Why French teams will never win the Euroleague again

This week, I had the opportunity to follow the two French teams’ Euroleague games. On Wednesday, I was in Nancy for the game against Panathinaikos and today I followed the game between Maccabi and Le Mans via Euroleague TV. Both times, the French team lost.

I went to Nancy in a very neutral fashion, neither supporting Panathinaikos nor the French champion. I expected a blowout win, as SLUC had really disappointed me so far in the top European competition. So it was not a surprise to see the game going on like it did. Panathinaikos did no more than necessary and Nancy was fighting like crazy in order to stay in the game.

But what the three referees did to the French was simply incredible. OK, I admit that Nancy is a Euroleague rookie and Panathinaikos is a powerhouse. But every, really every close decision went in Panathinaikos’ favor. What in the beginning looked like two or three decisions that could have gone either way, became more and more obvious during the game. In the paint, where Nancy is really “light,” every bit of contact was called and so the SLUC post players were in serious foul trouble.

It went so far that even youngster Roger Zaki had to come to the court. And no surprise here, either: Three fouls in four minutes. But of these three fouls, two were rookie calls. The first was after playing proper defense and trying to front Mike Batiste; the Greek center got the pass on a high-low post play but was falling backwards taking Zaki with him to the floor. Foul on Zaki. On the game’s last possession, Panathinaikos has the ball and misses their shot but on the rebound situation, Kostas Tsartsaris falls down from out of nowhere on the FT line, foul on Zaki, 2 free throws.

I’m not saying that Nancy lost the game because of the referees, Panathinaikos was clearly the better team and Diamantidis and Jasikevicius knocked down the decisive shots in the final moments. But I have barely ever seen more pro-big team refereeing in my whole life. Every time Nancy wanted to come back, a call stopped their run.

If you don’t have the financial power, you don’t have the real big guys and you even don’t have referees calling the basketball game in a neutral way: It’s very tough to win a game.

Another game and a different story. Le Mans returned to Tel Aviv and it must have felt like déjà vu for them. In their season opener from last year, they lost in Tel Aviv by three points in a very close game at the end. This time it was even worse. After having led nearly the whole game, Le Mans again came into a close setup in the decisive moments. Being up by three points with nine seconds on the clock, it should have been possible to take the game home. But Maccabi scores a wide open three-point shot after an inbound play right after a timeout. How is this possible?

You have two choices in such a situation: You foul on the first pass in order to avoid the three-point shot or you play defense like crazy without giving an open shot. Of course, Maccabi won the game in overtime afterwards. I really don’t understand what Le Mans was thinking at that moment. We don’t know what coach J.D. Jackson told his players to do, but I would guess this was not the option he preferred.

Aside from being very close, both games showed once again why French teams will never win big games or advance to decisive phases in the Euroleague anymore. Le Mans needed three years in order to get a certain lobby with the referees but they still cant manage to win the close games (Unicaja, Cibona and now Maccabi). And the second French team is always a Euroleague rookie (Roanne last season, Nancy this year) and doesn’t get any calls.

So is the only possibility to win these games glorious French teams such as Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez or CSP Limoges did to return to the top European competition? Well, Pau is currently last in the French ProA with 0 wins and CSP Limoges is struggling somewhere in the 2nd division. So we won’t see these two former powerhouses anywhere soon representing French club basketball. What a pity…

Aftermath cigarettes

• The first Euroleague game day of the 2008/09 season is in the books - all the home teams won their games besides Avellino (Italy) who lost to Olympiacos, and SLUC Nancy (France) who got killed at home against FC Barcelona.

• Player that impressed me the most: Loren Woods. I know Will McDonald is the Euroleague MVP of week 1, but with all the big problems in Kaunas, money problems, Loren hitting people on the court and then facing Panthinaikos, Loren pulls off a game with 17 points and 16 rebounds in 33 minutes, which means 28 ranking points for Loren. Good job!

• Player that disappointed (me) the most: Ibrahim Jaaber - come on man: you’re on my Euroleague fantasy team! I chose you for your steals and defense last season…and this time not one steal, not one assist and not even one point in 18 minutes. Thanks for your -3 ranking.

• Euroleague TV comments: I watched at least 10 minutes of every game during the first gameday to find out if the pay-more-money-for-fewer-games thing works out. I have to say that the stream works really fine and I had no problems following the games even switching between them all the time. What I did not like is the resolution offered. The windows are clearly too small to really enjoy a game and by switching to full screen you can’t even read the score because of the bad resolution. Also new this year - as far as I remember - EL.tv stays online during halftime and offers a closeup of the bench during timeouts.

• Brandon Jennings watch: Evin Demirel talks about it: It’s obvious Jennings is learning to adjust to the European game. 9 points on 3-of-7 for threes and 0 assists - not sure if this is what European basketball is about. I am sure, though, that it won’t take too long for Brandon to show his real potential and we really are looking forward to this.

• The 31st overall draft pick for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nikola Pekovic, in his first Euroleague game out of Serbia and for Panathinaikos: 14 points in 14 minutes in a 78-51 win against Zalgiris Kaunas in front of 12,000 visitors, according to Euroleague statistics.

• Speaking of Euroleague statistics: Marques Greens (Fenerbahce) played 30 minutes and had 5 points by making one two-pointer, one three-pointer and two free throws. Please tell me that this still would equal 7 points.

• Same game, same problem - Gasper Vidmar: 1-of-2 on free throws equals 3 points right?

• Josh Childress watch: 14 points, 8 rebounds in 25 minutes with a ranking of 22. Josh, learn to look at these ranking points - This is what Europe, especially Euroleague fantasy players, will judge you for. Here are the highlights.

• Finally our thoughts on the Euroleague TV commentators. Overall judge - funny and entertaining - with insightful comments in a true European/Italian way (in terms of pronunciation and passion). Really disappointing is the only guy who seems to be an American. His English might be perfect but the way he commentates a game made me fall asleep while Unicaja and Le Mans were actually playing a very interesting game. We know that he had problems with European names: problems with European names in the past, but I am sure, if you prepare a little bit for a game you can see that David Bluthenthal is not spelled David BLUMENthal, which in German means David Flowerthal, by the way.

Euroleague: SLUC Nancy, France

To cover SLUC Nancy, nobody else could have been a better fit than Maxime Weber from eurobasket.com. He covers French basketball for several years now and he is pretty close to Nancy and his favorite basketball team.

Overall record prediction: 4-6

SLUC Nancy has built the best roster of their history with all positions being doubled. Maybe Le Mans looks stronger but the roster of Nancy is extremely well furnished for their standards. If you put this in the right angle, you could even say that Nancy is the Panathinaikos version of France this year. Of course, without the big names…

Ricardo Greer is the clear leader of the group, he is taking the ball in his hands in the important moments. With his incredible versatility, he can create his own shot as well as making spaces and open positions for his teammates. Together with John Cox and Lamayn Wilson, they form a aggressive scoring trio that will create some trouble even on the Euroleague level. John Cox brings good size on the PG spot and can go for post-ups against smaller defenders. He has good fundamentals which he uses to score a lot.

Lamayn Wilson will bring his long frame and decent shooting and athleticism to the forward positions and he can create some matchup problems for the defenders. The problem though may be on the inside positions. Without a big offensive force, Victor Samnick has to play a lot of minutes on the Center position. Rod Benson and Roger Zaki are still in a learning process of the European level. In his first game in the French League, Benson played only 3 minutes after being schooled by Ali Traoré two times in the first defensive situations.

On the other hand, Zaki can be a nice surprise of this season. The seven footer excels in pick-and-roll situations and hammers down everything he gets close to the basket. He cooperates well with Samnick and this combination may be used more often by coach Jean-Luc Monschau.

Michael Morandais and Jeff Greer will be the main options coming from the bench and giving scoring power to boost the team. Both will however only play a minor role in the plans of the team as the focus lies on the dynamic trio. Another player that could break into the rotation is Seydou N’Joya. He is not allowed to play in the French League because of the foreigner rules and the non-replacement of TJ Parker could be a sign that the young guard who spent some time in Sweden last season will see the floor in the Euroleague.

Finally, we have of course the typical French syndrome. Will they be able to play a successful basketball and win games? In the Euroleague, experience and credit among the referees is very important, you just have to see the results of Le Mans from the last years. And this is definitely not present in Nancy where only Ricardo Greer has a big name in Euroleague conditions.

Final Four participants: Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Montepaschi Siena

Euroleague Winner: CSKA Moscow

written by Maxime Weber

Euroleague F4 Arena destroyed, or The Euro player-blogger roundup

Here we go again with our roundup of what our favorite player-bloggers are telling us. Once again, it was Adam Hess that came up with some shocking news. Before the game in the brand new O2 World in Berlin, which will also host the Euroleague Final Four, the following dramatic scenes happened:

[I] was impressed that the visiting locker room of the O2 arena was three times the size of my apartment, had a spa that could fit ten people, twelve bikes so every player could warm up at once (I guess that is important??), a plasma TV, and some other things alluding to the obscene amount of money put into the building.

I will also mention that 160 million dollar arenas do not come equipped with strong toilet seats. One of the guys broke it during its inaugural use. Who knows, maybe it will be good luck, like when people smash a champagne bottle against a ship before its first trip. And no, I will not divulge who. He is a sensitive one and might be offended!

So of course, the question remains: Who was the delinquent? To give you some hints, the following are the “official” weights of some of Adam’s teammates: Darren Fenn, 112kg; Dirk Mädrich, 116kg; Darius Hall, 120kg. I have some doubts about the figure listing Hall at only 120kg, because when you check out his highlight clips on YouTube, he really looks like the possible toilet seat breaker.

Euroleague.net has also presented its new Euroleague blogger, Ricardo Greer. Well his first post could have been used as one of our upcoming Euroleague Team previews and doesn’t have that much funny to report, except maybe this:

…we’re all going to have fun, but I know one guy who might have more fun than anyone in the league: our new center Rod Benson. He’s already famous for his blogs back in the States, and we’re all running round here saying “Boom Tho” all the time, to get with his movement. Maybe I can’t blog head-to-head with Rod, who’s got an incredible imagination, but I’ll do my best.

Well said, Mister Greer, so let’s check what the founder of the Boom Tho movement has to say … Well, nothing special, indeed, except a nice road trip video with a very important croissant story.

But not only do Euroleague players blog. Hundreds of US-born players are active as professionals in Europe and those active in the lower European divisions particularly face problems that some top stars could not imagine. Brandon Adair is one of these players; he’s currently with the Schwenningen Panthers in the fourth German league and he talks about the current problems that his team is up against.

Tuesday was another scheduled practice. Everyone showed up, everything seemed to be OK. Next thing you know, the coach calls a meeting for the players, and he starts talking to them (I do not know German) I do not understand a word he is saying, but it seems to me that he is not happy. Well, after my teammate translated it for me, it comes to find out that he is NOT under contract. The organization has come to a verbal agreement with him, but he has not been able to sign anything because they have not come up with the papers. THEN, another shocking moment, only 3 players have signed a contract for this year. Me and two other players. Everyone else is under “verbal agreement” which does not suit well with the coach. He wants to coach this team, but he wants to coach the team with no off the court issues such as contract problems. …

We had a team/club meeting on Thursday about the problems both the players and coaches have. I had the joy of sitting there in the room for about an hour listening to a language that I did not understand. I enjoyed sitting there looking at everybody’s faces to see if they were getting disgusted or having a good time. The actual meeting room was business-like. Also, it was in the shower room with chairs.

If you want to know how the situation develops, I would recommend you read Brandon’s blog, as it is quite interesting and his writing style is pretty funny, too.

The French League explained

“A long, long time ago…” This is how fairytales for children begin, but it could also lead off the status of the French League. So, a long, long time ago, French teams were big names in the European context: CSP Limoges won the Euroleague, ASVEL qualified for the Final Four, and Pau-Orthez was the most regular participant in major European competitions. Players like Antoine Rigaudeau, Michael Young and Delaney Rudd made French fans dream and the sportive results built ProA a good international reputation. But this has changed since then.

Young French players today dream more about the NBA than the Euroleague, and yearly the best young prospects leave the ProA while most are still projects at the European level. This year, Alexis Ajinca and Nicolas Batum preferred to move overseas and risk a year in the NBDL rather than stay with their European club. So it is no surprise that France currently has nearly as many NBA players (Ajinca, Batum, Diaw, Diawara, Gelabale, Mahinmi, Noah, Tony Parker, Petro, Pietrus, Turiaf) as Euroleague players (Gomis, Sangaré, Koffi, Diot, Badiane, Leloup, Tchicamboud, Julian, Samnick, Morandais, Parker). But let’s check what the upcoming season brings.

The Big 4: STB Le Mans and SLUC Nancy will play in the Euroleague this season and both have recruited heavily by French standards. With J.D. Jackson as head coach, the all-youth years are over in the Sarthe region, and the new players are all more or less experienced on the European level. To bring Dee Spencer back to France as well as signing Euroleague players Bluthenthal and J.P. Batista was seen as enormous for a French team. The addition of Pape Badiane in the paint and the multi-versatile Maleye N’Doye are even more than a cherry atop the cake for the team. Now with such a loaded roster, the clear goal is the French Championship.

SLUC Nancy also went big in recruiting, with the addition of Rod Benson, John Cox and Lamayn Wilson, even if the names sound less flashy Le Mans’ moves. But a team core built around the Greer brothers, Wild Thing Julian and the new French backcourt composed of Tchicamboud and Morandais, who will play in France for the first time in his professional career, is pretty strong. And if Roger Zaki plays in the regular season like he started the preseason, defending the title is not an impossible task.

ASVEL Villeurbanne is probably the only team that can compete with the two Euroleague participants in terms of budget and player material. With the experience of Vincent Collet as head coach and the newly added firepower of Eric Campbell, J.R. Reynolds and Amara “The Admiral” Sy, it looks like the self-declared Euroleague wild-card team can finally battle for the title it’s been seeking for a long time. It remains to be seen how this newly composed roster will harmonize. Chorale de Roanne tries to return to the old days with the reappearance of Aaron Harper. Additionally, some proven ProA players joined the team while the coaching staff once again tries to hit the jackpot in the annual college lottery by signing some rookies.

NT members’ teams: It sounds surprising, but it were Vichy and Cholet who featured a significant number of national team players for the unsuccessful Eurobasket 2009 qualifiers this summer. Now both must integrate these guys at high speed in order to be competitive for a season that begins in just 10 days. Besides the French de Colo and Marquis, Cholet also features Iranian national team player Samad Bahrami and is somehow unique on the European scene with this signing. Besides those, the rest of the team is composed of more or less known NCAA players and some promising young guys. For Vichy, the situation is quite different as the roster is composed of four US boys and French rotation players. Despite being national team members, Issa, Gradit and Soliman won’t be the superstars that take Vichy to another level and success therefore depends a lot on the four American-born players.

The all-youth teams: Pau-Lacq-Orthez – to be correct – is attempting to rebuild its team around a very interesting core of young players this season. Ludo Vaty already knows ProA, but some youngsters like Fernando Raposo and Thomas Heurtel are ready to gain major minutes at the senior level. Hiram Fuller knows the league as well so he can teach rookies Jameson Curry and Josh Duncan how life goes in the Bearn.

The All-America teams: These teams are the most difficult to rank, as all rely greatly on their four alloted US-born players. STB Le Havre finished as high as 5th place last season with such a roster and this season looks similar as after the Americans are only prospects from the local youth program. Hyères-Toulon is a bit different, as they’re build around the comebacker Mous Sonko and veteran Vincent “Bang Bang” Massingue to guide their import players.

Of this group of teams, BCM Gravelines has aligned the most common names during the summer time. Yannick Bokolo will lead the group and Cyril Akpomedah, J.K. Edwards and Tony Stanley try to fire up the scoreboards in the traditional Sportica Arena. Chalon preferred to sign quality US guys in Brian Boddicker and Zack Wright and surrounded them with experienced Frenchmen and some younger prospects; the results in the preseason look promising so far.

SIG Strasbourg signed former Roanne sharpshooter Brion Rush and also added some players that know how ProA works. It looks all very good on paper, but now it is the team’s job to bring this to fruition. Orléans looks a bit like the “nouveau riche” squad of the league. Laurent Sciarra, Brian Greene and Adrien Moerman appear to be the most promising recruits, even if the French PG is already out with an injury in the beginning of the season.

Who?: The two teams promoted from ProB, Rouen and Besançon, could also be ranked in the All-America teams category. Still, their rosters are even more unknown to me when it comes to discussing the US players they signed than for the rest of the league. We’ll see during the season how these teams play and there may always be surprises coming from them. But it is still difficult for me to assess them at the moment.

Rod Benson signs with SLUC Nancy

Rod Benson, a name known by every NBA blogger and blog reader, has signed a contract with SLUC Nancy in France. He will be with one of the two French Euroleague teams and is already a favorite to be the best Euroleague.net blogger of the season.

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Budgets in the French League

Money, money, money, must be funny, in a Russian world. This is the reality at the moment in the European transfer market. But when you check the numbers published by the French magazine basketnews last week about the budgets of French teams, it what is possible for these teams is coming back to earth.

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Euroleague transfer analysis: Group B

After explaining the first transfers of Group A, I will take a closer look at group B today to see who did what and give you my opinion on these moves.

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Quai54: The streetball event in France

Last weekend, Paris hosted one of the biggest and most important streetball events in Europe: Quai54. The tournament features players from as high as the NBA level and is also the place for one of the most amazing slam dunk contests in the world.

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The Euroleague group draw 2008

Yesterday, the Euroleague proceeded for its annual draw in Berlin. After several speeches and awards, the big moment was coming close with the draw of the current Euroleague groups. Here is my analysis of the results.

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