Young and Spanish, the next MVP of the EBA League

The 2020/21 season of the EBA League was made to wait, but it has done so with great intensity. 127 teams, more than 1,300 players … and a start in which national players stand out, many of them very young. We review the most valued players of the first days.

COMMUNICATION AREA FEB

It is difficult to compare teams from Conference E, with up to 11 games played, with other clubs from Conference C, which have only played four rounds. But among the common characteristics at this start of the season we find a growth in the prominence of the young Spanish player compared to previous years.

The increase in teams to 127, the economic bonuses for training player licenses and the work of the quarry clubs are some of the causes of this Spanish leadership. If we draw up the list of the 15 most valued players today, we find 12 of them of Spanish nationality, including the first two. In recent seasons the MVP has had an American flavor with Ernest Maize in the past, and Willie Williams in the previous two.

In terms of age, the youth of most of the outstanding players is striking. 11 of the 15 are 25 or younger. Of them, 7 are under 22 and four (Pablo González Longarela, Millán Jiménez, Álvaro Martínez and Alberto Alonso) have not yet reached 20. The average age of this top 15 remains at 23.5.

The quality of the quarries of big clubs that compete in Liga EBA has a lot to do with this. Pablo González Longarela He is shining with the Movistar Estudiantes jersey, breaking this week the valuation cap of all FEB competitions this season with 54. Millán Jiménez he does the same with Valencia BC the weeks that Jaume Ponsarnau does not summon him with the first team. And in the top 15 appear names like those of Alvaro Martinez (quarry of Casademont Zaragoza) and Alberto alonso (San Pablo Bugos quarry), all of them under 20 years of age.

The four of them represent many juniors who are completing their training with many minutes of play in the competition, in addition to starting to combine them with training with the first team and even a few minutes in Liga Endesa ACB. Names that will surely be heard in the coming years in higher categories.

This top 15 classification is led by another different profile, which makes clear the diversity of the EBA League. Jordi Juanola (UE Mataró Germans Homs) is a ‘one club player’ who has not gone through the quarry of any big club and who has exploded at 22 years old averaging 24.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Nor is it a common profile Borja Pascual (FC Martinenc), a veteran player who has made his career in EBA and Copa Catalunya.

There is also another profile, that they are middle-aged players with experience in top competitions. There we frame Javier González de Terry (Enrique Soler CAM), Alvaro Lobo (CB Fuenlabrada) or Arturo Fernandez (La Nucia Lucentum Foundation) or Carlos Cerdan (Paternal NB). Another different profile is that of Andreu Adrover, who had not played in the national category for several years and is surprising in the AEA Solidaria Llucmajor, averaging 16.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists. His teammate, Alberto Maura (22 years old) is also emerging after overcoming several serious injuries.

And in the section of foreign players, only three of them enter this provisional top 15. The first is Zach Overwater (Pinta CB Es Castell), who at 24 has changed Vic for the Balearic Islands in his second season after his university journey. Morten Bulow (CB Valls Optiques Teixidó) is a 21-year-old Danish power forward who comes from the Swedish league and is showing a lot of talent. And finally And Sherman (CB Solares) is a 28-year-old American center who has already played in LEB leagues and who returns to Spain after a few years in Germany and Italy.

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