Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

Scariolo: No, really, i can explain everything...

With one more week of Euroleague play to go before the field of viable contenders officially shrinks again, Ball in Europe contributor Francesco Cappelletti wraps the round that was in the big league. In this week’s roundup, Signor C. laments Montepaschi Siena’s fate, Sergio Scariolo’s precarious position and the reason Olympiacos might yet give Barca a workout before all is said and done (Hint: It starts with “Linas” and ends with “Kleiza”).

Group F focus
Oddly, the group which could have been in doubt until the buzzer of Week 6 suddenly has two qualified teams after five weeks: These are Real Madrid and Maccabi Tel Aviv, teams which will meet next Thursday at Palacio Vistalegre to define a first place currently in possession of the Israeli side for their 81-76 victory of February 4.

Montepaschi Siena was shocked by a 43-point fourth quarter scored by Alan Anderson and teammates. OK, take out the final (meaningless) 10 points, and 33 remain on the back of the Italian champions. How was this possible? MPS had recovered during the third period thanks to big hearted Terrell McIntyre and bad offensive decisions from previously unstoppable Doron Perkins, but, I mean, if you play with six men (seven minutes of nothing for Nikos Zisis in crisis, Ksistof Lavrinovic plagued by back spasms), and you enter the final fraction with a 3-point advantage at Yad Eliyahu, well, you know your destiny.

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Whilst watching the Efes Pilsen-Montepaschi Siena game with horror fascination last night – probably somewhere around the Ferdinando Minucci ejection – BiE couldn’t help but wonder what Francesco Cappelletti, this website’s man in Italy, thought of it all.

Seriously. Montepaschi came into the game having looked strong in Euroleague competition this season thus far; with a good-enough win over Maccabi Tel Aviv to open the Euroleague Final 16 round and coming off a near-100 point win over Napoli in Serie A play, the visiting Italians entered the game a 3.5-point favorite.

So, to put it in a nutshell, what happened? Whither the outclassed play? And what does this say about Serie A ball, over which the suddenly visibly flawed MPS currently rules at 16-0. Managing to corner the busy Cappelletti for five minutes on chat, BiE asked a few simple questions.

BallinEurope: Okay, so basically, the question is this: What the fuck happened to MPS last night? i.e. What were the keys to their defeat, especially after that huge win the other day?

Francesco Cappelletti: So many reasons.

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Another Thursday, another round of Euroleague lines for your perusal. First thought? “Whoa, Partizan is favored by just three at Orleans?” Second thought: “And that’s the closest game on the slate, as the ‘book sees it?” Whoa.

Pointspreads and over/under lines for tonight’s games, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor Sporting Bet, run below the break.

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Whoa, there’s a nice slate of games scheduled in the big league tonight, including a true piece de resistance in the Real Madrid-Panthinaikos matchup, the first true clash of Euroleague basketball titans in the 2009-10 season thus far. The pointspreads and over/under lines for the half-dozen matches tipping off tonight, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor Sporting Bet, are as follows.

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Yes, yes, it’s waaaaaaaaaay too early to be making serious predictions about specific games in the 2009-10 Euroleague regular season, but a leisurely look at the newly-released schedule reveals some clear highlights that’ll have Euroleague fanatics marking their calendars early. BallinEurope will be watching the following, for sure.

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Not only was yesterday’s Euroleague group draw an official tipoff of sorts to actual play in the 2009-10 Euroleague season, it also marked the first opportunity of the year for league chiefs to publicly swell with pride at their teams, show off (mostly) gaudy neckties, talk some diplomatically-worded trash, and provide good quotes for blogs like BallinEurope.com.

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The Euroleague 2009-10 season has begun! This morning, the Euroleague announced the groupings for the ten-game competition this autumn. Naturally, the pools are totally enticing and some great fodder for watercooler discussions for months. (Heck, they’ll have to be.) The groups look like this:

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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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After the League Ranking published a few days ago that saw the ACB confirm its status as most popular league in terms of game attendance, the club rankings also see a repeat, with the presence of Spanish team CAI Zaragoza at the top of the table.

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Here we go for the spectator figures for the best and most popular competition in Europe, the Euroleague. After the FIBA EuroChallenge and the EuroCup, BallinEurope.com checked what are the averages of the toughest European competition.

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