FIBA 352
Midnight for Cinderella? Angola shocks FYR Macedonia, 88-84
Just about 20 years ago, Angolan basketball was known internationally for a single game, for their service in providing the appetizer course for the angry/hungry Dream Team in the 1992 Olympic Games. Ultimately, Team Angola’s first turn on the big stage was remembered for a single moment of ignominy, i.e. Charles Barkley’s hammering of Herlander […]
2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview: Lithuania
The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men tips off in Venezuela today at 11am local time (11.30am EST, 5.30pm CET) with the Russia-South Korea match. Of the 12 national teams competing, four are European. The last of BallinEurope’s previews of these qualifiers features an assessment of Lithuania. Roster: Tomas Delininkaitis, Paulius Jankūnas, Mantas […]
2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview: Greece
Just one more day (or so, CET) until the heartily-named 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men tips off in Venezuela. BallinEurope continues with previews of the four European qualifiers with an assessment of Greece, a.k.a. Olympiacos and a bunch of other guys. Roster: Vassilis Spanoulis, Georgios Printezis, Kostas Papanikolaou, Kostas Sloukas, Evangelos Mantzaris […]
2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview: FYR Macedonia
The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men tips off in Venezuela on Monday. Until then, BallinEurope takes a look at the four European squads competing in turn. Today, an assessment of those Eurobasket 2011 darlings, FYR Macedonia. Roster: Pero Antic (Olympiacos); Gjorgi Chekovski, Todor Gechevski (MZT Skopje); Vlado Ilievski (Lokomotiv Kuban); Aleksandar Kostoski […]
Lithuania “struggles” in 77-68 loss to Russia: Kaun nets 21; Valanciunas gets 12, eight boards
For lack of YouTube clips and FIBA posts, BallinEurope directs you to Lithuania Basketball for a brief writeup on the Russia-Lietuva friendly in Houston last night. The general gist: Despite taking a 37-35 lead into halftime, Team Lithuania struggled enough in the third quarter to take a 77-68 loss. In fact, “struggle” appears to be […]
2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview: Team Russia
With the lengthily-named 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men tipping off in Venezuela on Monday, BallinEurope takes some time this week to catch up on the four European squads in the running for a trip to London and reckon on a brief assessment of each’s chances in the competition. First up is Russia, […]
Current rosters for 2012 European, USA Olympic teams [Updated]
Last Friday, FIBA released its first “power ladder” (a.k.a. “power rankings”) for 2012 Olympic basketball; BallinEurope therefore thought to post a list of the seven Continental team rosters – plus, as a measuring stick, the pool for Team USA – as they currently stand.
Drazen Petrovic: The video homage to a too-short career
Once again on June 7, BallinEurope takes a look back at one of the all-time greats, without whom the game of basketball would not be the same: Dražen Petrović. The man is still missed. An entire generation has entered basketball since his untimely passing and while ever-growing numbers of NBA and European stars who have […]
Ramunas Siskauskas: The BallinEurope video tribute
On Monday, European basketball great Ramunas Šiškauskas announced his retirement from the game: A story that was noteworthy enough for even North Korean sports fans to be notified. In his official statement, Šiškauskas said that he’d “made my choice in the middle of the season. It was not connected with anything specific – I just […]
The EuroChallenge Championship Curse: What of Beşiktaş’ future?
In this second piece of a two-part series, sportswriter/commentator Uygar Karaca again considers the EuroChallenge Championship Curse, with special reference to this year’s champions, Beşiktaş; unfortunately for the Eagles, Karaca feels a distressing amount of déjà vu… In this article, I will try to answer the question as to whether Beşiktaş Milangaz fits into the […]
Revealed: The EuroChallenge championship curse
Winning the EuroChallenge title is a good thing, right? After all, it’s typically the first Continental trophy to display on the mantelpiece and the champions label wins the club to right to play in the more prestigious (and more big-bucks) Eurocup competition the following season. Well, Uygar Karaca may convince believers otherwise. In the first […]
FIBA EuroChallenge: Mensah-Bonsu, Erceg, Arroyo lead Beşiktaş to 91-86 win, championship title
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope to Beşiktaş Milangaz, winners of the 2011-12 FIBA EuroChallenge title with a 91-86 victory over Elan Chalon last night. The win represents not only advancement to Eurocup play for 2012-13, but also Turkey’s second-ever European club championship: An Efes Pilsen side led by Conrad McRae, Petar Naumoski and Ufuk Sarıca […]