July 2009 70
Betting on basketball: Sporting Bet odds, lines for U18s quarterfinals
The FIBA U18 European Championship Men has entered the quarterfinal round, with Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor SportingBet.com releasing a number of odds and lines on today’s games; the following are the odds and the match handicap (or the good old-fashioned pointspread as they call it in America).
Elite eight tip off today in FIBA U19 World Championship for Women
Down in Thailand, the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women enters the homestretch as elimination rounds begin with the elite eight remaining. The good news for European basketball fans: Four European teams – France, Russia, Spain and Lithuania – are still alive in the competition.
Team Spain unleashed … i mean, presented
No matter how the whole Minnesota Timberwolves/DKV Joventut thing works out, the 2009-10 international basketball season will be, to some extent, The Year of Ricky Rubio. Rubio was yesterday officially presented with the FIBA Europe award for 2008 Young Men’s Player of the Year by FIBA Europe secretary-general Nar Zanolin. Aside from bestowing Rubio with […]
Big deal Thursday: Greer signs with Fenerbahçe, Brown reups with Zalgiris
Free agent and one-time Euroleague scoring champion Lynn Greer has landed in Turkey. In a much anticipated signing, Fenerbahçe Ülker won the sweepstakes to sign the former Olympiacos guard, inking Greer to a contract of unspecified length. Meanwhile, Zalgiris managed to woo Marcus Brown, the Euroleague’s all-time leading scorer back from Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv […]
Team Russia disarmed of AK-47 for EuroBasket 2009
Team Russia’s road to defending its EuroBasket title just got a whole lot longer; yesterday Andrei Kirilenko – so key to the Russian championship in 2007 – comfirmed that he would not be participating in the 2009 tournament. Kirilenko’s no show couples another massive absence for EuroBasket, namely point guard J.R. Holden of CSKA Moscow, […]
Finnish basketball phenomenon conquering the net
After Petteri Koponen and Hanno Möttölä, a new basketball prodigy from the North is currently making his way forth with giant steps. BallinEurope.com exclusively presents Hans von Blumenstock, who is already considered the Finnish version of Michael Jordan.
Betting on basketball: Early EuroBasket 2009 Group A odds
The proliferation of the internet has created a veritable legion of sports experts: Maybe millions have a take on this week’s games, next month’s standings, the eventual tournament champion … so, assuming you have no access to top-secret insider information, who should you trust in attempting to brazenly predict tomorrow’s outcome? Easy: The oddsmakers. Why? […]
Spain backcourt for EuroBasket 2009 takes another hit
Though Spain is reckoned one of the clear favorites to win FIBA EuroBasket 2009, the team is rapidly becoming a shadow of its ideal self, as Unicaja swingman Berni Rodriguez will be sitting out the tournament alongside Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon. Team Spain official stated the ankle injury suffered by Rodriguez during last […]
FIBA U20 men's standouts: Where are they going?
I love it when a plan comes together. David Hein, he of heinnews.com, FIBAEurope.com and probably 10,000 other outlets, has wrapped coverage of the just-completed FIBA U20 European Championship Men. Having returned home to Germany from the competition in Rhodes, poor David sought ideas (more of them, i mean) for another basketball column to which […]
Unicaja’s center combo named to Team Great Britain for Eurobasket 2009
Unicaja fans will find something more than a little familiar with Team Great Britain’s big guys in Eurobasket 2009, as both Robert Archibald and the just-acquired Joel Freeland were officially named to the national squad this week. The announcement follows in the wake of Luol Deng’s announcement that he would be taking August off to […]
Back in the CSKA: Kurbanov reunites with Moscow, Pashutin
Could 2009 be the breakout year for highly touted forward Nikita Kurbanov? The conditions all seem right for last season’s loaner to Spartak St. Petersburg: Kurbanov is rounding into maturity at 22 years old; he spent much of 2008-09 as a starter; and, perhaps most importantly, his old Spartak coach Evgeny Pashutin is now his […]
Doomed Britannia? Deng will not play in Eurobasket 2009
Bad news for fledging Team Great Britain’s Eurobasket 2009 chances: Luol Deng joins former Chicago Bulls teammate Ben Gordon in the “out” category. Deciding that his stress fracture injury has not yet properly healed, Deng decided to sit this one out. Gordon decided as early as last August that he wouldn’t be joining the makeshift […]