It’s a little hard to say, exactly, because the circumstances and style are so different. The play is much sloppier overall with far fewer sets because there isn’t time to install a team offense, really. That leads to a lot of iso-ball. One of the things I liked about both Bal and Ensminger is that they largely resisted defaulting to one-on-one iso possessions when the ball was in their hands. Plus, there were pretty big talent gaps between teams with France dominating most of their competition.
But I think I would say that the talent is somewhat comparable to the WCC or a little below. Most of the guys playing are not playing college ball in the US but the few that are generally role players on high major or decent mid-major squads (remember that the players are all under 20 y/o, so these are largely sophomores or younger).
For example, France’s best players were Kamardine, who’s a role player for a French pro team; Traore, who was a very fringe–and ultimately undrafted–NBA Draft prospect (partly b/c he got attention playing on the same team with Wembanyama and Coulibaly); Raynaud, who is a solid starter on a pretty mediocre Stanford squad; and our own Adama Bal, who was good enough to get some run at Arizona and is just waiting to break out.
Among the best players on Ensminger’s Germany squad, Michael Rataj had a pretty good frosh season at Oregon State and made 16 starts, and Benjamin Schroeder just barely made the floor in his first season at Oklahoma.
So I think the players are seeing roughly WCC-level talent and athleticism but the lack of practice time together and coaching and the propensity of players to just call their own number on offense all make big conclusions pretty limited.
Adama Bal’s France won the U20 tournament, pretty much dominating the competition with little exception. Kamardine and Stanford’s Raynaud were the big scorers in this one. Bal contributed 9 pts on 3/8 shooting, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal with 2 TOs.
Ensminger’s Germany team took 6th in the competition, barely losing to Serbia in the 5/6 game. He finished with only 2 points on 1/4 shooting, but grabbed 8 boards and dished out 6 assists against only 1 TO.
Bal finishes with averages of 11.7 pts, 3.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.3 steals per game on an average of 21 minutes of playing time. He shot 53% from the field and 37% from the arc, but he only made 61% of his free throws (not good for a guard). He had an assist/TO ratio of 1.4. My impression of Bal remains that the ceiling is extremely high but that he needs to fill out his game past his potent offensive weapons.
Ensminger finishes with 5.3 pts, 5.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on 23 min of average play. His scoring efficiency needs a lot of work, shooting just 37.8% overall, largely due to going 1/9 from the arc. That’s a limited sample size and hopefully unrepresentative. Because otherwise, he proved to be one of the most reliable point guards in the tournament. His assist/TO ratio of 2.4 was third among all players who averaged 3 or more assists per game. He also led Germany in rebounds from the point guard position (sounds familiar…) My final thought on Ensminger is that he will probably need to be eased into D1 basketball a bit but that the fundamental strengths should translate fairly well. I’m a bit suspicious about PPG and steals necessarily translating from this tournament because of the style of play. But, as 92 and others have said, rebounding is largely about effort and instinct. Assists require good court vision. I think Ensminger can become serviceable at scoring with more experience. He doesn’t strike me as having superstar potential, but his floor is quite high, I think.
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Caffaro is playing for the Argentine national team in the qualifying tournament for the final open spot in the FIBA World Cup. The team is in Europe right now playing four friendly matches before the qualifier tournament begins in mid-August.
They played the Catalonian team yesterday. Caffaro played 15 min and hit all of his shots and free throws for a total of 9 pts. He added 4 boards and 1 assist. Argentina won a pretty close one in the end.
Big conclusions are hard to draw with these international tournaments. But I’ll keep an eye out for more updates on Caffaro over the next few weeks.
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Someone made a highlight video of Adama Bal at the FIBA U20 tournament. It will give you an appreciation for his potential and athleticism. His best move of the whole tournament, in my opinion, is at the 59 second mark.
Also, Francisco Caffaro’s Argentine national team was bounced in the final of the Olympic qualifiers by the Bahamas. Caffaro got good run: he played about 21 minutes a game, averaging 9.5 pts on 65% shooting. He pulled in 4.8 boards in that time and averaged a little less than a block per game. He was a little prone to fouling with 3.5 fouls picked up each game.
It’s notable, though, that the competition at the Olympic qualifiers was quite high level. The winning Bahamanian team started both Deandre Ayton and Eric Gordon. Caffaro started for Team Argentina, which came within 7 points of winning the tournament. Take from that what you will.
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Jake Ensminger also had a very respectable showing at FIBA–great ball handling, assists, and rebounds with some scoring.
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I agree. I think Ensminger’s physical mismatch as a 6’9" point guard who rebounds and pass-first mentality will be a huge asset. It will be very different from Benjamin and Knapper who are both undersized and quick and allows for some diversity in the approaches that Sendek can take.
Sendek has really loved height without going fully into “positionless basketball.” A lineup with Ensminger at the point could potentially leave a guy like Tyeree Bryan at 6’5" the shortest player on the floor. Looking at the roster, only Benjamin, Knapper, and Hammond are listed below 6’4".
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Here’s an Ensminger highlight vid from the FIBA tournament. There’s a great drive and bucket at the 30 second mark and a pretty impressive assist that Jake could only make by being able to see over the defender at roughly 58 secs.
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