Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

Mentally battered and otherwise worked over since this morning’s 4am True Hoop live blogging, BallinEurope nevertheless wanted to post *something* with which the loyal readers might waste some time on Saturday.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, the token YouTube video highlight collection post of the day.

The Euroleague Top 10 Plays of the Week clip was again dutifully uploaded onto the ‘Tube and so runs below the break. Is Ricky in it? Yes, and Pops is, too, plus an awesome Viktor Khyrapa block that BiE *knew* would be in here as soon as it happened, awesome three-way passing work by Partizan, and Linas Kleiza creating one of the greatest highlights off a missed free throw ever.

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In German club basketball, too many foreign players are allowed; in fact, carrying eight or nine American players on a single roster certainly hurts quite a few Bundesliga teams and may be undermining most. Such an opinion is often heard these days about the free-for-all state of BBL contract rules, but rarely does a player affirm such a few … would you believe this is the view of a veteran U.S. player?

But 36-year-old Quadre Lollis, currently with EnBW Ludwigsburg, has garnered quite a lot of wisdom on the European game and the American players therein, with a CV that includes stints with Vanoli Soresina, AEK Athens, ALBA Berlin, Fenerbahce Ülker, Galatasaray, Oyak Renault Bursa, Oostende and now Ludwigsburg, after his NCAA career with Montana State University.

In an interview with Germany-based Basketball Akademie, Lollis advances just such an opinion, even going so far as to say that the success enjoyed in the 2008-09 season by Alba Berlin (of which Lollis was a member) was due to the *few* American players filling its roster.

Lollis goes on to expound on the proliferation of Americans in the German league, attitude versus experience, the European game in the last decade, and the origin of his (sort of) Spanish name.

Click here to download the interview with Quadre Lollis in MP3 file format.

Thanks to Christophe of European Prospects for the tip!

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One country that did not hold a national cup tournament last weekend was Germany; thanks to a Sunday draw, however, we now know the pairings for the upcoming Beko Basketball League Cup semifinals.

Based on the draw held in Frankfurt, quarterfinal pairings will feature Brose Baskets Bamberg vs. BG Göttingen and Deutsche Bank Skyliners vs. Eisbären Bremerhaven. The Beko BBL Cup will be held in Frankfurt on April 10th and 11th.

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You want to give her a Valentine’s Day gift she’ll always remember? Here’s an idea: Spring for the entire grandstand and stadium offices of the Bundesliga Basketball League’s now-defunct Köln 99ers. Forget the dining-room set: These leftovers from Cologne’s hoops team include 3,100 seats and a bonus platform tower (“for technology and media,” we’re told). Bidding starts at just €150,000 on eBay.

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The BBL held their All-Star Game festivities over the weekend. In the showcase game, the South overcame the North behind MVP Chris Ensminger of Telecom Baskets Bonn, who … ah, I hear ya: Get to the dunk contest.

Right, then. A couple of videos of high-flying jams to show you, then.

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Staiger comes home

When the Iowa State University Cyclones fell to the Texas Tech Red Raiders last night, 78-71, the biggest presence may well have been the missing one, namely German guard Lucca Staiger. Staiger had been ISU’s third-high scorer this season at 9.4 points per game to go with a 42.5 percent three-point shooting rate and even put the finishing touches on an ISU win Sunday night, but suddenly left the team on Tuesday to play for Alba Berlin.

“An opportunity to play professionally in my home country has come my way and I’ve decided to pursue it right away,” said Staiger via ISU-issued statement.

Local press, teammates and coach Greg McDermott were stunned by Staiger’s decision, one the player explained by saying “I came to the United States with the hope of playing professional basketball in the NBA. After the past couple of seasons in college, I’ve realized that dream has become less likely…”

McDermott theorized that “A lot of it has to do with the timing and the fact that Lucca didn’t feel comfortable enough to share his feelings with us as coaches or even some of his friends that are his teammates.”

The Alba Berlin front office has yet to officially announce the addition of Staiger to the club or its active roster.

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Congratulations go out this morning to Germany, Russia, Lithuania and – whoa, really? – Lebanon, for their bestowal of a “wild card” bid to the 2010 FIBA World Championship by the organization’s central board.

The draw for placement into pools will be upon on Wednesday. Official FIBA press release follows.

(FIBA) — During today’s meeting of the FIBA Central Board – the highest executive body of the International Basketball Federation – the following teams were awarded wild card entries to next year’s FIBA World Championship in Turkey:
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Buy me a drink, baby...?

How do you say, “You have the right to remain silent” in German…?

Now that Dennis Rodman has enlisted with the “Legends of Basketball” organization and its touring team, the Worm is up to his old party-master tricks – only this time, he’s doing it on an international level.

The good ol’ gossipmongers over at TMZ.com report that Rodman was arrested by police yesterday upon attempting to leave the hotel in Trier, Germany, where he’d also attempted to leave a room-service tab of some €3,400 (approximately $5,100), accrued mostly in alcohol form.

TMZ quoted Rodman’s agent Darren Prince as stating (though no indication as to level of irony employed) that the bill will be disputed because “reps from the event told them ‘incidentals would be taken care of.’” Which is to state that Tennis Ball Head will be paying for his frivolity, albeit under the international media radar.

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Germany’s basketball fans got an unofficial boost yesterday, thanks to a column from ESPN’s Marc Stein which had Dirk Nowitzki declaring his career with Team Germany not yet over while speculating on a reunion with Chris Kaman in 2010.

The former twosome met in Saturday’s Los Angeles Clippers-Dallas Mavericks game, a matchup that was worthy of little attention outside the future implications for the German national team, particularly with the team seemingly in line for a “wild card” spot to be handed out for the 2010 FIBA World Championships.

Stein opines that Germany is in the mix for a FIBA wild card, along with Russia, Lithuania, and “Great Britain – home team for the 2012 Olympics and a fast-improving hoops nation led by Chicago’s Luol Deng” and that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has promised that “discussion about Nowitzki returning to the national team would be reopened as long as he took ‘a year off.’”

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For the past two off-seasons, management at EWE Baskets Oldenburg has concentrated on continuity within the team, keeping down the number of players leaving and entering the team. And coach Predrag Krunic hopes that continuity can help his team overcome the lack of Euroleague experience to challenge in Europe’s best league.

A handful of players have some Eurocup experience, but point guard Jason Gardner is the only player on Krunic’s squad who has appeared in the Euroleague, playing two games for Krka Novo Mesto during the 2003-04 season.

However, Krunic kept the main core of his team from last season, which won Oldenburg’s first-ever German league championship. Back from that historic squad are Gardner, Rickey Paulding, Jasmin Perkovic, Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje and Je’Kel Foster, as well as Milan Majstorovic and Marko Scekic. The only departures were Miladin Pekovic and Gerald Wallace, with Josh Carter and Acha Njei as the only two acquisitions.

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