Six prospects to watch at the Basketball Champions League Qualifiers
Six prospects to watch at the Basketball Champions League Qualifiers
The 2020-21 BCL Qualifying tournaments tip off on Monday Sept 13. Here are six youngsters to keep an eye on
For European hoops lovers, we have been watching loads of preseason games over the last couple of weeks waiting for things to get real. They will get real starting on Monday September 13 as the 2021-22 Basketball Champions League campaign tips off with the four qualifying tournaments. They will be played from September 13 to 18 in Athens, Treviso, Tallinn and Sofia. Here is a look at six youngsters (2000-born and later) who might have an impact on getting their teams into the BCL Regular Season field.
Ivan Perasovic, SF 2002 - KK Split
The 19-year-old Ivan Perasovic is starting his second season as a full-fledge member of Split’s senior team though he has already earned Prva Liga minutes for the previous four years.
Last season, the forward averaged 8.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 18 minutes per game. His season was highlighted by a 25-point, 8-rebound showing against Zabok and a 20 and 11 double-double versus Sibenik. In 17 games between mid-January and mid-May, Perasovic averaged 11.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists.
Perasovic’s father is Velimir Perasovic, who was a member of the Split team that won three straight EuroLeague titles in 1989, 1990 and 1991. Velimir Perasovic also helped Yugoslavia to the 1990 FIBA Basketball World Cup crown and the gold at the FIBA EuroBasket 1991 before taking silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics - facing the original USA Dream Team.
Ivan debuted with the Croatian national team in 2017 as a bottom level player at the FIBA U16 European Championship and he averaged 2.8 points and 3.0 rebounds as the team reached the Semi-Finals. The next summer he collected 7.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.0 steals at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018 - again a year younger than the rest of the competition. The 2018 summer also saw him break out at the FIBA U16 European Championship as he helped Croatia win the title - the country’s fourth cadet crown following 1995, 2010 and 2011. Perasovic collected 15.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 blocks, but that was not quite good enough to get a spot on the All-Star Five of the tournament as the MVP was Roko Prkacin and Boris Tisma was also on the team.
Stefan Grasu SF 2003 U-BT Cluj Napoca
Grasu is considered the next big hope for Romania basketball. The 18-year-old has already made his debut in the senior national team, playing at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers in November 2020 as well as the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Pre-Qualifiers in August 2021.
Grasu will be playing in Cluj Napoca’s pro team for the third season, having gotten minutes in eight FIBA Europe Cup games in 2019-20 and averaging 4.3 points and 1.8 rebounds in the domestic league in 2020-21, despite not turning 18 until mid-February.
Similar to Perasovic, Grasu is also a famous name in his homeland as his parents both competed for Romania at the Olympics. His mother Nicoleta Grasu was a six-time Olympian between 1992 and 2012 and won a silver medal and three bronzes in the discuss world championship while father Costel Grasu was also a discuss thrower, finishing fourth at the 1992 Olympics and also competing at the Games 1996 and 2000.
Davide Casarin, G, 2003 Nutribullet Treviso
Davide Casarin will actually be playing with Treviso on loan from Umana Reyer Venezia, who have agreed to send the 2003-born talent to the BCL qualifying team for two seasons. Casarin, who will play the whole 2021-22 season at 18, showed he can play at the highest level, averaging 5.7 points and 2.0 assists in 10 EuroCup games last season for Reyer. He also had 2.3 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 9 minutes in the Italian Serie A. The playmaker made his Serie A debut 10 days shy of his 16th birthday in 2019.
Casarin also has seen success at the youth level. He was named to the All-Tournament Team at the 2018-19 ANGT Belgrade, when he collected 18.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.0 blocks despite being two years younger than the rest of the competition. Casarin also helped Italy take third place at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2019, averaging 15.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals as Italy claimed their first U16 continental medal since 1991 and qualified for the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup for the first time since 2014. The 2020 U17 World Cup was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, robbing Casarin a chance to play on the global stage.
Casarin also has a basketball family as his father Federico Casarin played 13 seasons in Italy's top two leagues and remained active until 2017 when he was 51 years old. After retiring, Federico Casarin was appointed as Reyer club president.
Kenny Baptiste SF 2000 / Matthieu Gauzin PG 2001 Le Mans
Let’s pair this duo up for Le Mans, which showed in the 2021 preseason a willingness to see what the exciting youngsters can do. Both started three of four games with Kenny Baptiste averaging 13.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.0 steals in 25 minutes. Matthieu Gauzin collected 7.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists in about 27 minutes per game. Neither player is unknown to youth hoops fans as they both had big success for the French youth national team ranks. Baptiste was part of the underrated 2000-born generation that finished third at both the FIBA U18 European Championship 2018 and the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2019 - the latter where he shot 73.1 percent from the field in picking up 8.1 points and 4.1 rebounds. Baptiste came up in the Le Mans youth system but played in 2019-20 for Quimper in the second division ProB before collecting 5.3 points and 2.6 rebounds in the ProA back with Le Mans. Baptiste put his name in the 2021 NBA Draft but withdrew it to add more value.
Gauzin, for his part, was part of the Killian Hayes-Theo Maledon-Malcolm Cazalon France 2001-born team that historically grabbed silver at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018, contributing 8.0 points and 2.3 rebounds. He played at the FIBA U18 European Championship 2019 and collected 9.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 3.0 steals. Gauzin also played in Le Mans’ youth teams and debuted in the ProA in 2019-20. Last season he played for Chalons-Reims in the French top flight and averaged 7.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists. Now, Gauzin is back and ready to shine for his former team.
Tsvetomir Chernokojev C 2000 - Levski Lukoil
Tsvetomir Chernokojev has come back to his former club as the 21-year-old big man played for Patrioti Levice in Slovakia in 2020-21. Chernokojev will definitely fill a role in Lukoil team as he has already shown he can compete on the continental stage. Chernokojev scored 8 points and grabbed 4 rebounds for the Bulgaria senior team against Greece in the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers in November 2020. And he has dominated the youth levels, leading the FIBA U18 European Championship 2018, Division B in scoring (21.0 ppg) while being second in rebounds (11.4 rpg). And then he was tops in scoring (21.1 ppg) and rebounds (11.7 rpg) at the FIBA U20 European Championship 2019, Division B. This will be Chernokojev’s first chance to play internationally at the club level.