All of the editor’s Devotion to…

The masses (well, a few of you anyway) have weighed in and i’ve tossed around a few considerations as to my favorite Euroleague team since opened for discussion here at BallinEurope.com and over at Facebook last week.

As you no doubt have noticed, it’s Partizan. The arguments pro and con were weighed, but most impressive was the sales pitch delivered on behalf of the Serbian team.

Longtime BallinEurope loyalist UHG80 noted Partizan’s tradition, mid-range budget, excellent fanbase (well evidenced by response to my posts) and good chance at the Final 16 – all even though he’s “pretty much neutral”! Plus, UHG80 also mentioned one of this b-ball fan’s favorite words, “Divac”; this ultimately may have put Partizan over the top for my heart.

Stefiva, apparently also not a Partizan fan as her comment went without mention of such, described getting in with Partizan as tantamount to “cheering for Golden State Warriors only much more satisfying.” Big plus points there.

Finally, Facebook user Ivan Wani Molerovic from within the hardcore fanbase declared, “Let die everyone who don’t love PARTIZAN … Partizan iz more than a club, it’s our life, hope and biggest love … Forever together…” All right, then, that’s settled.

Runners-up for this fan’s attention included:

•  Maccabi Tel Aviv. I loved the display on Maccabi history at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Massachusetts this summer and damn, you gotta dig that yellow-and-blue color scheme. Plus, they do have a killer website in English, great fans, and what NBA fan could easily resist a chance to cheer for Carlos Arroyo and Marcus Fizer?

•  Lottomatica Roma. One of this traveler’s favorite cities in the world, fandom would surely give me a great excuse to visit la Città Eterna again, no? Figure in Brandon Jennings with those sweet deep red unis and Roma was tough to pass up. But surely losing Jennings and probably missing the Top 16 in 2010 will suck, and who wants to be around for that?

•  Montepaschi Siena. Francesco Cappelletti, BallinEurope’s man in Italy, sent me an email which read, “choose Montepaschi! Not only because it is my team, but also because they probably play the best European basketball after CSKA Moscow, and because Italian basketball was born in Siena in 1871!” Tobias himself also pointed out that Siena is not affiliated with any football club, surely a rarity in Italy. It was tough to pass on these guys, particularly since their play in Euroleague 2007/2008 was so enjoyable, but if I’m siding with an Italian team, it would be Roma.

•  Le Mans. Since I’m residing in Hungary, a country with apparently little hope of improving its basketball program within the next 137 years, Le Mans would probably be the closest thing i have to a home team, less than 150 km from the family’s ancestral homeland of Poitou-Charentes. Unfortunately for Le Mans’ hopes, i dithered on this decision until last week, meaning Le Mans had plenty of time to sink in the Euroleague standings and in the race for my Devotion.

Despite these worthy contenders, however, Partizan it is – and what a time to join, eh? Right on the eve of hosting the monsters from Moscow; we’ll see about that awesome home crowd. Go black and white!

Monday’s cigarettes

Here we go for a new week with Euroleague action. But today, we have a very special women’s cigarette for you…

• …because Sylvia Fowles came up with a breakaway dunk in the Euroleague game between Spartak Moscow and Schio.
• KK Split and Cibona Zagreb met this weekend in the Adriatic League. And the least we can say is that it was a hard-fought game.
• A crazy scoring weekend in the Spanish ACB where DKV Joventut scored 116 points on Bilbao’s court.
• Only eight minutes of play this weekend for Brandon Jennings, but it was enough to score five points.
• ALBA Berlin registered its new low in attendance for the season, with 8175 spectators for the game against Trier. But that’s still enough for an average of 12,036, an increase of 70% over last year.
• Panathinaikos wins the first derby of the season against Olympiacos.
• In Italy, everything looks as though the legendary Dino Meneghin will take over the basketball federation presidency.
• You know Guy Dupuy? He is generally considered the best dunker in Europe. Watch this new video from a show where he comes up with several spectacular dunks jumping over a car or going for a between-the-legs dunk off one foot.
• Ricky Rubio is still injured, but you want to see him in action? Check out this video of the Spanish sensation when he was playing with the Catalonian selection at the age of 14.
• A very bad story happened in Turkey last weekend; a basketball fan was shot dead before a game. Our Turkish friend Kerem expounded some on the incident:

The fan killing that occurred before the game last week was between the fans and the owner of a gas station. He was killed due to the disagreement between the gas station’s owner and group of fans which ended up with the owner shooting a fan with a shotgun to end the argument. The killing had nothing to do with either team’s organization but rather an unfortunate and a sad conflict between a group of fans and a gas station owner. The fan who was killed was a young university student who was traveling from Izmir to support his side Karsiyaka at Bandirma against Bandirma Banvit. Karsiyaka fans are known for their loyalty and passion for their team, but I guess too much of anything is a bad habit.

• The financial problems have reached Turkey, as Kerem also reports. Besiktas is facing financial problems but will be competing in the Eurocup this season. The team is currently 13th in the Turkish League. They’re a sad story this season, as two of their foreigners, Mario Austin and Jovo Stanojevic, have already left and there is talk that Mire Chatman might leave as well.
• The surprising story in Turkey, though, is Aliaga. Aliaga, who beat Besiktas last week, followed the victory up by beating another Euro contender at home, Fenerbahce Ulker, with Americans Chuck Davis and Aubrey Reese combining for a total of 58 points.
• Finally, Turk Telekom, who will also be facing Eurocup competition, is unbeaten in the league and will play Fenerbahce next week away at Istanbul. Their classic team play has brought them great success along with positive contributions from new additions Kennedy Winston, Rod Blackney and Turkish scorer Serkan Erdogan. It will be very fun to watch the team at a higher level, as they’re starting out their mission for a Eurocup Final 8 bid this week in Israel.

Yarone’s weekend Joints

Lots of three-ball action took place this week. Some went in with great accuracy. Others will have to pay for the rim damage. Lazos, Erceg and Childress are the most overpaid players of this week, the double OT in Istanbul had two sides, Spencer caught up, Nancy made history, Jennings made us proud, and one Emir Preldzic…

These are the stories of week 4 of Euroleague 2009.

In case you missed it… - CSKA tied the Euroleague record for most three pointers made with 18, and more amazingly they hit them at a 72% rate. Those who follow CSKA closely saw them only last week connect on 20 three pointers at 71.4% in a Russian cup game. Keep in mind that Holden and Smodis are injured and could probably add a couple more to the party. Do you still remember just a week ago the Euroleague champs scored only 58 points at Real and hit five three-balls at a poor 18.5% rate?

CSKA tied a record set by Lottomatica Roma, who went 18/34 back in December 2003, but it reminded me more of the most amazing three-ball display in Euroleague history: Efes’ unbelievable fourth quarter back in November 2006. In a home game against Olympiacos, the Jenkins-Nicholas-Erden-Haislip-Kuqo combination connected on 11 of 12 long-range shots in the final 10:04 of the game.

The Jennings report – Brandon Jennings, in one of the toughest arenas in Europe, explained why. Last week in a text written on this server, Jennings was asked, for the first time in his Euroleague career, to combine baskets inside and outside the arc, and right away he provided. The boxscore displayed 17 minutes on court, 13 points, 4-of-7 from the field, three assists and not a single turnover on the way to an index rating of 17. He played a key role in the third quarter when Tau pushed hard to take over, and made sure Roma stayed on top. Can’t ask for more from this kid.

Just imagine – Terrell McIntyre was 1-of-8 from long range in OAKA. Shaun Stonerook was 2-of-11 from the same distance, but Montepaschi still left Athens with only a five-point loss. If any of the above had shot at just a tiny bit better percentage…

Over? Under! – Four games into the Euroleague season and not only is Zalgiris Kaunas continuing to seek their first win, they’ve also failed to reach 70 points in a game: Their season high is 67 points at home, in the 26 point loss to Montepaschi. True, Kaunas lost Brown, misses Dean, and the go-to guy right now is the great Maciulis, who hasn’t fully adapted to the idea that he’s the main man this season. Nevertheless, it’s not that much we’re asking: In the next three games, Kaunas hosts Barcelona and Pao, followed by travel to Siena. None will be shocked to see them go 0-6, but if the Lithuanians can’t shoot to reach 70…

Standings – After four weeks, CSKA Moscow is the only undefeated team. Surprised? Group D, where CSKA play, is the only group in which just one team has reached three wins. Behind CSKA are four teams with a 2-2 record and in last is a team with no wins: Exactly the scenario predicted for this group from the first second after the draw. The only difference: Panionios was expected to be the winless team, while in fact it’s struggling AJ Milano.

It’s a close league after all – Four teams, one in each group, are still in search for a debut win, but that’s not a case of teams that are just too weak to win. All of them have already sensed a win in their hands at least once during the four weeks. Le Mans was close four weeks in a row, including an OT loss in Tel Aviv; AJ Milano has been in the neighborhood twice already and this week lost by a point; Olimpija lost once by a point as well and this week fell in double OT; finally, Zalgiris hasn’t been as close to success as the other three, but has lost their last two games by five points or fewer.

Index Morris – Last week, CSKA’s Terence Morris went 0-of-8 from long range in Madrid. This week he had three perfect hits from distance already after three minutes on the way to a 5-of-7 night.

Home sweetest home – 11 of the 12 games this week went in favor of the home team, including a double OT win for FenerUlker, a one-point win for Real, a two-point win for Alba and five-point wins for Nancy, Panathinaikos, Panionios and Avellino. The only team to drop the home game was Tau, considered one of the most difficult teams to beat on their home court, who lost by a small three-point margin.

Emir – If you’re a big prospect and want to make a break, then shower, shave, grab a bottle of water, some orange Tic Tacs, pack a small bag and go stand outside the house of coach Bogdan Tanjevic. Wait patiently, have some Tic Tacs and hope he’ll take you in. From there, you’re set. 18 points, more than 50% from the field, seven rebounds, five assists and just a single turnover: That’s the line Emir Preldzic produced this week. He’s playing inside Tanjevic’s system as much as a Bosnian can play inside a system, but also gets a lot of freedom from his coach to bring his skills and creativity to the floor. Follow this kid. He’s much more than just great numbers: He’s fineness and finesse.

Double OT, triple lead – The interesting thing about the game in Istanbul, only the third in Euroleague history to go 50 minutes, was that in all three crucial possessions FenerUlker were up. In regulation, it was a huge running three-pointer by Saso Ozbolt (Welcome back!) to tie the score. Then Damjan Rudez scored on a layup to force another overtime, and finally Vlado Illievski took the chance when down by two with a long distance attempt that went out.

Vlado + Saso > Europe – Olimpija’s Ilievski and Ozbolt played a double OT but still combined 79:50 minutes of play so they didn’t hold a much bigger margin on other backcourts. Nevertheless they took no less than 21 shots from long range (11 by Vlado). Those 21 attempts by only two players represented more three-point attempts than those taken by the entire teams of Panathinaikos, Panionios, Alba, Cibona, Maccabi, Barcelona, Prokom, Real, Avellino, Le Mans, Roma and Nancy this week.

Joventut > Europe – Vlado and Saso weren’t the only ones. Demond Mallet and Luka Bogdanovic of Joventut also combined for 21 attempts from long range, and they played much less obviously. Luka was on a big night hitting 7-of-12 from long distance without taking a single shot inside the arc or the charity stripe. Mallet was a tiny bit less glamour at 1-of-9 from the same distance.

Both were merely executing Joventut’s game plan, or so it seemed on the court. Rudy’s former team took 23 shots inside the arc, but no fewer than 37 outside: a huge difference that hints at a lack of guiding hand and another reason to hang a “We miss you Ricky!” sign in the lockerroom. Joventut had the last ball of the game down by two at Alba, and take a wild guess what their play was…Wrong! Pau Ribas tried to find an open man for the three, but Alba did a great job in the passing lanes, forcing the young guard to go to the rim. He added one more miss to his pocket and Alba celebrated their second win.

All Blacks – OK, the national team of New Zealand isn’t playing in the Euroleague yet, but while I was watching Nancy-Zalgiris on Wednesday night, I suddenly noticed something refreshing: With Cyril Julian out due to injury, Nancy this week was a team composed of only black players, probably the first time ever in European basketball history. Quickly, Mr. Ney was sent to check the NBA rosters and figure how many NBA teams have only black players on the roster, and his answer was one: The Philadelphia 76ers, thus making the occasion in Nancy this week very unique indeed. From the Greer duo to the promising young Zaki, it was a refreshing occurrence. The fact they have won isn’t as exciting as the happenings in Illinois not too long ago, but certainly is a happy episode.

Double OT, triple miss – While Olimpija had to come back from behind time after time in the finals seconds, the Turkish side can be happy to win a close game, but proved he can miss time after time in these situations. Devin Smith had a decent shot from the three-point corner to win the game in regulation but missed. At the end of the first OT, Fenerbache had 6.5 seconds to win the game but managed to lose the ball, while at the end of the last overtime Marque Green missed his first free throw in the final seconds, leaving Olimpija a chance to win.

Whole story in one Zoran – Olympiacos paid around <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> €700,000 just to buy out Zoran Erceg from FMP Zeleznik. His contract probably isn’t cheap, either, and the buyout plus contract is worth around $1.5 million easily. This is more than Maccabi’s second-highest paid player. Erceg played less than seven minutes this week, and other than pick up one foul did nothing on the court. No rebounds, no shots taken, no assists, no turnovers. His team still won by 19, the second-greatest margin of the week. His story tells the difference between Olympiacos and a second-tier Euroleague team.

Frustrated Milanese - If you’ve ever had the chance to stop whatever it is you’re doing in your daily life and wonder what’s more frustrating, to lose a five-point lead in the last minute or a 23-point lead in the second half, well, your search for an answer is over! AJ Milano solved this riddle for you! Once again, one player shone above all: This time it was Michael Hall, who won the MVP of the week award, and once again Milano seemed on the sure path for a win. Answers shall be provided after the debut win.

Looking for Lazos – Not too long ago, in the summer of 2007, Lazaros Papadopoulos was a hot item in the market. At 210cm with post moves, decent rebounding and one of the smartest brains in the Euroleague chasing up a 14.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg and a season index rating of 20.3 with Dynamo Moscow. Then came a multi-season deal with powerhouse Real Madrid, who wanted to return to greatness. On that paper, it says Lazos will make more than <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> €2 million per season, but he never really proved worthy of it.

His decline already began last season, when his season numbers dropped to 6.9 ppg with 3.2 rpg and season index of no more than 7.8. If someone was waiting for Lazos to come back to life this season, well…maybe later. Right now, he’s finished two games in a row with no points, something that hasn’t happened to him in a European competition since January 9th, 2003. His index ratings in the past three games were 2, -2, and 2. His minutes dropped from 20 to 12 to five. Lazos is no longer a factor. Can’t wait to have him back in shape.

Weekly battle – After Bluthenthal wrote a landslide last week, it was time for Dewarick Spencer to retort. This week, the US guard won the “let’s see who shots more” battle 15-4. Le Mans, no news, lost a close game in Italy. Overall score: Bluthenthal 2, Spencer 2.

Shooting Josh – If you think Lazos is the most overpaid player this week, well, Josh Childress is giving him good competition. The $7 million man finished the game against Maccabi with four points on 1-of-6 from the field and five turnovers. Maccabi gave him a lot of space to shoot from long range, and Josh didn’t punish. The tale from Piraeus is that after the game, while media walked around the lockerroom, looking for Childress, the US swingman went back to the court to work on his jumpshot, to make sure no team will bet on his shots again. Time will tell…

Three-ball Rawel – Cibona’s Rawel Marshall arrived to Malaga with a 7/17 ratio from long range. He finished the game 7 of 10 from that distance. Cibona scored only one additional three pointer. Unicaja combined for a team total of six three-pointers.

Marshall hit just a single bucket inside the arc. Each and every one of his long balls is worth a look. He showed great diversity making off dribble and catch and shoot attempts, eith with a hand in his face or wide open, right on the arc or a step behind…

Euroleague: Alternative analysis of Group C (a.k.a. the Heavy Metal Division)

So today I’ll start a first analysis of the different Euroleague groups, though this won’t be the classical analysis as you’ll see. Let’s start with Group C, which I call the Heavy Metal Division. It was quite easy to make this choice, if you have a team from a city named after an avant-garde band, a Master of Puppets, or a team led by a player from Max Cavalera’s country.

TAU Ceramica will create some chaos this season again in opponents’ defenses with their up-tempo play and versatile inside players. Tiago Splitter is of course one of their main offensive threats and so his Brazilian moves cannot be refused and are hard to resist.

Fenerbahce Ülker coach Bogdan Tanjevic is known for his explosive coaching style and use of young players. He likes to let these young and hungry lions out of their cage and put them on the fiery stage of Abdi Ipeki Arena in Istanbul.

Virtus Palacanestro Roma is of course the media attraction for the United States, as they brought in high school phenomenon Brandon Jennings. And with his spectacular moves and plays, he will set the PalaLottomatica on fire. So be prepared for the burning of Rome in Virgin Steele Style.

Union Olimpija from Ljubljana is still there, like every year. And even if the players come and go, the symbol of the team remains the Dragon. The team’s mascot is a dragon, the cheerleaders are the Lady Dragons and the fans call themselves the Green Dragons. But as they are also a regular losing team, why not have some sympathy for them?

DKV Joventut Badalona is not so happy at the beginning of this season, as both Ricky Rubio and English high flyer Pops Mensah-Bonsu are out with injuries. So Sito Alonso has some fear of falling into a dark black hole. And who knows better about that than some representatives of Pops’ home country?

Wow, ALBA Berlin is back in the Euroleague! And according to most experts, it is the result of the signing of one particular person: Luka Pavicevic a.k.a. The Master of Puppets. He has built a team of players that obeys their master when he pulls the strings and smashes the opponents’ dream. And for those who are still blinded, let it roll, James…

Short Monday’s cigarettes

Not too much to tell you this morning, unfortunately…

• Evin Demirel writes a detailed report about the beginning of the new Euro-duo (Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum) in Portland.
• Paul Pierce told journalists of Eleftheros Tipos that he’s thinking about ending his career in Greece (found via The Hoop).
• Italian TV commentator and coaching legend Dan Peterson really does every kind of stupid advertising. However, nothing tops his legendary iced tea spots. Fenomenale!!!
• We highly recommend that you follow J.R. Holden’s blog on our friend Dave Hein’s new website.
• Don’t forget to prepare your own commentaries for the Euroleague Top 10 plays to win a Euroleague TV package
• Aside from doing his two blogs, Rod Benson is now also twittering.
• The Brandon Jennings watch: 11 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, and still unbeaten in the Italian League.
• ALBA Berlin wins the game at the top of the Bundesliga against Ulm, but ALBA head coach Luka Pavicevic was ejected from the game after two technical fouls.
• Yes, he’s still alive: Nikoloz “Skita” Tskitishvili started his season with Fuenlabrada in the Spanish ACB with a nice effort of 6-for-7 on threes.

Monday’s cigarettes

Let’s start the new week with some exciting stories from around the continent.

• Two of the best highflyers of the Spanish ACB met this weekend: Marcus Haislip of Unicaja and Pops Mensah-Bonsu of Joventut Badalona. And both guys had good games, especially Haislip, who finished with a 3-of-5 effort from behind the arc.

• Elie Seckbach, also known as the Embedded NBA Correspondent, came up with a very interesting interview with former TAU and AJ Milano player James Singleton. Even though it was published a month ago, we wanted to mention it, since James tells Elie that people in Europe throw Euro coins at basketball players. James should have told Tyson Chandler so that the Hornet could have avoided this.

• The weekly Brandon Jennings watch: 17 minutes, 1 point (0/4 FGs, 1/2FTs), 1 rebound and 3 assists.

• Fabien Friconnet talks in his blog on basketnews.net about the good old days. When he started to watch Euroleague TV this week, he got a flashback: One of his old VHS tapes featuring a first half of a Champions Cup game between Maes Pils Mechelen and Olympiakos Piraeus. Living in France where basketball on TV is not that common, he is used to always seeing at least one French team play. I’m not quite sure, but I would guess it was this game. And while reading his post, I am also pretty sure that I watched that game on Eurosport at the time as well. Just one question, why is the Belgian team called WATCO on the FIBA Europe stat sheet?

• Nice effort by Ken Johnson of Telekom Baskets Bonn: The center finished the game against the Cologne 99ers with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 8 blocked shots, including five in the first 10 minutes.

• Josh Childress already made it to the first top 10 plays of the Euroleague with a massive rejection. However, the play of the day for me was Mike Hall’s Kobe-esque basket with the foul. By the way, Draftexpress had a longer piece on the American forward.

• Ricky Rubio got a nice cake for his 18th birthday this week.

Yarone’s Friday’s joints

Sofoklis Schortsianitis (Olympiacos) – No shot attempts at all and only one foul in 7:42 minutes. Only once before has Schortsianitis finished a Euroleague game without a single shot attempt and that was when he played only two minutes.

Milos Teodosic (Olympiacos) – How often did you get to see this Serbian scorer finish with zero three-point attempts in 14:40? It happened once last season. If this were to continue this season, it would mean Yannakis is turning the kid from a scoring machine into a true team player. Keep an eye out.

Loren Woods (Zalgiris) set a Euroleague career high with 17 points and nine defensive rebounds against Pao, who have one of the best front lines in Europe.

Tamar Slay (Avelino) had his Euroleague debut as well against a Greek team, but we won’t mention this game on his resume, with his 1-of-10 from the field and -11 VAL.

Marcus Brown (Maccabi) – On Monday, Brown took two flights to arrive in Tel Aviv in the afternoon from Kaunas. The following day, he took two more flights to get from Tel Aviv to Zagreb with his new team. In total, Brown has probably had more flights than practices with his new team. Nevertheless, he played 27:44.

Willie Deans (Zalgiris) - In his Euroleague debut, Deans finished 1-of-10 from the field and -9 VAL against Pao.

Tau Ceramica Vitoria (ACB) used the shortest rotation this week with only eight players. Efes used nine, with one player on the floor for just 22 seconds. All other teams used between nine and 12 players

Rawle Marshall (Cibona) – Simply fun to watch. 20 points, 5-of-9 from the field, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, zero turnovers, 7 fouls drawn, and 29 VAL in a Euroleague debut. All cold numbers. Bottom line: Simply fun to watch.

Dimitris Diamantidis (Panathinaikos) – The best defender award winner for the past four years and one of the top three ball stealers on The Continent played 25:42 against Zalgiris with zero steals.

Dewarick Spencer & David Bluthenthal (Le Mans) – Now this could be a weekly check: Which of these two took more shots for his team? This time, Bluth wins 14-13 and also scores better accuracy.

Theodoros Papaloukas (Olympiacos) - 2,380 days have passed between 18/04/02 and today. Back then, Theo played his last Euroleague game for the Reds; yesterday, he made his rdappearance. Back then, he finished the game with 26:53 in playing time, 8 points, 3 rebounds and a VAL of 16. Today, he played only 90 seconds less, still scored 8 points, still grabbed 3 rebounds, and notched a VAL of 15 …consistency over a six-year span.

Avelino (LEGA) – In its Euroleague debut, the small Italian team registered a VAL of 36. Often this is less than the best weekly VAL from a single player.

Armani Jeans Milano (LEGA) – The game at Moscow was far from Milano’s Euroleague debut but under the new hat and management, expectations were different. Just like Avelino, another Italian team finished a game against a Final Four contender with a poor VAL rating of 36.

Tau (ACB) and Fenerbahce (TBL) combined for 52 attempts from long range on a night on which neither surpassed 30%.

Drew Nicholas (Panathinaikos) – After three seasons in a row over 40% from long range, the US shooter started his career in green with an 0-for-3 performance from long range.

Juan Carlos Navarro (Barcelona) – La Bomba bombed on the NBA runnerups 34 points less than a week ago. Last night, against SLUC Nancy empire, Navarro celebrated his return to the Euroleague with only four points and 1-of-8 from the field.

Derrick Sharp (Maccabi) – The veteran didn’t play a single second the entire game in Zagreb. The last time a Maccabi coach chose not to use Derrick was on 6 January 2000. After a 195-game streak and 3,213 days, a new count begins. Back then, in the first week of the millennium, Maccabi was just 1-of-6 from long range. Last night they showed a poor 4-or-16. Whether that’s a coincidence or not, you be the judge.

Oguz Savas (Fenerbahce) – The Turkish center is a decent rebounder, sometimes even more, but in Vitoria spent more than 23 minutes on the court and finished without a single rebound. This happened to Savas only once all of last season and back then, he played only five minutes.

Milos Vujanic (Efes) is officially back. The Serbian point guard beat his former team by a single point and was his team’s top scorer with 17 and just a single missed shot. The last time Vujanic scored more than 17 in a Euroleague game was on 9 March 2005 (that’s 1,324 days if you’re curious), when his Fortitudo Bologna won at Zalgiris by a single point as well and Vujanic had 18.

Real Madrid (ACB) – No fewer than eight players wrote a double-digit VAL in the 21-point cruise to victory against Olimpija.

Ibrahim Jabber, Ray Allan, Rodrigo De La Fuente, Brandon Jennings and Sanice Becirovic (Roma) – Coach Repesa’s backcourt combined for 4-of-18 inside the arc against Alba.

Nana Mensah-Bonsu (Joventut) had a very busy night under both baskets. Around Joventut’s rim he blocked three shots but on the other end was blocked three times as well. Not many players get to experience such activity on both ends on the floor.

Partizan (YUBA) and Maccabi (BSL) – Both lost by a single basket difference, the smallest margins of the first week, but in both cases it was after a three pointer at the buzzer that only made it look closer than it really was.

Alba (BBL) – No less than 1,723 days, since 4 February 2004, when Alba won their last Euroleague game. It was a 16 point triumph over Efes. John Best, Jovo Stanojevic, Marko Pesic and DeJuan Collins were the top scorers for Alba then. Not a single player on Alba has survived on the team since that season.

Brandon Jennings (Lottomatica) – The most standout number in the game that took Jennings’ Euroleague virginity is his 22 minutes with just a single turnover. Brandon also took nine shots from the field, more than any other Roma player yesterday.

Montepaschi (LEGA) were shooting better outside the arc (48% with 12 made) than inside it (40.5% with 15 made) in the nine-point win over Prokokm.

Boniface Ndong, Marcus Haislip and Robert Archibald (Unicaja) – The team’s three big men were also its three top scorers with 14, 13 and 11 points, respectively, over Le Man’s bigs.

Alain Koffi (Le Mans) – The athletic big man has finished each of his five seasons in the ULEB Cup and Euroleague with seven to nine assists total. On Wednesday night at Unicaja, the local stat guys bestowed him with no less than three, obviously a career high, and a great start to set a new season record as well.

(In case you are too shy to leave a comment here, you can always contact Yarone by sending him an email at arbel@ballineurope.com)

Aftermath cigarettes

• The first Euroleague game day of the 2008/09 season is in the books - all the home teams won their games besides Avellino (Italy) who lost to Olympiacos, and SLUC Nancy (France) who got killed at home against FC Barcelona.

• Player that impressed me the most: Loren Woods. I know Will McDonald is the Euroleague MVP of week 1, but with all the big problems in Kaunas, money problems, Loren hitting people on the court and then facing Panthinaikos, Loren pulls off a game with 17 points and 16 rebounds in 33 minutes, which means 28 ranking points for Loren. Good job!

• Player that disappointed (me) the most: Ibrahim Jaaber - come on man: you’re on my Euroleague fantasy team! I chose you for your steals and defense last season…and this time not one steal, not one assist and not even one point in 18 minutes. Thanks for your -3 ranking.

• Euroleague TV comments: I watched at least 10 minutes of every game during the first gameday to find out if the pay-more-money-for-fewer-games thing works out. I have to say that the stream works really fine and I had no problems following the games even switching between them all the time. What I did not like is the resolution offered. The windows are clearly too small to really enjoy a game and by switching to full screen you can’t even read the score because of the bad resolution. Also new this year - as far as I remember - EL.tv stays online during halftime and offers a closeup of the bench during timeouts.

• Brandon Jennings watch: Evin Demirel talks about it: It’s obvious Jennings is learning to adjust to the European game. 9 points on 3-of-7 for threes and 0 assists - not sure if this is what European basketball is about. I am sure, though, that it won’t take too long for Brandon to show his real potential and we really are looking forward to this.

• The 31st overall draft pick for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nikola Pekovic, in his first Euroleague game out of Serbia and for Panathinaikos: 14 points in 14 minutes in a 78-51 win against Zalgiris Kaunas in front of 12,000 visitors, according to Euroleague statistics.

• Speaking of Euroleague statistics: Marques Greens (Fenerbahce) played 30 minutes and had 5 points by making one two-pointer, one three-pointer and two free throws. Please tell me that this still would equal 7 points.

• Same game, same problem - Gasper Vidmar: 1-of-2 on free throws equals 3 points right?

• Josh Childress watch: 14 points, 8 rebounds in 25 minutes with a ranking of 22. Josh, learn to look at these ranking points - This is what Europe, especially Euroleague fantasy players, will judge you for. Here are the highlights.

• Finally our thoughts on the Euroleague TV commentators. Overall judge - funny and entertaining - with insightful comments in a true European/Italian way (in terms of pronunciation and passion). Really disappointing is the only guy who seems to be an American. His English might be perfect but the way he commentates a game made me fall asleep while Unicaja and Le Mans were actually playing a very interesting game. We know that he had problems with European names: problems with European names in the past, but I am sure, if you prepare a little bit for a game you can see that David Bluthenthal is not spelled David BLUMENthal, which in German means David Flowerthal, by the way.

Monday’s cigarettes

Here we go for the opening week of the Euroleague. So if you need all the information, you are right here in the right place.

• Solobasket now offers content in English, too.
• Hedo Turkoglu told the Orlando Sentinel that he could imagine moving back to Europe after this season, when he becomes a free agent (found via basket-ball.com).
• Rasheed Wright wins it at the buzzer for Poitiers in the French ProB and gets naked. By the way, Rasheed greets his family (in French) in the post-game interview, says that it was the 10th buzzer-beater in his career and that he scored most of them. But why is the camera zooming on his body the whole time?
• Finally, Danilo Gallinari is back at practice. However, Mike d’Antoni thinks that Danilo will start the season in the D-League with the Reno Big Horns. Well, let’s hope “il Gallo” doesn’t get too desperate and spends all his money in the Biggest Little City in the World.
• Where a boy named Dirk happens.
• During the trip to Los Angeles for the American tour of Euroleague teams, the president of FC Barcelona Joan Laporta declared that he is in favor of the creation of a Global League including Euroleague teams, NBA teams and eventually Chinese squads.
• The German Bundesliga sees ALBA Berlin at the top. Not a real surprise for the new favorite for the best attendance in Europe (more than 13,000 fans on average after the first three games). The surprise of the season so far is Giants Nördlingen, who have a 4-1 record and are in second. The team coached by just 32-year-old Andreas Wagner is playing great basketball so far and beat former Euroleague team Brose Baskets in their arena this Sunday — a Brose Baskets team that currently only has one win in five games.
• Do you know who are the two best scorers of the Spanish ACB after the first three game days? Well it’s Brad Oleson and Paolo Quinteros. While the former, who holds by the way a German passport (hello Mister Bauermann) is still at the top, the latter was not as efficient in the duel both players had this weekend. Still, ACB TV had a nice clip to present the two of them.
• The weekly Brandon Jennings watch tells us: 14 minutes, 3 points (1/5 FG, 1/2 FT), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 turnover).

Last-second choices for the NIKEiD Fantasy Challenge

The deadline for the Euroleague Fantasy game is approaching. Monday October 20th at 19h30 CET is the time when all the changes will be locked and your teams are set for the first round of competition. So here we go with some tips for your last-minute choices for your team in order to be competitive.

• Check well who is injured or just came back

What is important in this game is to have no injured player in your team. Of course, you can’t avoid players that turn their ankle during the warm-up but at least take a look at our Euroleague Injury list and see who is a long term injury case. The more critical choices are those players that are on day-to-day status. You can go for a gamble and hope that they play but you never know. Players that just came back from an injury are probably not the best choice either as they won’t be in full shape. Because of these issues, I did not select my initial first choice Julius Jenkins (ALBA Berlin - 62 credits) as he has a minor injury since the game against Ludwigsburg during last week. I will however keep an eye on what he did today and then take a decision.

The injury list should in any case be your best friend when it comes to making your teams. It does not only help you to get rid of players that won’t play, but it will also give you advice on who are the players that eventually play more minutes (which means normally also more ranking points). To stay with the case of Julius Jenkins, his eventual injury would give most likely more minutes to Immanuel McElroy (ALBA Berlin - 49 credits) so that he may be a very interesting choice.

• Do not select your favorite players or Rookies

A typical error I made in the beginning and that I am still doing and hardly fighting to avoid it is to select players that you like because they play flashy or do things on the court that you like to see. In order to make a successful team, you have to be very neutral with your feelings and just go for the stat sheet. You can find stats of all the players in the different league websites or on pages like KeyHoops. So don’t do it like Theo Papaloukas on his Fantasy team as he selected himself (of course) or a multitude of former team mates or current Greek National team players. UPDATE: Theo has changed his team in between.

The goal of the game is to score as much Fantasy points as possible and mostly your favorite players don’t do so nor are the Rookies. Brandon Jennings (Roma - 59 credits) may be an extraordinary talent but I doubt that he will contribute a lot, at least not in the beginning of the season. For a similar value, you can find a Euroleague veteran like Carlos Cabezas (Unicaja - 56 credits) who is far less spectacular but I think that he will give you a lot more Fantasy points than the Roma rookie. However, this does not mean that I selected Carlos on my team.

• Select players that win games

It may sound small but the 10% bonus that a player gets on his production when the team wins is very important. As you only select players that score lots of Fantasy points, this bonus can be very big. Juan Carlos Navarro (FC Barcelona - 73 credits) scored big last night against the LA Lakers and the 10% bonus would have been worthier than the production of some rotation player of a losing team.

The way I chose is that I selected my high-value players from the winning teams because the chances to get the bonus on guys that produce a lot of Fantasy points is much higher. On the other hand, the smaller teams have more often players that go for bigger individual performances because their rosters are not as packed as the Panathinaikos or Olympiacos squads. Somebody like Ricardo Greer (SLUC Nancy - 67 credits) may be a very interesting choice as Nancy plays their opener at home against a jet-lagged FC Barcelona. And Ricardo Greer is a former Euroleague top performer with Strasbourg and he just comes from a 22pts (58%), 4rebs, 2asts and 6 provoked fouls effort in the French league.

• Cheap players stay cheap

Another error that you can avoid is to select too many “cheap” players. Players like Zygimantas Janavicius (Zalgiris Kaunas - 16 credits) or Sergio Llull (Real Madrid - 15 credits) may see lots of minutes in the beginning of the season because of the specific situations in their teams. However, this does not mean that they score a lot of Fantasy points first, and secondly, their value won’t move up that much because of the limitations in player price variations. So even if Llull plays well during Raul Lopez’ (Real Madrid - 48 credits) absence, you won’t get an interesting value back at the moment you have to take him out of your team when Lopez comes back.

Still, this does not mean that you can not gamble and take a player like this. If I remember right, there have always been bargains that made extraordinary seasons like Jordi Trias (FC Barcelona - 45 credits) two seasons ago or Nikola Pekovic (Panathinaikos - 94 credits) last year. So the goal is to find the steals of the season 2008-2009. And the best way to find some is to see who are the players that have had a particularly bad season last year because of minor injuries for example and that are now back in full force. Kostas Tsartsaris (Panathinaikos - 27 credits) may be a player to fulfill this role.

• Inside players are money in the bank

One of the main rules you should follow is to put most of your money into big men. With the European way to count assists, your guards won’t get John Stockton figures. However, a rebound is a rebound anywhere in the world. It is a lot easier to grab 4 rebounds in the Euroleague than to dish out 4 assists in an away game in Italy for example. Try to find guards that rebound well and shoot high percentages and put a lot of money into versatile power forwards. Felipe Reyes (Real Madrid - 74 credits) may look very expensive but he is always presents with lots of rebounds and high percentage shots.

• Do not overestimate my advice

Well, you still have to do your own choices. And I am not a reference in Fantasy Basketball as showed my two-thousand-something place last season. Anyhow, I try to give you my personal advices and nobody obliges you to follow them. But at least, if you see my team in the top rankings at the end of the season, you will know how I set it up.

Don’t forget though to join our Private BallinEurope League as you can win 2 entrance tickets for the Euroleague Final 4 in Berlin. The deadline for joining is on Wednesday and check here to see how this exactly works.

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