Talk about your sudden gearshifts. As FMP Belgrade prepares for the Eurochallenge quarterfinal round, the club and FIBA today announced that coach Vlade Đurović has been ousted from the team, sacking effective immediately. Bosko Djokic, who had served as BC FMP previously and was employed for 2009-10 at Radnički Basket, was named as Đurović’s replacement.
Despite FMP’s decent Eurochallenge run thus far, the team has managed to go just 9-16 in Adriatic League play and sits in 12th place, two games behind – oh, sweet irony! – Radnički.
Reportedly, the move was due mainly to economics, with club officials explaining that they had been “forced to reduce the current budget and that [the team] will continue only with players from the domestic pool and not with reinforcements from abroad.” In this light, the decision makes some sense, since FMP holds a comfortable four-game lead over NLB relegation-zone teams Bosna and Helios.
The FIBA EuroChallenge may be considered a bit of a lower-tier club tournament here on The Continent, but the 2009-10 edition of the contest is certainly among the tops in terms of competitive balance.
With an official statement from the host nation’s basketball federation and little more, Team Azerbaijan has been announced as no longer participating in this summer’s European Championship Women Division C.
BiE supposes the only suspense with this award this year was how close things would get and who placed second. So, after the ho-hum announcement that 
On Friday, FIBA and Euroleague officials conspired to grant Juan Dixon surely one of the worst weekends in his life by announced that he was suspended from play with Unicaja Malaga thanks to his misuse of a steroid product.
FIBA today announced the groupings for the organization’s U17 World Championship for Men competition scheduled for Germany in July. European teams competing in the 12-team tournament include Lithuania, Serbia, Poland, Spain and the hosts.