Eurocup LIVE: Brose Baskets - Spirou Charleroi

David Hein will cover the Eurocup game between Brose Baskets Bamberg and Spirou Charleroi live from the JAKO Arena in Bamberg. Other games of the evening that you can follow as Live Stream via Eurosport are at 17h00 CET Khimki Moscow vs. Besiktas Istanbul (LIVE Stream here) and at 19h00 CET  Turk Telekom Ankara vs. Aris Salonica (LIVE Stream here).

Yarone’s late Friday’s joints

Globalization – The player with the highest VAL on Zalgiris of Lithuania was US center Loren Woods. The players with the best VAL for Italian Montepaschi were Rimantas Kaukenas and Ksistof Lavrinovic from … Lithuania. In fact, the latter two combined for a VAL of 45 while all Lithuanian players on the Lithuanian team combined for a VAL of … 40. Neither Kaukenas nor Lavrinovic, by the way, ever played for Zalgiris.

New tunes – How many African big men can you think of who topped the “Best FT%” category in any league? Joventut’s Pops Mensah-Bonsu hit 4 of 4 last week, while yesterday proving he can make it even better by making 11 of 12 from the charity stripe in the loss at Roma. Can you believe this guy averaged 66.7% in the ULEB Cup and 54.6% in LEGA the past season, and that these numbers were considered decent for him?

Career low – In his long, long Euroleague career Nikola Vujcic had finished just one single game with a negative index rating: That was in last year’s semifinals, when Maccabi upset Montepaschi and Nikola had a -2 VAL. This was before his last Euroleague game with Maccabi. After the first game with Olympiacos, Vujcic set a new personal record with a VAL of -3.

Historical moment – If that’s not enough, the game against Unicaja will go down in history books as the first game ever that Nikola Vujcic finished with zero points in a Euroleague game. Vujcic had posted several games with two points, but always somehow found the way to get that ball through the rim. Last night, he missed one shot from close range, another behind the arc, and two shot attempts from the charity stripe. Nikola will surely contribute to Olympiacos down the road when the money is on the line and as long as his team won, he’s happy, but this game won’t be colored with happy shades in the boxscore archives of the Vujcic family.

Zero – Believe it or not but Le Mans, a team with two of the best shooters in Europe - David Bluthenthal and Dewarick Spencer – finished their first home game of the season with zero three pointers made of 12 attempts taken. The duo was responsible for eight of these attempts.

Just across the street – Not too far from there stood Cibona Zagreb. The days Croatian teams were considered great shooting teams are sadly long gone now, but they were just a tiny bit better than Le Mans. A long-range shooting night of 2-for-14 on Cibona’s side shone only next to Le Mans’ performance.

Happy thoughts for Pao – Obviously the biggest result of this week was the big knock out Pao got in Barcelona. The final difference was 24 after Barca were all over the game from tipoff. If you’re a Panathinaikos fan that might even be good news. On 21 March 2007, the last day of the Top 16, Pao traveled to Barcelona only to return to Athens with a very disturbing 21 point defeat. At the end of that season, Pao won their first Euroleague title since 2002.

No guards – Pao scored only 14 field goals inside the arc in the big defeat. Coach Zeljko used 10 players in his rotation, but only four were able to connect from two-point range. Three of them were big guys Fotsis, Batiste and Pekovic. The only saint in the backcourt was … Sarunas Jasikevicius, who knows the nets in Palau Blaugrana pretty well, but still won’t remember this “homecoming game” fondly.

February 14, 2008 – On that day Davor Kus missed his last Euroleague free throw shot until last night in France… Then, at Barcelona, he was only 1-for-3. Then followed a streak of 10 consecutive shots to finish the season, another 6-for-6 last week against Maccabi, and last night one of the best free throw shooters in the Euroleague was stopped. Literally. He finished the game 0-for-7 from the field and a VAL of -8, but when he went to the line in the closing seconds to secure the triumph with Cibona up by three, Kus connected just one. Enough for the win. Goodbye to the streak.

Spencer ties – The weekly followup on the battle between Dewarick Spencer and David Bluthenthal continues, and this week we saw the first tie at 1-1 in their competition “who took more shots?” Spencer contributed 14 shots and Bluth lagged behind with only 11. In between them crept JP Batista with 13. Altogether, the trio provided a little less than 2/3 of Le Mans’ shots.

Few of a kind, part I – Now check out this unique stat line made by Terence Morris. He registered a VAL of 23 but that was the only category in which he totaled double-digits: 9 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists and only four field goal attempts. Very, very few players in Europe can reach such a high index rating by doing a little bit of everything.

Stay away! - Some of those fantasy fanatics out there believe that it’s good to take the best players of the weak teams figuring that “well, at least one guy needs to have a decent game.” Panionios, in their home defeat to CSKA, proved this theory wrong. Panionios set a new season low with a team index of 28, while the top individual high on the team was no more than … 7. Several players scored a better individual VAL this week than the entire Greek team.

Few of a kind – part II – So there are very few players like Morris in Europe, and that’s why he’s in CSKA making the big bucks; but his successor in Maccabi, D’or Fischer, showed this week he can produce the same numbers. Fischer crossed the double-digit mark in scoring 11, but added 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and four drawn fouls to reach a VAL of 21.

Foul him! – Daniel Ewing finished this week as the top scorer with 32 points on a great shooting night when Prokom smashed SLUC Nancy 91-62. He hit 7 of 9 from close range, 6 of 8 in the distance and well, no shots from the foul line. Why? Because in the entire game, Ewing was fouled just once by the French defense. Ewing was hot, all right, but when you foul a player in a zone just once in a game it says a lot about the lack of aggressiveness in Nancy’s defense.

Nevertheless more than perfect – Real’s Sergio Llull, the 21-year-old guard, is one of the funnest players to follow in the Euroleague. He’s quick and athletic but most of all plays with no fear. With Real having Raul Lopez and Pepe Sanchez on the roster, Llull probably didn’t expect to see a lot of playing this year before the season tipped off, but now he’s leaving the duo veterans behind. At Partizan, Llull had a perfect game: 19 points, 7-for-7 on two-pointers, 1-for-2 from three, 2-for-2 from the line, one rebound, one assist, one steal, zero turnovers with three personal fouls and two drawn. OK, so it’s not 100% perfect, but if you followed the game you know Llull’s only missed shot and two of his fouls came in the last seconds in attempt to save his team from a loss. On paper, he’s close to perfection. For us watching, he was more than perfect.

Close to perfection on the dark side – So Llull was huge, but take a look at Pepe Sanchez’s stat line from the loss in Beograd: 22 minutes on court, 0 points, 0-of-0 on two-pointers, 0-of-0 on threes, 0-of-0 FT, zero defensive rebounds, zero offensive rebounds, one assist, one steal, two turnovers, 0 bl-f, 0 bl-a, 0 fouls-c, 0 fouls-d and the poetic justice of 0 VAL.

Italian mafia – Efes Pilsen collected a key road win in Milano, and the ones who made the difference were Charles Smith, Milos Vujanic, Michalis Kakiouzis and Bootsy Thornton. What they have in common? All played in LEGA at some point in their career.

Euroleague TV goes Comedy Central

I have spent the last five hours cutting and laughing. Cutting Euroleague TV announcer material, of course.

I was laughing hilariously last night when I watched the games. Some things are funny because the guys actually are funny - sometimes though, I wonder if the Euroleague listens to this stuff and really wants their brand represented like that.

I cut together a TOP3 of this week consisting great name pronunciations, emotions, and of course basketball  wisdom from announcers.

Here you go - enjoy the ride. (Make sure you have no coffee or water in your mouth while you listen - you will spill it!)

Number 3: funny names names.mp3

Number 2: emotions emotions.mp3

Number 1: just listen … wisdom.mp3

Basketball fight: Arizona WILDcat strikes in Russia

Ilya Kalyagin, our source from Russia, lives in Rostov. On Tuesday, Spartak St. Petersburg played Lokomotiv Rostov in the Russia Cup quarterfinal. Just to let you know who players are on these teams:

Spartak St. Petersburg:

• head coach Yevgeny Pashutin, former assistant coach of Ettore Messina at CSKA Moscow
• Zakhar Pashutin, Yevgeny’s brother and former CSKA player for Ettore Messina
• Joseph Blair - US player who played for Armani Jeans Milano and attended University of Arizona

Lokomotiv Rostov

• D.J. Collins, who will always be remembered as the “chicken and porn guy” with the funniest interviews
• Fred House, US guard, who won the ULEB Cup with Lietuvos Rytas in 2005

Seems to be a pretty good matchup, right?

Well, the game was anything but good. It seems as if the Arizona Wildcats players in Europe have one serious issue: punching other players on the court in the face. About two weeks ago, it was Loren Woods who swung his fist, now - Joseph Blair - and let me tell you I would not want to be the one receiving a straight fist from a guy like this. The guy who got hit now looks like this.

Sixteen — 16! — players were removed from the court and play resumed. First it was a 4-on-4, before ultimately becoming a 3-on-3 match.

Here is video footage of the fistfight. It looks like the two Russian players were arguing when the guy in white was pushed. It seems like he wanted to get back at the assailant, but, well, Blair delivered first.

Ilya also has footage from the 4on4 4on4 as well as the 3on3. 3on3 It turns out that Blair and the Russian guard Visnevski will be disqualified for at least 5 games.

Aftermath cigarettes

• The first Euroleague game day of the 2008/09 season is in the books - all the home teams won their games besides Avellino (Italy) who lost to Olympiacos, and SLUC Nancy (France) who got killed at home against FC Barcelona.

• Player that impressed me the most: Loren Woods. I know Will McDonald is the Euroleague MVP of week 1, but with all the big problems in Kaunas, money problems, Loren hitting people on the court and then facing Panthinaikos, Loren pulls off a game with 17 points and 16 rebounds in 33 minutes, which means 28 ranking points for Loren. Good job!

• Player that disappointed (me) the most: Ibrahim Jaaber - come on man: you’re on my Euroleague fantasy team! I chose you for your steals and defense last season…and this time not one steal, not one assist and not even one point in 18 minutes. Thanks for your -3 ranking.

• Euroleague TV comments: I watched at least 10 minutes of every game during the first gameday to find out if the pay-more-money-for-fewer-games thing works out. I have to say that the stream works really fine and I had no problems following the games even switching between them all the time. What I did not like is the resolution offered. The windows are clearly too small to really enjoy a game and by switching to full screen you can’t even read the score because of the bad resolution. Also new this year - as far as I remember - EL.tv stays online during halftime and offers a closeup of the bench during timeouts.

• Brandon Jennings watch: Evin Demirel talks about it: It’s obvious Jennings is learning to adjust to the European game. 9 points on 3-of-7 for threes and 0 assists - not sure if this is what European basketball is about. I am sure, though, that it won’t take too long for Brandon to show his real potential and we really are looking forward to this.

• The 31st overall draft pick for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nikola Pekovic, in his first Euroleague game out of Serbia and for Panathinaikos: 14 points in 14 minutes in a 78-51 win against Zalgiris Kaunas in front of 12,000 visitors, according to Euroleague statistics.

• Speaking of Euroleague statistics: Marques Greens (Fenerbahce) played 30 minutes and had 5 points by making one two-pointer, one three-pointer and two free throws. Please tell me that this still would equal 7 points.

• Same game, same problem - Gasper Vidmar: 1-of-2 on free throws equals 3 points right?

• Josh Childress watch: 14 points, 8 rebounds in 25 minutes with a ranking of 22. Josh, learn to look at these ranking points - This is what Europe, especially Euroleague fantasy players, will judge you for. Here are the highlights.

• Finally our thoughts on the Euroleague TV commentators. Overall judge - funny and entertaining - with insightful comments in a true European/Italian way (in terms of pronunciation and passion). Really disappointing is the only guy who seems to be an American. His English might be perfect but the way he commentates a game made me fall asleep while Unicaja and Le Mans were actually playing a very interesting game. We know that he had problems with European names: problems with European names in the past, but I am sure, if you prepare a little bit for a game you can see that David Bluthenthal is not spelled David BLUMENthal, which in German means David Flowerthal, by the way.

Euroleague LIVE - TV test starts today

BallinEurope enjoyed the Euroleague TV guys last season - a lot. Otherwise we would not have been able to come up with a post like this.

This year, again, we will be following the EL.TV crew and this starts today. Somehow we will try to get in contact with the commentators this season and let you know more about them.

Don’t get me wrong: We really know how hard it is to entertain people for two hours and we are really impressed by these guys. We are also really glad that the Euroleague offers something like this, what with the bad TV coverage of basketball in many countries of Europe. This was probably one of the best ideas the Euroleague has come up with so far.

If you are lucky to be in one of the following countries (Greece, Russia, Spain, Italy), you can watch the games tonight on TV - if not - we highly recommend to get the EL.TV package to watch the games every Wednesday and Thursday.

Now we know that the Euroleague has the following prize tags for the games:

€5.90 for a single game
€69 for a team pass
89 €79 for a season pass

For me this is like buying an Apple product: You know, it’s not the cheapest, but you really, REALLY want it. I just hope for the Euroleague TV guys, that enough people think like I do …

I do want to add that it really seems pricey - it really does - so for us as hardcore Euroleague fans it only makes sense to spend €90 and then watch as much as we can.

You can also compare it to a pair of Nike sneakers if that helps you - Look on the right of this page - a pair of Jordans are €160, and I bet you get more from the EL.TV package within a year.

Does Europe really want the NBA?

I just got back from Berlin where the o2 World hosted the Washington Wizards and the New Orleans Hornets. Germany has always been a country where the NBA is much more known than the Euroleague - maybe one reason why the NBA chose Germany - besides their deal with AEG, which built the arena in Berlin.

Now, this blog is called BallinEUROPE, which might make you think we LOVE the Euroleague and aren’t big fans of the NBA. You just cannot compare the two at all. The one league represents pure passion and love for the team, the other represents show and entertainment. Of course, both are great things to have and follow.

What did the fans think about the game?
Everybody in Germany was excited to get to see Chris Paul, and he got a standing ovation when announced. Fans ran around in Wizards and Hornets jerseys although this was “only” a preseason showoff game. Things where going well until the Hornets were up 47-9.
I really wasn’t expecting much from this game, but I did not expect to see a blowout which you can follow for free in any 6th division league in Germany - for free. The Wizards shot a horrible percentage from the floor and even the quieter German fans started to whistle and boooo!

What does David Stern think of Europe?
David Stern gave his interview before the game and basically named the same facts that he named in London and Paris before. Thanks to some great journalists he even had to answer the same questions again. Come on, guys, a little bit more preparation please!
It was interesting to hear, though, what David Stern had to say about regular NBA season games in Europe and especially about Brandon Jennings.

Nine years ago, David Stern promised regular NBA season games in Europe with a deadline of 10 years. With only one year to go, it looks pretty certain that there won’t be any games going on next season. David Stern’s reason: “Europe is not ready. We have done everything but we do not have the arenas that we need.” This is what Mr. Stern finds out after nine years? If you really want to expand, don’t you think you should try to see if the venues that you want to play in are ready? To me, it just sounds just like a bad excuse to fully pursue David’s new goal, i.e. TAKE OVER CHINA!, I am sure we will see NBA franchises in China earlier than in Europe.

What Stern did promise: NBA regular-season games before the 2012 Olympics in London. Let’s hope we have enough arenas by then!

David Stern’s take on Brandon Jennings
Basically, the commissioner thinks that it only helps NBA teams to see Jennings play at a higher level - So does this mean the NCAA and the D-league suck? He also mentioned that it’s good for Brandon’s bank account as well as for Virtus Roma. The NBA commissioner is also not concerned that this will be a new trend, since so many European players come to the US to go to college while only one guy did it the other way. The only difference: The European guys actually go to college to improve and not just to avoid the out-of-high-school-for-one-year rule.

BallinEurope’s take on NBA Europe in Berlin
Just as Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague’s CEO who enjoyed at least one half from the brand new VIP box, we weren’t “absolutely thrilled” as the German web site sportal.de reported today. How can you be thrilled when an NBA team gets killed and the main stars are on the floor for 10 minutes? One thing we’re really looking forward to: the Euroleague Final Four in Berlin in May. Get ready, Germany!

Portland excited about Rudy Fernandez

The Blazers Blog at Oregon Live posted this video of Rudy Fernandez arriving at the airport in Portland. In some way to me it looks like Rudy is a perfect James Bond character, doesn’t he?

Portland welcomes Rudy Fernandez

NBA Europe fans: SORRY!

Euroleague fans are already disappointed that no Euroleague team will play an NBA team this summer. We still don’t know any reasons for this decision by the Euroleague and NBA, since it would be good competition this year, right?

Since the Euroleague is still not the most interesting league for the average basketball fan, people are really interested in seeing their stars from the United States. As we know and reoprted a few months ago, the Washington Wizards, New Orleans Hornets, Miami Heat and New Jersey Nets will come to Europe to play one another.

Here are the tour dates again:

Paris, Thursday, October 9th: Miami Heat - New Jersey Nets

London, Sunday, October 12th: New Jersey Nets - Miami Heat

Berlin, Tuesday, October 14th: Washington Wizards - New Orleans Hornets

Bacrelona, Friday, October 17th. New Orleans Hornets - Washington Wizards

Especially the second pair of the Wizards and the Hornets seem to be interesting games, since people and NBA fans get to see a great point guard plus another great player and of course personality: Gilbert Arenas!

Well, not so fast.

As has been reported, Gilbert won’t play in Berlin, Barcelona, the Wizards training camp, and even the first month of the NBA regular season. Once again, Gilbert has to have surgery on his knee.

I don’t know about you, but I would have loved to see Gilbert in action and not again on the sidelines. I am sure official partner adidas is not excited about this either, since Gilbert is under contract with them and the Gilbert’s last attempt to promote his sneakers failed badly - again because he was hurt…

The Russian league explained

 

 

Since 2006, when CSKA brought the Euroleague title back to Moscow after 35 years, all eyes are trained on Russian basketball and its new economic power. By the way, no single Roman Abramovich heads a club, but the great boom of the entire movement (which includes the National Team, European champion in pectore) has been carried out thanks to huge amounts of money closely connected to the relative return of Russia as nation to a golden age. 

So now CSKA is no longer alone: The Red Army must share the scene with newly-born clubs like Triumph Lyubertsy and BC Khimky, a police team like Dynamo and Siberian giants Unics Kazan and Ural Great Perm. Everyone is endowed with large financial resources, but “millionaire status = winning titles” isn’t a perfect formula, otherwise Dynamo Moscow would have won many and many championships. This concept seems to be too much difficult to assimilate – not even Messina’s example has been analyzed and studied for improvement – and Russian investment on the market continues with nobody to stop it. Accumulating names upon names, spending dollar after dollar: It’s a hobby that’s either nice or insane, depending on whether the final result is an illusory second place behind the invincible CSKA. However, this year Russian owners have surpassed themselves: Just take a look at the CSKA antagonists’ rosters … I’m serious when I say BC Khimky can beat the Memphis Grizzlies.

And the rest of the league? No good news from Samara, Surgut, Vladivostok. They can’t fight for the title, but they are Russian teams all the same, then it’s not a case find DeJuan Collins (10.8 points and 5.3 assists per game with Zalgiris Kaunas in the last Euroleague) in Rostov, or Rafael Araujo (eighth overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft) in St. Petersburg. What are they searching for? Surely not the glory.

 

CSKA MOSCOW: Was Papaloukas really at career’s end? Yes. Had Andersen completed his cycle in Moscow? Yes. Those which seemed terrible losses for the Euroleague champions are probably not such heavy blows as to undermine Messina’s confidence. Besides, the new arrivals are Zoran Planinic, the player most similar to Papaloukas in Europe and much improved last season in Vitoria; Erazem Lorbek and his sweet hands; and Terence Morris, an incredible athlete, great rebounder and better scorer than most people think, averaging 12.4 ppg who shot 60% from two-point range and 49% beyond the arc last season in Tel Aviv. It’s quite impossible that CSKA can disappoint. Messina is still there, despite rumors that had him in Barcelona, and his players are still the men to beat in Europe. OK, the competition is gaining, but you can sleep well thinking about who would take the winning shot: Siskauskas? Smodis? Holden? Good night.

 

DYNAMO MOSCOW: No, Dynamo is not a Euroleague contender: That’s the immediate thought you have upon seeing the team’s enormous (14 players) and qualitatively excellent roster. A hypothetical bench consists of Arriel McDonald, Travis Hansen, Dimitri Domani, Yaroslav Korolev and Sergei Monya: Don’t you think this starting five could reach playoffs in the Russian Superleague? Instead, these are only the reserves. And coach Blatt can feel confident of the team and its different tactical solutions. At the moment, his team’s conception includes Jannero Pargo (one of the best sixth-men in last year’s NBA signed a one-year contract worth $3.5 million) and Hollis Price from Lyetuvos Rytas Vilnius together in a small but fast backcourt, along with Nachbar, another returnee from the NBA. A frontline filled with D. Lavrinovic (has he solved his back problems?) and Javtokas is something that a lot of Euroleague teams don’t have. Put simply: Blatt must win. 

 

BC KHIMKY: The way drawn by Dynamo, which chose its players from NBA, has been followed by Khimky, he wore tore Carlos Delfino from American GM’s arms. The Argentinean is probably the best acquisition made in Russia during this summer: Born in 1982, Delfino is still young, experienced in Europe, and can dominate either physically or technically. He has the right pieces to fit into a team of good defenders (Palacio, Moiso, McCarthy) and an amazing shooter (Garbajosa). Khimky’s identity is purely defensive, though, knowing coach Kemzura’s attitude, and Maciej Lampe should definitively become a star playing next to Delfino and Moiso: His all-around development will benefit by the presence of a real big man and a small forward like the former Raptor who doesn’t love the post-moves at all. How many minutes will the Russian prospects get? Sorry, that’s not Khimky’s problem.

 

UNICS KAZAN: With Lavrinovic far away, the ambitions for Unics drop. It will be difficult to get to the title, but with hard work and a bit of luck, a return to the semifinals isn’t a dream. Unics has landed Marko Popovic for the backcourt, the area most in need of help (McCullough and Chikalkin are getting older, Kirksay is often used as power forward), while between the big men, coach Aco Petrovic has an embarrassing situation which will probably conclude with Veremeenko and Kresimir Loncar in the starting five, as Likholitov and Stanescu head to the bench. In a team poor of talent like Unics (true, we can’t compare it to CSKA, Dynamo or Khimky), Kurbanov finally has the chance to show his skills. Last minute addition: Marc Jackson!

 

TRIUMPH LYUBERTSY: The big deal signed with Nenad Krstic is the declaration that Triumph also wants to be a contender in the Superleague. The Serbian center, if recovered from his knee problems, is among the top five in Russia. Triumph’s run starts with Krstic and Marcus Goree, who left CSKA after two positive seasons. With Askrabic also in the roster, it’s no mystery that Eremin’s playbook will be much more concentrated in the paint; furthermore, J.R. Bremer and Kerem Tunceri are specialists in the use of pick-and-roll. Lyday is ready to do damage with his three-point shot.

 

THE OTHERS: Ural Great Perm can’t reach the semifinals like they did last season: Dalmau is a talented playmaker, and Ralph Biggs is a scorer, but they are alone. Could Spartak St. Petersburg surprise? Wisniewski is super, and the frontcourt includes Lewis Sims, Araujo and Blair. Lokomotiv Rostov is interesting: Junior Harrington is the key player, but Goldwire, Collins, Antic and Morgunov are solid, too. Sadness abounds for all the remaining teams, and a question assails the mind: What type of players are Marque Perry and Alex Scales (Samara), Pavel Podkolzin (Lokomotiv Novosibirsk), Kevin Fletcher (Surgut), Vidas Ginevicius (Spartak Primorie Vladivostok)? Why do players such as these decide in the middle of their careers to come to Russia, earn money and lose games? Don’t they wish to emerge and improve themselves? Obviously, the answer is negative. They don’t love basketball: They love dollars and consequently play basketball.

—

Francesco Cappelletti

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