Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog

A few in-house items to announce to readers this morning:

• First, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Yes, there will be prizes for the winners of the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge. An honorary gold medal today – no, that’s *not* the prize; i haven’t decided what the prize is yet – goes to Radallo. Radallo’s BAZ_&_MEZ outdid Meet The Boss’ well-publicized risk-taking lineup in the last week by a score of 173.2-150.8 and thus widened his lead atop the table.

"Basketball" by John Robertson

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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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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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Does The Boss go with Pekovic...

Hello again and welcome back! This is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net ready to discuss week four of the Top 16 in the SportingBet Euroleague Fantasy Challenge. The game is coming to an end: Just three weeks remain to find out who will be our special guest at the 2010 Final Four in Paris. There is quite a race atop the overall standings, with no fewer than 10 teams with good chances to win it all. As for the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge, it has been a pivotal week because our previous leader eurofootball left his team open and did not get any points in Top 16 Week 3. If you don’t win the private league, Rafi, you will be the winner in my eyes at least. That left me second in the private league standings against all odds. Anything can happen from now on.

Unless something really strange happens, this week will be the last one in which all 16 teams still have a chance to make it to the next round. From now on, different rotations may take place and little-used players could step on court. Not this week, however, so let’s see how my team looks…

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Archibald: The Boss pins hopes on mate

Hello, everybody, and greetings from Euroleague headquarters! This is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net, ready to give you all some thoughts about our very own Sporting Bet Euroleague Fantasy Challenge – with just four rounds to go in the competition.

First and foremost, what an exciting Top 16 this is! If anyone had thought that CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos, Partizan and Asseco Prokom would be the four undefeated teams after two rounds, nobody would have believed him. The Top 16 has provided surprises, excitement, incredible action and outstanding drama. The NBA would *kill* to have all this in mid-February: that which makes us strong. Euroleague – and also Eurocup – competitions are as exciting as they can be, and everything will get better from now on. Every single game counts. From now on, every single basket will be decisive in most games…

As for fantasy basketball … well, I had an OK week, I guess. My team Meet the Boss ranks 508th overall, is in fourth place in the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge, but I can only finish second overall because our good man Eurofootball is unstoppable. I have been second in the previous two editions of this Ball in Europe private league.

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Pekovic: The Boss' buddy

Hello everybody, this is once again Javier Gancedo, as always from Euroleague Basketball. Well, it was not a bad fantasy week for my team, Meet The Boss. I scored 166.2 points, moved up into the Top 600 overall, was the best team this week in the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge private league and now rank fifth in the global standings. Things could be worse, after all.

This will be an outstanding Top 16 week. First of all, we have Maccabi hosting Madrid, which is a hell of a game by all means; this marks the 40th showdown between both teams in European club competitions (all in the Euroleague, unless I’m mistaken). Then we have Zalgiris-CSKA and Partizan-Regal FCB with strong basketball atmospheres: Big games all over the continent! In other words, if you are a Euroleague fan, it’s time to sit back and enjoy an outstanding basketball week. Of course, if you are a diehard fan of any of the 16 teams alive in the competition, you won’t sit back and relax. It’s all part of what’s known around here as DEVOTION.

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Qyntel: Did he make Meet The Boss...?

Due to an unfortunate series of tragic events, the deadline for this week’s fantasy tips column was missed. However, in the interests of satisfying The Euroleague Boss’ fans, were running this column with half the Final 16 week one games in the books; it’s valuable to see what Meet The Boss did, even if you were wavering on his word regarding Qyntel Woods…

Hello everyone, this is Javier Gancedo as always – and even more these busy days – from the Euroleague headquarters. And here comes the Top 16, ladies and gentlemen! If the first round is halfway as exciting as Eurocup’s, we are set for a classic start.

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Bo McCalebb: The Boss can't live without him

Hello everybody, once again this is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague Basketball. First of all, I am sorry I’m a bit late with this column this week. A lot of circumstances went against me: I have been sick since Sunday with a temperature, but trying to work since this week is critical for all of us. Second, we have a little surprise for all you good Euroleague fans out there. Check out Euroleague.net on Monday – we really hope you like it. I will also keep this short because people can’t compare anymore, since I am publishing after the deadline.

I did not miss the deadline, of course. My team, Meet The Boss, was easy to trade this week – I had two injured players, Aleks Maric and Travis Watson, plus I wanted to get rid of Igor Rakocevic. I said I wouldn’t trade Maric unless he got injured – and there he went. So, Euroleague coaches out there, I am offering my jinxing services for the upcoming Top 16. Just leave your comment in this always underestimated BallinEurope article and I will get back to you. Yes, I do have your numbers. Or so I think…

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Woods: The boss' main man

Hello and Happy New Year everybody! This is once again Javier Gancedo of Euroleague basketball, hoping that 2010 brings you happiness, fun and a lot of great hoops in Europe’s marquee club competition. I’ve been on holiday for the best part of the Euroleague break and right now I’m very busy. You good people out there can imagine that one of the busiest times of the season for us is the end of the Euroleague and Eurocup regular seasons with signings, possibilities and so on.

Plus these days, we also have the Ciutat de L’Hospitalet junior tournament, co-organized by Euroleague Basketball. I can proudly say that Cajasol made it to the final, which will be played this afternoon. You can congratulate me if you read this after 8pm on Wednesday – if we won, of course. We have a star point guard in Ricardo Pampano: Remember you heard the name first in this Fantasy Challenge column. [At BallinEurope.com, of course –Ed.]

Quite a bizarre place to read it, isn’t it?

Anyway, my team Meet The Boss didn’t do well before the holiday break. I scored 152.8 points, rank 1329th overall and seventh in the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge private league. Since I am in a bit of a rush, I will keep this short. Also, this week’s trades are very easy to do: First, Ramunas Siskauskas is injured, so he’s gone already; second, Oguz Savas was a gamble that went wrong, so he’s off the team, too; third, Chuck Eidson has had physical problems throughout the week, so that completed my trades this week.

Easy, huh? Well, that is never, ever a good sign…

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