Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

Christophe, the former brain behind BallinEurope now devoted to European Prospects, yesterday reported that France would be the first to adopt the “Homegrown Player” status for its national league.

The LNB steering committee reportedly unanimously adopted the amendment to current player statuses in a Monday meeting and the changes will go into effect for the 2010-11 season. The “homegrown” or “locally trained” player is defined as “he/she who has held a French basketball license for four years between the ages of 12 and 21. The LNB also instituted a grandfather clause for those first licensed in 2009-10.

For 2010-11, between five and seven homegrown players will be allowed to be listed on Pro A rosters, depending on roster size; in Pro B clubs, seven to nine homegrown players will be allowed.

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Mentally battered and otherwise worked over since this morning’s 4am True Hoop live blogging, BallinEurope nevertheless wanted to post *something* with which the loyal readers might waste some time on Saturday.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, the token YouTube video highlight collection post of the day.

The Euroleague Top 10 Plays of the Week clip was again dutifully uploaded onto the ‘Tube and so runs below the break. Is Ricky in it? Yes, and Pops is, too, plus an awesome Viktor Khyrapa block that BiE *knew* would be in here as soon as it happened, awesome three-way passing work by Partizan, and Linas Kleiza creating one of the greatest highlights off a missed free throw ever.

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The FIBA EuroChallenge may be considered a bit of a lower-tier club tournament here on The Continent, but the 2009-10 edition of the contest is certainly among the tops in terms of competitive balance.

With the final games of the Last 16 phase all tipping off tomorrow night, eight teams remain in the hunt for four quarterfinals spots and just four teams (Banvit, Belgacom Liege, EiffelTowers Den Bosch, and Proteas) have been eliminated. BC Göttingen, Chorale Roanne Basket, Krasnye Krylia, and Scavolini Pesaro are through already; who will join them tomorrow night?

Following is BallinEurope’s super-compressed briefing on the mathematical possibilities for each still-striving contender plus a few storylines at play in the games.

• Apoel. If Apeol wins against KK Buducnost, they’re in; at 5-1 in Nicosia this EuroChallenge season with the sole loss to (relatively) mighty Pesaro, things look decent for the Cypriot squad. But hey, Cyprus’ defending champions have blown away disappointing memories of the 2008-2009 EuroChallenge in which Apoel went two-and-out while scoring less than 57 points in the matches.

• Antwerp Giants are involved in a three-way dogfight with Chorale Roanne and Enisey Krasnoyarsk; win and they’re in, of course, but with a loss in Roanne the Giants could still back in with a Krasnoyarsk loss to Banvit. Guard Bryan Hopkins last week became the latest Antwerp injury, leaving the Belgian squad without guard Bryan Hopkins, forward Randy Oveneke, center Christophe Beghin, and former Atlanta Hawks swingman Thomas Gardner for much of the season’s remainder.

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Here’s a quick YouTube fix for you if you need it this morning: Highlights and post-game revelry from Wednesday night’s FIBA Euroleague Women final eight game which saw Wisla Can-Pack advance by defeating Frisco Sika Brno, 78-73. Either way, the match was fated to be the last EL game in Poland, with the ladies now going into the Final Four playoffs; Janell Burse and the Wisla women did not disappoint.

Damn, they get *up* for their girls in Krakow – no joke, these devotees have got to be the closest thing to the Pionir faithful that EL Women has…

(Video follows the break.)

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With an official statement from the host nation’s basketball federation and little more, Team Azerbaijan has been announced as no longer participating in this summer’s European Championship Women Division C.
Armenian Basketball Federation president Grachya Rostomyan stated simply that “Azerbaijani basketball team has rejected” the offer to play in the competition. FIBA Europe had informed the ABF of the decision on Tuesday.

Azerbaijan Basketball Federation executive director Rustam Rustamov later explained that “in November of last year when we appealed for participation in the European championship, we did not know where it will be held. This January, FIBA Europe decided to hold the contest in Yerevan. Taking into account the fact that this is a female team and considering the wishes of the basketball players and their parents, it was decided to reject participation in the contest in the hostile country.”

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Burse drives Wisla Can-Pack

In the final remaining game of the Euroleague Women quarterfinal playoffs going down tonight between Frisco Sika Brno and Wisla Can-Pack, it’s not a question of whether an improbable run will continue but rather *which* improbable run.

Brno has faced elimination on three occasions in this tournament already, the most recent coming in game two of this round last Wednesday when the Czech side defended homecourt and, oh, what the hell, here’s the entire FIBA Europe writeup:

Frisco Sika Brno earned a decisive game three in their Quarter-Final Play-Off series with Wisla Can-Pack Krakow, handing their Polish opponents an 87-72 loss.

Brno dominated the third and fourth quarters, leading by as many as 24 with five minutes left in the game.

Eva Viteckova led the way for the Czechs with 25 points on five of eight shooting from behind the three-point line. Taj McWilliams added 20 points and nine rebounds.

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BiE supposes the only suspense with this award this year was how close things would get and who placed second. So, after the ho-hum announcement that Pau Gasol was chosen FIBA Europe Men’s Player of the Year for a second consecutive time, we today know the answers. In order, then: Not very close at all, and Dirk Nowitzki.

Nowitzki finished second in the final tabulation with a 0.078 rating against Gasol’s mark of 0.335; Milos Teodosic was third at 0.050. The public saw things a little differently than the experts, however, with Nowitzki just fourth in the popular vote, with The Dastardly One topped by Marcin Gortat (who finished 12th overall) and Erazem Lorbek (5th overall). Meanwhile, fourth-place overall finisher Vassilis Spanoulis got no respect from the voters, earning just enough ballots to place 14th with the crowd. (And you thought NBA All-Star Game voting was weird!)

Check out the final standings as per FIBA’s calculations, with the players’ finish in the popular vote for the award in parentheses following.

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On Friday, FIBA and Euroleague officials conspired to grant Juan Dixon surely one of the worst weekends in his life by announced that he was suspended from play with Unicaja Malaga thanks to his misuse of a steroid product.

In the statement from the Unicaja front office itself, club officials explained that Dixon had “tested positive for Nandrolone in a doping control conducted on 5 November in Thessaloniki, Greece.”

Basketball fans may recall nandrolone as the substance Rashard Lewis was busted for in August of this year and given a ten-game suspension.

The FIBA suspension will reportedly remain in place until that body makes an official decision on Dixon; though one wonders how severe the penalty could be when a seeming hardliner on drug use like Commissioner Stern only dealt a ten-game suspension. It seems Dixon’s wife Robyn Dixon is taking a few matters into her own hands, PR-wise. On Sunday, Robyn told press that Juan would be staying in Spain: “He is kind of in limbo. He is still under contract with the team. Until the team said it is severing ties, he probably needs to stay over there.”

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Ready for July? Just released from FIBA is the organization’s first promo video for the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women, a slick four-minute clip packed with highlights and, um, logos.

Alongside hosts France, Continental teams competing in the 12-team tournament include Belgium, Russia, Spain and Turkey.

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One more announcement from the FIBA folks today and this one’s surely no surprise: For an unprecedented third straight year, the honor of FIBA Europe Young Men’s Player of the Year goes to Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio.

Rubio’s win makes Spain two-for-two on FIBA Europe accolades this year and, with Pau Gasol expected to bookend his 2008 Men’s Player of the Year with one for 2009 by dint of his country’s win at Eurobasket 2009 and his club’s win in the 2009 NBA Championship, one can’t help but wonder if Spain (and Ana Montañana) pulls off the sweep. We’ll find out on Friday…

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