89 KK Zagreb-61 Stella Azzurra



More so than the final, this game wound up being the best setting to evaluate Zagreb's otherworldly talent, Dario Saric. In the previous games, when the whistles were somewhat questionable, Saric displayed great maturity and composure by simply playing on. In this instance, however, the referees were so egregiously one-sided that even a most-devout Buddhist monk would have been flustered; and, while Saric did complain, especially when collecting his many nonexistent traveling violations, as well as his equally nonexistent fourth and fifth fouls--which occurred midway through the third quarter with Zagreb up by twenty-two--a player whose ego matched Saric's talent would have erupted in a violent fit of anger. Encouragingly, this did not happen. Furthermore, while still in the game, Saric refused to allow the refs quick whistles to alter his attacking style-of-play. Predictably, the 6'10" point-center dominated every facet of the game. Stella, which normally shot well from all second and third levels, had their worst collective outing at the most inopportune time.





The Final: 62 KK Zagreb-52 Fenerbahce



Dario Saric, dominant.

The Croat, who would be just a high school senior in the States, played the

entire game being Zagreb's primary ball-handler, distributor, shot-creator,

rebounder, interior defender, and fast-break igniter. Despite being exhausted in

the fourth quarter, he still gave a tremendous all-round effort, showing both

the intangibles and the skill that could make him a star at the European and

potentially NBA-level.



Istanbul's James Birsen, on the other hand, did not

display Saric's same attacking mentality, settling for jumpers, including eight

threes, while connecting on just one. While he does not posses Saric's

quickness, he still had the agility and, especially, the intelligence to have

been able to exploit Zagreb's zone defenses, where he could have taken short

mid-range jumpers, instead of misfiring from long-range. He did, however,

display good instincts on defense, guarding Saric fairly well when assigned to

him, and collecting six steals and ten rebounds. While a humble and intelligent

player, Birsen could take his game to the next level by being more aggressive,

especially at the end of games. Fener was down just two points going into the

fourth, and Birsen did not take over. Since he's just sixteen--and two months

younger than Canadian Andrew Wiggins--he has time to develop a greater

propensity to dominate