Jeff Taylor has been covering European basketball since 1997, when he first worked on the television program SLAM. He has been a basketball writer and broadcaster since that time, traveling the continent and covering the game in depth for FIBA Europe since its launch in 2003.

That's how I felt when I got off the plane in England from Riga and drove home on Sunday.

 I've tried to tell people what the EuroBasket Women was like but really, you had to be there.

One of the last things I remember about the tournament happened early Sunday morning after the final between France and Russia when Maris Noviks, the erstwhile Latvia journalist and lover of all things related to women's basketball, danced with the Slovakia team at the LOC party.

He should have received a gold medal for that performance.

The Slovakians had come out of nowhere to reach the Qualifying Round and then upset hosts Latvia in front of a huge Arena Riga crowd.

In the Quarter-Finals, however, they fell by two points to Belarus and then slipped up against Greece in a Classification Round game that knocked them out of the FIBA World Championship.

After another narrow defeat to Latvia in the seventh/eighth place game, I figured that would be the last I'd see of Slovakia.

Then they showed up at the LOC party.

One could argue that the Slovakians should have left Riga spitting fire and angry about missing out on the Czech Republic next year.

Life is too short, though. They needed to blow off some steam.

I'm pretty sure Slovakia's players left Latvia with smiles on their faces.

I know Evina Maltsi of Greece did, even while carrying her extremely heavy MVP trophy all the way to Athens.

She had tournament-leading averages in scoring (22.6pts), steals (3.1) and free-throw shooting percentage (90.9%).

Evina, just like Amaya Valdemoro was two years ago for Spain, was downright inspirational.

"The most important thing is that even though she is a star, she listens to the coaches like she's a rookie," said Greece coach Kostas Missas.

I remember Russia's Svetlana Abrosimova, too, having her name called after being voted to the all-tournament team.

She wasn't smiling since the honor was presented after her team's defeat to France in the final, but it did vindicate the opinion shared by most that UMMC Ekaterinburg coach Gundars Vetra had got it wrong back in April when he left Abrosimova on the bench for all 40 minutes of their EuroLeague Women Final Four clash with Spartak Moscow Region.

Alba Torrens.

Remember that name, everyone. Other than Evina, the Spaniard was the most exciting player at the EuroBasket Women.

The country of Latvia was lovely.

Riga rocked!

Italy center Marte Alexander said it best in a post-game press conference.

She said that you, Latvia, had raised the bar for women's tournaments.

There were so many great moments at the EuroBasket Women that I won't even try to name them all. There were plenty of laughs and tears by everyone there.

I'll sign off by saying to Latvia that what you did the last couple of weeks as hosts of the EuroBasket Women was a wonderful gift to international basketball and Alexander was right.

You will be one tough act to follow!