Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream yesterday announced they’d acquired the rights to BallinEurope fave Team Hungary/MiZo Pécs guard Dalma Iványi from the San Antonio Silver Stars for center Michelle Snow.

Iványi is currently good for a line of 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game in the Hungarian league; in 13 games’ worth of Euroleague Women play, she was good for 7.6 ppg and a sliver under 7.5 rpg. Iványi really crashed the sports headlines last week when she went for a triple-double of 24/11/10 against EL final four team Wisla Can-Pack.

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Here’s a quick YouTube fix for you if you need it this morning: Highlights and post-game revelry from Wednesday night’s FIBA Euroleague Women final eight game which saw Wisla Can-Pack advance by defeating Frisco Sika Brno, 78-73. Either way, the match was fated to be the last EL game in Poland, with the ladies now going into the Final Four playoffs; Janell Burse and the Wisla women did not disappoint.

Damn, they get *up* for their girls in Krakow – no joke, these devotees have got to be the closest thing to the Pionir faithful that EL Women has…

(Video follows the break.)

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With an official statement from the host nation’s basketball federation and little more, Team Azerbaijan has been announced as no longer participating in this summer’s European Championship Women Division C.
Armenian Basketball Federation president Grachya Rostomyan stated simply that “Azerbaijani basketball team has rejected” the offer to play in the competition. FIBA Europe had informed the ABF of the decision on Tuesday.

Azerbaijan Basketball Federation executive director Rustam Rustamov later explained that “in November of last year when we appealed for participation in the European championship, we did not know where it will be held. This January, FIBA Europe decided to hold the contest in Yerevan. Taking into account the fact that this is a female team and considering the wishes of the basketball players and their parents, it was decided to reject participation in the contest in the hostile country.”

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Burse drives Wisla Can-Pack

In the final remaining game of the Euroleague Women quarterfinal playoffs going down tonight between Frisco Sika Brno and Wisla Can-Pack, it’s not a question of whether an improbable run will continue but rather *which* improbable run.

Brno has faced elimination on three occasions in this tournament already, the most recent coming in game two of this round last Wednesday when the Czech side defended homecourt and, oh, what the hell, here’s the entire FIBA Europe writeup:

Frisco Sika Brno earned a decisive game three in their Quarter-Final Play-Off series with Wisla Can-Pack Krakow, handing their Polish opponents an 87-72 loss.

Brno dominated the third and fourth quarters, leading by as many as 24 with five minutes left in the game.

Eva Viteckova led the way for the Czechs with 25 points on five of eight shooting from behind the three-point line. Taj McWilliams added 20 points and nine rebounds.

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Ready for July? Just released from FIBA is the organization’s first promo video for the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women, a slick four-minute clip packed with highlights and, um, logos.

Alongside hosts France, Continental teams competing in the 12-team tournament include Belgium, Russia, Spain and Turkey.

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Salamanca's big dreams up to Lyttle

The Euroleague Women’s “Eighth-final playoffs” conclude tonight with three best-of-three series looking to be settled. Teams already set to play in EL Women quarterfinals include Spartak Moscow region, Fenerbahce Ulker, UMMC Ekaterinburg, Good Angels Kosice, and Ros Casares.

The winner of tonight’s Halcon Avenida-Bourges Basket match will see Ros Casares in the next round; surely to be considered a favorite to take the entire competition, Ros Casares has outscored opponents by an average 16 points in 15 Euroleague Women games played thus far. A quarterfinal pairing of Ros Casares against Halcon Avenida seems like a dream matchup of star teams – except that the Salamanca side has been stumbling as of late.

Despite a roster featuring Team Spain sensations Marta Xargay and Alba Torrens together with all-around threat Sancho Lyttle (averaging 17.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per in 12 Euroleague Women games), Halcon Avenida finds its backs against the wall despite a recent five-game win streak in which Salamanca thrice outscored opponents by 18 or more. The last of that opposition was Bourges, who pulled off the gritty home win over the heavy favorites last Friday.

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This story is just in and so congratulations are just going out from Ball in Europe to Alba Torrens, who has taken the first of FIBA’s four annual “player of the year” awards, taking the 2009 Young Women’s Player of the Year. Finishing behind Torrens in the voting were, in order, Louice Halvarrson, Jelena Milovanovic and Gintare Petronyte.

Official FIBA press release follows the break.

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Torrens: Bie's pick

FIBA Europe will be naming its Young Women’s Player of the year tomorrow in the first of four such awards given annually by the Continental organization. And the nominees are … Elina Babkina, Katerina Elhotova, Dürdane Gümüsay, Louice Halvarsson, Olesia Malashenko, Jelena Milovanovic, Sabine Niedola, Gintare Petronyte, Sonja Petrovic, Melanie Plust, Alba Torrens, and Marta Xargay. (Brief official FIBA bios run below the break.)

Ball in Europe is sticking by its December endorsement of Alba Torrens of Team Spain/Perfumerias Avenida (Salamanca) for this award. Torrens was most recently in the news for her placement on the “Europe” side for the Euroleague women all-star game alongside Continental notables such as Marta Fernandez, Becky Hammon and Anna Vajda. The World team includes DeLisha Milton-Jones and the always-linkable Erin Phillips. Torrens is the youngest player named to either roster.

Following the Young Women’s Player of the Year announcement, FIBA Europe will go on to name its Young Men’s Player of the Year on February 10, Women’s Player of the Year on February 12, and Men’s Player of the Year of February 15. Last year’s winners were Gintare Petronyte, Ricky Rubio, Maria Stepanov and Pau Gasol.

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Though Verena Lehner will make women’s basketball history on Friday night as the first European woman ever to suit up for the Yale Elis, she has been barred from competition since 2008 due to what was deemed a violation of NCAA eligibility requirements.

The Austria-born Lehner was discovered to have played under contract for a team in the Österreichische Basketball Bundesliga (a.k.a. the AWBL) during the 2006-07 season, clearly a conflict of statutes that state would-be NCAA players may not have ever been signed to a professional sports contract. Legal representatives managed to successfully appeal to the NCAA based on the argument that Lehner had actually paid out more to the unnamed team than had been compensated her.

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Gorbunova says Ukraine advances

The draw for FIBA EuroBasket 2011 Qualifying Round games in the men’s and women’s competitions is over, and the reactions are pouring in.

The men’s half will consist of three groups of five teams each. Group A has Finland, Israel, Italy, Latvia and Montenegro; Group B is Bosnia & Herzegovina, Great Britain, Hungary, FYR Macedonia and Ukraine; while Group C squares off Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland and Portugal.

Naturally, following the draw, all quotebooks were open with plenty of comments filling FIBAEurope.com cyberspace today.

Team Great Britain coach Chris Finch, citing his team’s last performance in a “group of death” scenario, stated confidently that “With everyone available and the ability to prepare for this campaign correctly, I see no reason why we can’t be one of the main contenders for qualifying.” Good man, Finch! Now get to it before the 2012 London Games, there’s a good fellow.

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