Tips from the Euroleague boss: Week 6

Hi everyone, this is once again Javier Gancedo, as always from the Euroleague Basketball headquarters at Palau Sant Jordi. Well, not always, since it is my day off today, and I’m at home chilling out in Barcelona.

First of all, the fact that I know nothing about basketball kills me. I come up with The Golden Rule about CSKA and you know what happened: Armani Jeans Milano downed the reigning Euroleague champions and David Hawkins had a fantastic game. I was shocked to see Real Madrid rally from a 28-point deficit only to lose on a running layup by Aaron Miles. Hopefully, Miles will no longer be missed in my hometown Sevilla since DeJuan Collins is in town. I’m already going to the game against DKV Joventut next week with stuff from KFC and some private DVDs to make sure he plays well.

Like I said, I am still fortunate to keep my spot here at BallinEurope. OK, I choked with the CSKA Golden Rule thing, but I think that my team is doing a pretty good job this season. It’s not easy to anticipate what you do and still be one of the top teams in the private league. Making it to the Top 3 will be difficult: There are very good teams out there. First of all and above all, keep in mind that THE DEADLINE IS ON TUESDAY AT 19:00, because Alba Berlin has an early game this week. You have been warned…

As for my team, let’s see what we have - I always do the trades live as I write this article, I think it makes it fresher. You don’t know how many times I erase parts of the text and come back. Anyway, Mirza Begic has to go because I think he reached his maximum level already and this is a little bit like the stock exchange. Let’s see what happens with the new coach and then Begic may be back.

I’ll stick to my CSKA Golden Rule, so Aaron Miles is my second trade this week. I’ve already opted to release Mirsad Turkcan because Semih Erden is back and so Turkcan will play fewer minutes. The game against Alba is a good one for him, however, but I want Tiago Splitter in my team no matter what; not because I think he will do well against Olimpija - Begic is tall and Vladimir Golubovic is aggressive and tough - but because I want to keep him for the remainder of the season.

My second trade is Terrell McIntyre, even when he will play against Barcelona in two weeks’ time and I don’t expect a big game for him then. Still, he should play well against Zalgiris this week. I have very limited money for the third trade, so I’m going to shock you all: Vedran Vukusic. He’s coming off a couple of good games and playing good minutes lately. He faces Cibona, so he can open the court with three-pointers. If they fall in, I will strike gold. If they don’t, well, erm… What’s next? Ah yeah, my team looks like this, then:

Terrell McIntyre - should be a good game for him against Zalgiris. A bit afraid that Mantas Kalnietis guards him.
Lynn Greer - Would have traded him if I had a fourth. That game against Unicaja in Malaga doesn’t look good.

Jonas Maciulis - The Bull is ready to go against the entire Montepaschi backcourt. He played well vs. L.Rytas this weekend.

Rimantas Kaukenas - I don’t like to have players that face each other, but I expect Kaukenas AND Maciulis to do well.

Juan Carlos Navarro - It’s a make-or-break game for Barcelona to win its group. Expect “La Bomba” to deliver.

Chris Warren - Well, I had other priorities, to be honest. Warren is solid and plays at home against a high-scoring team.

Tiago Splitter - Chose him over teammate Igor Rakocevic. Should stay in my fantasy team for good.

Andre Hutson - Has been rock-solid lately and is still underpriced. He’s had good games in Badalona before.

Vedran Vukusic - The big gamble. Hopefully he will read the game well and bomb Alain Koffi and Pape Badiane from downtown.

Mike Batiste - Honestly, I would have prefered Nikola Pekovic, but Batiste should do well against Regal FCB.

As usual, good luck, make wise choices and see you next week!

Yarone’s Weekend Joints - Part II

Part II of the Weekend Joints is presented to you with visits to Kaunas, Nancy’s hot dog stands, Pionir, Milano and Greece. Can’t go wrong with that route.

The matchup that never happened

The Le Mans-Unicaja match had the potential to host one of the most intriguing match-ups Euroleague 2008/09 can offer. Unicaja’s big lead allowed coach Aito Garcia Reneses to send 1989-born guard Raimundo Lopez De Vinuesa, who certainly sports one of the coolest names in the competition, on court for the closing minutes. On the other bench waited Le Mans’ 1990 born guard Pierre-Etienne Drouault, but coach Jackson decided to keep him there, preventing two of the longest names in the Euroleague to go head-to-head. Who cares about Chase vs. Cook who these two young fellas can challenge any TV commentator?

Cyril goes on the road

Some players feel better at home. The rims are more familiar, the chants of the fans give them confidence, the five-minutes-before-tipoff hot dogs taste better and the cheerleaders, too. For Nancy’s Cyril Julian the case is different. Maybe he’s not a big fan of the local rims, perhaps the fans haven’t found a cool rhyme for his name; it’s possible the Nancy hot dogs are too expensive, and the cheerleaders…

So far in two home games, Julian hasn’t scored more than six points, hasn’t grabbed more than five rebounds and his highest index rating is thus far six. On the road, in three difficult spots as at Sopot, at Montepaschi and at Barcelona, he has scored at least 17 points, seven rebounds, and an index of at least 23.

Milos and Peja’s home visit

When players go back to face their former team, in an arena they are very familiar with, they usually excel more than the usual. When Milos Vujanic went back to Pionir with Efes to meet Partizan, he was anything but excelling. Milos grew up in Red Star, which is yet another great reason for him to do his best to torture Partizan, but made his breakthrough to Europe’s center stage with Partizan. In 2002/03, he was the top scorer of the Euroleague at 25.8 points per game.

Actually if you count only his games in Pionir, his season low was 26 points. His next visit to Pionir was in 2004/05 with Fortitudo Bologna, and he scored 25 with five assists to reach an index of 26. Leave out his next and last visit, as a back up player of Pao, and you’ll find his visit this week, once again as a key leading player, as the exception. Vujanic fouled out after less than 23 minutes on court in which he went only 2-for-5 from the field, scored eight points and lost three balls.

Even for Predrag Drobnjak, in his re-debut with Efes, in a gym he spent so many hours and big games on his way to greatness and the way back from there, it wasn’t a happy visit. The veteran played less than four minutes, scored two points and turned the ball over once.

Showing how to get it done

So Milos blew his home coming game against Partizan, but there’s someone who didn’t. The story goes that in the 1999/2000 season Sarunas Jasikevicius returned to his hometown Kaunas with Olimpija. The season before that, he had returned from five years in the USA and wanted to fulfill the dream of any Kaunas kid: to wear the jersey of Zalgiris. Only the green club had different ideas, so the kid had to cross the street and play for Rytas.

Zalgiris went on to win their historical Euroleague title that season, but Saras waited for the right time. In that Zalgiris-Olimpija game, the locals held a 17-point lead before Saras led his team back in the game, all the way to an 85-84 win. With the buzzer, Saras started his own private celebration. He ran around the court for a while with his fists in the air, expressing his joy in the most extroverted possible way. Legend tells he even stopped in front of Zalgiris bench and said “My name is Sarunas. I grew up here, but you didn’t want me and now I beat you,” or something like that.

Whether there’s any truth to that legend or not doesn’t really matter. His obvious post-game celebrations were noticed by all, but it doesn’t seem like it was enough for Saras to feel like he had cashed his check yet. In any season he faced Zalgiris, there was at least one game in which he excelled (and in the other less so). Even his career highs in points (37) and index rating (37) were tallied against his hometown team in the famous game in Tel Aviv when the teams went head-to-head for a win-or-die Final Four ticket match. This season has been no exception: One week after we mentioned his streak was over after he finished a Euroleague game with no points, came a 15-point, four-assist, 22-index night in less than 22 minutes at Zalgiris.

Mirror performance

Olimpija’s Mirza Begic was one of the nicest surprises in the first three weeks of the Euroleague; once teams put more focus on him, though, things have changed, and Begic has not reached double-digits in the last three weeks. The best example of the change was this week, when his team suffered its worst home defeat ever, 86-65 to Joventut. When the teams met in Week 1, back in the day when Joventut still had Pops, Begic scored 17 points on 8-for-9 from the field and 1-for-3 from the line. This week, they didn’t leave him a choice, played much more physical defense on him, and didn’t allow him any easy baskets. Begic finished the game versus Joventut almost with numbers mirroring the first encounter: 0-for-1 from the field and 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. Kudos to Joventut’s bigs and coach Sito Alonso for a well executed plan.

Devil Smith

Devin Smith arrived in Istanbul as an intriguing player. The season before, he had led Avellino to a great campaign which eventually got them a ticket into the Euroleague. With Fenerbahce Ulker, Smith is doing well in the Turkish league but so far hasn’t foundnd his game in the Euroleague. He stands on only eight points per game with a sub-39% two-point ratio and awful 14.8% from long range. Actually, if you take out his game at Joventut, Smith has made just one three-pointer on 20 attempts in five games.

This week, Smith tallied his worst game yet, finishing the match against Tau missing all his six attempts from the field, didn’t make it to the line even once and committed three turnovers. In total, that’s a minus-5 index rating. Some might say the Euroleague is too big for Smith, and that’s debatable, but he’s still a better player than the numbers show so far. If it’s any comfort, his block on Begic near the end of the 2OT win over Olimpija will stay one of the highlights of the season.

When it all connects

Already last week it was pointed out here that CSKA Moscow is having trouble on the road. The near losses in Madrid and Beograd included a few made three pointer nights, and it was the same in Milano. This time, the percentages were much better, but CSKA connected only five times from long range. Matjaz Smodis finished 0-for-4 from the field but 8-for-8 from the line, and Siska … well, that was covered already. Zoran Planinic was sweeter than sweet in the first half while CSKA took a 20-point lead on the way to what seemed like another walk in the park, but … not that night.

So you know youngster Luca Vitali, a long-time Italian prospect, shone at five for six from long range, but the performance of David Hawkins in the last 11 minutes of the game was something you have to catch. He scored 15 points in that span, including seven in the final two minutes and the last five points from Milano in the game. In that run he missed just a single shot, and broke CSKA’s defense piece by piece. Even more surprisingly was the return to life, at least for a few minutes, of Massimo Bulleri, who scored six points in the fourth quarter. What stood out most in this win was Milano’s aggressive defense, especially in the fourth. For several minutes, it actually felt like CSKA was facing a … CSKA defense.

The uncompleted comeback

Last week, you were asked to check out the “Play of the Week”: Aaron Miles’ coast-to-coast drive to beat the halftime buzzer. This week his coast-to-coast to beat the buzzer also beat Real Madrid, but the story of the game was Real’s comeback. The Whites actually started the game with a 10-2 lead. but from that moment Panionios took over and in the next 20 minutes went on a 53-17 run, to reach a 55-27 lead in the 27th minute.

Then it all started. Real stormed back with a 31-5 run in nine minutes and later on even got the lead back, but their run is worth a closer look. During those nine minutes, Panionios made no fewer than eight turnovers, almost one per minute, but if you think Real was perfect on the other side, you’ve got the wrong picture. Coach Joan Plaza’s boys were actually 5-of-11 from the free throw line and lost four balls in that run but still managed to get it done. It was thanks to massive control on the offensive glass, where their hands were quicker or longer no fewer than eight times. Those extra possessions and easier access to the basket, as usually happens after an offensive rebound, allowed them to stand on 11-of-17 from the field in that run. Marko Tomas was the main man behind the comeback when he scored all of his 18 points of the game in the closing 13 minutes.

My Euroleague Wednesday

When I came home tonight, I immediately checked on the situation in the different Euroleague games was. And it looked like the two first games of the day would become blowouts: Olympiacos finally beat Air Avellino without any trouble, but the score between Panionios and Real Madrid somehow surprised me as the Greeks were up by like 20 points. A quick check on Skype gave me the explication, Panionios had a 31-6 run.

But the second half of the game gave us a fantastic opportunity to see a nice scoring run, as Real Madrid made an incredible 31-5 run in order to get as close as two points in the last two minutes. Despite the big trouble the Euroleague TV commentator had in pronouncing the Greek names, we had a real nail-biter in the final seconds. And it was Aaron Miles with two very bad decisions against the Real Madrid zone that gave Real Madrid the possibility to lead for the first time in the second half. The momentum switch was really tangible through the DSL lines. But a super stupid foul by Alex Mumbru gave a two-point lead back to Panionios with two free throws, but Marko Tomas had to step to the line after a Partizan-CSKA final-second possession and he made both. But the aforementioned Miles was the game winner with an “easy layup” according to the commentator after a full-court run.

Speaking of close games, I switched to Le Mans for their game against Le Mans with Alain “Coffee” Koffi on the jump ball. So I preferred to turn down the sound of EL.TV and put Pionir on full power on RTS Sat despite not understanding a word of the probably very interesting Serbian announcers. Le Mans came off a really bad start and trailed 23-11 after the first quarter while Serbian TV had problems with the sound and the graphics, as the Grobari were probably jumping on the cables.

A very interesting call happened in the meantime in Belgrade, where Kaya Peker got an offensive foul for pushing Stephane Lasme’s arm away on a layup attempt. This is a very common call in the United States but is hardly every seen in Europe, especially if it happens in the no-offensive-foul call zone of the half-circle. At the same time, Pape Badiane scores for Unicaja on a Enzo Tsonga assist according to the commentator. (NB.: both are players of Le Mans) I have to add that I really like EL.TV but these are incredible errors, especially if you mess up player names four times in two minutes.

In Le Mans, we have halftime and the game between AJ Milano and CSKA Moscow seems already decided after eight minutes, when the Russians lead 21-5 in the once again half-empty Datchforum in Milan. IN addition to all the trouble, there seems to be a general sound problem with Euroleague games tonight as now even the EL.TV commentators have shut up and no sound from the arenas is coming out of my speakers. Watching basketball without sound is really strange — kinda like Sarunas Jasikevicius without the talking. Oh, it’s halftime in Belgrade on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Charles Smith (1m95) over Slavko Vranes (2m29).

And during halftime, it is time for a little off-topic. On the Serbian RTS Sat channel, the break is used for advertising by travel agencies in Switzerland and German cell phone companies. Globalization! On the other hand, I just read that the Bundesliga team LTi Giessen 46ers signed a new manager in Vladi Bogojevic. Nothing special, you may think, but knowing the difficult financial situation of the German team, GM Christoph Syring told the press: I really believe that much in Vladi’s abilities, that I have accepted a reduction to my own salary. You must be kidding me…

While I was writing this off-topic, Unicaja has already increased their lead to 18 and we will have another blowout win very probably tonight as now, even Boniface N’Dong hits a three pointer after a multitude of dunks to close a 19-2 run in the last quarter. This is really a pity to watch the French team right now where only Alain Koffi seems to be concerned.

So it’s time to move to Milan, where Armani Jeans is coming back in the race as they start the second half on an 11-2 run to be at only eight points down. But that’s the moment for EL.TV blocks the stream for whatever reason. In Belgrade, Partizan is still holding their advantage so it looks like Milano is the place to be to see some exciting action tonight. And it seems also to be the night of the interesting referee decisions as one of the three refs gets caught with the new backcourt rules and calls a violation to AJ Milano but immediately takes it back as he was wrong. By the way, has anybody mentioned that Piero Bucchi is as always the best dressed head coach of the Euroleague? Well, it may be no surprise when you are sponsored by Armani Jeans.

In the meantime, Novica Velcikovic decides the game in Belgrade for another win of Partizan against Efes Pilsen despite some late second turnovers by Uros Tripkovic.  David Hawkins however scores a very big bucket to give Milano a four-point lead with three minutes to go. As I said beforehand in David Hein’s Live Blog, I see AJ Milano having a chance beating CSKA but I really didn’t believe in my words after the first minutes of the game. (OT: I just got outbid on an Ebay auction, damn…)

As incredible as my loss in the Ebay auction is, the fact that Victor Khryapa may become the game winner in Milan with a big time steal to open the final minute. But it is David Hawkins who brings AJ Milano back in front with two very tough shots over the former Chicago Bull. And the impossible happens, as Ramunas Siskauskas loses the ball and the win five seconds before the buzzer, with AJ Milano (as predicted) winning over the heretofore unbeaten Russian team.

What a great ending to my Euroleague Wednesday!

Tips from the Euroleague boss: Week 5

Hello everybody, once again this is Javier Gancedo, as always from Euroleague.net. What a Euroleague week it was, friends! First-time winners Union Olimpija and AJ Milano, the best Real Madrid show of the season, an impossible end to that Partizan-CSKA showdown, TWO overtime thrillers in Zagreb and Le Mans and above all, an instant classic between Tau Ceramica and DKV Joventut: If you have Euroleague TV, check it if you can, if not, well… there are ways and ways to get DVDs all over the continent. The Eurocup has also begun and we’re happy that our new game, the Eurocup FabFive Challenge, has got some positive response from people out there. It’s too early to say but all the favourites - in the Eurocup, that is, not in the game - are already showing their credentials.

To be perfectly honest - and back to the NIKEiD Euroleague Fantasy Challenge; that’s what I’m here for, after all - I think I’m playing beyond expectations, with few mistakes and too much luck. I got almost 160 points this week, climbed to the fifth spot in the BallinEurope private league and suddenly I feel I’m running out of stamina. This week was the hardest one for me to trade in the entire season. My guess is that since this is the first week of the record round of regular-season games, you can always look back and see what happened back then.

In Week 1, Will McDonald of Tau Ceramica was the MVP, but he didn’t have Tiago Splitter in top shape back then. Rawle Marshall of Cibona was second with a 29 index, but his stock had dropped a little, especially since that Adriatic League fight we don’t want to remember. D’or Fischer of Maccabi has a 28 index but he has not been playing that much since that game. Same with Mirza Begic of Union Olimpija and Ersan Ilyasova of Regal FCB, who completed the Top 5 that week.

There isn’t much reference there, is there? That’s why I think it is so tough to trade this week. I’m not alone in this, as BallinEurope editor Christophe (http://www.ballineurope.com/fantasy-leagues/euroleague-fantasy-challenge/fantasy-challenge-follow-your-own-tips/) is also going absolutely nuts. From now on, a whole different game begins. It’s not about accumulating money, but analyzing opponents, injuries, considering if your player is going against high-scoring teams … Stuff like that.

So this is what I did, and remember, I could be perfectly wrong. First of all, Emir Preldzic has to go. He was a great buy for a while, but his underachieving performance added to the fact that Pete Mickeal is back and ready to give any defender a LOT of trouble make me consider that Preldzic should be traded - no matter that I think he’s one of the most exciting players to watch in the entire continent. I am also selling Chris Warren, because Avellino plays Olympiacos on the road and that is always tough. Plus Warren is quite expensive and gives me some room to improve my team a bit.

I have decided to keep Begic to cash in the credits, so I am trading Mike Hall. Yes, he is way underrated and yes, he did very well against Panionios On Telecoms last week, but there is the golden rule. Oh, I hear you asking, what is the golden rule? One I follow each and every time:

THE GOLDEN RULE: NEVER USE PLAYERS FACING CSKA MOSCOW THAT WEEK!

So Hall has to go, too. I am buying Juan Carlos Navarro, a good player at just 55 credits, going against SLUC Nancy this week. He may face a hypermotivated Michel Morandais going against him, his former teammate, but I will take the risk. Trying to buy a center that I actually like is virtually impossible. Everyone is going against tough opponents, is very expensive, I don’t like them that week… so I’ll go for the obvious choice: Andre Hutson, Lottomatica Roma, just because he’s underrated and is in great shape. I ain’t going to think too much about the other SG/SF and take the most expensive player available: Rimantas Kaukenas. Montepaschi faces Prokom Trefl Sopot, with no Lithuanians to battle against this time around. Well anyway, I will take the chance.

So my team goes like this:

Aaron Miles - in great shape. Facing Real Madrid without Pepe Sanchez in the house. He should be solid.

Lynn Greer - coming off a great game and Olympiacos faces Avellino. Big lefties showdown against Travis Best!

Jonas Maciulis - The Bull keeps playing solid minutes. A huge game from him is just a question of time.

Juan Carlos Navarro - It is always good to have “La Bomba” in your team. Especially playing at home.

Sani Becirovic - Sometimes I wonder how can I be 621st without Igor Rakocevic. Well, he’s the reason why.

Rimantas Kaukenas - Apparently, it’s a good game for him. And Siena hosts Zalgiris in Week 7, too…

Mirza Begic - One week, no more. I love Begic though, the biggest moneymaker in the game this season.

Andre Hutson - Lottomatica faces Alba Berlin and he should post up solid numbers against Sesay and Nadjfeji.

Mirsad Turkcan - Semih Erden is back, who the hell decided that there are ONLY three trades per week?

Mike Batiste - Again, who is the big brain that limits my team to only three trades each and every week?

…shit, it was me. Oh well, wouldn’t the game be way more boring with unlimited trades, anyway?

Greetings from Nottingham, where I am this weekend: Land of Robin Hood, Nottingham Forest and anything but basketball!

Yarone’s Weekend Joints - part I

Probably the best thing would be to start with an apology for the delay, and get this out of the way. I’d like to thank the academy and blame Chris for the delay, not because it’s really his fault, but just because it’s fun to blame him on everything. Give it a try…

Week 5 of the Euroleague was full of stories and anecdotes. Some wrote new lines in the history books, others are on the way there.

After only one team won on the road in Week 4, this round of games displayed no fewer than six road wins, and three home wins by up to five points. With Olimpija and Milano taking their first Ws, and CSKA Moscow coming closer than ever to join the 23 other teams with a digit higher than 0 in the losses column, week 5 was one to remember.

Well, at least until Week 6.

Here’s the first part of the Euroleague Weekend Joints of Week 5 on Ballineurope.com.

Congratulations Jaka!

First of all, let’s congratulate Jaka Laka for becoming the 4th player in history to reach 2,000 Euroleague points this week, but that wasn’t the only mark he celebrated at Kaunas on Thursday night. It was also Lakovic’s 150th game in the Euroleague and only the fifth game ever in his eight-season Euroleague career that he didn’t miss a shot from three-point land, not counting nights he took just a single attempt. Jaka hit all five of his attempts in this game, two more threes than the entire team of Zalgiris, by the way (Zalgiris went 3-of-18 beyond the arc). Three times, Lakovic went 2-of-2, while on January 9, 2003, when he wore Pao’s green jersey and played at Tel Aviv, he had a 5-of-5 night as well.

Perfecto Greer

Not only Jaka was hot this week. Olympiacos’ Lynn Greer was also 5-of-5 from behind the arc, and for him it was the first-ever Euroleague game in which he was perfect from that range, excluding a single 1-of-1 display.

Road, bitter road

The Final Four hosts from Berlin suffered a 77-69 defeat at Olimpija, and allowed the Slovenians to celebrate their debut win of the season. After one leg in the regular season, Alba stands on a 2-3 record and it’s easy to label them. Both wins were registered in the O2 arena in front of a packed arena, and in both cases it was a close win. On the road, it’s a totally different story and there Alba lost all three games without putting up much of a fight. The eight-point difference is deceiving, as Olimpija held a double-digit lead in the closing minutes. Add the awful loss at Tau and a nine-point defeat at Fenerbache Ulker, and it’s gotten easier to place your bets from now on when it comes to Alba. In the second leg, they will play in Roma and Badalona, not the most comfortable spots to pick up a road win, so most probably in order to get some Euroleague oxygen, Alba will have to use the help of the O2 ha ha ha.

Don’t miss out…

Just in case you missed Panionios’ Aaron Miles beating the halftime buzzer with a super-cool coast-to-coast drive, check the Top 10 plays of Week 5 according to Euroleague.TV and survive the first nine to watch this beauty.

The big crisis

OK, this one has nothing to do with those red screens on your Wall Streets, but Efes Pilsen is in a big one of their own. The 95-81 defeat at home to Real Madrid marks Efes’ third loss in a row. Two were in Abdi Ipacki, and just to keep you fresh the first was to Panionios, while the third was in Moscow, where it’s more than reasonable to lose, only Efes was trashed by 22 points after a 27-9 first quarter start by the champs. Over the weekend, Efes re-signed Predrag Drobnjak to fill in at a center spot that felt kinda empty after the injury to Mario Kasun. Drobnjak was on the only two Efes teams to make it to the Final Four, back in the early days of this decade, before he moved to the NBA. Now he’s far from his prime, but let’s see if his arrival will bring good momentum to Ergin Ataman’s factory. Otherwise, Ataman himself could be next to pay for the damage. If you’re looking for a win, the last place you want to visit is Pionir and face Partizan, especially after they suffered an aching home loss, but that’s exactly what awaits Efes next week. Hopefully for Efes, Drobnjak and Milos Vujanic will feel at home enough to stop the downward spiral.

He’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

CSKA climbed to 5-0 and remained the only team with a perfect record in the Euroleague. To make things worse, on anyone who’s not a CSKA fan, this week marked the return of Matjaz Smodis. God forbid…

Heart-attack Partizan

The team to draw the most sympathy and empathy this week, beyond any doubt, is the group from Beograd. The one point loss to CSKA, and the heart-breaking finish, when Partizan missed no less than five attempts in a row in the last seconds to win the game, captured whoever enjoys an underdog win. Check out this fan-made video from the Pionir seats. The last play starts 6:40~ inside the clip. This fan won’t win the prestigious “Camera man of the year” award, but turn up the volume, hope your neighbor doesn’t have a machine-gun, and focus on the sights and especially sounds around the play. This was Partizan’s second single point defeat this season, and all of their five games were close ones, decided by no more than five points.

32 is the new 11

Drive your car around the world, and other than a difficulty to avoid food poisoning (at some point or another) you might also find it hard to locate a good Spanish player playing outside the ACB. Other than in the NBA and Jorge, who just couldn’t say no to the crazy Khimki offer, there’s only one more player to name - Lottomatica’s Rodrigo De La Fuente. This week was a special one for the out stander. In the 76-67 home win over FenerUlker, at the age of 32, after 11 seasons in the Euroleague and 172 games, he set a career high in rebounds by collecting 11.

Damn rims

Prokom’s home court is called the “Arena of 100 years” and it certainly won’t be named anytime soon “Arena of 100 points”. The rims there are anything but friendly to most visiting teams. Pao escaped with a 60-67 win but they have nothing to be ashamed of. In the last six games in front of those rims no team scored more than 68 points.

Arc range darkness

Lottomatica wrote their fourth win in a row, and would probably revenge Alba, for their only defeat so far, next week in the Palalottomatica, but something strange happened in their win this week over the Istanbul’s chocolate factory of FenerUlker. All of Roma’s hits from long range were scored by the big guys. Power-forwards Roberto Gabini and Angelo Gigli were 3/3 from the distance, while all the others combined 0/6. No outside hit was made by the guards, despite one thing Repesa doesn’t miss is guards who can hit the ball. The reason was that while on the romantic scene being passive sometimes actually works, in basketball if you don’t hit you can’t score. Sani Becirovic and Allan Ray didn’t try even once from that distance, while Ibrahim Jaaber stepped up with a single attempt. For Sani it was only the second time he finished a game without taking a long range shot in his last 18 Euroleague games, while Ray broke a streak of 21 games in which he made the effort.

Road bitter road - part II

So CSKA are 5-0 but this week was the second time in a row the Euroleague champs have trouble to score and win on the road. Their previous trip out of Moscow finished with a 54-58 win in Madrid behind a terrible shooting day. The 62-63 loss in Beograd saw CSKA connect only a duo of baskets from long range in 14 attempts. Yikes! That wasn’t the only reason Partizan came so close, but to read on the second, and more peculiar one, wait for the second part.

Off-bench Diamantidis

Some would tell you that a team must have a stable starting five for things to work, but Zeljko Obradovic will reply to that with however you say “Bullshit” in Serb. Often Obra changes his starting line-up, but in Sopot it was standing out more than the usual. Batiste, Spanoulis, Tsartsaris, Hatzivrettas and Kecman on court. On the bench waited five that can assemble one of the best line ups in the Euroleague: Jasikevicius (we’ll get back to him in part two…), Pekovic, Nicholas, Fotsis and Diamantditis. The last still managed to finish with the best index rating of the night with 26, but broke a streak of 66 games in which he was a starter for Pao. The last time Dimitris saw the jump ball from the bench was in Week 4 of the 2005/06 season, andeven then, on November 24th 2005, in OAKA he was the best player on the team and finished with an index rating of 23.

Retro Le Mans

It’s shocking enough Le Mans scored 87 points in four quarters against Olympiacos, but the fact they, once again, lost a close game is something stat experts need to look into. Just a reminder, if you missed that part here in the previous weeks, last season, under a different coach and different roster, Le Mans also lost all their first five Euroleague season games in the closing plays. This season they already lost two games in overtime, first @Maccabi and this week vs. Olympiacos. The bad news for Le Mans is that last season, in Week 6, the close losses streak was put to an end, not in the positive way, with a 91-71 defeat @Cibona. Next week they host Unicaja. We shall see….

The “Disgrace Escaping” mission

After five weeks Zalgiris stand on a 0-5 record. It’s likely for the Kaunas club to finish their season earlier than expected, and considering the off-court happening around the club this season it’s reasonable, but in the remaining five games they’ll need to work hard to escape disgrace. Up to today Zalgiris stands on a horrible 19.6 turnovers per game average. Right and far behind are SLUC Nancy with “only” 16.8. Now, being behind Nancy isn’t such a big shame, it’s the history books awaiting for Zalgiris. Unless a big improvement will arrive soon to Kaunas they’ll be known as the team that made more turnovers per game than any other team in a season. In all of the Euroleague history, under ULEB (excluding the first season which its stats isn’t available on the web), the team with the highest tpg average was the 2001/02….London Towers with 18.0 per game.

Most Turnovers Per Game by Season
Season	Team	TPG
2008/09	Zalgiris Kaunas	19.6
2007/08	Olimipija Ljubljana	16.0
2006/07	Cibona Zagreb	17.7
2005/06	Strasbourg	16.8
2004/05	Estudiantes Madrid	16.5
2003/04	Alba Berlin	15.2
2002/03	Buducnost Podgorica	16.1
2001/02	Kinder London Towers	18.0

Tips from the Euroleague Fantasy boss: Week 4

Hello everyone, this is Javier Gancedo, always from Euroleague Basketball. Looks like it has been yet another great fantasy week for me. I am beginning to get worried after modifying all my previous entries because of injuries. Seriously. We’ll see what happens this week.

It has been a fantastic week in Euroleague, especially the nine-game marathon last night. We all finished at 2am, totally destroyed but happy to have experienced the best regular season in Euroleague Basketball history.:Buzzer-beaters, Louis Bullock, double-overtime games, Vlado Ilievski missing again at the buzzer, close games, passion, drama, upsets… Seriously, the Euroleague is getting better than ever, and it is impressive that CSKA is the only unbeaten team, despite being without J.R. Holden and Matjaz Smodis.

Before anything else, I would like you to introduce our new online game, the Eurocup FabFive Challenge!

fabfive.eurocupbasketball.com

This is a very down-to-earth, exciting game in which you can pick five players, one from each range, with no restrictions whatsoever. If you want to have five point guards, go ahead. Five centers? Be my guest. Just keep in mind that players may move from one group to another depending on their index rating and you will need to trade every week to have a valid, five-player team. The trades after Week 1 should be exciting. Players can go from the top group to the bottom one if they have a really bad night, and vice versa! Just build your team and maybe we all can put together a private league. OK, well, keep reading and then make a team, but don’t forget: It’s a great game, we all think.

As for Fantasy Challenge, I had a pretty decent week with good trades, especially Emir Preldzic. Preldzic rolled against Olimpija, showing he is the closest thing to Toni Kukoc in 1990 that European basketball has seen lately. If he keeps developing, Preldzic will be a hell of a player, mark my words. I moved up to 9th place in the BallinEurope private league and yes, I erased some of my deficit in the Kuqo situation. I even cracked the Top 40 with a different team. I’m telling you all this because bad times will come, no doubt about it. Of course, beating EVICROCK will be tough, as he is doing very, very well.

As for this week, I wanted to trade early because honestly, I wanted you all to know about FabFive as soon as possible. I may regret my trades before the deadline and if so, I will notify you right away - especially since it’s quite probable that someone will get injured, anyway.

Remember when I told you Nikos Zisis would be there until Holden comes back? I’ve changed my mind, since Belgrade is a tough place to play and I expect the game to be low-scoring. I also traded Bracey Wright due to the showdown against Tau Ceramica and then removed Felipe Reyes because Kerem Gonlum may out-rebound him. Those are my three trades this week.

I believe Armani Jeans Milano has been playing well lately and, since they play Panionios On Telecoms at home, I think it’s time for them to do well in front of their fans. Therefore, I added Michael Hall at power forwards and centers, a big moneymaker. My main move this week was picking up Chris Warren of Air Avellino. Warren plays against Cibona and even while Rawel Marshall will also be extremely motivated, I am sure that the Avellino swingman will have a good game. At point guard, I had to choose between Lynn Greer and Earl Calloway. I’m going with Greer for the sake of Euroleague experience, even though I wrote the Cibona-Olympiacos game report and Calloway was just UNSTOPPABLE in the third quarter.

So my team goes like this:

Aaron Miles - Another Cajasol playmaker that leaves the team and becomes a Euroleague star. Oh my.
Lynn Greer - Should have an interesting shootout against Dewarick Spencer in Le Mans.

Jonas Maciulis - The Bull returns home to play Regal FC Barcelona. He should be a solid choice.
Emir Preldzic - Has been unstoppable lately and is way underpriced.
Sani Becirovic - Sanny Boy is the Euroleague superstar he was several years ago. In top shape right now.
Chris Warren - Again the X factor. He should be ready to do well against Cibona.

Mirza Begic - It’s more than seven extra credits in our teams. You have him, right? C’mon, don’t lie.
Mike Hall - I liked what I saw in Madrid this week. Few power forwards are playing more minutes right now.
Mirsad Turkcan - Even when Andre Hutson knows him well, Turkcan should out-rebound EVERYBODY!
Mike Batiste - Big Mike always plays better on the road and the game in Sopot should be no exception.

As always, good luck in the Fantasy Challenge… And try the Fab Five, the great game with the gangsta name!