The only pick I will try today is Italia to win against Israel. I just feel than 1.70 is too high price for Italy win taking into consideration that Italy won against Israel by almost 30 points 2 years ago at U-18 championship. Also Israel will play without O.Caspi who is a leader of this age and according to isralian coach they are not setting their goals high.
According to Haaretz.com portal Isralian national U-20 team came to Latvia not in best conditions. The Israeli youth national basketball team today will play its first game in the European championship in Latvia without perhaps the country's biggest talent, Omri Casspi.
The 20-year-old small forward, who plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv during the regular season, is playing for the senior national team in what is considered a departure from the Israeli Basketball Association's policy. The Association usually keeps players eligible for the youth team out of the senior team.
"Our aim is to prepare players for the senior team," said Yoram Harush, the coach of the national youth squad. "We wanted Omri to be on both the youth team and the senior team, but because of the season he's had at Maccabi and because he was at an NBA training camp he said he wanted the summer to improve. There's no point in making him play on both teams."
Casspi said he let the Association decide which team would get him. "I told them I want to play on only one team this summer, and I let them pick," he said.
But the Association's decision to award Casspi to the senior team under coach Zvika Sherf may cost the youth team dearly. The roster is made up of players born in 1988 and 1989, years that produced only a few talents such as Gal Makel and Sean Daniel. As always, the Israeli team is rather weak in the paint and its players lack league experience.
"We suffer from a physical and athletic inferiority so we have to rely on other things that the Israeli team is good at like tenacity and skill," assistant coach Ariel Beit Halehmi said. He added: "We have talents - only they lack experience. This team has premier-league-caliber players, and it's their chance to prove themselves."
But key player Gal Makel remains optimistic, claiming that this year's team is hungrier to succeed and prove itself than in previous years. "It may seem on the outside that we're less talented, but there were many talented teams that did nothing," Makel argues.
If one looks at the team's record in its practice games, however, then Makel's optimism seems rather misplaced. It did score some successes at a practice tournament in Italy when it beat Italy and Russia, but it went on to lose to Germany. It defeated Ukraine in the first of a three-game series, but lost the next two encounters. At a tournament in Turkey the Israeli youth squad received a thumping when it lost to the locals as well as to Germany, again, and to Romania.
No doubt, the Israeli team faces a real challenge at the tournament. If it is to remain in Europe's top tier it must finish among the top three in its group that includes Italy, its opponents today, Georgia and Turkey. "We shouldn't be afraid of dropping to the second tier," Harush said. "We know we won't be in the top tier forever."
I don't expect easy match for Italia but I expected to see at least -4.5 handicap here. I predict 6-10 points win by Italy.
Pick: Italy to win @ 1.76 PinnacleSports 
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