(sJacas)

Mega Vizura and Partizan field the youngest rosters of active players in top level European basketball. The ABA league, traditionally a hotbed for basketball prospects, maintains its status as the youngest league.

(This piece uses data from the excellent Mark Porcaro, the RealGM database and league web sites. Data is for domestic/regional leagues only.)

In weighted roster age, which accounts for individual minutes played and therefore fully accounts for players that play large minutes and ignores those who don’t play at all, the ABA League heads the list of my arbitrary list of top ten domestic European leagues, at 26.0 years.

Mega Vizura (3-4), Partizan (6-1) and CajaSol (2-3) are the somewhat expected top three youngest rosters on the continent, followed by the lesser known Leuven Bears with early season sensation Tu Holloway, who stand at a respectable 4-3 in the Ethias League.

What’s more, the fun-to-watch Frankfurt Skyliners (4-5) rank seventh, Fenerbahce (5-1), ridiculously young for a Euroleague contender, rank 12th and Manresa (2-3), with the Scandinavian Larsen/Eriksson combo, rank 15th as the second-youngest ACB team.

The list of the ten youngest players to have played minutes in said leagues this season is headed by 16-year-old Lovro Mazalin, who averaged 10.4 points and 5.7 rebounds at the under-18 Eurobasket this past summer, and 17-year-old Domantas Sabonis, son of Arvydas, who (Domantas, not Arvydas) is playing regular rotation minutes for Unicaja this season.

Not listed is 17.3 year old Marko Arapovic, who played minutes in the Eurocup this season.

The TBL leads European leagues in offensive rating (points per 100 possessions; possessions calculated with a 0.44 free throw factor here), at 109.2. The Turkish league also ranks first in three point field goal attempt to field goal attempt ratio (3PA; in percent) and three point field goal percentage.

(Data was retrieved on 16-Nov-2013. Reference date for weighted age calculation is today, 17-Nov-2013.)