BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

In hopes of capitalizing on recent success in FIBA tournament play, the burgeoning women’s basketball program in Armenia may be able to add a pair of college ballers from the diaspora currently enjoying some success in the U.S. in the college ranks.

Kate Kevorken is playing her senior year with the University of Nevada, producing nicely for the Wolfpack after cracking the starting lineup in her second season with the program. The two guard bagged her first Western Athletic Conference player of the week award on December 19 thanks to a 25-point (including the game-winner), 11-rebound show against Oregon. Ten days later, “The Encyclopedia” broke her personal scoring mark with 27 points in a losing effort to Mississippi State.

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Mark another player down as, shall we say, somewhat disillusioned with the European basketball experience … and this one’s coming from the ladies’ side.

Joanna Barnes, currently playing with the PAOK Women’s team, blew off some steam in that favorite 21st-century virtual venting arena, Twitter. Tweeted Barnes this morning:

A part of me wants to say F bball, b/c of the under payment & the b/s the put you through for it. #frustrated

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Your lazy Sunday just got a little lazier. BallinEurope gives you another few good minutes of clock killing in rounding up some stories for your perusal. As the NBA lockout continues – and many reckon no blinking will be done by either side on Monday, therefore necessitating cancellation of the 2011-12 schedule’s first two weeks’ worth of games – there’s something of a NBA bent to some headline stories. Get some stuff on Deron Williams, Nicolas Batum, Jose Calderon and Kevin Seraphin below. And video clips!

• In his regular-season debut for SLUC Nancy, Nicolas Batum played all 40 minutes, scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds in his team’s 76-70 victory over JDA Dijon. The Portland Trail Blazer’s first suiting-up for France’s Euroleague side went down last week for an exhibition match against Chalon/Saône.

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A heads-up for those interested in good basketball writing (as well as a shameless plug for BallinEurope): Spain-based website Basketblog has just released the third issue of its bi-monthly online magazine of the same name.

Graced with a sweet cover (see the excellence at right), Revista Basketblog no. 3 features a recap of and commentary on all matters NBA, ACB, Euroleague, Euroleague Women, FIBA World Championship, FIBA Eurobasket Women and beyond on a fat 110 mostly text-filled pages. While most of the publication is Spanish-language only, interviews with basketball writers Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, Jeff Fox of HoopsManifesto, Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld, Ben Osborne of Slam and yours truly are presented in both English and Spanish – all in all, this is a bilingual basketball bonanza.

The entire issue of Revista Basketblog in PDF format may be downloaded here.

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In advance of last weekend’s all-star game, the WNBA released its list of the 15 greatest players to ever play in the league. The official list runs as follows:

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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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Congratulations go out from BallinEurope this morning to the ladies of Team Russia, who claimed their third FIBA EuroBasket Women title with a convincing 59-42 win against Turkey in the championship match last night. Elena Danilochkina, who went for 12 points in the final and averaged 13.9 in the tournament, was named MVP; former EuroBasket MVP Maria Stepanova also contributed a monster game of 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.

Official FIBA writeup follows.

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If there were any doubt that Turkey is experiencing a bona fide golden age of basketball, look no further than the FIBA EuroBasket Women championship match tonight. The unheralded Team Turkey will take on pre-tournament favorites/historically dominant Russia in Lodz tonight.

At stake is an automatic bid in the 2012 Olympic Games, but one can’t help imagining both of these sides to be playing in London next year: The losing team is already set to play in the Olympic qualifying round, along with Croatia, the Czech Republic and France.

Turkey overcame defending champions France in the semifinal in a 66-62 overtime thriller, leading to what center Nevin Nevlin calls “a huge moment for Turkish basketball. It’s history. We’re part of it. We’re very proud and we know 70 million people back home are proud of us.”

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The 2010-11 professional basketball season may effectively be over this weekend, with a final championship series game scheduled in Germany tonight plus a possible elimination game in Italy happening on Sunday. But no worries: the end of club play means the beginning of summertime national-team tournaments, starting with the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket Women competition.

In the land of Nowitzki, another crazy Bundesliga tournament will be finished tonight as Brose Baskets Bamberg hosts Alba Berlin in the decisive game five for the BBL title and a Euroleague bid for 2011-12.

The back-and-forth series saw game four won handily by Alba Berlin, 87-67, after a shaky first quarter. Derrick Allen led the way for Berlin with 18 points in knotting up the series at 2-2. Game five is available for watching live online via the German-language Sport 1 YouTube channel. Tipoff is set for 8.30pm CET (2.30pm EST).

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European basketball leagues and the NBA may be coming to a close for 2010-11, but there’s still plenty of hoops to keep up with – and even more online video clips for the watching! BallinEurope starts your Sunday with a dozen clips shot in the U.S., Greece, Spain, Israel and other locales. Enjoy today’s action (Olympiacos-Panathinaikos! ACB semifinals!) … after checking out BiE’s playlist, of course.

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