Congratulations go out from BallinEurope to VEF Riga and the Belgrade select team for taking their respective U18 and U21 brackets in the Rinus de Jong Invitational tournament recently held in the Netherlands. The squad known as “BF Belgrade” ultimately went 4-0 over three days of play, outlasting Canarias Basketball Academy in an 81-80 victory for the gold medal.
Jan
Jul
19
Mediterranean Basketball Association: To Be or Not To Be?
Does Vassilakopoulos have a secret plan?
The rumor first popped up a couple of days ago on Talk Basket and an intriguing bit of gossip it is, too. According to that website, the Hellenic Basketball Federation (EOK) and former FIBA Europe president George Vassilakopoulos are advancing the idea of a Mediterranean basketball league which would include teams from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Serbia, and Turkey.
This is an excellent idea indeed in BallinEurope’s opinion, for, as Talk Basket points out, most of the domestic leagues in the above-listed nations are dominated year in and year out by a select team or two. We’re talking perennial championship teams like Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Efes Pilsen, Fenerbahçe Ülker, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Partizan Belgrade, Montepaschi Siena and Apoel Nicosia: Franchises which would appear to have evolved beyond fair competition in their leagues.
Apr
0
Levski and Papazov win Eurohold title, lose cool after loss to Rila
Give Levski Sofia head coach Konstantin “Titi” Papazov some credit: The man doesn’t rest on his laurels for long.
Just two days after bringing home the Eurohold Balkan League title, Papazov repeated his promise to have his team go all out with four games remaining in the season – a pledge now made more meaningful and yet more futile now that Levski is three games behind Lukoil Academic.
Papazov – who stated after winning the Balkan League title that he’d be happier if he’d won the Bulgarian league championship – took the referee corps to task for his team’s loss 86-77 loss to Rila Sport. Titi essentially charged the zebras with changing the complexion of the game after handing Eurohold 2010 MVP Stefan Georgiev a technical foul late in the game.
Sep
3
Eurobasket 2009 preview capsules, part one
While counting down the days ’til Eurobasket 2009 tips off, BallinEurope.com will take a brief look at the field of 16 teams in brief. Enough said — onto today’s capsules!
Bulgaria
Group: D
In brief: The word is “plucky.” With Team Bulgaria’s one bonafide superstar, Ibrahim Jaaber, out, all the pluck in the world won’t get this undermanned team a win in a tough group.
May
0
Monday’s cigarettes
It’s playoff time throughout Europe and that’s no reason to slow down our output, but to come up with another Monday morning roundup of the most interesting stuff collected from around the web.
May
2
Pete Mickeal to be known as Petko Mihailov?
According to Spain’s leading internet basketball mag Solobasket, Tau Vitoria got Pete Mickeal a Bulgarian passport in order to sign another U.S. citizen, Gerald Fitch, as an import player to the team, as only two are allowed to play per team in Spain’s ACB (The other player would be John Lucas III.)
Sep
1
Italy back on track; Great Britain close to Poland
Belgium,Bosnia & Herzegovina,Bulgaria,Czech Republic,Eurobasket 2009,Finland,France,Italy,latest news,Turkey,UK,Ukraine
The Eurobasket 2009 qualifiers have started really poorly for coach Recalcati’s Team Italy. After four losses in the first five games, the situation was pretty bad but without going for incredible results, Italy is back in the race for Poland.
Jul
1
Monday’s cigarettes
A new week is starting and still no official competition going on. So the cigarettes are pretty short this Monday, too.
Jun
3
The 2008 National Champions
Austria,Belgium,Bosnia & Herzegovina,Bulgaria,Croatia,Cyprus,Czech Republic,Denmark,Estonia,Finland,France,Germany,Greece,Iceland,Ireland,Israel,Italy,latest news,Latvia,Lithuania,Netherlands,Poland,Portugal,Russia,Serbia,Slovenia,Spain,Sweden,Switzerland,Turkey,UK,Ukraine
BallinEurope has established a list of all National Champions in the various European leagues as they are known so far. If you have results to add or know who was named Final MVPs in a European league, feel free to add this in the comments so that we can update the list.
May
14
Balkan Basketball League to be created
Another international basketball league looks close to realization this weekend. As Bulgarianbasket.com reported a few days ago, the participating countries will meet this weekend in Sofia to establish rules and schedules for the new league.
