BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

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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Woods: The boss' lucky pick stays 'til 2010

Hello everybody, this is Javier Gancedo, ready to do the last weekly SportingBet Fantasy Challenge column in this 2009. It’s been quite an eventful week for me, and this is why this is being published a bit late. First of all, it was my birthday on Monday: I just turned 36 and celebrated all weekend long, first by going out on Saturday and then enjoying a 40-point Cajasol win, something that hasn’t happened in four years and could easily take as much time to happen again. I was supposed to take a flight from Sevilla to Reus and then a bus to Barcelona early on Tuesday morning. What happened is that a woman got onto the plane, sat down and died. Passed away, right before departure. So there was a huge delay, and I had to buy a different flight directly to Barcelona to make it in time for the very exciting Eurocup round last night.

The piece of news (in Spanish) can be read here.

I am accumulating strange anecdotes that could turn into a book one day at this rate. Last month, a woman went AWOL and refused to wear a seatbelt, so police had to come to take her off the plane. Two years ago, I almost was left out in Kaliningrad because of an air hostess’ mistake: I didn’t even know I had to stop there! Anyway, contrary to my personal life in planes, I will try not to be very strange in fantasy this week. In fact, I will be quite conventional. My team, Meet The Boss, ranks 1219th overall, is sixth in the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge at almost 100 points away from the top and has accumulated around 720 credits.

So let’s get it started. First of all, I know I was lucky with Qyntel Woods last week. I had to trade Pete Mickeal because of his flu at the very last minute and it worked. You sometimes need a stroke of luck to do well in this game, what can I say?
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Siskauskas: The natural-born mismatch

Hello everybody and greetings from Javier Gancedo at Euroleague headquarters. We are facing a fantastic Euroleague week, with a lot of teams fighting for survival and some others positioning themselves to win their regular-season groups. We have Khimki against Panathinaikos in Group D, but also AJ Milano against EWE Baskets Oldenburg in a make-or-break battle. We could say the same about Maroussi vs. Union Olimpija or a very interesting Partizan vs. Efes Pilsen game. I expect this to be the most dramatic Euroleague week so far this season. Please keep an eye out.

Of course, Fantasy Challenge gets more complicated, too. There a few bargains left in the game and we all have to start including those players that we consider underrated in terms of talent versus credits.

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Hello everyone, this is Javier Gancedo, as always from Euroleague Basketball. Well, well, well … the regular season has reached its halfway mark and there are only a few underpriced players in the SportingBet Fantasy Challenge. In other words, the real competition starts now. People won’t play to accumulate credits, but will have to analyze games, opponents, previous matchups … It’s a brand new game already, and this is where I hope to keep improving.

My team (one of the 10 I manage … yes, I have to make sure nobody can have 11), Meet the Boss, scored 134.3 points and made it to the Top 10 at the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge. I am 60 points away from the top spot and competition is quite good so far. pavleiz leads the standings and his team has more points that any of my 10, so I am aware he’s difficult to beat.

Anyway, like I said, there are a few underpriced players left – Matt Walsh is one of them, but I promise not to use him this time after what happened last week – and I am going for them. I have a lot of credits, as many as 686.5, but I hope to hit 700 before I start thinking on changing my overall strategy. Still, there are some bargains impossible to overlook. So let’s start looking at my team, which looks pretty weird due to having so many moneymakers.

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The Boss says: Keep Matt Walsh this week

Life is good here in Barcelona: Euroleague basketball is back, Christmas is just around the corner, and my team Cajasol won five of its last six games. We needed, like, 25 games to get that fifth win last season. I’m heading down to Fuenlabrada for our road game on Saturday. People may wonder why, being in the Euroleague and talking to a lot of great players and coaches, I chose to be a Cajasol fan. Well, first of all, I am from Sevilla – and proud of it! And second, you are what you are: Once a Cajasol fan, always a Cajasol fan.

Anyway, enough is enough – Let’s start with the Fantasy Challenge. I had to give may team much thought this week, even though I haven’t traded yet: I always do that while writing this column. It’s all about game philosophy of accumulating more money or trying to find underrated superstars. I didn’t expect to be playing for money for so long, but I decided to do so one more time; therefore I will trade players that I think are already overrated and go for moneymakers.

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Hello everybody and welcome back – if you’ve ever read this column before, that is. One way or another, I’m Javier Gancedo, writing not from the Euroleague headquarters but rather from home this time around.

Yes, it will be a very busy Wednesday for all of us with as many as eight games taking place, so I decided to write some lines about Fantasy Challenge right now, officially just 49 minutes away from my third wedding anniversary. It has been quite a journey so far, and I can’t complain, but you guys probably ain’t expecting me to tell you all how good my wife is. You want me to talk Fantasy Challenge, right? OK, so let’s go!

First and foremost, and just as expected, I didn’t have a great fantasy week; I did make enough money to start worrying about buying good players based on how well they will do instead of how many credits I will earn, though. My team, Meet the Boss, scored 130 points and piled up around 605 credits. Still, once again this week, I will be in it – mostly – for the money: That’s my strategy.

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Hello everybody, this is Javier Gancedo from Euroleague Basketball Headquarters as always, and ready for a big Week 3 full of outstanding showdowns. Maccabi vs. CSKA is quite a big game by any standards: It’s also a good time for CSKA to show what to expect from Russia’s finest this season. Real Madrid vs. Panathinaikos sees Zeljko Obradovic facing Ettore Messina. These two coaches have combined for 11 Euroleague titles with six different teams – CSKA, Virtus, Panathinaikos, Joventut, Madrid and Partizan. This aside, there are enough big games all around the continent to focus in these two.

I had a so-so fantasy week. Curtis Borchardt did not play and that simply killed me. Marty Pocius did not have a good game, so I have decided to trade them this week. I am also getting rid of Travis Watson, who is losing credits and is playing against Barcelona. Of course, Watson may have a lot of rebounds and a huge index this week, but since I doubt it and all of my remaining players are still on their way up, that will be my third trade.

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Hello everybody, this is Javier Gancedo, always from the Euroleague Basketball headquarters. It was an interesting Game 1, after all. I was not very surprised to see Laboral and Madrid losing. Both teams have several injuries and a lot of new players, so an adjustment is needed.

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Another night of great Euroleague action featured a real thrilling victory for debutant Khimki in overtime against Real Madrid. But there was more going on as the U.S. government is looking intensely at Greek powers Olympiacos and an update has been found on American 18-year-old Jeremy Tyler at Maccabi Haifa. Continue Reading…