BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Now running over at Germany-based heinnews is episode three in the “Taking the Charge” podcast series. In this gabfest, David Hein and yours truly feature an interview with Dana Beszczynski, a key behind-the-scenes player in two sports: The expatriate is involved in the youth program of Austrian Bundesliga team Allianz Swans Gmuden and heads up umpire training and baseball organization throughout the Continent – all in all, quite an interesting figure.

Other topics under the microscope include:

● Euroleague qualifiers – and another BallinEurope jinx handed to Unics Kazan;

● Kobe Bryant’s much-ballyhooed “It’s my team” comments; and

● possible fallout from Bayern Munich’s sacking of Dirk Bauermann.

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With just a few games left in Austria’s championship series, the ever reliable and enthusiastic David Hein contributes another report on progress in the Österreich finals. The focus: (Literally) red-hot Dan Oppland, who notched his second straight game of 22/20 for Allianz Swans Gmunden – and added a crazy 10 steals.

Dan Oppland registered a triple-double to lead Allianz Swans to a 77-68 victory at home over Xion Dukes Klosterneuburg and even their Admiral Austrian Bundesliga Finals series at 1-1.

Just four days after collecting 22 points and 20 rebounds in Swans’ Game One loss, Oppland somehow topped his performance with 22 points, 20 rebounds, 10 steals and five assists for a 48 efficiency ranking – all this despite missing practice due to a high fever.

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While BallinEurope continues slacking after the squall of 17 games in four days that was the 2012 Euroleague Final Four and Nike International Junior Tournament – Istanbul is awesome, by the way – Germany-based David Hein jumped right back into the grind as domestic leagues throughout Europe march on into their own championship tournaments. Below runs a brief look at what’s happening the Österreich Bundesliga; BiE’ll get back to proper basketball business soon. Okay, in a couple of days…

Damir Zeleznik nailed a three-pointer with 27 seconds left as Xion Dukes Klosterneuburg completed a miracle comeback for the 78-77 victory over Allianz Swans Gmunden to steal Game One on the road of the Austrian Admiral Basketball Bundesliga championship series.

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Bobb, the Duke of Clutch

Xion Dukes Klosterneuburg reached the finals of the Austrian Admiral Basketball Bundesliga for the first time in 22 years as the nine-time champions roared back to beat ECE Bulls Kapfenberg, 98-90, to clinch their semifinals series 3-1 and set up a finals date with Allianz Swans Gmunden.

Trailing 87-80 on the road with just over four minutes left, Curtis Bobb nailed a three-pointer to start an 18-3 Dukes run and put Klosterneuburg back in the finals.

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Four teams remain in the Austrian basketball playoffs and BallinEurope contributing writer David Hein is paying close attention, giving us another roundup of recent action there.

Top-seeded Allianz Swans Gmunden roared back from a double-digit third quarter deficit to beat WBC Raiffeisen Wels in overtime in Game One to defend home court in the Austrian Admiral Basketball Bundesliga semifinal playoffs while ECE Bulls Kapfenberg stole home court advantage by beating Xion Dukes Klosterneuberg.

Morris Curry stayed red hot, scoring 31 points – including two free throws with three seconds left – and Dan Oppland collected 21 points and 19 rebounds as Gmunden beat fourth-seeded Wels 87-84 in overtime.

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With one eye on German basketball and another on European hoops in general, BallinEurope supposes David Hein is keeping his third eye viewing the happening in Austria’s Admiral Basketball Bundesliga. Today, the heinnews.com guy updates us on the playoffs over there which, despite some shocks in the tournament’s early going, has settled down a bit…

Despite the lowest three seeds all stealing home court advantage in the first round of the Austrian Admiral Basketball Bundesliga playoffs, the top four seeded teams all overcame surprises to book their spots in the semifinals.

Top seeded Allianz Swans Gmunden and No. 3 ECE Bulls Kapfenberg both dropped the first game in the best-of-five quarterfinals but knocked off BC Vienna and UBC Carefuel Güssing Knights, respectively, both winning in four games, 3-1.

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Farokhmanesh, Wels send Gunners home

There will be another new champion of the Admiral Austrian Basketball Bundesliga as WBC Raiffeisen Wels swept title holders Oberwart Gunners in the first round of the playoffs while the top three seeds all regained home court advantage after game one losses.

For the fifth straight year, the Austrian champion was unable to defend its crown as Gunners join Allianz Swans Gmunden in 2008, BSC Raiffeisen Fürstenfeld Panthers in 2009, Wels in 2010, and Swans again in ’11. The last repeat champion was Gmunden, who won three straight titles beginning in 2005, a run that ended Kapfenberg’s four-year run from 2001 to 2004.

Wels finished their 3-0 sweep of the fifth-seeded Gunners as Ali Farokhmanesh drained a three-pointer at the buzzer for an 83-80 win in Oberwart. Farokhmanesh, who scored a game-high 21 points including five three-pointers, knows a thing or two about big triples: It was his long ball that allowed number nine seed Northern Iowa to knock off overall number one seed Kansas in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament.

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Wow, things in the Austrian playoffs started with a lotta oddity. David Hein fills us in on a troika of upsets in Bundesliga play…

The first round of the Austrian Admiral Basketball Bundesliga playoffs tipped off in thrilling fashion with the lowest three seeds UBC Carefuel Güssing, BSC Raiffeisen Fürstenfeld Panthers and BC Vienna all stealing home-court advantage while defending champions Oberwart Gunners lost their opener at WBC Raiffeisen Wels.

Stjepan Stazic’s three-pointer with two seconds left gave Vienna a 77-76 game one win yesterday against top seeded regular season champions and 2011 finalists Allianz Swans Gmunden, who failed to hold a 14-point lead with 12 minutes to play.

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In Austria today will be held what is certainly Europe’s latest all-star festivities; indeed, the Bundesliga playoffs begin on Sunday. BallinEurope contributing writer David Hein updates us on the playoff picture and well as a rundown on all-star event participants.

The 2011 finalists Allianz Swans Gmunden have secured home-court advantage over the course of the Austrian Admiral Bundesliga playoffs while defending champions Oberwart Gunners must steal a road game in their best-of-five showdown with fourth-seeded WBC Raiffeisen Wels.

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Probably the tightest race in European basketball as domestic leagues head into the stretch in approaching tournament time is that of the Austrian Bundesliga. Checking in with an update on recent happenings there is David Hein…

With four game days left in the season, nothing is decided in the Austrian Admiral Basketball Bundesliga as three games separate the top five teams. Both Allianz Swans Gmunden and Ece Bulls Kapfenberg have put together winning streaks at just the right moment while Xion Dukes Klosterneuberg cannot get out of their freefall.

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