American college basketball star Nick Calathes was immensely proud to represent Greece, the country of his late grandfather, at this summer's U20 European Championship in Latvia.

Calathes, who travelled to Europe following a dazzling first season with the Florida Gators, played almost 22 minutes per game for the Greeks in Riga and averaged 11.2 points, 3.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds.

"It was an honor mostly for my grandpop for me to go over there because he meant a lot to me and he would have been there in a heartbeat watching me, every game," he said to Gatorsports.com.

His grandfather, John Calathes Jr, emigrated from Greece to the United States in the early 1900s. He died in 2006 of complications following hip replacement surgery.

The national side only finished 13^th out of the 16 teams taking part in Latvia and for that reason, Calathes admitted the experience had not been as good as it might have been.

"I wish we would have done well in the championships," he said.

"I thought it was good competition. I thought our team could have done a lot better. I didn't thi

Kostas Koufos has made a good impression at Utah

nk the other teams were that much better."

The biggest challenge for Calathes in Latvia was communicating with his teammates because he doesn't speak Greek.

"To be honest with you I didn't learn that much at all," Calathes, a point guard, said.

"I learned about five words, and I learned one to 10 because that was our plays.

"Some of my teammates couldn't really speak (English) that well so I couldn't really get to them and tell them what I would like or for them to tell me what I should do, so it was tough from that part."

Koufos Makes Good Impression In Utah

The most valuable player of the 2007 FIBA Europe U18 European Championship Men was Kostas Koufos, the American-born center who is expected to play for Greece's senior national team in the near future.

Koufos could, depending on how his first season goes with the Utah Jazz, even force his way into next year's EuroBasket 2009 squad.

For now, he's working hard at making a good impression with the Utah Jazz, the team that selected him in this summer's NBA draft.

Utah coach Jerry Sloan spoke about Koufos' early efforts in the pre-season.

He told the Salt Lake Tribune: "I think he has come farther than I probably expected from where he was in summer league.

"He's picked stuff up pretty good. He's a lot more relaxed trying to do the stuff, and just played."

No decisions have been made yet but Koufos could end up playing some games for Utah's NBDL team this season, the Utah Flash.

"Whatever it is, I'm willing to work hard," Koufos said.

Greece suffered a heart-breaking defeat to Argentina in the final seconds of their Olympic quarter-final in Beijing this summer.

KK Zagreb Fall But Tomic Is MVP

Ante Tomic of KK Zagreb tasted defeat on the first weekend of the Adriatic League when his team went down 90-81 at home to Vojvodina.

But the Croatian center was recognized for his strong performance by being named MVP of Week 1 in the competition.

Tomic, who helped Zagreb reach the quarter-finals of the EuroCup last season and will lead them in their EuroChallenge tie with BK Prostejov, had 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Zeljko Pavlicevic, the Zagreb coach, was only concerned about the game.

"No matter what, it is only the first round but it was a very important game for us," he said. "Personally I am disappointed because we can and must play better."