The European basketball championships are moving along and with the EuroBasket quarterfinals set to start on Wednesday, a number of high profile players will be on the court, as Marc Gasol, Tony Parker and Ricky Rubio as well as Goran Dragic will be participating in the scheduled games into the next round.
The tournament field for the quarters was set this week and now Spain, Serbia, Slovenia, France, Croatia, Ukraine, Lithuania and Italy are all through to the next round and will play games this week before the finals over the weekend. Spain and Serbia could be a very interesting matchup, as the Spanish team has stars Ricky Rubio and Marc Gasol playing.
Gasol is coming off his best season in the NBA after winning defensive player of the year and Rubio is looked at as a star in Minnesota. The Timberwolves have high expectations this season with Rubio and Kegvin Love coming back healthy and the team made a number of moves in the offseason to try and get better. The Wolves signed names like Ronny Turiaf and Corey Brewer and also traded away Luke Ridnour in a deal to get Kevin Martin and that could make the team much more exciting on offense.
The Spanish team also has Rudy Fernandez and they likely will get past Serbia, although they pulled off a nice win against France earlier in the week. Parker is leading the French team into the quarterfinals and he will be the focal point for the offense against Slovenia and their most notable player is Dragic. Parker was slowed in the upset loss, but the team had already clinched its spot and now it will get the chance to move on and it could be one of the best games of the tournament.
Thursday's games include Croatia and Ukraine going at it, while Lithuania and Italy will be the last of the group to play. That game has some notable stars as well, including Marco Belinelli and Jonas Valanciunas, who is with the Raptors. Italy defeated Spain, who are the defending champions, in overtime after a solid game and that puts Gasol and company on the rebound as they head into the quarters. Gasol had a fantastic game despite the loss, putting up 32 points and 10 rebounds and now they will move on in the quarters.
Here is the schedule for the games:
Spain vs. Serbia Wednesday, 11:30 a.m.
Slovenia vs. France Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET
Croatia vs. Ukraine Thursday, 11:45 a.m.
Lithuania vs. Italy Thursday, 3 p.m.
