Ball in Europe – 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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Pops!

Apparently, however, no one told the Muscovite home crowd, who were as stoked for this contest as any game that truly “counts.” And one CSKA player in particular didn’t get the memo.

The highlight clip runs below the break. Some nice shock-and-awe moments to look out for include an awesome block by Viktor Khryapa at 0.30 or so to stifle a fast-break opportunity and Travis Watson’s open JAM for one of Kaunas’ last gasps at 0.54, but the show was stolen by that guy wearing only POPS on his jersey’s back: See the sweet alley oop finished off at about 1.08, Mensah-Bonsu throwing it down again just (YouTube-measured) a few seconds later, and the serious poster shot on the breakaway at about 2.03. Oh, and a “not in my дом” block at about 2.23.

Final score: CSKA 84, Zalgiris 71. Mensah-Bonsu’s final line: 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, eight rebounds and an index ranking of 23. And onto the final eight marches the Red Army…

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Nice of the Euroleague to stack up nearly every game in the last round of the Top 16 on one night, eh? Sheesh, this is worse (or better, depending on viewpoint) than the weekend following the All-Star Game in the NBA. Of the seven games on the slate, six will still help shape the final eight field; the sole “pride game” tonight will be the Montepaschi Siena-Efes Pilsen match in Italy. Officially-derived possibilities for the final eight may be found at the Euroleague website.

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Langford: He upon whom the Boss' hopes are pinned

Hello everybody, greetings from the Euroleague Basketball headquarters! This is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net, in what possibly will be my last SportingBet Fantasy Challenge column this season.

If you want to keep me on the page in the fantasy off-season, make some noise! Start a riot! Go to Budapest and demonstrate in front of Os Davis’ home, wherever it is! Just kidding: It has been a pleasure to give you my impressions on the game. It has been a terrific fantasy season, after all, I just hope you enjoyed reading this column as much as I did writing it.

So the Top 16 comes to an end this week, which means the game will be over on Thursday. On one hand, I can’t complain – no more waiting until 3am to open the game after a long Euroleague/Eurocup week – but on the other hand … of course, I’ll miss it. Still, with one week to go I have a chance to win the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge private league…

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To all enthusiasts of the Euroleague fantasy basketball columns of “The Boss,” Javier Gancedo:

Javier has, in fact, already submitted his column (and thus made changes to his own fantasy team), but has requested that said column not be posted until 6pm, something about “sick of always finishing second” or something, suspects BallinEurope…

In any case, you’re on your own for this week, folks! Check back here at 6 o’clock to see what Meet The Boss looks like for the final week of Euroleague Top 16 fantasy play.

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Sofoklis!

This week’s three minutes of fun features Jamont Gordon totally giving up the body, an emphatic rejection from D’Or Fischer, Juan Carlos Navarro looking a little like Steve Nash without the pass, Bo McCalebb going up about 200 feet for the jam, but most of all BallinEurope’s main man Sofoklis Schortsanitis passing like a guard in what was the big guy’s most dominant show since Greece took care of Team USA’s mostly nonexistent inside game back in the 2006 FIBA Worlds…

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Scariolo: No, really, i can explain everything...

With one more week of Euroleague play to go before the field of viable contenders officially shrinks again, Ball in Europe contributor Francesco Cappelletti wraps the round that was in the big league. In this week’s roundup, Signor C. laments Montepaschi Siena’s fate, Sergio Scariolo’s precarious position and the reason Olympiacos might yet give Barca a workout before all is said and done (Hint: It starts with “Linas” and ends with “Kleiza”).

Group F focus
Oddly, the group which could have been in doubt until the buzzer of Week 6 suddenly has two qualified teams after five weeks: These are Real Madrid and Maccabi Tel Aviv, teams which will meet next Thursday at Palacio Vistalegre to define a first place currently in possession of the Israeli side for their 81-76 victory of February 4.

Montepaschi Siena was shocked by a 43-point fourth quarter scored by Alan Anderson and teammates. OK, take out the final (meaningless) 10 points, and 33 remain on the back of the Italian champions. How was this possible? MPS had recovered during the third period thanks to big hearted Terrell McIntyre and bad offensive decisions from previously unstoppable Doron Perkins, but, I mean, if you play with six men (seven minutes of nothing for Nikos Zisis in crisis, Ksistof Lavrinovic plagued by back spasms), and you enter the final fraction with a 3-point advantage at Yad Eliyahu, well, you know your destiny.

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Tepic is not afraid

Okay, so it’s not exactly a *war* of words per se, but if the quotebook filling up over at the English-language version of Serbia’s Blic magazine is any indication you needn’t waste time telling Euroleague-eliminated Panathinaikos they’ve got nothing to play for or that the Black-and-White will have an easy time of it at Pionir.

A few choice lines include:

• “We’ll be playing for ourselves, not Partizan.” That’s Nikola Pekovic with the made-for-headline sound bite. And while it’s swell that the team figurehead is showing such élan in an otherwise futile situation, Pekovic may not actually be playing tonight.

• Pekovic assessed that “Partizan deserved their win in Athens and it’s up to us to get revenge in Belgrade. Although we won’t be playing in the quarterfinals, we are still the reigning champions of Europe and we have to live up to our reputation.”

• Ever deft at the diplomatic quote is Dusko Vujosevic with “Although they will be without Pekovic, the Greeks are the kings of Europe and we must respect that. Pekovic is an extremely important player for them and it will make things easier that he is absent. They have lost all chances of qualifying for the next stage, but they will be playing for their honour.” Don’t you think Coach Dusko is giggling inwardly at this absence? Pana minus Marcus Haislip is one thing, but that Pekovic-sized hole is mighty big. Vujosevic is definitely on an NBA-level vis-à-vis the pregame PR game.

• Finally, former Partizan/current Panathinaikos forward Milenko Tepic gets in his compliments and digs: “We know how hard it is to play in the Pionir, the arena which has seen so many giant-slaying moments in the past. This will definitely be a special moment for me on my first return to Belgrade. I will do everything to contribute to Panathinaikos’ win.”

Hey, this one just might be fun after all…

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Lithuanian-language websites Basket News and Kauno Diena are this morning reporting that Zalgiris Kaunas has hired Sarunas Sakalauskas to become the club’s sporting director; the position was apparently filled directly following last night’s Asseco Prokom-Zalgiris match. Though both media outlets claim that the ink is already dry on the contracts, Kaunas owner Vladimir Romanov denied having hired Sakalauskas.

Currently employed as M. Romeris youth team coach, Sakalauskas has done head coaching stints with Vilnius Sakalu and Lietuvos Rytas, but the bulk of his recent career was spent heading up Eisbären Bremerhaven, where he lead the team from 2001 to 2009 and was named Bundesliga “Coach of the Year” in 2006.

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Teletovic rocked for the Boss last week

Hello everybody, this is once again Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net, ready for yet another SportingBet Euroleague Fantasy Challenge week. There are two more weeks in the Top 16. The good news is that it is being extraordinary. Nobody would have predicted that no teams would be 100% qualified after four weeks and that the only one eliminated from the playoff race would be defending champion Panathinaikos.

More good news … of course, the Quarterfinal Playoff will be fantastic and we are heading to a great, great Final Four. Once again, the perfect combination exists: a great, universally loved city, a first-class basketball event and four very good teams fighting for the ultimate title. The bad news, however, is that we only have two more weeks in the Fantasy Challenge. What will we fantasy players all do in the meantime? It’s a long wait until next October, after all…

Anyway, as for my team, Meet the Boss, I had a so-so week with 144.8 points. Just when I could have reached first place in the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge, I ranked 21st in the private league this week. The private league leader is samwong, who has 53.1 points more than me … but I rank 4th, so it’s going to be tough. Still, of course, I will do my best.

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