Exciting Prospects for Finland’s WU18 Basketball Team

Not often that I have looked at a team in the Finnish youth squads and thought to myself that this is going to be a team that has some expectations before they have even played any games.

The Finnish WU18 national team is going to be a special team, or at least it should be a special team. Why?? You ask…

Roster for the WU18 team will be compiled from players who in 2024 were in the WU16 and WU17 teams, out of which the WU16 team won the WU16 EuroBasket A-division and are the FIRST ever European Champions for Finnish basketball. WU17 team also made history by becoming the first women’s team to reach the FIBA World Cup.

So coach Hänninen has the enviable task of selecting the 12 player roster for this summers European Championships A-division from a pool of players who are either European Champions OR World Cup eight place finishers (some players are both!).

Having said all that – at the Baltic Sea Basketball Cup 2025 there was a player who had not yet played for the U16 or U18 National Teams (Sini Luukkonen), which goes to show that even from outside the two strong rosters, you have a chance to make the team!

At this age group it always feel a little wrong to lift any specific players up, with players still being relatively young – but somehow you feel that once you reach the U18 level .. you are already making a name for yourself.

But just looking at last years teams, the amount of players who from those teams are already playing at the Women’s Korisliiga (top level in Finland) is quite amazing, and so many of them are contributing BIG time for their respective teams .. just mentioning few examples.

Last year at the U17 World Cup both Erika Mace and Nicole Ogun were putting big numbers on the stats and this season when they are both fit and playing for their club team EBT in Naisten Korisliiga – the team tends to do rather well, just last week beating EuroCup team Peli-Karhut.

Then you have the Helsinki Basketball Academy – coached by Hänninen who is the WU18 coach as well. And you could list a whole lot of players who are making strides and improving all the time, with players like Tiia Talonen, Nea Schreck, Jessi Nenonen … the list could go on and on.

Schreck is one of the fastest players I’ve seen in a while in Finland shirt, not many defenders keep up with her when she gets the ball or moves without it. Or take Tiia Talonen – doesn’t matter how small the gap between defenders – Talonen will squeeze through the gap and is not afraid to take hits and bumps when driving to the basket.

In 2024 Finland finished 8th at the U18 Women’s EuroBasket – a position that SHOULD have been higher as the team did not have their best game in the quarter-finals where Serbia snatched the win. Looking ahead to the 2025 edition of the tournament – I am expecting Finland to challenge for medals at the tournament (no pressure there girls!!).

Just looking at the senior National Team ( Susiladies ) and the youth prospects coming up, it has a feel of something special starting for women’s basketball in Finland. Of course there is still a long way to go from U16 and U18 level to becoming a seasoned pro-player in top European leagues – but the young players of today have players like Awak Kuier, Linda-Lotta Lehtoranta, Sara Bejedi, Elina Aarnisalo, Lotta-Maj Lahtinen, Elsa Lemmilä, Helmi Tulonen … and many more to look up to and see what is possible.

Finland will host the 2027 Women’s EuroBasket (group stage) in Espoo, and where as the U18 players will ‘only’ be 20 years old then, there are some names that will definitely make a push for the roster in the home games!

One just hopes that the spark and dedication to play basketball professionally will remain with these players and they keep on developing and getting the opportunities in Finland (and abroad) to improve their game and basketball IQ .. if so, look forward to Finland making waves soon at the EuroBasket Women!

But first – let’s enjoy the coming summer and IF / WHEN Finland WU18 play any warm-up games in Finland.. I sincerely hope fans will find their way to watch the games.. you will see future EuroLeague Women players there for sure and you can write this down :

Finland WU18 team WILL bring a medal back from EuroBasket!!

Opinions and thoughts – as always are my own, I only shoot the game of basketball through my cameras, I am no coach, scout or have any knowledge of the finer points of the game. I just call it as I see it .. sometimes I get it right, often I get it wrong.