From: predrag@isy.liu.se (Predrag Pucar)
Subject: Re: USA - Croatia  103: 70
Reply-To: predrag@isy.liu.se (Predrag Pucar)
Organization: Dept of EE, University of Linkoping
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 08:11:56 GMT

In article <Bs2q1B.6u8@ecf.toronto.edu>, blazic@ecf.toronto.edu (BLAZIC Joseph R) writes:
> In article <27JUL92.20895779.0048@UNBVM1.CSD.UNB.CA> George Bogavac <K2GT@UNB.CA> writes:
> >The US has won the basketball game against Croatia by
> >103:70     ( not bad, all things considered :-)
> 
> Well, Croatia has a population of only about 4.5 million.  So if we do a 
> simple linear extrapolation, they would have defeated the US quite handily
> if Croatia had the same population.  Simple, eh?  Maybe the Olympic committee
> should introduce a handicap system. :-)

There is a smiley there but even if such a system is impossible, it is
something that one should have in mind.

I saw the game and my opinion is that the Croatian team played lousy
(compared with what I've seen POP '84 play in the Eur. cups). Kukoc
and Petrovic missed simple jump-shots and lay-ups (I'm talking about the 
first half, when Croatian team still was in the game). If the Croatian
team had played as I know they can the USA would have a much tougher
game. 

The positive surpirse was Vrankovic, when I remember the games I attended
in Zadar (where he comes from) he was a clumsy guy who got five fouls
in the fifteenth minute of the first half. Now he really plays as a center
should. Five blocks in the first 10-15 minutes a lot of rebounds, fantastic.

A dissapointment was Petrovic, I think the Croatian team would gain if
he didn't play at all. In that case all the players could play and not
only him. By the way I've never liked his style.

Also Arijan Komazec is an uprising star.

I think that if what has happened didn't happened (the war) and if 
Yugoslavia was a team (that means if we could add Divac and some players 
from Partizan) I'm not sure who I would bet my money on. My opinion is 
that the myth of the vast superiority of US-basket is crushed. This might 
sound strange in the light of the subject line, but I claim that result 
is not mirroring the real situation.

> It is curious how Croatia and Lithuania, two of the smaller nations in
> the world, are rated second and third by most basketball 'experts', 
> behind the US that is.

To be realistic, it is not only the number of citizens in a country that
is important in how good a nation is a specific sport. The crusial thing
is how big tradition that sport has, here in Sweden for example there
is almost no interest in basketball, in Croatia and Yu there is a basket
in every block, and people gather and play every afternoon

> Does anyone know how many Croatian Serbs on are the Croatian basketball
> team?

This is a very tricky question, I can tell what I've heard and please
don't accuse me of being "hegemonistic". IMO who is who doesn't matter,
the main thing is to beat the so called Dream Team, and to prove that
basketball has quality here in Europe too. What I know (have heard)
Arijan Komazec is a relative to Popovic (the former player in Zadar),
and he (Arijan) is Serb, also Stojan Vrankovic I think is a Serb. How
do I know, I'm from Zadar and people know who is who in such a small
town :-(. About Drazen Petrovic I don't know, Drazen is a Croatian name 
but Petrovic is a tipical Serbian last name. His brother Aleksander 
Petrovic has a tipical Serbian first name. I think (not sure at all) 
that their father is/was a officer in JNA. I'm sure there are people
who know more then I do about this matter on the net, but I will refrain
from further discussion on who is who, it simply doesn't matter and I 
would like this to evolve to a Tesla-like discussion.

-- 
/Predrag      email: predrag@isy.liu.se