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Talk about your focus. It was evident at media day that CSKA Moscow’s Aaron Jackson couldn’t wait to get down to the business of prepping for his team’s Euroleague Final Four game against Olympiacos. Nevertheless, he elaborated for about 20 seconds on the prospect of facing his highest-level one-and-done tournament game since his days at Duquesne…
Teodosic: Hero again
In hindsight, this game mathematically meant little: Thanks to the week 5 blowout induced by Barça, CSKA faced the nigh-impossible task of winning by 22 points against the EL-undefeated Spanish side. Revenge blowout or no, however, it was quickly obvious that both teams came unwilling to go into the ‘League break with a loss.
And so going into the fourth quarter, CSKA faced its first true crunch-time test since October. As per BallinEurope tradition, BiE reports Teodosic’s stat line through the first 30 minutes as a bit of a mixed bag: 3-of-4 overall shooting, five rebounds, three steals and five TOs.
Messina sat his starting point guard for the fourth quarter’s first 6½ minutes; despite a couple bursts of nifty transition ball by CSKA, with 3:32 remaining and Ante Tomic sinking two free throws, the Red Army had fallen a point further behind since the fourth-quarter opening.
Then in came Milos. Continue Reading…
For a brief while, the collective imagination of Twitter’s European basketball region was captured by rumors of the CSKA Moscow budget for 2012-13. Naturally, it’s no news when the Big Red Machine spends large sums wheeling and dealing in the off-season, but the rumored figures this year are pretty damn mind-boggling.
CSKA has already been rumored to be in the hunt for many of the prospective names on the big market, most recently Aaron Jackson, who may or may not actually be leaving Gescrap Bilbao Basket after two seasons there. Then there’s Andrei Kirilenko, on a three-year contract with an NBA out clause, who has dropped enough teases about possibly staying with the team to keep folks interested and club accountants nervous.
In any case, Ervinas Spūdys of Lithuania-based Krepsinis.net yesterday tweeted that “According to VTB United League’s numbers, next year’s CSKA budget will be 44 mln. euros, Khimki’s – 18,5 mln. euros.”
Retorted Savaş Birdal of Euro-Step, “Open letter to CSKA Moscow: If you are going to buy the Euroleague title, at least pay the necessary taxes first.”
To put these numbers into perspective (sort of), one list of budgets for Euroleague clubs in 2011-12 follows.
The sickest thing about Gescrap Bilbao Basket’s 93-69 crushing of Liga Endesa rivals Real Madrid in Euroleague play last night? Well, there were a lot of sick things about it, actually. Like the 34-14 score in favor of the home side after one quarter. Like how Bilbao started on a 13-of-14 shooting spree. Like how as a team they finished at 66.0% overall shooting, including a ridiculous 72.9% (27-of-37) on twos.
BiE’ll say no more, because this should be seen to be believed. Highlight clips (including one of those compelling Koyaaniqatsiesque time-lapse videos of arena preparation) and official Euroleague game writeup follow.
(Euroleague) – Gescrap Bilbao Basket sent a message that echoed all around the Euroleague by downing Real Madrid 93-69 in front of a sellout crowd of over 9,000 fans in Bilbao, Spain, on Wednesday. Gescrap and Madrid are tied for second place in Top 16 Group F each with a 2-2 record. Gescrap, however, got the tiebreaker advantage if both teams remain tied at the end of the Top 16 and will advance to quarterfinals if it beats Montepaschi Siena at home and Unicaja Malaga downs Madrid in the Spanish capital.
Congratulations this morning go out from BallinEurope to perhaps the underdog of the year, as Bizkaia Bilbao Basket has advanced to the ACB final by defeating Real Madrid in game four of their semifinal matchup, 80-72.
The club which had never won a playoff game going into 2010-11 dispatched the Euroleague Final Four squad and no. 2 overall seed in Spain with fast-paced play and some nice perimeter defense, holding the Madridistas to just 9-of-25 shooting from the arc. Despite shooting just 41% overall, Bilboa was led by Aaron “Ajax” Jackson (17 points, six rebounds) in the fourth quarter, highlighted by a 14-2 run to close out the game and series.
Bizkaia BB will meet defending ACB champs FC Barcelona in the finals. Highlight clip runs below.
