Mussini, Sima, back in action at FIBA U20 European Championship: how to watch

Mussini and Sima are headed to Europe - to play with their national teams.

This weekend, Federico Mussini and Yankuba Sima take time out of their training at St. John’s to star for their respective national teams in FIBA’s Under-20 Tournament. Links to how to watch and the schedule for their teams are below.

In Helsinki, Finland, each will play seven games - the first four to determine which teams fall into the winners bracket and which teams play in the losers/ consolation bracket.

Both are expected to play major minutes and likely start, with Mussini as the shot-making, ball-handling guard and Sima as a shot blocking center.

The two players will show how a year of playing and training in the NCAA for St. John’s have helped them. [See our season in review post on Yankuba Sima and on Federico Mussini.]

Both Yankuba Sima and Federico Mussini have played solidly for their national squads in the past.

Federico Mussini scored 23 points per game in 2014 in the U18 Championships. He will likely once again be paired with his backcourt mate Diego Flaccadori on a squad that will lean heavily on their shooting and passing skills.

Yankuba Sima, playing as a backup, averaged two points and three rebounds for the U20 team last summer, playing through an injury. But Sima averaged 11 points and 12 rebounds for the U18 team in 2014 (finishing with a victory over Mussini’s squad). Big things are expected of the agile and developing 6’11” center Sima, who should be fully back in shape from his time off at St. John’s with a hand injury.

The teams have played a friendly game against each other already.

The games will be available on FIBA’s YouTube channel; we will try to be on top of posting links to the games, but here is the preliminary game schedule for the first three games. The matchups in games 4-7 are determined by the standings of the first three games for each national side.

Below, the schedules for Spain and Italy with times (set to eastern time), opponent, and FIBA Rank.

For NCAA fans, note that Finland (Spain’s second opponent) has Arizona’s incoming forward Lauri Markkanen (who St. John’s was interested in while Steve Lavin was head coach); Italy takes on Belgium, a team with Colorado Buffaloes guard Thomas Akyazili (who St. John’s was interested in while Steve Lavin was head coach).

For NBA fans, Spain’s final game in their opening three contests will be against Israel, which features former Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt’s son Tamir.

Spain 2016 U20 FIBA European Championship Schedule

Group B, Ranked 8

Italy 2016 U20 FIBA European Championship Schedule

Group D, Ranked 15th

We’ll try to watch and see how the Johnnies’ imported core players handle high-level European competition.