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Dario Saric (photo by Nike Basketball)

European phenom Dario Saric seems more than eager to make his 2nd consecutive Nike Hoop Summit appearance.

Last year, in the 15th annual edition of Nike Hoop Summit Saric contributed seven points and six rebounds in the World Team’s 92-80 loss to the Team USA junior selection.

The game will take place on Saturday, April 7th 2012 in Portland, Oregon. Saric is 12th Croatian player ever to be selected to participate for World selection.

Recently, Saric got a modest chance to demonstrate his overall improvement while trying to help struggling Zagreb CO (3-2) in Croatian A1 League Championship.

In the last four outings Saric posted 7.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 47.8% from the field in 22 minutes per game.

With 3 games left in the Group C action of 2011 EuroBasket reality has changed overnight for 1-1 Croatian NT. It’s leading 1-on-1 defensive patch and a glue guy Marko Tomas suffered hamstring injury and is now on his way back home to Croatia. Team now faces many burning questions before it’s vital Group C encounter with very good Montenegrian team led by PG Omar Cook.

Tomas has been vital part of Croatian NT rotation on 3 spot, which is the most thin part of the team’s depth chart. Except Tomas, this position is covered by high-scoring but relatively inexperienced G/F Bojan Bogdanovic and F Damir Markota who has piled up most of the minutes on PF spot because of his ability (and other’s inability) to launch outside shot whenever needed.

Bogdanovic has been on a hot streak lately hitting 9-12 threes (75%) in the first two games. In contrast to BB the rest of the team hit only 10-32 threes (31%).

That makes 6’8” Rudez logical solution for Croatia in this given situation. Rudez had a very good season for Cedevita Zagreb both in Adriatic League and Euro Cup. He is a sharpshooting specialist who can bury any opponent when he is on a hot streak and is the best supplement to the Croatian NT starting PG Dontaye Draper considering the fact they had played together whole season long.

The fact that makes Vrankovic not accounting for Rudez is that he hasn’t played much in the preparation cycle, that his shot selection is sometimes questionable and he is potential defensive liability. But on the bright size Rudez has size & speed to battle with any given player out there and  should take off some of the burden from Bojan Bogdanovic’s shoulders.

Even before Vrankovic faces the questions about not bringing such versatile forwards like Hrvoje Peric & Tomislav Zubcic, he should ask his staff which is the ONLY logical solution to sort out this arising problem in his rotation. The worst possible solution for Vrankovic would be to consider giving up even more size and to go with a small line-up featuring backcourt duet of Draper and Popovic.

In his FIRST EVER visit to the legendary NY Rucker Park OKC Thunder forward Kevin Durant has recorded an unbelievable 66-point performance.

This video sequence shows his 4 straight three pointers – after the last three which he made Durant scored his 56 point of the game. KD perfomed in Nike Zoom KD III “Redskins” shoes.

Dario Saric, Croatian U19 NT (photo by Nike Basketball)

Zagreb CO European phenom F Dario Saric (1994/6’9”/207cm) was not able to perform for Croatian U19 NT at the recent 2011 Adidas Eurocamp since he is under endorsement deal with Nike, which is Adidas major competitor in the world market.

Not only that he was not able to suit up and showcase his unique talent in front of numerous NBA executives in Treviso, but there is also a probability that he will not be able to play for Croatia in the upcoming U19 European Championship in Latvia (June 30th – July 11th).

Croatian Basketball Federation (CBF) has a valid sponsorship agreement with Adidas which helps to suit up 300+ players in the various age categories. This deal reportedly annually contributes around 300000 Euros to Croatian Basketball Federation (CBF) budget.

It seems that there was little/no effort done by Adidas/Nike/CBF to clear out the situation with Nike. Dario Saric was very disappointed (source: Jutarnji List/Gordan Gabrovec): “On Sunday, after consultations, I have decided that it is in my best interest not to play in the Tournament.”

FILIP CVJETICANIN (photo by: fgcuathletics.com)

Newly-appointed Florida Gulf Coast University head coach Andy Enfield has announced that that Croatian forward Filip Cvjeticanin (Croatia/American School of Madrid) has signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) to join the Eagles next season.

Cvjeticanin’s father Danko was a great complementary guard to the legendary Drazen Petrovic while playing for Cibona Zagreb and has later become a prominent international scout for Philadelphia 76ers and most recently New Jersey Nets.

Although 6’9” Cvjeticanin could be considered “the late bloomer” he should be able to provide some formidable help to Eagles with his outside shooting skills, size and overall skill set.