BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

All right, time for more speculation. To wit: Which European team could be most in need of a locked-out point guard itching to play some minutes?

The CV of the player in question includes turns on the gold-medal Team USA of the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in addition to performances in the Nike Hoop Summit, the McDonald’s All-American Game, and the Jordan Brand Classic – all in 2010. Beyond these, he’s got about a half-season with Duke University under his belt with a stat line including 17.4 points and 5.1 assists per game.

We’re talking about no less than Australian-American Kyrie Irving here, the no. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft currently on lockout and getting frustrated. Today, on yet another day of reckoning for labor relations in the big league, the former Blue Devil tweeted:

“if a deal doesn’t get done soon … overseas here i come”

Well, we’ll welcome you, Kyrie. And, just to get things started, BiE understands Virtus Bologna may have some money to throw around…

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The "beautiful, enigmatic bastard"

Lazy Sunday? Great: BallinEurope has just the thing to occupy your time! Below run some quality articles and gawk-worthy YouTubes from the week that was in European basketball and NBA lockout land for your perusal. The bullet-point format is in effect and the show stars Danny Green, Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Walter Szczerbiak, Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson. Enjoy!

• For an excellent and thorough piece on the Real Madrid offense (and concomitant weak interior defense) in light of Thursday night’s Euroleague loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv, check out this work at In The Game. Figures writer Rod Higgins in part: “…it is doubtful that [Real’s] current style will serve them particularly well once the regular season is over. Madrid get most of their wins by simply outscoring their opponents. This means that they have to improve defensively; Bilbao, Milano and Maccabi have repeatedly exposed the weak interior defense of the Merengues earlier in the season…”

• Hey, some positivity for the Lithuanian fans! Roll the top 10 plays by Lietuvos Rytas in October!

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Some news from organizers of the upcoming interesting Holland-based EuroJam 2011 tournament, which pits NCAA men’s and women’s sides against European national teams.

Confirmed for the tournament are NBA Dutchmen Francisco Elson of the Utah Jazz and Dan Gadzuric of the New Jersey Nets – BallinEurope can’t help but speculate as to whether the latter will be using his off-time during the tournament to field offers from European clubs, what with the mass exodus of Nets to the Continent. (NetsDaily hints that Gadzuric’s appearance in the tournament may depend on insurance issues.)

The Sacramento Kings’ Omri Casspi is slated to play for Team Israel in the tourney as well; more on this below.

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The most interesting basketball tournament happening in Europe before Eurobasket? Check out an event called EuroJam 2011 going down August 12-14 in Almere, Holland.

As what is slated to be the first in a series of Europe-based international tournaments, EuroJam will feature six men’s teams and two women’s teams to play over the three days of the event, which also promises an entire “Sport Experience” for fans and professionals.

Competing on the men’s side of the bracket will be national teams from Georgia, Israel and the Netherlands; this quartet will be joined by the Villanova University squad. The women’s “tournament” actually consists of two games pitting the Netherlands’ team against the Boston College Eagles.

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Just because professional basketball is in the midst of a lull right now doesn’t mean BallinEurope can’t bring you a “dunk of the week” clip.

The Oregon State University basketball team is currently in FYR Macedonia participating in “Beavers without Borders,” a charitable program in which the student-athletes are doing a little infrastructural improvement for the less fortunate … as well as some infrastructural destruction, it seems.

In a recent exhibition game there, Roberto “Maybe I’m Strong” Nelson showed some power against Skopje in shattering a backboard with a thunderous dunk. Check out the video below for Nelson’s “you are there” commentary. Let’s just hope Nelson returns home with a less painful souvenir than the 20 stitches in his face…

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For all those who figured Ricky Rubio to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the 2011-12 season was a done deal, well, think again. ESPN.com is today reporting the Rubio and his agent are in fact willing to discuss staying on with new ACB champions FC Barcelona.

On his NBA deal (or lack thereof), Rubio stated in a post-game press conference after the clinching game three of the Spanish championship that “We are talking with Barcelona and we will soon see” about what happens next season.”

The ESPN piece also reports some nice words from Duke University/Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose informal scouting report on Rubio says that “He’s gotten bigger and he plays outstanding defense, and because he’s a pass-first guard, he’s going to be liked by everybody who plays with him.”

Naturally, Twitter land is already abuzz with the news, perhaps best summed up by tweeter JayValdez559, who stated “Oh Ricky Rubio you tease! Poor K-Love. T’Wolves lose again.”

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A brief note from University of Kentucky basketball land and an interesting trick from coach John Calipari’s tactical bag: At practice, the Wildcat coach “instructed the team to call Kentucky’s lone senior Josh Harrellson ‘Enes Kanter’ for last night and all day” in the leadup to the Kentucy-Ohio State NCAA tournament game on Friday night.

“Just to get me going a little bit and I think it worked,” Harrellson explained in the post-game, “I came out and played like Enes would play. I think it was a good thing.”

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Taylor drives Vanderbilt

Today, then, a brief look at the 13 Europeans participating in today’s first round action.

Headlining the Europack is definitely Vanderbilt’s Jeffery Taylor. Hailing from Norrkoping, Sweden, the junior averaged a fantastic line of 15.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 stocks (steals plus blocks, stat category courtesy Bill Simmons) – all career highs excepting the boards – while representing the centerpiece of the Commodores’ offense after packing 25 pounds on during the offseason.

Worse yet for Vandy opponents Richmond: Local media covering the SEC tournament report that Taylor has found “a part of his game that has been missing at times this season,” namely aggressiveness – to the tune of 20.66 points per in three tourney games on 19-of-27 shooting on twos. “I think before [the SEC Tournament], I kind of faded in and out of aggressiveness,” the Swede was quoted as saying. Said aggression would prove useful in the bigger tournament: Vanderbilt has run up a record of 17-3 this season when Taylor scores 15 points or more.

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Oh yes, Ruben gets posterized

So what else are you going to do today while waiting for, say, Panellinios vs. Panathinaikos (tipoff time 5pm CET/11am EST) or Lugan Aro vs. Barcelona (tipoff time 6pm CET/noon EST)? Sounds to BiE like YouTube time.

Here’s the latest of the “Top 100 Dunks of All-Time” breed. Though it’s skewed heavily toward the showman-type stuff that doesn’t actually take place within the confines of an official game, this is a nicely-edited ‘Tube with mostly fantastic jams.

Unfortunately, too, players from The Continent are represented pretty scantily and are mostly on the wrong end of the poster. True to form, ever-reliable Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje is crushed at #90. Bostjan Nachbar’s NBA turn is punctuated emphatically by Gerald Wallace at #62. Andrei Kirilenko gets smoked in a classic at #55…

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‘Stateside, this weekend saw the tipping off of college basketball across the country and, while most prospects from The Continent are avoiding the Kanter treatment to simply play with club teams here, BallinEurope still has eyes on a handful of European players looking to make an impact in the NCAA in 2010-11. Our official preseason NCAA All-European team comprises the following players, quite a few of which should be playing high-level professional hoops before all is said and done.

• Patrik Auda, Czech Republic; Seton Hall. Kevin Willard got something of a nice working holiday this spring as he checked out players at the Carnarias Basketball Academy in the Canary Islands. The fans were then gifted with their new 6’9” lefty forward in Auda. Willard and his recruiters reportedly had an eye on Auda throughout last season, including the Czechs’ personal highlight of an All-Tournament Team nod for the National Prep School Invitational held in Rhode Island in February.

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