Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog

Langford: He upon whom the Boss' hopes are pinned

Hello everybody, greetings from the Euroleague Basketball headquarters! This is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net, in what possibly will be my last SportingBet Fantasy Challenge column this season.

If you want to keep me on the page in the fantasy off-season, make some noise! Start a riot! Go to Budapest and demonstrate in front of Os Davis’ home, wherever it is! Just kidding: It has been a pleasure to give you my impressions on the game. It has been a terrific fantasy season, after all, I just hope you enjoyed reading this column as much as I did writing it.

So the Top 16 comes to an end this week, which means the game will be over on Thursday. On one hand, I can’t complain – no more waiting until 3am to open the game after a long Euroleague/Eurocup week – but on the other hand … of course, I’ll miss it. Still, with one week to go I have a chance to win the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge private league…

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Lithuanian-language websites Basket News and Kauno Diena are this morning reporting that Zalgiris Kaunas has hired Sarunas Sakalauskas to become the club’s sporting director; the position was apparently filled directly following last night’s Asseco Prokom-Zalgiris match. Though both media outlets claim that the ink is already dry on the contracts, Kaunas owner Vladimir Romanov denied having hired Sakalauskas.

Currently employed as M. Romeris youth team coach, Sakalauskas has done head coaching stints with Vilnius Sakalu and Lietuvos Rytas, but the bulk of his recent career was spent heading up Eisbären Bremerhaven, where he lead the team from 2001 to 2009 and was named Bundesliga “Coach of the Year” in 2006.

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The Euroleague Top 16 group draw was orientated, due to the guidelines, well before it started. So, while Group G and Group H were fixed, it remained to see where Maccabi Tel Aviv and Efes Pilsen Istanbul would be directed: to the Barcelona-Panathinaikos group or the Real Madrid-Montepaschi gang. The two teams went into the latter’s, making Group F the toughest of Top 16.

Welcoming Partizan Belgrade and Maroussi BC are Regal FC Barcelona and Panathinaikos – especially the Greens, because in Catalunya they’re fearless until they play like they have since the beginning of this season – who are today thanking God in helping them avoid two teams with Top 16 traditions and rosters not to be underestimated. Further, Zelimir Obradovic’s squad has the fortune of playing four home games: The team shares the OAKA venue with Maroussi BC.

Nevertheless, to Sarunas Jasikevicius and his teammates, Partizan recalls that painful elimination in the 2007-2008 Top 16, when the defending champions were beaten in the final game by the Serbians in a burning Pionir Arena. This time, with Aleks Maric in the paint for Nikola Pekovic, the date Panathinaikos must underline is March 4th, when Barça flies to Belgrade in the second week of Top 16 competition, an undoubtable advantage: The dynamics of Group E dynamics will still be in flux and the Spanish side must be focused to prevent a win they could strongly regret later.

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What’s at stake on the final Wednesday night of the Euroleague 2009-10 regular season? Some bragging rights and potentially a couple of playoff spots. The win-and-in scenario tonight belongs to Lietuvos Rytas, a big six-point favorite at home against Unicaja.

AJ Milano, who’s hosting Real Madrid and is nevertheless a five-point underdog, also advances to Final 16 play with a win. Group rival Asseco Prokom, another homecourt five-point ‘dog – here’s to thinking the bookmakers don’t think much of Milano and Prokom under pressure this season, eh? – gets in with the upset victory and Milano loss.

With Real Madrid playing for top seed, however, and Khimki locked in to its no. 3 spot, figure Milano not to make up the five-point gap while Prokom at least keeps it close while likewise covering the pointspread. (Whether the latter manages to squeak into the Final 16 is another matter altogether…)

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

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Ataman on the hot seat?

With just one more week to go in first-round play, Francesco Cappelletti touches on some issues regarding those teams positioning themselves for the Euroleague Top 16. Also examined frankly: Ergin Ataman’s tenuous position in Turkey, Zoran Planinic and Nikos Zisis embracing their positions on potential Final Four clubs; and bucking for position on Real Madrid.

Extreme situations
Only a week remains to this Euroleague first stage, but the situations in many groups are still complicated. In Group A, Regal FC Barcelona lies in waits for Montepaschi with a +19 taken in Siena, testifying to the shape of Xavi Pascual’s players. This should be an interesting game, maybe balanced for nearly 40 minutes, but hardly vincible for the Italians. About the same men that last year started the game with a 25-3 first-quarter run for David Andersen and teammates … the final two positions have no owner.

Next week, a devastated Fenerbahce Ulker (unified against Bogdan Tanjevic: that’s the problem) hosts Zalgiris Kaunas, apparently better under new coach Ramunas Butautas; Asvel meanwhile goes to Zagreb to play a high-pressure game in which defenses are going to take control. Fenerbahce and Asvel (3-6) have one more win than Zalgiris and Cibona, but the feeling is they are not favourites to reach the Top 16.

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Woods: The boss' main man

Hello and Happy New Year everybody! This is once again Javier Gancedo of Euroleague basketball, hoping that 2010 brings you happiness, fun and a lot of great hoops in Europe’s marquee club competition. I’ve been on holiday for the best part of the Euroleague break and right now I’m very busy. You good people out there can imagine that one of the busiest times of the season for us is the end of the Euroleague and Eurocup regular seasons with signings, possibilities and so on.

Plus these days, we also have the Ciutat de L’Hospitalet junior tournament, co-organized by Euroleague Basketball. I can proudly say that Cajasol made it to the final, which will be played this afternoon. You can congratulate me if you read this after 8pm on Wednesday – if we won, of course. We have a star point guard in Ricardo Pampano: Remember you heard the name first in this Fantasy Challenge column. [At BallinEurope.com, of course –Ed.]

Quite a bizarre place to read it, isn’t it?

Anyway, my team Meet The Boss didn’t do well before the holiday break. I scored 152.8 points, rank 1329th overall and seventh in the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge private league. Since I am in a bit of a rush, I will keep this short. Also, this week’s trades are very easy to do: First, Ramunas Siskauskas is injured, so he’s gone already; second, Oguz Savas was a gamble that went wrong, so he’s off the team, too; third, Chuck Eidson has had physical problems throughout the week, so that completed my trades this week.

Easy, huh? Well, that is never, ever a good sign…

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And Euroleague action is back for week nine action. Tonight’s slate of games is fit to make the playoff picture clearer. Lietuvos Rytas is in with a win, whereas a Khimki win or an Asseco Prokom loss gets the Moscow region team into the final 16.

According to the bookmakers, the marquee game to watch tonight amidst a lot of mismatches is clearly the game at Belgrade. The inconsistent Lietuvos Rytas can thank its current 1-3 run for its status as a five-point underdog at Partizan, and a double-digit loss would hardly be surprising for the Lithuanians at Pionir, where the black-and-white haven’t lost this season since opening day.

Also a must for viewing and tempting for punting is the Khimki-AJ Milano matchup. To say that Milano’s porous defense – they’ve managed to hold a Euroleague opponent to under 68 points just once this season – has been disappointing would be an understatement but makes for great high-scoring viewing if you’re not a fan. The Italians will be looking to salvage their hopes for advancement while avenging their week three loss to Khimki: Surely this team is too talented not to cover that pointspread of nine and that 146.5 will be toast. Go over.

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

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Tipping off today is the 31st Torneig de Básquet Júnior “Ciutat de L’Hospitalet,” a.k.a. the second Euroleague Nike International Junior Tournament qualifiers.

The L’Hospitalet tournament pool consists of 12 junior teams, including eight from Spain: DKV Joventut, Basket Valencia, and KK Split will square off in Group A; Alba Berlin, Regal FC Barcelona, and Estudiantes are in Group B; Unicaja Malaga, Caja Canarias, and tournament defending champions/NIJT runners-up Lietuvos Rytas play in Group C; with Cajasol, Real Madrid and hosts CB Hospitalet make up Group D.

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Taking a brief look at the professional prognostication for tonight’s Euroleague games and, whoa, do the bookmakers really have Asvel Baskets and Zalgiris Kaunas as the game to watch tonight? Crazy, though a bit understandable when one considers the pointspreads given in three prospective David-and-Goliath matchups (AJ Milano at Panathinaikos, Cibona at Montepaschi Siena, Fenerbahce at Barcelona).

The pointspreads and over/under lines for tonight’s Euroleague games, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor Sporting Bet are as follows.

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Whoa, nice slate of games tonight in Euroleague basketball, headlined by the match The Euroleague Boss has said “promises to be an instant classic”: Montepaschi Siena vs. FC Barcelona. Judging by the wisdom of the sportsbook, the Baskonia-Moscow game should be worth watching, too.

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

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