BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Now available online is episode 26 of the BallinEurope/heinnews co-hosted podcast, Taking the Charge. It’s a heavy serving of Russia with a side of Lithuania this week. This week the list of subjects on which we natter includes the following.

• Interviews with CSKA Moscow’s Sasha Kaun, who reveals a touch of March Madness, and Eurocup semifinalist Bilbao Basket/Team Russia coach Fotios Katsikaris, the guy who’s been handed the reins formerly manned by David Blatt – and perhaps a shell of the Olympic bronze-winning team…

• The respective fates of CSKA Moscow and Zalgiris Kaunas going into Friday’s Euroleague game. After this podcast was recorded, the will-he-won’t-he story on Ksystof Lavrinovic broke; while early sources reported the twin’s departure to be a done deal, a BallinEurope reader has pointed out that Ksystof informed Lithuania-based media that he would “remain with Zalgiris regardless of the situation.”

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Who needs “more speed, more excitement, a more free-flowing style” of basketball? Certainly not a couple of teams in the Liga Endesa this weekend, namely Eurocup contenders Valencia Basket and the Euroleague-bounced Uxue Bilbao.

Valencia ultimately triumphed in overtime by a whopping final tally of 113-111. The boxscore alone is worthy of goggling over, with the teams combining to shoot for 66.2% on twos and 55.8% overall. Check out Bilbao’s Lamont Hamilton going 10-of-12 overall but just 3-of-7 on FTs; his foil, player of the game Bojan Dubljevic, was 9-of-11 plus a huge perfect 13 hits at the stripe for 32 points.

The win keeps Valencia tied for third in the Liga standings board at 12-4, while Bilbao dropped into a tie for fifth with CAI Zaragoza at 10-6. And now, one action-packed two minutes-plus’ worth of highlights — featuring two monstrous jams from Hamilton and a killer block by Adrien Moerman…

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NBA Europe Live Tour and Euroleague American Tour games tip off tomorrow, giving a few fan bases a glimpse at some possible future prospects already drafted and with rights owned by a big league club.

Following up on yesterday’s brief look at five rights-owned European players developing their games on The Continent, today is offered another quintet for your consideration. Fans of Chicago, Charlotte, and San Antonio will particularly want to pay attention – and tune into some Euroball in 2012-13…

• PF Nikola Mirotic, Real Madrid (2011 NBA draftee; rights owned by the Chicago Bulls).
Few players are more greatly anticipated – and few could be more immediately useful to such an injury-prone frontcourt – in Chicago than Nikola Mirotic.

Mirotic rolled on last season after bagging the Euroleague Rising Star award for 2010-11, nearly doubling his EL scoring average from 6.6 to 12.5 ppg; not to mention a like increase in touches. Unfortunately for Bulls backers, Mirotic is contracted to Real through 2016 –although he’ll only be 25 years old by then and BiE wouldn’t be surprised to see Chicago at least attempt a hefty buyout within the next four seasons.

(To induce further covetousness in the Windy City, check out the 26-point, 10-rebound, 46-PIR damage Mirotic did in Real’s game two Liga Endesa victory over Blancos de Rueda Valladolid last night…)

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In the leadup to the 2011-12 Eurocup Final Four tournament beginning on Saturday, Eurosport Turkey basketball commentator Uygar Karaca contributes a series of previews on the remaining quartet entitled “Four Teams, Four Stories” to BallinEurope.

Today taking a look at one of the two remaining Russian sides, Karaca writes “Zenit St. Petersburg reached its zenith when they managed to grab the UEFA Cup. Now, president Igor Lypsky, former deputy manager of Gazprom, has the same ambition. Isn’t it time for their citizens to win a European competition in basketball?

Talking about Spartak St. Petersburg is talking about history. Founded in 1935, the club stands as the oldest among the Eurocup Final Four competitors. However, as this marks the first time that Spartak has reached this level of competition, I think we can call St Petersburg experienced Eurocup rookies.

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Here on the Continent, we realize what NBA fanatics have been missing as they twiddled thumbs waiting for cessation to the player lockout – and continue to twiddle as they await Christmas opening day. BallinEurope’s Enrico Cellini, however, knows better; below, he lists his top three buzzer-beaters thus far into the 2011-12 Euroleague – where devotion happens – regular season.

• The regular-season round of Euroleague basketball has provided plenty of dramatic finals so far. Coincidentally – or maybe not – the top three buzzer-beaters turned in so far were made by teams on the road. First came Dimitris Diamantidis’ three-pointer that capped Panathinaikos’ comeback (after going down by four in the last 15.6 seconds!) on the court of Unicaja Malaga in the sixth week of competition.

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Qyntel: Did he make Meet The Boss...?

Due to an unfortunate series of tragic events, the deadline for this week’s fantasy tips column was missed. However, in the interests of satisfying The Euroleague Boss’ fans, were running this column with half the Final 16 week one games in the books; it’s valuable to see what Meet The Boss did, even if you were wavering on his word regarding Qyntel Woods…

Hello everyone, this is Javier Gancedo as always – and even more these busy days – from the Euroleague headquarters. And here comes the Top 16, ladies and gentlemen! If the first round is halfway as exciting as Eurocup’s, we are set for a classic start.

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To torment and tease those of us – and by “those of us” here, i mean “every Euroball fan” – who can’t wait for the Euroleague, Eurocup, and FIBA EuroChallenge championship draws set for Wednesday at 1pm CET, FIBA Europe and Euroleague yesterday released the names of the participating clubs in the three competitions.

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