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BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 4.1

August 20, 2010

Whoa … anyone who thinks these “friendly” games in the runup to the 2010 FIBA World Championship don’t matter to the teams involved certainly wasn’t paying attention the literal battle that ensued during last night’s final game of the Acropolis Basketball Tournament between Greece and Serbia.

With the Acropolis tourney now in the books and a handful of other interesting friendlies having played out this week, BallinEurope gets ready for more international matches this weekend with another round of power rankings. Enjoy!

1. (↔) Spain. BiE has been warned that Team Spain’s 84-68 over Brazil in Logroño on Wednesday was well assisted by referees and Brazil without Tiago Splitter and Nene is hardly Brazil at all. On the other hand, Spain handled Argentina, Mike Krzyzewski’s got love for the Pau-less team, and Espana shows no serious signs of weakness.

2. (↔) USA. Mike Krzyzewski has announced his starting lineup for the game against Team Spain on Sunday; you know, a quintet of Chauncey Billups, Kevin Durant, Rajon Rondo, Andre Iguodala and Tyson Chandler doesn’t seem quite as shaky as it might have two months ago, but still. Team USA faces its first true test tonight against Lithuania in Madrid.

3. (↔) Greece. BiE mulled and mulled over the placement of teams 2 and 3 for some time. While Team USA spent the week mulling over the last spot of the roster and probably making secret plans to unite Durant, Rondo and Chandler in Boston for 2013-14, Greece made mincemeat out of Canada and short work of short-handed Slovenia in the Acropolis Tournament. As some commenters here at BallinEurope have suggested, Greece (like Team USA) hadn’t exactly faced top-level competition until Serbia came to town last night and this happened:

Hey, no win, no move up.

4. (↑) Argentina. When last seen, patchwork Argentina was taking out patchwork Brazil in Logroño and losing to Spain. That’s about right as Argentina molds itself into shape. Serbia will be the challenge in Group A, but these guys are indicating right now that they’ll be going far into this tournament.

5. (↓) Okay, so Team Serbia generally looks good and were playing well enough against mighty Hellas before all hell broke loose, but they barely snuck past Slovenia thanks to a foul call and *did* lose to Canada, eh?

6. (↑) Enjoy this position while it lasts, Lithuania fans. You get Team USA next.

7. (↓) Brazil. Right, so Anderson Varejao went down in the Spain game – nothing serious as it turns out – while Nene and Splitter haven’t been playing lately either. Will this team actually be coming together any time soon? And if so, won’t it be too late to find a rhythm in time? Maybe on Sunday, as the team joins Australia, Virgin Islands and France in Lyon as the “Internacional Tournament” begins…

8. (↔) Croatia. No news is perhaps the best news for the injury-ravaged Croatians.

9. (↑) Canada. The folks back home were certainly buzzing about their team’s chances in this thing after opening up a 24-point lead against Serbia and then holding on for the win. (No wonder the Serbs flipped out so badly against Greece.) Team Canada may have lost to Slovenia a day later, but who’d’a thought this team could beat anyone sans Steve Nash?

10. (↓) Puerto Rico. While many will surely be saying simply “good riddance” to the petulant Larry Ayuso and Christian Dalmau, who walked off the team “after having differences with the technical staff about their roles in the 2010 FIBA World Championship” and “welcome aboard” to Guillermo Diaz and David Huertas, the controversy can’t be good for the team, can it? We’ll see in two contests versus Germany in the next three days.

11. (↑) Slovenia loses to Serbia, 82-81; loses to Greece, 96-72; beats Canada, 86-71. In other words, Team Slovenia bests the teams it should (well, except New Zealand), and falls to the better teams as expected. It’s those middle-range teams that make things interesting, and suddenly it seems like Slovenia could give Croatia and Brazil a run for second place in Group B.

12. (↓) Turkey. A low ranking, to be sure, but Team Turkey gets one more shot at redemption this weekend in the Efes Pilsen World Cup 9, a potentially fascinating four-team tournament bringing Argentina, Canada and Lebanon to town.

13. (↓) Germany. Head coach Dirk Bauermann gave his squad two days off this week in preparation for meeting Carlos Arroyo, Renaldo Balkman, Jose Barea and Team Puerto Rico in what he reckons will be “a real endurance test for our young team.”

14. (↓) Lebanon. Loveable underdogs travel to Turkey to meet some non-Asian competition. World, meet Fadi El Khatib.

15. (↔) France. Another benefit-of-the-doubt pick, and since when did Group D become the “group of death”…?

16. (↑) Australia. If only because they’ll be the last team to advance to the knockout stage, it seems.

Aug 20, 2010ballineurope
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This post was published on August 20, 2010
Notre Dame grad Hillesland takes his blogging talent to PaderbornPost-fight wrap: Vassilakopoulos says no punishment; Presti, Krstic talk; Team USA watches
Comments: 37
  1. milaz
    15 years ago

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRY2W6u_A-s – very sad….

    ReplyCancel
  2. Mika
    15 years ago

    Actually, Greece won the game 74-73.

    ReplyCancel
    • milaz
      15 years ago

      and the sumo fight? who cares….

      ReplyCancel
  3. migala
    15 years ago

    Any guess if some Serbian or Greek players will be fined or even punished by FIBA? Not that I want or expect that to happen, but this looked very ugly, like Pacers-Pistons, without the drunk fans!

    ReplyCancel
  4. migala
    15 years ago

    BTW, Spain (vs Brazil) was without Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernandez.

    ReplyCancel
  5. Mika
    15 years ago

    You see, it was an official win, and the tournament:

    http://turkey2010.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/10/fwcm/news/p/eid/4728/nid/42779/sid/4728/article.html

    ReplyCancel
  6. Os
    15 years ago

    Ah, i guess it’s an official win, but with “referees … handing Greece victory as they had led when the fight began, with two and half minutes still on the clock”…? Is that really a win? Really?

    ReplyCancel
    • Mika
      15 years ago

      They officially won the game 74-73 Os, so you really should not have said “no win”.

      ReplyCancel
  7. radallo
    15 years ago

    I don’t know if anyone will be fined by FIFA… probably not..

    Anyway Krstic has been arrested (and suddenly released 🙁 ) because for an “infraction against the law of sports violence”.

    Sentence is expected on Friday pm

    http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/20082010/2/basketball-thunder-center-krstic-arrested-brawl-greece.html

    ReplyCancel
  8. radallo
    15 years ago

    Some Italian website reports that FIBA will give suspension…
    maybe because they remember the 2 day suspension to Mancinelli after his reaction in a Friendly match against Canada (poor Mancio.. after that foul all the rumours concerning his NBA future disappeared….)

    Anyway… gazzetta.gr reports Krstic statment to the Police during the night in jail..I’ll try to traduce “It was unintentional. I grabbed a chair to protect myself against Bourussis… but then I slipped….”

    NO COMMENT

    ReplyCancel
  9. pipo
    15 years ago

    If you watch it closely, it does seem like it slips or that someone hits his hand and the chair falls, he doesn’t throw it. No excuse but I don’t think he’s bullshiting. Of course, him backing up while Sofo is after him is still the biggest retreat since Napoleon.

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  10. radallo
    15 years ago

    @Pipo… my opinion

    I’ve tried to watch it closely and closely… maybe someone hit his arm (I would say FORTUNATELY, unbalancing him)… but no chance he wanted to protect himself and no chance the chair it has been throwed unintentionally

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82D7i_YRiME (min 2’03” & 4’30”)

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WLQ-Ls_HM94/TG2fcMl3HdI/AAAAAAAAGL4/NDkg3KWGCuQ/s1600/xilo1_3456.jpg

    ReplyCancel
    • pipo
      15 years ago

      The photograph really is damning evidence! Of course he wasn’t try to ”protect” himself – if anything it should have been over by then as Bourousis had managed to avert Sofo. But I think he just wanted to play tough holding the chair and threaten, which is pretty commensurate to what he did before. Best thing I’ve read about this is

      “Nenad Krstic might’ve backed up all the way to OKC to find that chair if Baby Shaq was still stalking him.”

      ReplyCancel
  11. radallo
    15 years ago

    Players and officials from former European Champions Greece and Serbia, the runner-up at the last Euro, steered clear of media on Friday in an apparent attempt to avoid further damage and suspensions which could cripple the teams in Turkey.

    A spokesman for the world controlling body FIBA said that they had asked for footage of the incident and would then consider further action.

    “We are not happy with the incident. FIBA condemns violence on and off the court. In similar cases in 2009 we issued heavy sanctions. These range from fines to match-bans,” FIBA spokesman Florian Wanninger said.

    http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/340230,star-brawl-summary.html

    ReplyCancel
  12. radallo
    15 years ago

    Prosecutor Costas Simitzoglou released Krstic pending an investigation into the brawl. Investigators from Greece’s sports violence squad will examine video footage of the game and take statements from witnesses before deciding whether to bring charges.

    The International Basketball Federation announced in a statement on Friday it will conduct its own review into the violence.

    “FIBA will take whatever steps are necessary against any individual player found to have been involved in this shocking incident,” said FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann. “FIBA wishes to make it clear that it will not hesitate from taking the strongest possible action against any individual found to have brought the sport of basketball into disrepute.”

    http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38783480/ns/sports/

    ReplyCancel
  13. radallo
    15 years ago

    http://turkey2010.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/10/fwcm/news/p/eid/4728/lid//nid/42839/orderby//rid//sid/4728/article.html

    wait & see…

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  14. milaz
    15 years ago

    I think in this video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awaWfep6UcQ – we can all see why Fotsis reacted so angrily… this is what preceded the incident last night…. However, NOTHING excuses any form of violence from professional athletes that know how their opponent behaves…. all of the 6 players (3 on either side) that actually hit another person on the court should be punished.

    ReplyCancel
  15. radallo
    15 years ago

    Serbian players are well known for this “blocking-trick”… while one hand try to block the shot, the other hits the ribs (or southern over there)…

    Anyway, personally, I don’t see any angry in Fotsis’ reaction (until he’s punched at least), just a sarcastic face saying “finally Milos we’ve a ref that whistle this dirty trick!”

    ReplyCancel
  16. Justin
    15 years ago

    Friend, your list is flawed. You have only three from Group C on you list, yes? Who shall be the fourth? Russia, China, or Ivory Coast? While you included five from Group D? One shall not make it, which: France or Lebanon???

    ReplyCancel
    • Os Davis
      15 years ago

      Yes, and i also have five from Group D, but there’s no way i can put Russia, presumably 4th best in Group C, on this list. China also once had a spot before getting pummeled by basically everyone of substance lately…

      ReplyCancel
  17. James
    15 years ago

    canada at 9??? you do realise they lost to greece 123-49. they also lost to slovenia who u have ranked behind them. beating serbia doesnt justify there ranking at 8, afterall they did give up a 24 point lead in that game and only won by 4

    ReplyCancel
  18. James
    15 years ago

    also greece BEAT serbia!!!!! they were winning 74-73 with 2 minutes left and 3 free throws to come. the match although cancelled still counted as a win for greece

    ReplyCancel
  19. radallo
    15 years ago

    SuperManager Mundial

    http://supermanager.acb.com/mundial/reglas.php

    unfortunately.. only in spanish! but rules are identical to Euroleague Fantasy (maybe Javi knows why 😉 )

    Hey Os.. will you open a Private BIE league? I’m not seeking a prize 😀

    ReplyCancel
  20. Dzoni
    15 years ago

    radalo where are you from??? you should not talk some stupid things like that,focis reacted stupidly,so whata if teodosic fould him hard it is contact sport if he don’t want that he should go to balet and do piruetas.He started to go in his face,and was argesive,teodosic tryied to explain him but no he keep insulting him,so he hit him ,and then what focis do???? He spits teodosic!!!!!!! (just like diamantidis in greek finals) he spits that is so low,and then the fight starts,krstic should’t trown chair,but same as he shouldn’t trow chair ,sofoklis shouldn’t punching bjelica while he was on the foolr!!!!!!!! He was on the floor!!!! bjelica who didn’t punch anybody,that is reason why krstic punched sofo from behind ,cause he atacked bjelica while he was on the fucing FLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyCancel
  21. radallo
    15 years ago

    Sorry Dzoni,
    my opinion is different from your.

    I agree that any reaction is stupid (since the ref already whistle the foul..) but I can’t see any anrgy in his rection.

    I’m from Italy.. just watching a beautiful basketball game, with two strong team.. not supporting neither Serbia or Greece….

    ReplyCancel
  22. Dzoni
    15 years ago

    Ok,you are from Italy great country ,but basketball isn’t your strong side,so please have you watched the greek finals,focis(pao) teodosic(oly) bigest rivals,this comes all the way back from club rivality.Now listen this if focis wasn’t angry why he spits teodosic?????And about your country you got some talented very talented players,but you don’t have heart when you play,you don’t have that intesiti that greek,serbian or spanish players have, exept gallinari,so i am hoping that you will be on eurobasket 2011,and have a strong team.And realy the most blame actors of the fiht are:teodosic,krstic,focis and sofo so it is eaqal,i am sick of every time when some fight comes,serbians are savages poor greeks wee kicked sofo ass,i don’t think so he was hitting bjelica while he was on the ground,so look at a bigger picture you look at only what powerfull nations(grece,spain and yours) tell you….

    ReplyCancel
  23. Panos
    15 years ago

    Its not a Pao vs Olympiacos thing here.

    Its Milos Teodotitcs the ass.
    Everybody knows it.

    Here is some evidence:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awaWfep6UcQ

    Thats why people spit him…

    And as far as “battle” is all about,

    After the 3 Serbians attacking Fotsis, Big Sofo gets close (that does not mean he is going to hit anyone) and gets a hit (from the back as usual) by this NBA guy (the chair thrower)…

    Thats why Milos runs to hold Big Sofo. Because Sofo has already FOR NO REASON been attacked by the NBA ASS.

    Big Sofo, saw Bjelica getting over Fotsis while Fotsis was “explaining” Milos that eventually he would get his punishment for being an jerk all this time.

    Big Sofo pulls Bjelica off Fotsis and hits him ONES and NOT somewhere dangerously only after all the Serbian team is hitting SOFO.

    If SOFO wanted to damage anyone all of them, trust him he would.
    Even after the NBA ASS had hit him so HARD repetitively and at dangerous spots (NECK and throat), Big Sofo did not actually hit him.
    He could run and crap him. But he only “accelerates” for a second and stops, its not because the rest got in the way, he controlled himself immediately.
    Its because he has an awareness of his POWER and does not want to damage anyone.
    But on the other hand, its clear from his reaction that he wanted to show the NBA ASS that he is the boss.

    Sofo controlled him self pretty well.
    Fotsis hits MILOS who deserves it overall.
    Tsartsaris gets attacked from this new Ketsap :p guy,
    but Tsartsaris finds him and gives him what he deserves too.

    This NBA guy should be sent to the hospital, who was attacking TSARTARIS on the back, FOTSIS on the BACK, SOFO on the back and on BOUROUSIS with a CHAIR.

    Its too bad Sofo is such a good kid.

    ReplyCancel
    • milaz
      15 years ago

      Exactly it is too bad Sofo is such a nice guy, otherwise he would have Krstic for dinner…

      ReplyCancel
  24. Boomer
    15 years ago

    Australian’s ranked 16th? I think you need to do some homework on this team, they deserve top 10 recognition.

    ReplyCancel
  25. FIBA Expert
    15 years ago

    Greece and USA are only undefeated teams left. Serbia lost to Greece, even though you don’t seem to acknowledge that. I think you need to have Spain third.

    ReplyCancel
  26. Mika
    15 years ago

    Greece and US are only remaining undefeated teams. I hope you change the rankings accordingly.

    ReplyCancel
  27. Panos
    15 years ago

    Well to be honest, Greece was actually losing at the last part of the game, until Ivković was send out.

    ReplyCancel
    • milaz
      15 years ago

      That was also another backdrop to all the violence – apparently Ivkovic knows this ref from when he was coaching AEK! So, either the Akropolis tournament needs to stop taking place as it does, or they need to find some impartial (i.e. non-Greek refs) even if these are warm-up games… and this is coming from someone who supports Greece 1000%.

      ReplyCancel
      • milaz
        15 years ago

        Oh and Ivkovic got two technicals for complaining in a wram-up game…. maybe this ref need anger management classes as well…. I mean… you’re supposed to control the game and calm the players down, not make things worse

        ReplyCancel
        • AP
          15 years ago

          Ivkovic was acting worse than any of the players other than Krstic. In the NBA if a coach acted that way he would be suspended for 10 games minimum.

          ReplyCancel
  28. Panos
    15 years ago

    It seems that usually at these friendly tournaments the refs origin from the hosting country, and they are supporting it.

    Even the USA coach got a technical on the game with Spain.

    That’s not too bad. But the refs should not overdo it…

    ReplyCancel
  29. Apollo
    15 years ago

    Greek media today announced that Ioannis Bourousis was tested by doctors and he will be on the Greek roster for the World Championship.

    Bourousis will not play in the friendly game against the USA, but he will play in Greece’s first game at the tournament against China.

    ReplyCancel

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ballineurope
15 years ago 37 Comments FIBA, More2010 Efes Pilsen World Cup of Basketball, 2010 FIBA World Championship, Acropolis Basketball Tournament, Anderson Varejao, Andre Iguodala, Carlos Arroyo, Chauncey Billups, Christian Dalmau, David Huertas, Dirk Bauermann, Fadi El Khatib, FIBA, Guillermo Diaz, Jose Barea, Kevin Durant, Larry Ayuso, Mike Krzyzewski, Nene, Pau Gasol, Rajon Rondo, Renaldo Balkman, Steve Nash, Team Argentina, Team Australia, Team Canada, Team Croatia, Team France, Team Greece, Team Lebanon, Team Lithuania, Team Puerto Rico, Team Serbia, Team Slovenia, Team Spain, Team USA, Team Virgin Islands, Tiago Splitter, Tyson Chandler, YouTube
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