country and region. It was unclear if the Israeli team would even be able to leave the country for the event.
“I don’t really have words with this whole situation. We just tried to play with honor, put it all on the court like the soldiers are doing right now. I’m just happy we were able to get the win and maybe make some people back home happy,” said Omer Mayer, who scored 33 points against Cameroon - two more than the 31 points he scored twice at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket last summer. “This is an amazing feeling. This is the highest point in my career so far.”
Fabulous Fruphy
Australia have been such a part of this event that it’s hard to believe they are in the Quarter-Finals for the first time since 2015. The 2003 champions lost to USA in the opening gamer and then fought off Cameroon and France before getting past a tough Dominican Republic team to get back into the top eight.
Jacob Furphy has been outstanding in Lausanne as has Roman Siulepa for an Australia team which obviously could have been a lot more dangerous with big man Rocco Zikarsky, who got picked in the 2025 NBA Draft.
One note is how underwhelming Dash Daniels has performed. Being someone who is projected to go in the NBA Lottery in 2026, the guard really only has had one good game - 22 points against Cameroon. Otherwise he has compiled 20 points and a combined efficiency of 15 in the other three games.
The whole of the better parts is also better for Slovenia
Slovenia youth teams over the years have had the feeling of the whole being better than the sum of its parts thanks to great chemistry. This Slovenia team’s parts are even better which begs to wonder if the whole will be better as well. And it seems to be working as the Balkan nation is in the top eight for the first time since 2003.
The grouping of Urban Kroflic, Vit Hrabar, Mark Padjen and Zak Smrekar has really been fun to watch as they share the responsibilities equally and everyone can get baskets or make plays if needed.
More history for New Zealand’s magic generation
Just like Switzerland and Israel, New Zealand also have reached the Quarter-Finals for the first time. The Junior Tall Blacks took top honors in Group A - beating Argentina and Mali to lock up first place and not needing to defeat Serbia in the final game. New Zealand ended up losing but they took care of business in the Round of 16 against China.
Five of New Zealand’s players played last summer at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2024, where they reached the Semi-Finals and matched the country’s best-ever result along with the Tall Blacks at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2002. The likes of Hayden Jones, Oscar Goodman, Troy Plumtree and Jackson Ball have teamed up with superb point guard Tama Isaac and Carter Hopoi from the 2006-born generation and has Kiwi nation dreaming of another magic summer.
Canada = Quarter-Finals
All Canada do at the FIBA U19 World Cup is reach the Quarter-Finals - now seven straight top-eight performances. The Americas side managed to win twice at the stage - going all the way to the title in 2017 and finishing third in 2021.
Canada have done a good job sharing the wealth with four guys in double figures - Efeosa Oliogu, Jordan Charles, Spencer Ahrens and Tristan Beckford. Charles has a very solid 4.8 to 1.8 assist to turnover ratio while Ahrens has been lighting it up from outside at 53%.
But Canada will face USA in the Quarter-Finals and they have only won two of 31 matchups thus far - one of them being the RJ Barrett show in the Semi-Finals at the FIBA U19 World Cup 2017.
What a show by Germany thus far
Germany have been just as good as expected as they have really been carried by their starting five. Hannes Steinbach and Christian Anderson are strong contenders for All-Star Five and even MVP while Eric Reibe is putting his name in the discussion as well. And then you have Jack Kayil and Declan Duru and that is a super strong unit.
The bench also has players who can help in a myriad of ways and have been doing so as well as they are buying in for the big goal. Jordan Müller has been one of the biggest contributors off the bench along with Amon Dörries.
Germany have not been without tests. The opener against Slovenia was not the greatest performance so they had to figure out a way to win late. Canada also hung around for a while and then Serbia would fight back a bit as well in the Round of 16.
Balanced Americans still top contender
As good as Germany have been, record eight-time champions USA remain the biggest favorite to hoist the trophy on July 6. USA coach Tommy Lloyd has used his entire team with nobody playing 23 minutes per game and only one guy not playing 10 minutes a contest. Koa Peat, Mikel Brown, AJ Dybantsa and Caleb Holt are the four players who are averaging in double figure points but six more guys are contributing 7+ points a contest.
USA have been creating 17.5 steals per game and grabbing 17.8 offensive rebounds while shooting 36% from long range with 29.0 assists a contest.
The one possible downside to the USA dominance could be what will the team look like if a game is close late. Will the rotation be shortened, and if yes, with whom in it. Who would be used as the main ballhandlers in the half-court if they can’t run. These are all questions that really can only be answered once USA is in a close game.
It seems like Germany would be the team the Americans will meet in the Final and those top Germans will not be intimated by the USA play.
But … let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We still have the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals. Let’s enjoy those first.
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