Hugo Gonzalez latest youngster to "rejuvenate" Spain national team
People are excited about Spain adding more young talent to their national team - like Hugo Gonzalez this window. But Spain head coach Sergio Scariolo has had little options.
Spain national team head coach Sergio Scariolo has been forced to watch the pool of possible players for his squad dwindle more and more over recent years. That has led the veteran playcaller to add four highly regarded talents - Izan Almansa, Sergio De Larrea and Mario Saint-Supery in November 2024 and Hugo Gonzalez this month - to his team over the past two windows. But Scariolo has had very few other options since the Spanish ACB is not giving Spanish players a chance.
Spain fans went into the November 2024 window of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers very excited by seeing Scariolo nominate a trio of star talents who have accomplished big things for the country’s youth national teams and have also made big advancements in their professional careers.
The 19-year-old Almansa took home the MVP award at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022 as Spain finished second and followed that up with two more MVPs as Spain captured the titles at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2022 and FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2023. Almansa also has excelled with 7.5 points and 4.3 rebounds in the Australian NBL with Perth.
De Larrea - also part of Spain's great 2005-born generation - teamed up with Almansa on the 2022 U17 World Cup and 2023 U19 World Cup squads. And the point guard has become an integral part of the success for Valencia Basket.
Saint Supery - who was born in 2006 - meanwhile took second place at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2022 and FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2023 in consecutive summers. And he has averaged 7.3 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists for Baxi Manresa, the surprise of the Spanish league this season.
"I was extremely happy with what I've seen in practice. I think they have quality, they have talent, they have a good mindset, they are ambitious, they are humble as well," Scariolo said in an interview with Taking The Charge about the trio’s showing back in November.
Almansa and Saint-Supery will both be back for the final window - where Spain will be facing Latvia on the road and Belgium at home knowing that the country has already secured a spot at this summer’s EuroBasket 2025 and a chance to defend their trophy.
Scariolo is giving another star talent an opportunity to debut in the window with Hugo Gonzalez. The 18-year-old has made the full jump from Real Madrid’s second team into the professional side. He is collecting 4.9 points and 2.3 rebounds per game in 13 minutes in the ACB. He picked up 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists against Rio Breogan in mid-December. And he played 30 minutes against Coruna in late January. Gonzalez’s numbers have been a bit lower in the EuroLeague with just under 9 minutes a game and 2.1 points and 1.4 rebounds. He twice scored in double figures.
While Gonzalez will be making his debut, guard 20-year-old Rafa Villar also got his first appearance in the November window. The former Barcelona guard is averaging 5.6 points and 3.3 assists for Lleida in the Spanish top flight. Villar helped the club earn promotion from the second division last season.
Scariolo played it politically correct at the announcement of the latest roster, talking about the importance of “rejuvenating” the team.
“Although we have already qualified for the EuroBasket, these commitments continue to be important in our evolution and in our work progression. We will work with a group in which we will continue to give minutes and experience to young players who will be part of tomorrow's team and who we consider to be a very important asset for our basketball,” he told the federation’s website.
Scariolo said the February windows always provide a bit of challenge because players are coming from the Copa del Rey competition.
And about this window, he said: “On many occasions we have not had the availability of all the players we had contacted. In fact, in this call-up, there are a number of players we had contacted and who in the end did not come for different physical or personal reasons.”
A major reason for that is also because there are fewer and fewer players who have the skill level to compete for the national team. That is because fewer native Spanish players are getting important minutes in the ACB - as documented twice on this substack.
Scariolo told Taking The Charge that he refrained in the November window of adding EuroLeague players for the second game. Especially because he wanted to get as strong an evaluation of those selected players as possible.
“I saw that many teams called up players from the EuroLeague for the second game. I would never do that because I think it would be a disrespect to the players who have been carrying the first game,” he said. “Let's finish evaluating people who are still at a quite young age, and especially make some room for super young guys to step in and to finally make their first appearance with the main team. And I think that these windows should be an opportunity for the few guys left to showcase and to prove that they can present their candidacy to the main team, let's say the summer team. And actually, there were a couple of them which did.”
Scariolo also addressed the on-going problem of very few Spanish players getting quality playing time in Spain.
“Unfortunately this is not the first year, this is not the second year, this is not the third year. The Spanish league is the league where the local players - the selectionable players for the national team - enjoy the least playing time, fewest shots, and less action and presence on the floor in the fourth quarter or in the hot possessions. This is something we have been living with since probably three or four years - minimum. Minimum. And the tendency is getting worse and worse.”
Scariolo said his hands are tied.
“I can't do anything about it. I cannot be happy about it, but then I try to follow the competition, to know players, to give them an opportunity when they show some sign of talent or decisiveness in taking the floor when their opportunity comes. So this is what I can do.”
All Scariolo can do is give a chance to those players who show they might be good enough for a role in the national team, where many actually get a bigger role than with their club.
“What we can do is promote players, give them the opportunity, take risks, push them up, but up to an extent,” he said. “We are giving them more playing time with the national team than the playing time these guys have with their clubs. And this is amazing, but it's not the first time it's happened. It's been happening over and over.”
Scariolo is not the only leader in Spain ringing the alarm bells. So is Alfonso Reyes, the president of the Spanish players association ABP and brother of Spanish national team legend Felipe Reyes.
“In the ACB league there are currently less than 25 percent Spanish players. This decrease has been gradual for several years and the trend is to continue decreasing. The weight of Spanish players in the game is much less,” he said.
“We at the ABP have been denouncing this situation for many years but it has never been taken seriously. We have won many medals in championships and it was thought that it would always be like this. The problem is that changing this dynamic is not easy and requires a lot of time. The longer we take to react, the worse the situation will be and there will be fewer players who can play for the national team.”
Reyes fears for the Spanish national team long term.
“All this does not give much hope for our basketball. It would be necessary to tighten the conditions to be a home-grown player, to be able to obtain a passport for Americans and for the Sports Ministry to take this situation more seriously. Our relationship with the Federation is very good and we are trying to find solutions,” he said.
Spain were close to losing to Slovakia in the first game of the last window, but ended up locking up a spot in the EuroBasket 2025 with a window to spare. That will give Scariolo a chance to test a couple more young players.
But the question is how long can the country produce players able to lead a national team if they don’t get time with a professional team.
This must be followed over the coming years.
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