BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Here at BallinEurope, we like to refer to (prospective Minnesota Timberwolf) Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio as “The Human YouTube Clip.” Well, in the interests of equal time and my Lithuanian friend Y. shaming me into it after Lithuania’s incredible 18-point comeback for the win against Team Spain last night.

Earlier in the contest – y’know, back when Spain enjoyed a comfortable-ish lead – Mantas Kalnietis totally stuns the inattentive Rubio on a trick play from inbounds, totally ‘Tubing Ricky. That’ll learn ‘im!

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Whither Spain? In yet another example of “that’s why they play ‘em on paper,” the mighty Spaniards went down thanks to a French attack led by Nicolas Batum (14 points on 4-of-9 shooting, two rebounds, two blocks and one awesome jam), Andrew Albicy (!) and Mickael Gelabale (!!!) and brutal fourth-quarter shooting “highlighted” by three separate FG droughts, 4-of-10 shooting on free throws, Sergio Llull serving up shots for the blocking, and Rudy Fernandez getting himself T’ed right out of the game.

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With just hours left before the 2010 FIBA World Championship tournament in Turkey, BallinEurope quits stalling to briefly drop some surely instant-classic Fearless Predictions™ for today’s games. Wall-to-wall coverage as well as all games broadcast live on your computer is available at the FIBA TV website.

Incidentally, if you’re up for the live chat experience during the USA-Croatia match, BallinEurope will be participating in ESPN’s Daily Dime Live Chat starting at 6pm CET (noon EST). The virtual room will surely be cram-packed with prideful Americans, so come out to represent, fans of Croatia (not to mention Russia, Lithuania, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Serbia)!

And the official BallinEurope crystal ball says…

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The biggest of all this year’s international basketball friendly matches goes down in Madrid tonight at 7pm GMT (9pm CET, 1pm EST) as prospective 2010 FIBA World Championship favorites Spain and USA meet in the first truly serious test for either team.

It’s also a rematch of the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold match of sorts; while Team Spain returns the majority of their surely revenge-seeking squad, Team USA has famously rolled over its entire roster to create a smaller, quicker team contrary stylistically to recent American national teams.

Those of you in countries wherein the game won’t be broadcast (and here BallinEurope basically means nearly every nation in Europe, basically) can watch Spain vs. USA — and Wednesday’s Greece vs. USA game — online for free at FIBA TV. On his part, BiE will be watching for the following items first.

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Kobe can beat this guy

Kobe Bryant was hanging around in New York last week as part of the World Basketball Festival festivities and, upon praising Team Spain, was dutifully quoted by Spain-based sports media outlet Sport.es.

“When it comes to really tough opponents,” said Bryant, “no doubt, Spain is the team.”

Kobe has seemed somewhat positive about this year’s edition of Team USA and philosophized to reporters that, if they take care of fundamentals, they’ll be all right. “The formula for winning is always the same: defense and rebounding. No matter where you play, rebounding and defense gives you the win. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing against aliens from Mars.”

In terms of the actual games closing the World Basketball Festival, Team USA demonstrated a remarkable arsenal of weaponry in taking out France, 86-55. (This just ain’t France’s year in international sport, is it? An early bouncing for Les Bleus and 2010 will go down as Bizarro 1998.)

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With three key warmups for the 2010 FIBA World Championship tipping off tonight, BallinEurope takes quick stock of some of the games played in the last few days and relevant news on the Team Brazil roster and Hellene injuries – links and video abound, too.

Slovenia shocked by New Zealand…
No matter what Team New Zealand does in Turkey, Kirk Penney and the Kiwis have already played their match of the year, a 104-103 double-OT victory over Slovenia in Maribor on Friday night.

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On this day of 1992 Team USA’s well-deserved induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame, BallinEurope again takes the opportunity to remember those other two squads competing in the Barcelona Games whose impact on an international level was almost as great and whose impact at home was inestimable.

What the Dream Team gave to the international game, aside from the showcasing of quite simply the best side ever assembled by a long shot,* was a new measuring stick for talent, a definition of what national basketball pictures should aspire to produce. In Croatia and Lithuania, however, the national teams in some senses had already won before the Olympic torch was lit.

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Krstic krushed for Serbia

A few exhibition games between national teams were played this weekend as the Istanbul Cup and the Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament wrapped with some interesting clashes, indeed.

In Turkey, Team Serbia emphatically demonstrated that they should be discussed among the 2010 FIBA World Championship elite by decisively beating the home team in an 83-70 win. Kerem Tuncer, Omer Onan, Hedo Turkoglu, Semih Erden and Cevher Özer started for Turkey, while Serbia went with Dragan Milosavljevic, Dusko Savanovic, Kosta Perovic, Milos Teodosic, and Marco Keselj.

Though Serbia was cold early, succumbing to an early barrage from Turkoglu and Onan to go down 10-3, they soon got contributions from Perovic and Teodosic to take the lead at 19-17 and finish the first quarter up 27-22.

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Hedo headed up Turkey's big win

Team Spain showed why it’s such a threat to take the 2010 FIBA World Championships yesterday by dispatching Lithuania with ease, 97-76. Lithuania enjoyed its biggest lead of the game at 8-4 in the third minute of play, but Spain’s subsequent 26-8 run capped by five points from Ricky Rubio put the defending champs up 30-16 after one quarter and there was no looking back.

(Incidentally, if you think that mention of Señor Rubio is serving mostly as an excuse to include the Human YouTube Clip’s highlight video for the game, well, you know BiE too well. But seriously, check out the damage done on both ends of the floor by the Spanish sensation.)

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“It dont get no worse than this. The hardest thing I ever had 2 face is here. Need vision cuz everything blurry now. Where do I go from here?” – American prospect Will Barton on Twitter

Will Barton of Baltimore faces an all-too-familiar problem of young American basketballers, but thanks to Latavious Williams and Brandon Jennings, he seemingly has more options than ever to continue his promising hoops career.

Barton was one of the prizes of the 2010 NCAA recruiting class and University of Memphis backers were well pleased when the 6’6” guard declared his intent to attend their school – albeit most likely only for the minimum single season, as he was getting penciled in as an NBA Draft first-rounder out of high school.

A new problem came to light yesterday which threw Barton’s immediate future into doubt, as he was informed before a practice yesterday that the NCAA was reviewing his academic eligibility – the “hardest thing” referenced in his tweet.

Summarized Dan Wolken at the local Commercial-Appeal: “The issue with Barton [...] is believed to be about whether he completed high school within the NCAA-mandated eight semesters, graduating from Lake Clifton High in Baltimore last August instead of June.”

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