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Quarterfinals thoughts live from Athens

Kris Santiago is the lucky guy to follow the whole week of games at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens. His thoughts for today follow. (For those how want to follow the live score and a live chat of today’s games - click here.)

Croatia v. Canada:

• Croatia had little trouble clinching their semifinal spot, as Canada never really found their rhythm.
• 27% field goal shooting speaks for itself; Rowan Barrett was again solid with 13, while Famutimi led Canada with 14 points.
• Marko Popovic was the man of the game, as he really displayed leadership on the court and was able to convert from three to score 17 points for the Adriatic nation.
• I have to mention Sandro Nicevic, who stood out for his ability to convert all of his mid-range shots in scoring 11 points.

Puerto Rico v. Slovenia:

• Carlos Arroyo’s Puerto Ricans ended Slovenia’s hopes of qualifying for Beijing.
• The NBA player was really impressive in netting 17 points, while Larry Ayuso had another strong game by scoring 12. Sani Becirovic could not control Arroyo in a very physical matchup between the two.
• Becirovic had 12 points though, while Uros Slokar was probably the best Slovenian in this tournament, and added this time with 16 points and seven boards. Nesterovic somehow disappeared this time on the offensive end (10 points, 11rebounds) but had little trouble guarding Daniel Santiago and P.J. Ramos.

Germany v. Brazil:

• Germany and Brazil are not really getting it done right now, as the game is not really exciting to watch. Nowitzki is getting his shots off and Tiago Splitter is also struggling to find a way to score against Germany’s tall backcourt. The second quarter has started and nothing new so far, not a lot of scoring, many foul calls and little action on the floor … the cheerleaders are probably the only reason to watch the game right now for the fans in OAKA.
• Germany make a 31-7 run in the second quarter and is dashing Brazil’s offensive efforts just like that.
• How is this going to end for the South Americans? Splitter and Garcia can’t convert their foul shots while Nowitzki woke up and is now at 13 points. Frankfurt’s Pascal Roller chipped in another 12 for the Germans.
• Marcelinho Machado has nine points so far, but is not able to score from beyond the arc (Brazil scored one of eight shots from the three-point line.) and is currently facing elimination. Score is 45-26 at halftime…
• Germany controlled the game until a few minutes ago, but started to turnover the ball a couple of times and Brazil is desperatly trying to get back into this game, but at the end of the third quarter, it’s 62-39 Germany.
• Top scorers are Nowitzki with 15, Roller with 12, and Wysocki with 10 points. Marcelinho Machado has 11 points and Huertas another nine.
• Germany started to lose their rhythm and turned the ball over a couple of times which was exactly in the game plan for Brazil. Brazil rallied to get back into the game, playing tough on defense and executing well in the post thanks to a superb Tiago Splitter, who dished in 16 points. But it was Nowitzki, in foul trouble, who led the Germans with 20 and Roller scored another important three to send Germany to the semifinals and Brazil home. Demond Greene also had some fine moments in the final minutes of the game and finished with 14 for the troubled Germans that had 17 turnovers compared to the eight of Brazil.
• Brazil could not hit the three today, going just 3-of-19 from the arc, which left them with no inside-outside game and Splitter as the only scoring option.

Kris will be updating this post throughout the day - keep following!

Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2008: Day 3

Again, Kris Santiago, who is in Athens right now, gives us some live impressions, including Roko Ukic and Chris Kaman:

• Korea was close to upsetting Canada in the first game of the day. Samuel Dalembert decided not to play after an argument with Coach Rautins the day before, and Canada struggled mightily against the fresh Koreans, who controlled the second quarter although they had to play without giant Ha Seung Jin, sidelined due to a nagging knee injury (He could barely walk the other day, so no surprise here). Chun Jungkyu led the Koreans with 19 points, but the North Americans bounced back in the third and had their best in veteran Rowan Barrett, who was a steadily scorer for the Canadians ever since. With the support of Carl English, who netted 12 points but looked far from impressive, Canada managed to overcome Korea by two points (79-77) in the final seconds of the game to book their tickets to round two.

• In the second game of the day, Croatia had to rally from a 12-point deficit in the first quarter and kept on scoring until halftime without looking too flashy (Arroyo tried his best to repeat yesterday’s fancy performance but failed to make his teammates better, although he was constantly hitting his shots).

• Toronto’s Ukic made his first game in replacing Zoran Planinic, who was sidelined due to an infection, and Marko Banic was inserted with Damir Markota out of the tournament due to a knee injury sustained against Cameroon’s Boumtje-Boumtje.

• Both, Ukic and Banic were instrumental in Croatia’s 95-81 win, as Puerto Rico could not convert the important shots during the third quarter.

• Malaga’s Daniel Santiago was again a no-show for the Boriquas and J.J. Barea is far from his best days, while Marko Tomas had another strong outing for the Croatians (15 points) with Prkacin (Who was continually complaining about the calls) also in the mix with another 12.

• Puerto Rico would have lost by 20, but Coach Cintron brought in Rivera, Camacho and Mojica, who showed the willingness to outplay the starting five.

• Croatia now faces Canada, while Slovenia takes on Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals.

• Germany’s Chris Kaman started well into the game and scored on several occasions. New Zealand’s Pero Cameron converts his threes like always, and the Kiwis are leading by four so far. The gym is filling up with Greek supporters right now.

UPDATE 1:

• Germany crushed New Zealand in the second half thanks to Dirk Nowitzki, who executed well from mid- and long-range for 35 points, while Chris Kaman had a breakout game with 20 points for Germany in showing why he’s one of the better players currently playing in the NBA.

• Frankfurt’s Pascal Roller was very active but his shot wasn’t doing it for him (4 of 10 FG); I still see him in front of Steffen Hamann right now. Kirk Penney slowed down a little bit in the third quarter, but he  came right back in the beginning of the fourth and chipped in a total of 29 points. The Greek fans invaded the stands (Where Nowitzki’s personal coach Holger Geschwindner was sitting, too) to witness a 89-71 win for Germany in the end, and a possible opponent to Greece if they lose against Brazil today.

• The OAKA is finally looking packed, and I am looking forward to covering the game for you guys as well…

UPDATE 2:

• Big game right here at OAKA, the gym is PACKED, and it’s 18-17 in favor of Greece thanks to Spanoulis, who scored eight points in the first quarter while Splitter and Garcia are leading Brazil with seven and six points, respectively. Marcelinho Huertas is displaying great ball-handling skills while Tiago Splitter had a marvelous block against Tsartsaris and is staying cool under the boards to finish  his hook shots in style.

UPDATE 3:

• The best game so far at OAKA, Greece could not profit from three consecutive offensive rebounds,  but Papaloukas brought the crowd to their feet when he threw an alley-oop pass to Fotsis, who dunked it for a 22-19 lead. Sofokles enters the game and earns a standing ovation from the fans. Spanoulis sends Huertas to the ground after pulling down a rebound, but receives no call … Huertas comments with harsh words.

• Marcelinho Machado misses his third three and is not really letting the ball rotate in the air. Greece is now up by eleven points and starts to control the game, while Brazil turns the ball over a few times to give Greece the edge. By the way, Araujo entered the game: He’s supposed to be out with food poisoning … he should have eaten a gyros pita on the street instead of taking his meals in a cheap hotel…

UPDATE 4:

• No chance for Brazil. Greece made it look easy, thanks to the duo of Papaloukas and Fotsis, while they forced Brazil to turn the ball over a couple of times. Huertas has four fouls and can’t help that much on defense while Splitter is having a hard time in the post but steadily scores to keep the deficit at 16 points. The rest of Team Brazil is currently vacationing on the beaches of Athens.

• Fotsis made a spectacular play by tip-dunking a missed shot, while Diamantidis netted a three at the right moment to keep the South Americans within striking distance.

• 68-55 to start the fourth quarter. Zisis is excelling as well and hits a mid-range shot from the left side. Brazil is still not beaten, although I doubt that they can manage to reduce the 15-point difference.

• Greece kept their fast pace and destroyed Brazil in the fourth quarter to win the game, 89-69. Tsartsaris received another block from Splitter but had also a beautiful dunk thanks to a Diamantidis pass into the zone. Alex Garcia scored late on a tip-dunk and screamed out all of his frustration. Even with the second team on the court, Greece dominates against the disappointed Brazilians who now must take on Germany in the quarters.
• Fotsis leads Greece with 18, Spanoulis adds another 14, while Bouroussis and Zisis clinched 10 points for the winning side. Brazil had Tiago with 15 and Tavernari with 14, while JP Batista remained on the bench in the last quarter with 13 points to his credit.
• Greece is going to have a match against the Kiwis right after Germany-Brazil at around 2.30pm Berlin time.

Live from the Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Kris Santiago, a FIBA.com blogger, is in Athens right now, following every game of the pre-Olympic tournament. Here are his notes from today:

• Slovenia is getting better from game to game and could be facing Puerto Rico or Croatia (but I would go with Puerto Rico, as they are looking quite good on the perimeter) in the quarters. Lakovic is solid while Nesterovic feels comfortable attacking the boards. Slokar showed a good all-around game, hitting shots and doing the little things right (Finally some positive news about Uros). Becirovic completes the team that received some help from Miha Zupan in the first game.

• Canada played weaker than expected. Former Skyliner Dave Thomas stepped up during the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough as Carl English and Samuel Dalembert could not repeat their performances from the test games against Germany. Veteran Rowan Barrett is a steady scorer, but the team looked bad on the defensive end.

• Cape Verde is the first team to fly home. The “Trindade” got pounded again, this time by Germany. Young talent Jeff Xavier certainly has some upside (a solid shot and good ball-handling) but is a shoot-first point guard and had some problems adjusting to the game. If his dreams of playing in the NBA don’t come true, he may play in Europe. In order to be effective, Xavier really needs to work on his passing game.

The same goes for most of the players that never played at such a high level in FIBA-organised competitions and struggled against bigger guys like Femerling or Kaman.

• Germany used the game as another test, and had no trouble finishing from the three-point line or under the boards. Kaman is not looking fluid in his actions, as he is still trying to find his niche in the German game. Demond Greene hit some 3s in the beginning, making it crystal clear which team was supposed to win. Young gun Philip Zwiener was the surprise of the day, as he made the starting five and showed off a solid performance, which could lead to a permanent starting job. I personally like Konrad Wysocki; he should be getting more time on the court, getting six points in ten minutes and was ready for more. Oh, I forgot to mention Dirk Nowitzki, who was not flashy but left his mark, was able to rest a lot due to the big lead and should be more tested more against New Zealand tomorrow.

• Puerto Rrrrrico is getting the best out of Carlos Arroyo (Flashy as ever … behind the back, no look, you name it) and … (A real surprise to me) Ricky Sanchez, who was left open at the three-point line and scored at will. Daniel Santiago got some minutes but was not nearly effective as in Malaga, and P.J. Ramos looked better (Well, not his look but his game) against Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje. J.J. Barea is having some trouble displaying his scoring qualities but does his job which includes passing and defending.

• Cameroon is here with a bad karma. They were angry and disappointed regarding their government which failed to support them in a professional manner. Now Harding Nana had a good first game but struggles to find his shot against Puerto Rico. Boumtje-Boumtje is fighting like a bull on both defense and offense, but Cameroon really sometimes lacks the IQ on the court, as they repeatedly left Sanchez alone instead of guarding him closer and made mistakes when switching the player in the wrong moments. Parfait Bitee looks ready for Europe, as he is really doing a great job here, scoring mostly from outside and keeping Barea and Arroyo constantly under pressure. Brice Vounang is a short-sized center with a wide body and knows how to bang but may need to lose some weight in order to perform faster around the basket.

That’s all for now. I’ll keep you posted…

UPDATE: Kris just sent us some more thoughts:

• Cameroon’s Harding Nana got his shot back in the second half and Parfait Bitte, who may land a contract in Europe soon (The D-League is not an option, and his agent Keith Glass is already receiving offers), did his part to bring Cameroon back into the game, but it was Larry Ayuso’s three-pointer that killed Cameroon’s hopes of advancing.

• Cameroon’s coach Lazare Adingono was certainly disappointed with the way things ended for his team, and hopes that the government has seen the positive outing of his team in Athens and tries now to support the team financially so they may bounce back with another strong outcome at the 2009 African Championship in Libya.

• George Felton, director of player personnel, scouted Alexis Wangmene (Texas University) closely these days to see if he is capable of playing against bigger competition. Wangmene was not a big factor offensively while helping out well in limited minutes on the floor on the defensive end, but has a long road to go if he wants to make it to the NBA.

• Brazil is currently destroying Lebanon, and they look quite confident on the floor with Marcelinho Huertas and Murilo Becker da Rosa having already reached double digits in scoring. Now all the players are set to score, and even NBA bust Baby Araujo is doing well on the floor, having no trouble scoring in the paint at all.

BallinEurope goes to Hollywood

BIEGTH - RELAX don’t do it! Everybody knows this hit from the 80s. We’re not from the UK and the UK is not part of the European Union but well - BallinEurope goes to Hollywood, too!

Thanks to FIBA (yes, you Nic!) and the NBA (Rachel Walsh) I will fly to Los Angeles and watch the Euro-Lakers battling the Boston Celtcs in this year’s NBA Finals.

I just booked my flight (and a hotel) from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on June 10th to watch game three and game four on the 12th. learned a few lessons already, as I was at the NBA Finals last year in Cleveland, and even from the Euroleague Final Four. I will not book a flight that arrives three hours before the game starts: You might not get your bags. Second thing: I booked a room in a hotel RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the Staples Center.

Of course we will try to cover the Euro-Lakers and the NBA Finals 2008 as much as we did the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid this May - from our very own European prospective.

You might think, “What does a European basketball blog do in the US, especially at the NBA finals? Take a look at our BallinEurope Guy - doesn’t he look a little bit like Pau Gasol? We never tried to make him look like that but people told us so. I will try to get a hold of Pau and see what he thinks of our guy.

Another reason: To follow the Euro-Lakers! Starting with Italian superstar Kobe Bryant (please get the joke) to Spanish superstar Pau Gasol to all these other European sharp shooters.

Last but not least - We have to follow the enemy: Big, bad American basketball that is all about show and nothing else! (Once again, I am just kidding - I like entertainment :)).

The best thing about this US trip? I get to meet many cool people such as Lang Whitaker from SLAM and Henry Abbott from ESPN. I even planned to visit Henry Abbott at his office in New Jersey later this summer.

10 days to go! Yaaaay!

By the way is anyone else who reads this blog going? I would LOVE to meet up with anyody who reads, likes or hates BallinEurope. Please post a comment if you are!

Euroleague Final Four Final LIVE

Starting at 5.30pm, BallinEurope will bring you the atmosphere and everything else around the game for 3rd place between Siena and Tau as well as the grande finale pitting CSKA Moscow against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Until then we’ll be running around in Madrid, Christophe will follow the Nike international Junior tournament, and we’ll try to meet with some people.

Another crazy Euroleague day is about to start - Stay tuned since we will post a lot of cool things today!

If you want to follow the live blog starting at 5.30, just click here.

Euroleague Final Four LIVE chat

The Final Four is coming closer and closer. Somehow we I feel like I would need some more basketball right now. The Euroleague should find something to fill in the break right?

At least we have the NBA playoffs going on, the FIBA Europcup was going on, as well as the ULEB cup.

But we want to talk EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL again! This is why we will invite every reader tomorrow to join some experts, such as Jonathan Givony from draftexpress.com and Yarone Arbel to join all of us to talk about the final four.

Date: today!

time: 20.30 European time

place: here

If you want to set up a reminder just fill in the form.

ULEB Cup and Euroleague LIVE today

Yes, it is time again for some Live Blogging. Tonight we will cover not lest than three games as the ULEB has gratified us with this schedule. So be prepared to join us from 18h15 CET.

Read more

BallinEurope chats game 3 of the Euroleague Playoffs

If you work with a computer, I am sure skype or any other messenger is the software that you start first on a work day. Well, it isn’t any different for BallinEurope. We do meetings on skype or talk to our partners. I think 50% of the time I spend talking to people on skype.

Since people always want to know what goes on in these “meetings” we decided to publish a chat that I just had with Christophe. Here you go:

Christophe
what do you think about the whole Messina discussion? do you think this is a setup thing by the competitors of CSKA?

Tobias
I think it is just a frustrated GM of CSKA because he knows that Messina might want to leave - he himself said that a change might be good for both sides. Talking about the games - did you read Jiri Zidek’s words on Montepaschi? He really thought Fenerbahce would win - please …

Christophe
I did not read it so far but everybody thinking that Fenerbahce could beat the actual top team in Europe (in my opinion) must be really a big fan of them. I mean, Montepaschi is for me the best TEAM actually and they play great basketball. It was pure show what they celebrated in Istanbul.

Tobias
I think you really should read Jiri Zidek’s media blog - he only goes with easy picks like CSKA, Tau and Maccabi - I am not saying that I know better but you can take his words and add them to any game you want to - like the prediction of the NBA finals - but if I have to pick teams that will win on Wednesday and Thursday, for me any team can win - it is more likely though for me that at least one team will pull off a road win

Christophe
Maccabi and CSKA win at home in my opinion, despite all rumors and stories. But for me the game that could be a surprise is the match up between TAU and Partizan. Not because I like Partizan but TAU really struggles at the moment and they also won the first game at home only because of a short stretch where they gained the lead, without being very good at what they played.

Tobias
You do LIKE Partizan - and as we found out your predictions are always way off so I should go with TAU, FCB and Olympiakos to be sure

Christophe
you can do that, so you bet on a team that went for 28 turnovers this weekend in the ACB. That does not sound very convincing for me.
No but seriously, do you really think that Oly and FCB can advance?

Tobias
I dont think that Olympiakos will just because CSKA is warned and just are the better team - normally at least. For FCB I do think they can win in Maccabi for sure

at least let’s agree that the Tau-Partizan will probably the hardest to predict ok?

Christophe
there you are right

but still, how can Barcelona win in the Nokia Arena of Maccabi? Ok, Maccabi is probably playing not their best season in their home league, they even lost once again this weekend. But still, I think they will have huge support and win against a Barcelona team that you trashed when they came to Roma especially

Tobias
for me - FCB just stepped up starting the Top8 - when I saw them in Rome, I did not even think they make it to the Top16 …

Christophe
well, they just came up with these performances because of Basile’s shooting. I don’t think he will go for another game like that this week. But may, we will see

Tobias
if this no name coach finally would play alex acker and lakovic as they need to play they will win.

Euroleague Top8 LIVE: MPS Siena - Fenerbahce Ülker

Tonight, we will have again one of our famous Live Blogs. Tobias will be Live in the Palasports Mens Sana in Siena and cover the clash between Montepaschi Siena and Fenerbahce Ülker. We will also give you updates on the match-up between TAU Ceramica and Partizan Igokea “Live” from Euroleague TV.
The Live Blogging will start around 20h15.

Euroleague LIVE: Roma - FC Barcelona

Probably the last LIVE blog from Roma - since I don’t think they will go to the Top8. After the two horrible losses by as much as 30 points against CSKA and Barcelona they will face Barcelona again tonight.

Live Blog starts at 8.15pm

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