The 2010-11 professional basketball season may effectively be over this weekend, with a final championship series game scheduled in Germany tonight plus a possible elimination game in Italy happening on Sunday. But no worries: the end of club play means the beginning of summertime national-team tournaments, starting with the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket Women competition.
In the land of Nowitzki, another crazy Bundesliga tournament will be finished tonight as Brose Baskets Bamberg hosts Alba Berlin in the decisive game five for the BBL title and a Euroleague bid for 2011-12.
The back-and-forth series saw game four won handily by Alba Berlin, 87-67, after a shaky first quarter. Derrick Allen led the way for Berlin with 18 points in knotting up the series at 2-2. Game five is available for watching live online via the German-language Sport 1 YouTube channel. Tipoff is set for 8.30pm CET (2.30pm EST).
Happy Monday, everyone. To get that week started right, BallinEurope has compiled a healthy-sized video play list at which you may goggle over morning coffee. From all corners of Europe (and Portland, Oregon) came the action last week as the barrage of title-awarding begins on The Continent.
A quick reminder, just in case you’re an utter hoops fanatic (or up in the wee hours of Sunday morning for some reason): FIBA TV will be showing the Nike Hoop Summit live online for free from Portland at 10pm EST – that’s right, that means 4am CET. 
First up, Candace Parker, Maria Stepanova and Cappie Pondexter try to overcome 
FIBA Europe has released the list of participating teams for the 2010-11 edition of Euroleague Women. Defending champions Spartak Moscow region received an automatic entry, while 21 spots are allocated based on national federation rankings and three-year performance of the clubs in pan-European tournament play.
FIBA Euroleague Women’s basketball doesn’t start until late October, but the season officially kicked off today with the ceremonial draws of groupings for both Euroleague and EuroCup Women competitions.
