The Ultimate FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 Review - everything you need is here
If you missed anything about the FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 - from the build-up to the action to the awards - we have you covered. This is the ultimate review of the 17th FIBA U19 World Cup.
The FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 is over … United States hoisted the trophy in Lausanne with a group of players who called themselves the Redeem Team after the Americans failed to even finish on the podium in the 2023 edition.
The Americans were too much for Germany, who had already made history by reaching their first Final but lost 109-76. Slovenia knocked off New Zealand 91-87 in the Third Place Game for their first medal.
Before Lausanne gets stored in our memory banks for good, here is a look back at the tournament in Switzerland. If you missed anything about the FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 - from the build-up to the action to the awards - we have you covered. This is the ultimate review of the 17th FIBA U19 World Cup.
And just like that, it was over. The confetti has rained down on the new champions and months and months of scouting, researching, prepping articles and features, contacting federations and coaches and trying to figure out rosters was all behind you.
We got the much-anticipated dream Final that most of the basketball world wanted - USA vs Germany. But the Americans ended up making it a blowout with a 109-76 victory for the country’s ninth FIBA U19 World Cup crown.
Just like the tournament was over out of the blue … so was the Final. USA put together a 22-2 run early in the second half to blow the game open and end all hopes for the Germans. Just reaching the Final was already history-making for Germany, who had never claimed a medal at a FIBA U19 World Cup - having finished fourth in 1987 and fifth in 1983 and 2017. The Germans were also on a high after bringing back nearly the entire team that had won the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024 - the country’s first-ever youth continental title.
Let’s go back
But before we get too much further into the Final, let’s go back.
The first article TTC’s David Hein wrote for the FIBA U19 World Cup event site was written on January 29, 2025. Taking The Charge did a (Way Too Early) Power Rankings well before that with the predictions coming right after the final qualifying tournament had been completed in September 2024.
Over the course of the build-up - and during the tournament - TTC’s David Hein wrote a series of player features for the event’s website.
Player profiles
Germany’s Christian Anderson
Argentina’s Felipe Minzer
Australia’s Jacob Furphy
France coach Ruddy Nelhomme
Cameroon’s Amadou Seini
China’s Jacob Zhu
USA’s Koa Peat
USA head coach Tommy Lloyd
State of Swiss basketball
Slovenia’s Urban Kroflic
Canada’s Aziz Olajuwon
Germany’s Hannes Steinbach
USA’s AJ Dybantsa
There were also reviews of the last five FIBA U19 World Cups: 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023
There was also a review of the All-Star Fives from the last five U19 World Cups and where they are now.
There was also a Heritage series looking at six of the amazing performances in the competition’s history:
Toni Kukoc hitting 11/12 three-pointers
Andrew Bogut’s two days for the ages in 2003
Jonas Valanciunas being a man among boys in 2011
Nikola Jokic as an unknown in 2013
Dario Saric’s near historic 2013 tournament
Oumar Ballo leading Mali to glory
We ranked the Top 50 players in FIBA U19 World Cup history: 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1
And we allowed fans to vote for the All-Time FIBA U19 World Cup GOAT
There was also a piece named 10 reasons to get excited about the FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 as we got people interested in the tournament.
And of course there was a ranking of the Top 20 prospects: 20-11 and 10-1
During the tournament there were also pieces written about the Players’ Workshop and the AI-driven GeniusIQ platform - the fan watching experience and how coaches can use it.
Result of draw: USA and Germany road to the Final
After the draw was made, it was not far-fetched that USA and Germany could avoid each other until the Final. All they would have to do was take first place in their respective groups.
Also of note in the draw was as close to a Group of Death as you could get with USA drawn together in Group D with Australia, France and Cameroon - one of three first-timers along with hosts Switzerland and Israel. Those last two were drawn into Group C with Dominican Republic and Jordan, making for one of the perceived weakest groups in FIBA U19 World Cup history.
Germany were teamed with Canada, Slovenia and China in Group B while Group A had Serbia as the expected favorite alongside Argentina, Mali and New Zealand.
One note of the rosters for the FIBA U19 World Cup was the heavy reliance on players who had played at last summer’s FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2024. USA’s squad had seven players who were a generation younger while New Zealand and Argentina both had five players from their U17 teams; Australia and China both brought back four players; Canada included three players from the tournament in Istanbul; France’s group had two players and Germany had one player.
The group stage featured two real upsets with Mali shocking Serbia on the opening day being the biggest surprise. It was Mali’s first victory over the European powerhouse at any competition - men or women, junior or senior level. Serbia suffered an unexpected loss a day later with a loss to Argentina.
The second day of action also included the play which will forever be remembered. The question most people around the game were asking each other was: Did you see the dunk?
For those who haven’t seen it - it’s included below - or don’t know the context: “The Dunk” in essence turned a seemingly certain historic first victory in FIBA U19 World Cup history for Cameroon - and a third real upset - into a painful-to-watch collapse.
Cameroon were leading by six points over Australia with 50 seconds and ball in hand. Amadou Seini - one of Cameroon’s biggest stars - was passed an in-bounds pass under his own basket and he rose up and dunked it home for two Australia points. The Oceanian side tied the game late in regulation and ended up winning the game in double overtime - leaving Seini to deal with giving away a team’s win.
Canada also produced a crazy turn-around against Slovenia as they were down by 17 points but ended up winning by 19 points 82-63 for a 38-point swing.
Another group highlight was Germany and Canada facing off for Group B supremacy and the Germans won 104-88.
Also in group play was just the second forfeit of a U19 World Cup game in history as Jordan decided not to play against Israel in Group C and Israel was handed a 20-0 victory. The only other forfeit in FIBA U19 World Cup history came on August 15, 1979 when USA won 2-0 after Panama failed to appear for the teams’ first game in Group B in Brazil.
Serbia’s two losses meant they would face Germany in the Round of 16 in a rematch of the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024 Final, which Germany won 93-83. The game was tight and Germany prevailed again with a 92-83 victory.
That was the marquee game by name but the most thrilling Round of 16 encounter was hosts Switzerland shocking France 86-79 - meaning Switzerland would reach the top eight in the world even though they have never played a game in the Division A of a FIBA Youth EuroBasket.
Another Round of 16 highlight was Omer Mayer pouring in a career high 33 points in Israel’s 86-82 win over Cameroon - in a showdown of FIBA U19 World Cup debutants looking for history.
And we cannot forget to mention USA’s demolish of Jordan 140-67, which set a number of records:
59 field goals made
52 two-point field goals made
31 steals
212 efficiency rating
And USA finished second all-time in these stats:
140 points - broke USA scoring record
41 assists
37 forced turnovers
USA’s win over Jordan also included Tyran Stokes becoming the first USA player - and sixth overall - to achieve a triple-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. The other triple-doubles in FIBA U19 World Cup history: Efthimios Rentzias (1995), Dario Saric (2013), Nikita Mikhailovskii (2019), Haowen Guo (2019), and John Harper Jr. (2021). Stokes also swiped 7 steals to tie for the fourth-most ever in a single game at the tournament.
The only surprise in the Quarter-Finals was how much of a game that Canada gave USA, who managed a 108-102 win.
The other teams to reach the Semi-Finals were Germany, Slovenia and New Zealand. Germany were the only team of the trio to ever reach the top four - though that came way back in 1987, ending a 38-year wait.
Classification 9-16 action did have one big milestone as Thiago Sucatzky set a new FIBA U19 World Cup record with 15 assists in Argentina’s win over Cameroon. Sucatzky said he grew up idolizing Facundo Campazzo and he was dealing like the Argentina star.
The biggest storyline of the Semi-Finals was if Slovenia or New Zealand could stop a Germany vs USA Final. And as it turns out, the answer was no. Slovenia could not get the job done with an 84-72 loss to Germany - another defeat to the Germans after losing in the opener of the tournament and the generations played in the Semi-Finals of the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024 as well - an 88-68 win for Germany.
New Zealand were no match for USA with 120-64 blowout - a new mark for the most points scored in a FIBA U19 World Cup Semi-Finals. The Americans defeated Lithuania 100-60 in the 2013 Semis and then beat Lithuania 102-67 in the 2019 Semi-Finals.
There was more history in the Classification 13-16 as Cameroon finally registered their first win, rallying from 18 points down to beat Dominican Republic 86-84 with Hermann Bel hitting a put-back with 6.2 seconds to go for his only basket of the game.
As it turned out, Thiago Sucatzky’s reign as FIBA U19 World Cup king of assists lasted less than 24 hours as China’s Yi Yang claimed the record with 17 assists in China’s 97-78 win over Jordan in 13-16 action. It was the ultimate pass-first experience as Yi scored 0 points and he also committed 0 turnovers.
Moving onto the final day of action, Canada finished fifth with a win over Australia; Israel gave the home fans some disappointment to finish the tournament with a win over Switzerland for seventh place; and Serbia did give up a 12-point lead but fought off France for ninth place in a battle of teams greatly disappointed by their performances.
Mali claimed 11th place by beating Argentina while China beat Cameroon for 13th place in a game with Sinan Huan swatting five shots to become just the fourth player to average 5.0 blocks or more in a FIBA U19 World Cup along with Victor Wembanyama (5.7 in 2021) Qi Zhou (5.4 in 2013) and Hansen Yang (5.0 in 2023). And Dominican Republic kept Jordan winless - the only team to not book a victory in Lausanne.
New Zealand and Slovenia were facing off for third place and the Junior Tall Blacks were dealt an early blow as Oscar Goodman was forced out after less than 4 minutes. Slovenia took advantage of that and used a balanced attack with Vit Hrabar and Zak Smrekar both scoring 20 points and Urban Kroflic had his best game of the tournament with 19 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks in an 91-87 win.
Slovenia had locked up their first FIBA U19 World Cup medal - and the country’s first podium in a global event. New Zealand meanwhile were once again forced to leave empty-handed. The country had finished fourth at the FIBA U17 World Cup 2024, which matched the nation’s greatest achievement from the fourth place at the FIBA World Cup 2002.
Going into the Final, the question was if Germany would be able to withstand the pressure of the amazingly-deep USA squad. German head coach Alan Ibrahimagic had relied very heavily on his starting five in the first six games.
Christian Anderson played at least 28 minutes in all six games and three times he played 33+ minutes. Jack Kayil played 27+ minutes in 5 of 6 games; Hannes Steinbach play 26+ minutes in 5 of 6 games; Declan Duru played at least 25 minutes in 5 of 6 games; and Eric Reibe was on the court 22 minutes of more in 5 of 6 games. The one chance Ibrahimagic had a chance to rest of his players was the China game.
The Americans were just an efficient bunch of stars playing their part for as long as they were needed before the next batch of talent came on the court.
Germany stuck with USA in the first half with Eric Reibe hitting some big shots and Christian Anderson doing his thing while Hannes Steinbach was able to produce as well. The Americans led 56-47.
They took control of the game with a 22-2 run early in the second half and the game was over. In the end, it was the balance of the Americans that did the trick for the 109-76 win Six USA players scored between 15 and 10 points with Morez Johnson collecting 15 points and 10 rebounds and JJ Mandaquit totalling 7 points and 6 assists.
USA’s 109 points left their average scoring total at 114.6 per game to snap the previous mark of 108.9 by the legendary Yugoslavia team from 1987, which included the likes of Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja, Vlade Divac and Sasa Djordjevic.
USA forward Koa Peat became the first player in history with three men's FIBA Youth World Cups. Peat also has hardware from the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cups 2022 and 2024.
Awards
Of course there were awards handed out. USA star AJ Dybantsa was named the Most Valuable Player and was joined on the All-Star Five by USA teammate Mikel Brown, Germans Christian Anderson and Hannes Steinbach as well as Zak Smrekar of Slovenia.
The All-Second Team included Jordan Charles of Canada, New Zealand’s Tama Isaac, Switzerland’s Dayan Nessah, Roman Siulepa of Australia and Argentina’s Tyler Kropp.
USA guard Jordan Smith Jr. was named the Best Defensive Player while Danijel Radosavljevic was award the Best Coach honor in guiding Slovenia to third place.
Other notes
Here are some general notes about the teams.
Argentina
Argentina were led by Tyler Kropp, who confirmed his great showings from last summer that he can play inside at a high level. Thiago Sucatzky definitely opened some eyes as a point guard. Felipe Minzer did not shine as expected and Ivan Prato was not really anything special.
Australia
This is a bit of what if in terms of if Rocco Zikarsky had been there and not stayed away for the NBA Draft. In his absence, Jacob Furphy was outstanding while Roman Siulepa did his bull-in-a-China-shop thing. Guys like Luke Fennell and Che Brogan had their moments but Dash Daniels just continues to disappoint. Not sure how he is a projected lottery pick in some peoples’ eyes. Too bad that Ajak Nyuon didn’t have a chance to show some of his promise from the FIBA U17 World Cup 2024.
Cameroon
Very impressed with Cameroon and it’s very unfortunate that they only won one game. Gedeon Basson is a bulldog guard - strong, compact quick and explosive. Franck Belibi was two years younger but really excelled with his physical frame at guard too. Wilf Kingue is a great frame and quickness at guard. Noe Bom plays in Germany for Dennis Schröder’s Braunschweig club and showed he can play at a high level at point guard. And Amadou Seini absolutely dominated under the glass - becoming the first player since Andrew Bogut in 2003 with three 20+ rebound games.
Canada
Jordan Charles was impressive running the show and is quick - though a bit undersized. Tristan Beckford is long and athletic and a bit slender but showed some excellent bursts. Efeosa Oliogu is must-watch with his strength and athleticism. Matthew Dann left you saying “Damn!” at times. Spencer Ahrens is really intriguing with his size and that outside shooting. Aziz Olajuwon showed glimpses of a 3-and-D game but will get better for sure. Olivier Rioux is a mountain of a man but doesn’t move that well. But Maxime Meyer makes you look forward to the FIBA U19 World Cup 2027 with some really impressive play as a 2008-born center.
China
Jacob Zhu did an adequate job at the point but is more of a scoring guard. Yi Yang dished out 17 assists in one game without a turnover - that is quite a message. Sinan Huan really showed he has some excellent rim protection. And Boyuan Zhang played at his usual high level. And Jiazheng Chen lit it up from the outside - hitting 60 percent on three-pointers.
Dominican Republic
Lucas Morillo starred for this tough gritty team, averaging 20 points and 9 rebounds from the forward position with a versatile game. Danny Carbuccia would probably be even better if he had more talent around him. Fernando De Los Santos had a strong tournament but this team just were not able to match their intensive, tough play.
France
Oh where to start. It’s disappointing to think about all the players who could have been in Lausanne for France. Marc-Owen Fodzo Dada was probably the biggest bright spot as a mostly-unknown guard coming into the tournament. Talis Soulhac could not really lead the team enough while Yohann Sissoko was able to get to the rim. Noa Kouakou-Heugue also didn’t really shine that much either.
Germany
Christian Anderson and Hannes Steinbach were just phenomenal for the runners-up - Anderson showing he can be unstoppable most times and Steinbach just a force inside. Eric Reibe had a slow start but really was outstanding as an outside weapon from the big man spot. Jack Kayil was able to get to the basket and defended well and Declan Duru really had a strong tournament at both ends. The bench wasn’t used as much as it could have been. Jordan Müller showed he can handle the point at times and Amon Dörries exhibited his versatile game as power forwards.
Israel
The question was how this team would play without Ben Saraf and Omer Mayer showed he was ready to step up in the scoring department - a strong compact good shooter who can drive. Rany Belaga was excellent all tournament in helping run the show and Ariel Sela showed he is an excellent rebounder as an undersized forward. Joul Karram showed glimpses of his potential at center.
Jordan
This was by far the weakest team in the competition. Saif Al-Deen Saleh did what he could but opposing teams could focus heavily on the big man. Rawhi Kilani was okay at the point with a 3.8 to 2.3 assist to turnover ratio against much higher level competition. And Omar Salman hit 38% on three-pointers.
Mali
Youssouf Traore nearly averaged a double-double with his excellent athleticism, length and strong frame. Sekou Bagayoko was not afraid to shoot - hitting just 2.6 of 10.6 threes per game - but he showed some immatureness that comes with being two years younger. He should be much better in two years. Ibrahim Doumbia has good size at the point but didn’t handle the ball well enough though he played good defense.
New Zealand
New Zealand could have taken third place had Oscar Goldman not gone down injured after just 3 minutes. Goodman had a solid tournament down low. Tama Isaac was the main man at the point with his strong compact frame and good basketball IQ. Hayden Jones had an excellent tournament from the wing, showing a great all-around game. Julius Halaifonua flashed glimpses of how good he could be as a 7-footer. Carter Hopoi had a solid tourament from the power forward position at both ends of the court. And Jackson Ball showed some strong confidence with the ball and shooting as a 2008-born player.
Serbia
Savo Drezgic didn’t really convince too many people he can shine at the next level. He certainly needs to work on his game. Andrej Kostic also has work to do but showed flashes of brilliance. Aleksa Dimitrijevic was basically a no-show in the paint while Valencia power forward Nikola Dzepina probably was Serbia’s best player. This is another case of what if. How much better would this team have been if Ognjen Srzentic and Pavle Backo been on board.
Slovenia
The whole is better than the sum of the parts but the parts for Slovenia were solid. Zak Smrekar was probably the breakout player of the tournament, being named to the All-Star Five with a strong versatile and all-around game. Mark Padjen showed some of his good playmaking skills and Vit Hrabar flashed what many people like in the tall wing’s game. Urban Kroflic had kind of disappointed in the tournament but stepped up biggest when it mattered most with 19 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks in the Third Place Game.
Switzerland
If you take Switzerland off the jersey and put a different, more respected basketball nation on it, more people would have expected things from this team. Switzerland really showed they are developing some talent. Dayan Nessah exhibited with his athletic strong frame the versatility that landed him at Barcelona in his younger days. Lucas Maniema the same thing with Gran Canaria. Andrin Njock is a strong forward who has some good footwork. Oliver Sassella is an excellen three-point shooter but only played five games while Dario Cokara could be the country’s point guard of the future but he only played three games. Don’t forget the strong athletic frame of Melvine Mbamen and the lengthy Klark Riethauser, who oozes potential, and Switzerland had a strong roster.
USA
Where to start. AJ Dybantsa is a superstar in the making. Besides everything he does on offense, he’s a hard worker on defense. Mikel Brown showed he can run the show and light it up from the outside. Morez Johnson was an absolute force inside as power forward - as was Koa Peat. Jordan Smith is an absolute menace guarding the ball on the perimeter while JJ Mandaquit also can lead the team and is deadly from the outside. Caleb Holt is also an emerging star who showed he can really shoot from the outside. Tyran Stokes showed he is a future superstar as well, the most impressive thing was his passing, an underappreciated trait of his.
And with that, the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 is over for me. See you in Czechia in 2027.
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