BallinEurope runs some notes and posts some clips in preparation for tonight’s match; for Official Fearless Predictions™ on this one and the bronze-medal game between FYR Macedonia and Russia, scroll all the way to the bottom.

• In terms of history between the two teams, it’s long and it’s mostly about Spain. The defending champions are 15-3 against France all-time in European championship tournament meetings. Prior to this year’s, um, controversial Group E game, the last two EuroBasket matches between the teams were decisive blowouts: France took the bronze medal in 2005 by crushing Spain, 98-68, while Los Rojos ran over Les Bleus on the way to their 2009 title in the quarterfinals, 86-66.

• The matchups to watch in this one should all be in the frontcourt, with four NBAers certain to battle throughout: For Spain, the Gasol Brothers have been as dominant a two-man combination as any other in recent years of EuroBasket play. Facing up against the two all-star centers are rebounding machine (at least in this tournament) Joakim Noah and Kevin Seraphin.

Attempting to gauge these matchups is a bit difficult, as Noah has yet to face this latest edition of Team Spain in any serious way. The August friendly against the Spainards saw the Chicago Bull’s first go-around this year with Les Bleus and therefore getting limited playing time in the blowout loss. Pau, meanwhile, wasn’t on the Spain roster for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and therefore the 72-66 loss to France…

• Tony Parker’s reaction to beating Russia? He had “tears in his eyes” at the realization that his Team France would be playing in the 2012 Olympics. An extrapolation of his brief post-game interview as published in Sport.fr follows.

Q: You seem very moved …
Tony Parker: I had tears in his eyes at the end of the match. I was so happy when I jumped in the stands with my brothers and my family. It’s the Olympics! I worked hard for this – It’s been 11 years that I’ve been chasing it. It’s hard to explain my joy. There have been so many tough losses, and we took our revenge slowly here, at first against the Greeks and then the Russians … We’ll enjoy it tonight; this deserves [to be enjoyed]. We don’t play until Sunday, and it will be great to have a rest day tomorrow because tonight the party will be beautiful.”

Q: What was your motivation for this victory?
TP: I am proud to be French, proud of this team. Sometimes it was hard, there have been difficult summers, but we never gave up the chase. Today, we are rewarded. Never has a France team done this. It’s been so long that I have waited for this moment, to play a European final. Many people were skeptical, but now it’s as if the weight of the nation on my shoulders has gone. We can never say that we did not make finals, that we never went to the Olympics. It feels great.

Q: What do you think the final against the Spanish?
TP: The pressure will be on Spain, since they are the favorites. But a final, it is earned. We’ll have to have an even bigger game than today, and we are capable of that. They beat us this summer in preparation and in the second round here, but we didn’t show our best game and we played without Joakim [Noah] or me. Against Spain, it’ll be a different French team.

• Last team to repeat as EuroBasket champions: Team Yugoslavia, in 1997.

• Mickaël Gelabale is still nowhere near 100% after twisting his ankle in the game against Turkey; he’s played a combined 10 minutes in the past two games and had DNPs in the Lithuania and Spain games.

• Nando de Colo, who has emerged as a deadly threat for Team France after seeing limited time in the first six games of the tourney, will be crucial to Les Bleus’ chances for the upset. De Colo, in turn, sees as key the defense: “On defense we will win the final. We have to control and defend [Juan Carlos] Navarro together the whole game and then everything will be easier. I have to defend a very aggressive Navarro and not have to get the ball because the ball can do many things.”

Defend Navarro together? Probably a good idea. After a couple of brutal performances in the opening round (1-of-11 for three points against Great Britain; 3-of-12 for nine against Turkey), “La Bomba” has overcome the consistency issues he all too often gets in tournament play in raising his point totals and shooting percentage. This of course culminated in the 35-point show he put on versus FYR Macedonia, who simply had no answers. Good luck, M. De Colo!

• The Blazer’s Edge blog has been following their guy Nicolas Batum through the tournament; here’s the assessment of Seraphin’s play against Russia, in which writer Ben Golliver concludes, “Against Russia, the temptation is to give Batum a perfect score. While he won the match-up against Kirilenko, he didn’t completely dominate it, and he needed to rely on some good fortune with the foul calls. I’ll give him an eight [on a scale of 1-10] for the slow-starting offensive first quarter in the first half and a perfect ten for the second half. We’ll call that a 9 overall.”

• Gelabale’s salient point in France’s favor: “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row.”

• Teammates doing battle: Valencia’s Victor Claver vs. Nando De Colo. Also, sort of: Fernando San Emeterio meets Florent Pietrus, who played a spell most of last season on short extended contracts with San Emeterio’s Caja Laboral Baskonia in 2010. Pietrus had also played with Claver and De Colo at Valencia in the prior two seasons.

• The all-tournament team and MVP will be announced after the match; media members are allowed to vote. BiE’s ballot seems it will echo that of ESPN’s Mark Woods, going with Tony Parker, France; Bo McCalebb, FYR Macedonia; Pero Antic, FYR Macedonia; Marc Gasol, Spain; Pau Gasol, Spain. However, awesome as Pau has been for Espana, BiE’s gonna go with McCalebb for MVP – unless Parker leads France to the country’s first-ever European title.

• Official BallinEurope Fearless Predictions™: BiE’s been mulling over scenarios for a France victory (Navarro goes ice-cold like only he can; De Colo is allowed his shot throughout the first half for France to build up a double-digit lead; the issues that dogged Pau in the Lakers-Mavericks playoff series mysteriously return), but nothing seems plausible. As stocked as the French roster is, Spain simply has more, and the near-absence of Gelabale – He went for 16 points and six rebounds against Los Rojos in the 2010 FIBA Worlds – should be enough to give Spain a decisive win and the title repeat. Spain 81, France 71.

Speaking from hindsight, what better setup could we have for the bronze-medal game? Here, we’re getting probably the tournament’s third-best team in Russia plus the most fun and exciting dark horse in years with FYR Macedonia. Throw in the sweet final group-play game staged by these teams, and this should make for a heckuva great match as well. But BiE’s staying on the safe side again: Russia 66, FYR Macedonia 62.

• Importance of remaining games. Of six games left to play, four are critical to shaping the knockout round while two feature battles of undefeated teams fighting for group supremacy and the no. 1 seed. Both Spain-France tonight and FYR Macedonia-Russia tomorrow determine the group’s top two finishers, while the Slovenia-Finland (definitely) and Turkey-Serbia (most likely) games will lock in the no. 4 teams from the groups.

• Valanciunas vs. Kanter. In terms of prospect-watching, these are the guys observers have their eyes on. In general, Toronto Raptors fans should be fairly stoked – even a tad miffed that the Lithuanian lad won’t be joining their club for the 2011-12 season (should it happen) – about Valanciunas’ progress.

After a rocky and/or blink-and-you’ll-miss-it start in games one through three of the tournament – playing a total of 22 minutes, including a DNP against Turkey and a five-turnover match against Poland – Valanciunas put in a performance that quite possibly we’ll someday remember as his breakout game against Spain. The sole bright spot of that game for Lithuania, the 19-year-old got lots more court time in substituting for the injured Marijonas Petravicius and looked like an old hand in matching up against The Gasol Boys while stymieing them with the ball as well. And since the Turkey game, Valanciunas has owned the paint, going a big 18-of-27 shooting, highlighted by his 8-of-19, 18-point performance against Serbia.

Kanter, on the other hand, still disappointingly falls into the “work in progress” category, especially after comparing him to Valanciunas’ and his common opponents. While Team Turkey is happy to let their youngest player dominate the key when applying a bombs-away strategy against squads like Poland, Portugal and Great Britain, Kanter has been outplayed and constantly out of position against NBA-heavy squads France and Spain. Valanciunas definitely won the head-to-head battle against Kanter in game three of pool play, as Kanter demonstrated his footwork on defense is not developed enough to handle a speedy big man like The Big V.

Sure, Kanter heartened Turkey (and Utah Jazz) fans with his cool effort against Chris Kaman and Germany in going 5-of-5 for 11 points in 19 minutes, but he sat to watch the game’s final eight minutes against one of the less physical teams in the tournament. Utahans, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for your guy to blossom, it seems – though BiE believes you needn’t be quite as critical as this guy. Raptor Nation, you’ll have to wait, too … but rest assured, you’re getting a good one in Valanciunas.

• The Clips Nation finds “mostly positive” things to report on Chris Kaman’s performance, while ESPN has Ricky Rubio’s stock dropping.

• Vive la France! Going into the Lithuania game, BallinEurope’s UK guy Sam Chadwick wrote BiE to ask theoretically, “If anyone can defend Tony Parker, it’s Sarunas Jaskevicus, right?” After the game, we can say, “well, yes and no.” While Saras may have the smarts to play Parker, the grizzled old veteran is about a step too slow for Parker, who’s about a half-step too slow for, say, the speedy PGs of Spain.

But while Parker is driving this team, the Lithuania game showed that France can play ball with a truly deep squad and that Les Bleus are no one-man effort. Team France is in an enviable position of being able to stock a lineup full of top-level specialists playing at top form. While the Spur was good for 19 points (his second-lowest game total in the tournament), Nando de Colo was better with 21 to accompany five steals after serving as a fill-in in the first six games. Joakim Noah has seemingly never been happier defending and grabbing boards: His 13 rebounds against Lietuva increased his EuroBasket average to an even 8.0 per game, including 2.6 per off the offensive glass.

Naturally, much will be revealed in the Spain-France game tonight – in fact, BiE’s got Spain winning – but you’ve got to like Les Bleus as a top-four side right now at least.

• Speaking of the France-Spain contest, these two countries have quite the rivalry going in recent years. Back in 2005, Parker and Team France humiliated Spain the third-place game of this tournament, 88-68. Spain returned the favor in EuroBasket 2009, knocking out Parker’s guys in the quarterfinals by nearly the same score at 86-66. In the 2010 FIBA World Championship, France presented Spain with a bit of a speed bump, taking out the Spaniards on day one, 72-66. And of course, though friendly games don’t matter, Les Bleus certainly haven’t forgotten the thrashing Les Rojos handed them in August.

Better yet, with the way these teams are playing, we may see this matchup again – in the finals.

• With their approximately 3,743 draft picks stashed in Europe, San Antonio Spurs fans had a number of reasons to watch this EuroBasket – even beyond Tony Parker. Project Spurs provides a glimpse of Team Georgia’s Viktor Sanikidze, selected by the team in 2004 and perhaps the least likely European to ever join the NBA club at this point…

• While the marquee game is Spain vs. France, most likely the only crucial game vis-à-vis the knockout round tonight is Turkey vs. Serbia. Assuming a Lithuania win against Germany in the late game, the Turkey-Serbia throwdown will determine the no. 4 spot in Group E.

You want a clash of styles? How about Serbia’s second-high scoring team (83.0 ppg) vs. the big Turkey defense (fifth-best among remaining teams at 67.7 ppg allowed)? Team Serbia will have its hands full in attempting to slow down Omer Asik, who has seemingly found his rhythm after inconsistent play in the first round: He’s gone for 11 boards in each of the last two games, including seven offensive in both. However, Turkey has been dogged by general inconsistency and horrible three-point shooting from most of the backcourt (Ender Arslan, Kerem Tunceri and Cenk Aykol have combined for a 7-of-47 – just under 13% – “success” rate); clearly Asik won’t be enough, particularly should Nenad Krstic be keeping him good and busy underneath the rim.

In case you’ve forgotten, this game also represents a virtual rematch of the 2010 FIBA World Championship showdown. After an incredibly hard-fought, evenly-matched battle, Turkey emerged with the right to take on Team USA for the title after a second-half comeback and last-second heroics by Tunceri – heroics that probably should have been whistled dead before they happened.

Think Serbia wants revenge, badly? Think Milos Teodosic, whose brilliant 11-assist performance in that semifinal match will set out to torture Kunceri et al is this one? O, yes.

• How about that FYR Macedonia? Not only is Team Macedonia thrilling in EuroBasket 2011 with its stirring run as dark horse, they’re also causing broken hearts and heart attacks along the way. After taking care of Slovenia last night, that team is now forced to control its destiny against Finland tomorrow – a game in which all the pressure is on the traditional basketball power.

So how is FYR Macedonia doing it? A steady diet of Bo McCalebb (maybe this tournament’s most alpha of alpha dogs with Luol Deng’s Britain out holds a stat line of team-leading 21.3 points, 4.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game), of course, but also an ingenious plan built around the naturalized citizen’s game. McCalebb, Pero Antic and Vlado Illievski have combined to take 57% of all the team’s shots and nearly 88% (73-of-83) of all Macedonian assists.

Macedonia has been playing a disproportionate amount of one-on-one challenges and shot-creation with the ball, a neo-American approach that is frustrating seemingly better defenses (Greece, BiE’s looking at you…), while dividing up rebounding chores among a stable of workhorses. Plus, FYR Macedonia’s turning the ball over just 10.4 times per game, best among remaining teams.

Tomorrow’s game will determine the top seed in Group F and, though this side is perfect 5-0 in September (last losing to Montenegro in the EuroBasket opener in overtime on August 31), BiE nevertheless has Russia penciled in. While this would most likely set FYR Macedonia up with Lithuania in the knockout stage, not even the hosts should take such a game for granted right now.

Parker first suited up for France in 1997, aging his way through U16, U18 and U20 international tournaments to 2002. Tops among his international tournament performances was at the 2000 FIBA U18 European Championship: As France took the Continental title, Parker was named MVP for his 25.8 points, 6.8 assists and a completely insane 6.8 steals per game – a performance which was certainly incentive enough for San Antonio to draft him into the NBA in round one in 2001.

That same summer marked his graduation to the senior team at just over 19 years old; Parker logged the fourth-fewest minutes on that team but still contributed just about nine points per game on 46% overall shooting. Parker was named Team France captain in 2003 and in 2005 reached the height of its modern accomplishments with a third-place Eurobasket finish. Though Parker’s offensive play was off throughout the tourney with just 34.4% success shooting and his lowest statistical totals in any national competition since 2001, he contributed a monster 25-point, five-assist, four-steal effort against Spain in the bronze medal game.

Speaking of France versus Spain, Frederick Tripod of BasketNews reckons that tonight’s friendly match might not necessarily be a cordial one – also of note is Tripod’s assertion that Spain has been the team to beat in international play since the 88-68 smoking handing them by Les Bleus to cap 2005.

An extrapolation of the French-language piece is as follows.

Tonight at 21:30 in Almeria, France faces Spain in a friendly game which is taking on the appearance of a test against the best team in Europe before the tournament in London, which will have EuroBasket-like atmosphere.

It’s a friendly match, a warm-up match, but Les Bleus will not approach this one as though just any pre-tournament meeting. Stands before them is Spain, the team considered the tops in Europe over the past five years: The team has won the 2006 FIBA World Championship, the silver medal at Eurobasket 2007 and the 2008 Olympic Games, the Eurobasket title in 2009, finally stumbling in 2010 with a sixth-place finish in the FIBA Worlds. This is a colossus which should act as sparring partner for France.

Several factors make this game a meeting like no other. Firstly, returning to Team France is Joakim Noah, back from ankle treatments in the US and in the lineup for his first true tournament preparation. The game also marks the 100th selection of Tony Parker, and what better way to earn that 100th against an opponent as prestigious as Espana?

Head coaches Vincent Collet and Sergio Scariolo appreciate the value of the opponent which will advance to the competition ahead. The former said at a news conference yesterday that Spain sets the “standard for European basketball.” The latter is very pleased to find a competitor at its peak before Eurobasket: “France has always been an opponent capable of fighting for medals, but this year more than ever they have a great team, very complete, with all positions very well covered.”

In fact, we can say call this game a “friendly” because each team will be keen to better prepare for August 31. And while the Blues want to continue their momentum against the Roja after their victory in the 2010 FIBA Worlds, Team Spain will certainly want to avenge the loss in front of their home crowd.

Jan Vesely was yesterday named FIBA Europe’s Young Men’s Player of the Year for 2010, nipping three-time winner (!) Ricky Rubio for the honors. Both fans and a panel of experts voted, with the tallies weighted to produce a final score.

How close was the race between Vesely and Rubio? Vesely received some 53 more popular votes than The Human YouTube Clip of 97,079, a difference of less than 0.06%; in the expert vote, Vesely scored 14 points higher than Rubio of a total 693, or just about a 2% margin.

Finishing third overall was 19 year-old Jonas Valanciunas, currently of Lietuvos Rytas; Andrew Albicy, currently of Paris-Levallois; and “Free” Enes Kanter, currently in basketball limbo thanks to forces beyond his control.

In the fan ballots, Mateusz Ponitka received a whopping 29.7% of all ballots cast, landing nearly 29,000 votes. The experts didn’t think quite as highly of Ponitka as the Polish the public, with the 17-year-old receiving just nine points from the judges for a 13th-place finish there. Finishing a distant second with 7,416 votes was “Dangerous” Dejan Musli.

(One wonders who perfected the basketball ballot box-stuffing technique first: The Poles with FIBA voting or the Chinese with NBA All-Star voting. BiE will always think of Marcin Gortat as the Yao Ming of Europe…)

Official press release follows.

(FIBA Europe) – FIBA Europe announced on Monday that Jan Vesely of the Czech Republic is the winner of the European Young Men’s Player of the Year award for 2010.

Vesely edged out three-time winner Ricky Rubio of Spain in both the public and an expert panel vote, in what turned out to be the closest race ever in this category. Players born in 1990 or later were eligible for the award.

The versatility of the all-around 2.10m (6’11”) forward, reminiscent of Toni Kukoc, made him stand out in the impressive Partizan side that reached last year’s Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. He averaged 8.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in that competition and posted almost identical numbers with the Belgrade team in the Adriatic League, 8.4 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Vesely first featured in the senior national team in EuroBasket 2009 Division A. His exceptional talent became immediately apparent, as the then 19-year-old Czech finished the tournament with 11 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

“I have been following Jan Vesely’s progress in the last years and I have the feeling he’ll give us all plenty of reasons to keep a close eye on him for many years to come. He is that rare kind of player that can play in any position, a natural basketball talent” said FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin.

FIBA Europe will announce the winner of the Women’s Player of the Year Award for 2010 on Wednesday and the Men’s Player of the Year on Friday.

How good is Bogdanovic? Discuss.

Seven Euroleague games go off tonight as the season rounds into form a bit. The marquee match tonight has got to be the Khimki-Baskonia showdown to establish early supremacy in that tough Group A; Olympiacos-Unicaja will surely be worth the viewing as well, although the way the Reds have dominated on their home floor lately will make things difficult for the Spanish side.

In preparation for the festivities, then, BallinEurope presents some talking points: facts, stats, oddities, history and video relating to the games. Enjoy!

BC Khimki Moscow region vs. Caja Laboral Baskonia. This marks the third meeting between the two teams after meeting for two games in the Top 16 round last season; oddly enough, both times the visiting team recorded double-digit wins in that series … Benjamin Eze has 92 career blocked shots in Euroleague play and needs just one more to tie Tiago Splitter for eighth place on the all-time list; FC Barcelona’s Terence Morris and Erazem Lorbek have 91 and 90, respectively … David Logan and Thomas Kelati helped lead PGE Turow to the Eurocup final eight in 2007-08 … Mirza Teletovic is currently 10 shy of 1,000 Euroleague career points … Teletovic has hit a three-pointer in his last 20 Euroleague games; Logan has a streak of 13 consecutive EL games with a three, while Vitaly Fridzon is working on 10 straight … Raul Lopez has at least one steal in his last 11 Euroleague games … Khimki’s Keith Langford notched a Euroleague personal-best 27 points against Baskonia in the second Top 16 game against the Spanish club … Aleksey Savrasenko scored his Euroleague career high 22 points against Baskonia in 2000-01.

Olympiacos vs. Unicaja Malaga. Olympiacos has won its last 16 Euroleague home games; they last lost in Piraeus to Le Mans in 2008 … this game will represent Theo Papaloukas’ 200th in the EL; he’s second on the all-time Euroleague games play list behind J.R. Holden … Olympiacos and Unicaja have met 10 times before, with Olympiacos holding a 7-3 series lead; Unicaja has never beaten the Reds at Piraeus … Milos Teodosic has scored in double figures in his last 12 Euroleague games … Teodosic and BiE fave Uros Tripkovic played on the stunning silver medal-winning Team Serbia at Eurobasket 2009 … Teodosic has made 13 consecutive free throws, while Yotam Halperin is riding a streak of 15 straight … Georgios Printezis, a product of Olympiacos youth basketball, returns home, of sorts … Joel Freeland’s coming off his first-ever Euroleague double-double last week; did you have him on your fantasy team?

Efes Pilsen vs. AJ Milano. Since first meeting in the Korac Cup final in 1996, Efes Pilsen and AJ Milano have met eight times, with Efes Pilsen winning seven; in fact, Milano’s sole win against the Turkish side came in the second game of the one-and-one Korac series – and with a seven-point margin of victory, Milano was one point short of taking the tournament … Nikola Vujcic went for a career game against Milano in 2005, registering a 26/9/6 in a Maccabi Tel Aviv win … Vujcic needs one blocked shot to be tied at third-most all-time EL blocks … Vujcic also four rebounds short of 1,000 in Euroleague play and five assists shy of 500; he’s sixth all-time in the latter category … Marius Petravicius is coming off his first-ever EL double-double, while Bootsy Thornton landed himself a week 2 MVP nod for turning in his first double-double since 2004 … Thornton and Kerem Tunceri have hit 14 free throws in a row, while Igor Rakocevic has sunk 13 consecutive; Rakocevic holds the all-time EL record with 58.

Zalgiris Kaunas vs. Asseco Prokom. Still no sign of Marcus Brown, who sat out Zalgiris’ VTB game with VEF Riga this weekend; Martynas “Air” Pocius is probable for the game … Zalgiris and Prokom have met seven times in Euroleague play, all since 2007, with the Poles at a 4-3 advantage and the home team 6-1 … Prokom has lost its last five away games in Euroleague play … Dainius Salenga has managed a double-double in each of his last four games against Prokom, including a scoring average of 15.8 points per game; on the other side of the court, Daniel Ewing is averaging 15.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.8 steals per in his last four games against Zalgiris … this game represents the first of at least four meetings between the teams in 2010-11, as they’re both competing in Group B of the VTB United League, a pool also including BC Khimki Moscow region.

Brose Baskets Bamberg vs. Spirou Basket. Spirou twice defeated Brose Baskets in 2007-08 Eurocup play, the only occasions on which the teams met … Spirou’s Demond Mallet is one of Bamberg’s sports heroes, having helped lead the team to the Bundesliga championship in 2005 … Mallet has hit a three-pointer in 21 consecutive Euroleague games going back just under four years, and needs one for 100 career EL threes … watch out for that Brose Baskets Bamberg bench: reserves Brian Roberts and Kyle Hines combined for 37 points last week … the only player likely to sit out due to injury on either side is Christophe Beghin, therefore delaying his return to the Euroleague by another week; Beghin last played EL ball with Oostende in February 2002.

Power Electronics Valencia vs. CSKA Moscow. These two teams have never met before … Valencia’s Robertas Javtokas and CSKA’s Ramunas Siskauskas have won a Greek triple crown, a Lithuanian League championship and a Eurobasket bronze medal together … Javtokas and Florent Pietrus each set individual career-high rebounding marks against CSKA Moscow teams: Javtokas managed 15 against the Red Army in 2006, while Pietrus snagged 20 boards in 2001-02 Euroleague game – but CSKA won both games … Holden is chasing Nikola Vujcic for third-most career EL points; at 2,332, he’s 20 points behind … Holden has hit a three-pointer in 20 straight Euroleague games … CSKA is badly suffering from injuries: Sasha Kaun is out until February, Siskauskas is gone until December, and Viktor Khryapa’s return has not yet been announced.

Montepaschi Siena vs. Cibona Zagreb. In six meetings between the teams, MPS has a 4-2 advantage – and they’ve won the last three … Bo McCalebb has made his last 21 free throws and boasts an 18-game streak with at least one steal … Ksistof Lavrinovic recorded career highs in points and index ratings against Cibona Zagreb in the 85-40 Euroleague opening day demolition last year, with 26 points and a 34 rating … Shaun Stonerook set his career-high in scoring with 18 against Cibona in 2009 … Bojan Bogdanovic is leading the Euroleague and Adriatic League in scoring at 21.5 ppg and 25.4 ppg, respectively.

Oh boy, does Britain need Ben in 2011

Despite the fact that Team Britain has managed to qualify for 2010 Eurobasket tournaments on both men’s and women’s sides, FIBA secretary-general/International Olympic Committee member Patrick Baumann has placed yet another condition to be met in exchange for bids at the 2012 Olympic Games.

According to today’s Scotsman newspaper via a letter sent from Baumann to Basketball Scotland vice-chairman Bill McInnes, Baumann now demands as prerequisite to Olympic entry “that a single governing body in Britain is established for basketball” uniting programs from England, Scotland and Wales.

While the three bodies agreed on an informal structure to create united teams at the national and U20 levels back in 2005, Baumann “wants a radical overhaul of the way the sport is organised in order to translate its oft-cited grassroots popularity into sustainable success at club and international level” and the current way of fielding FIBA basketball teams “cannot be continued after the Games in 2012.”

Baumann’s letter went on to state that “There needs to be one boss, one organisation that leads. I don’t think that means the three federations as such need to disappear. They have their role, but it must be under one umbrella, with clearly defined responsibilities on developing basketball. We need to have one partner that has the clear vision so that when it comes to the table with FIBA or the British Olympic Association, they have the credibility to say what is good for basketball in England, Scotland and Wales.”

Despite the fact that Baumann himself is “relatively confident” the British powers-that-be can live up to this latest round of expectations, the timeframe does seem a bit tight: The IOC will be voting in March to decide whether or not to give Team Britain an automatic bid for the London Olympics.

If the IOC decides not to grant the official bid, Team Britain would then presumably have to at very least qualify out of pool play in Eurobasket 2011 or even grab a wild-card entry to the Olympics, two scenarios with varying degrees of possibility from next-to-none to darn unlikely at best.

Baumann’s latest idea is the most recent of a flow of demands put on Team Britain in the buildup to the 2012 Games. Before the recent Eurobasket qualifying rounds, it was essentially implied that Britain needed to make a respectable showing in an upcoming international tournament.

When both the men’s and women’s sides got through on the same day, the official FIBA website itself proclaimed that “Looking to make statements about the potential of the national teams to compete at the Olympics should they both be allowed by basketball’s world governing body, FIBA, to take up spots normally reserved for host nations for the London Games, the Brits were loud and clear.”

Prior to this, in what Back British Basketball’s Sam Neter is calling a “constant moving of the goalposts” by FIBA, Team Britain had been informally promised an Olympic spot if they qualified for Eurobasket 2009; prior to *that*, rising to Division A level in FIBA play was thought to have been enough.

Baumann fittingly said that the “radical overhaul” will “require some creative thinking.”

One wonders if the creative thinking will also be enough to anticipate Baumann’s next move…

BallinEurope’s man in Lithuania, known in this space since last year’s LKL championship series insanity as Y., states that the Spain game meant a heck of a lot more for his country, the basketball-maddest in Europe if not the world. For Y. and his countrymen going into an elimination game with Argentina tonight, this edition of Team Lithuania is already heroic.

“Basketball is just a game, after all” – I remember reading this in Lithuanian media once. And I’m always thinking about it, about how that phrase really fits in our country.

In places other than Kaunas games are played in half-empty arenas, LKL mid-level games get astonishing lows in TV ratings, and our top players such as Šarūnas Jasikevičius more often opted out to rest in the summer rather than play for our National Team while, in comparison, other top teams like Spain always enjoy most of their roster intact.

“True,” I thought once, “we are not as mad about basketball as we would like to be.”

Our teams also often fail to qualify as having a “winning mentality,” only having won five top national team or club competitions since independence in 1990, despite doing consistently well in the game, which usually makes our expectations higher than they should be. Hence, our victories often feel less joyful than they should and our losses, such as in Eurobasket 2009, feel much worse.

But sometimes, now and then, there is a game which just makes me and everyone else realise how much we *really* love this game.

One of these games was – you guessed right – Lithuania’s Group D matchup against defending champion Spain last week. As an underdog, to be blown out by zillion points in most games even with our stars, everyone’s most optimistic expectation here was nothing more than a slim loss, despite having that dream of victory deep in our hearts. It might seem a late thing to write about once again, but I just have a feeling its importance is so huge that I could not miss the opportunity to say what I want.

And there we were, with Lithuania down 18, it felt just as always: “Same thing once again.” But our national team had other ideas in mind.

It took much more than just good basketball, it needed these few rare plays that stay in memories for decades – Jonas Mačiulis blowing past Rudy Fernandez twice in a row, Mantas Kalnietis hitting a game-tying three with 80 seconds to go, and in the last minute Linas Kleiza taking Lithuania for the first lead of the game since the first quarter.

For Spain, it was just a loss in group play. It was much more for Lithuania: People were exultant in the streets, waving dozens of national flags, girls were crying like it was 2003 once again.

Emotionally, the win against Spain was one of the biggest Lithuanian victories ever. And I felt afterwards that if a sport can touch hearts of so many (not just many, but most of the country!) people at once, it is more than just a game. For us, at least.

Now we head to quarterfinals against Argentina. And I know already that, whatever the outcome, everyone will love this national team for the emotions it has already brought and for the way it has played.

Even if Lithuania doesn’t win this World Championship, they will be champions in our hearts, at least.

Thank You, Lithuania.

Perovic: No Gasol, no easy win for Spain

When Serbia and Spain meet tonight to determine which of the European powers will advance to the 2010 FIBA World Championship final four, it will mark the third time the squads meet in one year – in fact, it’s been 366 days since the relatively unheralded young Serbs surprised the sluggish Spaniards in their Eurobasket 2009 opening game.

And the two Eurobasket 2009 games in which the teams faced off is hardly history: 17 of the 24 players on the teams’ rosters have returned for this tournament. It is, however, one of Team Spain’s two absentees that will make the difference in the rubber match tonight, in Kosta Perovic’s opinion: Pau Gasol.

Despite acknowledging Espana’s many strengths and recalling the 85-63 defeat handed Serbia in the Eurobasket championship game, Pekovic was quoted in Spanish media as stating “Clearly it will be a difficult game for us, but also for them.” (“Está claro que va a ser un partido difícil para nosotros… pero también para ellos.”)

“No there is no Pau Gasol,” said Perovic. “With Pau, [Spain] has less strength and is less intimidating. The lack [of Gasol] changes many things.” (“Ahora no está Pau Gasol … Sin Pau tienen menos fuerza y una intimidación menor. Su baja cambia muchas cosas.”)

Perovic notes that Spain “remains a very strong team … with quality players who can score with ease” and that “[Juan Carlos] Navarro can do much damage, Rudy [Fernandez] is explosive and Ricky [Rubio] is a great passer who also highlights the strength of [Fran] Vazquez and Marc [Gasol]. They’re very difficult to stop if you don’t bring help on defense.”

While Perovic seems to be stating the obvious – after all, it doesn’t take a genius to realize replacing an average line of 18.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.2 steals ain’t easy – his Team Serbia is a unique position to take advantage of Spain’s “weakness” in this game.

Marc Gasol has succeeded fairly well in taking up his big brother’s role in the middle, though his 13.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.2 steals is a bit of a comedown. The departure of Pau has left ripples in the Spain game while Serbia has improved its style in this more wide-open tournament, increasing scoring by 14 points per game – and outscoring Spain, the top offense in Eurobasket 2009.

In the day one meeting last year, Serbia overcame the prohibitive favorites, 66-57, with staunch defense that continually prevented passes to come in down low. With no options inside, the Spaniards were left with no easy looks and 20-of-51 shooting including a 2-of-19 performance on threes and 43% success on twos. Even Gasol The Elder was a non-factor in that game, going for just nine points and seven rebounds against constant defensive switches and double-teaming.

Could this game actually be an even match? Perovic thinks so. “If we believe and have patience, we shall certainly have our chances to take the game. We play hard, with [intelligence] and faith in ourselves.”

Offical BallinEurope Fearless Predictions™: Serbia takes ‘em to overtime, but Spain prevails; and Turkey continues to please the hometown crowd by nipping Slovenia.

The Prize

Now that noted astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has announced God’s non-existence in our universe through mathematics, maybe he can start working on explaining the FIBA tie-breaking procedure.

No, no, don’t start on BiE; it’s as easy as dialing up Wikipedia to find the steps in determining seeding for tournament play: Placement is determined based on, in order, game results between tied teams; scoring average between games of the tied teams; scoring average for all games of tied teams; drawing of lots.

Nice and neat it may be, but empirically this definition falls short. Seriously somebody should explain to BiE how/why France ends up in the fourth seed in Group D (and with the unfortunate fate of drawing home Turkey in round one) when they clearly whupped Spain’s butts early? How/why does Team China, a team that’s seemingly won one game in all of 2010, advance over Puerto Rico who not only beat China in the preliminaries but also outscored and surrendered fewer points than either of the other two squads involved in the tiebreaker?

Ah, whatever. Here’s the way BallinEurope might have seeded the tournament, based firstly on record and thereafter on momentum – after five games, at least we’ve got that objective criteria.

1. USA, 5-0. Is there any doubt that Kevin Durant will, at some point in his career, be called The Best Player in the World? That outrageous amounts of big guys aren’t necessarily life-or-death in an international tournament? That Kevin Love, thanks to his hard work and exposure, will be the most popular Minnesota Timberwolf next season? That we should finally stop calling these guys “The B-deem Team”? Answers: No, maybe a little yet, absolutely not, and yes please.

2. Turkey, 5-0. Here’s the Turkey we all expected coming into the tournament: The huge frontcourt handling the boards, Hedo Turkoglu facilitating rather than ball-hogging in averaging four assists per game (tops on the team while scoring only the fourth-most points), and riding the home-court advantage against those who might compete. In FIBA’s bracket, BiE’s already got Team Turkey penciled in for the final four.

3. Lithuania, 5-0. The most frustrating team in this tournament is also among its most successful. Though five games, it seems The Green Army plays nothing but nail-biters. Sometimes the key to success is the bench (excepting game four against France when scoring was hardly necessary, the Magnificent Seven accounted from off the bench for 45% of Team Lithuania’s total points), sometimes it’s sole marquee name Linas Kleiza (as in the 27-point eight-rebound barrage against New Zealand). The individual heroes may change nightly along with the game plan, a comeback may be required or perhaps a bit lead is barely held onto, but Lithuania has done one thing in this tournament: win.

4. Serbia, 4-1. The good news for Serbia is of course the win over Argentina last night to overcome both a double-digit deficit early in the first quarter and a monstrous 32-point, seven-board performance by Luis Scola. The bad news is they have to play again today after exhausting resources. How young and energetic is Team Serbia? We’ll find out in hours…

5. Slovenia, 4-1. Again coming in underrated, again coming in without miffed superstars, Goran “The Dragon” Dragic have proved themselves the class of the second-tier in handling the disparate games of Croatia and Brazil in Group B play. With an upset win over Turkey in the elite eight round and it’ll déjà vu to Eurobasket 2009 all over again.

6. Argentina, 4-1. Flying under the radar jammed with talk of USA and Spain, Argentina did enough to win the first two, cruised through the next two and hit the Serbian wall. While excelling in the open court, much has been made about the problems Team Argentina has had with the pick-and-roll, an Achilles’ heel that is certainly this team’s potential downfall in round one against the P’n’R obsessers of Brazil.

7. Spain, 3-2. Is it the coaching? BiE tends to think so. Is it the lack of clutch performers? Perhaps the absence of Pau Gasol hurt more than pundits guessed. Nothing is certain – except that Espana has experienced quite the bumpy road to 3-2 – until Saturday; Spain has had a tendency to rouse themselves to deliver punishment in time for the elimination rounds and first foe Greece is looking ripe for the pummeling right about now.

8. Brazil, 3-2. These guys should perhaps be ranked a little higher due to their impressive showing against Team USA and by dint of the fact that their first-round game is well winnable, but after just two games with the full roster (impressive though the shellacking of Croatia was) BiE’s not quite ready to rally ‘round the Brazilian flag again.

9. Russia, 4-1. Somewhere along the way David Blatt finally convinced his guys to use their advantages in big beefy brawn and lockdown defense to end up an impressive 4-1. Even if they do often resemble the Eastern Hemisphere version of the Pat Riley Knicks.

10. France, 3-2. What a difference two games makes, eh? Once on the cusp of top seed in the group (which presumably would have matched them against China in round one of the tourney), France went on to amass a 24-11 first quarter lead against Lithuania … and it all went south from there. It’s France against Turkey on Sunday and, uh, hey, how about that Spain game, huh?

11. Greece, 3-2. The ESPN Daily Dime chat room burned with venom at Greece’s lackluster play last night and BiE can’t really say he blames the fans. As the FIBA announcer put it, “Greece has not played well all week.” Talent alone is keeping them this high.

12. Australia, 3-2. A fascinating team comprised of a blend of NBA players, Euroleaguers, ACB ballers and the occasional NBL star, the Boomers have created a fantastic synthesis of post play and open-court romping. The three bigs David Andersen, Aleks Maric and Matt Nielsen are enough to give any team this side of Brazil matchup problems underneath, but PG Patrick Mills leads Oz in scoring at 14 points per game based on the freedom to toss the three when the middle’s full up with bodies.

13. New Zealand, 3-2. After butt-kickings administered by Lithuania and Spain, the Tall Blacks were still able to sneak into a third seed by taking care of business in the final three games. This team’s prime strength is also it’s weakness, however, as sharpshooting Kirk Penney is taking well over one-third of his team’s shots. While Penney has handled double-teams well enough, Team Russia will surely be content to let him go bombs away while dominating underneath in tournament game one.

14. Croatia, 2-3. The skills are there, but the lack of depth Croatian fans expected at tournament’s beginning have come into evidence after the Slovenia and Brazil games. Taking out the Tunisia game in which subs got extensive minutes, the Croatian bench has performed like the Bizarro Lithuania, with just 46% of its teams points. Remove backup PG Marko Popovic from the equation and Croatia’s bottom six are producing just 18 points a game combined. Hopefully, the roster will be a bit fuller for Eurobasket 2011…

15. Angola, 2-3. Stirring OT win against Germany aside, the draw of Team USA in the tournament means BiE’s gonna go to Barkley’s line again.

16. China, 1-4. Turkey 87, China 40? And China advances based on *that*? Don’t get BiE started…

Rosie knows it

“Sometimes when you win, you really lose. And sometimes when you lose, you really win. And sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic globule, from which one extracts what one needs.” – Gloria Clemente, White Men Can’t Jump

Congratulations go out from BallinEurope to Teams USA, Turkey and Lithuania for getting tickets punched into the knockout tournament as VIP no. 1 seeds. And while the Argentina-Serbia battle tonight to determine how Group A shakes out should be a dandy, the one to watch – particularly if you’re a FIBA official or conspiracy theorist – will be Russia vs. Greece.

In what is definitely a case of “he who wins shall lose,” the no. 2 seed in Group C will face what appears to be the most difficult path to the championship game in the bracket. Assuming Team Spain handles winless Canada, the winner of tonight’s Russia-Greece contest would first draw Espana as no. 3 seed in Group D in the “eight finals,” followed by (Team USA) the winner of USA vs. Angola/Australia.

The loser of Russia-Greece would get a bracket that includes an opening game against France followed by the winner of Argentina vs. Brazil/Croatia – while hardly an easy road, which do you think David Blatt and Jonas Kazlauskas would prefer?

In fact, this bit of the bracket might prove particularly enticing for Russia, who would kill to see a Croatian win over Brazil tonight followed by the Brazilian upset of Team Argentina: Russia is maybe the only team in this tournament that can match up big men with talented Brazil.

So does either side want to win this game?

BiE recently commented on an incident of about a year ago that echoes the current situation, namely Nando De Colo’s last-second shot to defeat Team Greece in Eurobasket 2009 and give Les Blues the top seed in their group … only to face good ol’ Spain (who started the tournament slowly, natch) in the knockout stage. Final result: Pau Gasol and the boys absolutely torched La France, 86-66, and steamrolled their way through the tournament’s remainder to bag the title.

You can bet that both sides will be well aware of the implications of victory tonight, but BiE doesn’t see how Kazlauskas could stack the deck against himself, unless through the highly suspicious method of keeping quality players off the court for long stretches (à la France, which sat Tony Parker throughout the fourth quarter in that fateful Eurobasket game). Last night’s 97-60 destruction of Cote d’Ivoire would seem to indicate that full-strength Greece is now in “No More Mr. Nice Guy Mode” with bad boys Antonis Fotsis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis back.

On the other hand, Fotsis has not been himself in the two games since returning. In just 45 minutes of action in the two games combined, Fotsis has managed to get his defensive rebounds (four in each game) but offensively is depending on timid jumpshots to the tune of 2-of-6 shooting in both games. Would anyone be surprised if Fotsis gets limited minutes no matter the score?

BiE’s thinking three things: 1) Greece has nothing to fear in the bracket, as surely Kazlauskas believes he has a roster than can handle the pre-tournament alpha dogs; 2) Greece gets off to an early lead on the way to a win; and 3) Russia sits starters as soon as it’s evident the game is out of reach.

Commented FIBA Europe writer Jeff Taylor upon giving De Colo the nod for “Best shot” of the Eurobasket 2009 tournament in his roundup column: “Had France lost that game, they would have avoided Spain in the quarterfinals, and they knew it. But they won anyway. The day a player intentionally tries to lose a game to get a better opponent in the quarterfinals is the day I stop watching basketball.”

That’s a sentiment many of us can agree with – and let’s just hope that Taylor’s theoretical player isn’t hiding on either the Greek or Russian benches tonight.

Other official BallinEurope Fearless Predictions™ for tonight’s games? Sure!

Puerto Rico vs. Cote d’Ivoire – Puerto Rico wins for the pyrrhic victory, i.e. the right to face red-hot Lithuania in the tournament.

Spain vs. Canada – They doesn’t even have to win to advance, but something tells BiE that Team Spain gets this win. Interestingly, a New Zealand win and a Spanish loss would pit the Spaniards against either Turkey or Greece *in the first round*. Whoa.

Angola vs. Australia – Demond Greene aside, Germany came into this tournament with little experience and that greenness showed last night against Angola. Angola won’t receive that benefit against the Boomers; Australia wins. Oh, by the way, loser gets Team USA.

USA vs. Tunisia – The C-deem Team, anyone? Aside from USA winning the game, here’s another Fearless Prediction™: Stephen Curry, Tyson Chandler, Kevin “Summer Of” Love and former University of New Mexico Lobo Danny Granger will each get more minutes than Kevin Durant … at least in the second half.

Lebanon vs. Lithuania – Nothing can stop Lithuania right now, certainly not Lebanon playing for pride. That buzzing sound you hear over the Western Hemisphere? That’s the Green-and-Golds bearing down on Argentina in the semi-finals…

Argentina vs. Serbia – With all the shock and awe America’s exciting play is creating, plus the, well, shock caused by Spain’s limp performances late, Argentina has quietly emerged under the radar as one of the top teams in the tournament. BiE suspects their brainy form of basketball will sneak Argentina past Serbia tonight, too.

Slovenia vs. Iran – Slovenia.

Turkey vs. China – They want to wow the fans some more. Turkey.

New Zealand vs. France – In this tournament, New Zealand is living and dying by the jumpshot; France is meanwhile averaging 70 points a game in the tourney, “good” for 19th best after the 55-point debacle last night. Since Les Bleus are locked into the no. 2 spot of Group D while New Zealand could theoretically jump up a spot in the pool to avoid meeting the Group C no. 1 (not to mention potentially drawing regional foes Australia), it’s tempting to go with the upset here.

However, BiE believes coach Vincent Collet, who’d been enjoying an excellent tournament until the disheartening Lithuania match, will use the opportunity to tighten up the French game going into the tournament. France wins in a squeaker.

Jordan vs. Germany – No, BiE’ll go for the upset here and say the Jordan that played Argentina hard shows up again to defeat the bamboozled Germans.

Brazil vs. Croatia – In the late slot is this marquee matchup and talk about your contrast of styles, eh? Interior vs. exterior, halfcourt vs. full court, size vs. hustle … should be a good ‘un. Brazil again played valiantly against a top team last night, nearly coming back all the way from an early 16-point deficit to upend Slovenia; their control of the fourth quarter with Anderson Varejao (finally) on the floor may show that the Team Brazil we expected in July has finally arrived.

Croatia’s patchwork squad also took Slovenia to the wire in game three, but in opposite fashion, instead enjoying 55% overall shooting and a whopping 50% beyond the arc. All other statistics being nearly equal, the Croatians’ deficit of six rebounds cost them the game: When Bostan Nachbar and Miha Zupan both bagged defensive rebounds off Croatian bricks in the paint inside of 40 seconds, Team Slovenia’s height had sealed the deal. BiE’s going to say Brazil wins because they win the battle of bigs.