Lietuvos Rytas 151
All-Euroleague Team 2010-11: BallinEurope’s ballot
Beyond checking out the wild Menorca-Caja Laboral Baskonia game yesterday, BiE spent a good deal of time this weekend contemplating an empty 2010-11 All-Euroleague team ballot. The EL folks sure don’t make things easy for the voter, providing 60 names are allowing one to vote for just five – not that anyone would ever think […]
Top 100 teams in Europe: The Return
After a few weeks off, BallinEurope finally returns the Top 100 list for your perusal this week. With Euroleague ball on a break, not much has changed near the top of the table, though Olympiacos’ dominance in EΣAKE ball has again leapfrogged them over Real Madrid for the no. 2 spot on the BiE table […]
“Too old” Ilgauskas to retire after 2010-11; will not play for Team Lithuania in Eurobasket
Lithuania-based news outlet/high-profile club sponsor Lietuvos Rytas yesterday published quite an extensive piece on Zydrunas Ilgauskas and his recent lack of playing time with the NBA’s most woeful Miami Heat. Big Z took his talents to South Beach for the veterans’ minimum salary of $1.4 million this year reportedly at the behest/encouragement of LeBron James, […]
Timekeeper tried to extend Lietuvos Rytas' Euroleague season?
BiE has heard of officiating errors changing the outcome of games, but how about the timekeeper? An egregious mistake has been noticed (and chased down a bit) by some fans and sent on to Lithuanian-language Basket News, one that might be ascribed to computer or human error, if it weren’t so strange. Toward the end […]
Euroleague Top 16, games six: Notes, natterings and Fearless Predictions™
The quest for the 2010-11 Euroleague title is officially reduced by 50% tonight as a full slate of games completes the Top 16 round of play; three games remain relevant to the final eight round and BallinEurope below takes a brief look at each, together with YouTubes and the ever-popular Fearless Predictions™. Enjoy the games! […]
Lietuvos Rytas 68, Panathinaikos 67: How do you say “Khalid El-Amin rules!” in Lithuanian?
Forget Jeremy Pargo, Vassilis Spanoulis and even mighty Sofoklis; instead consider: Could Khalid El-Amin have been the best Euroleague free-agent signing of 2010-11? The former U. Conn Husky/journeyman of Turkey and Ukraine once again applied the dagger with two free throws for his 10th and 11th points of the game, beautifully facilitated ball movement and […]
Lietuvos Rytas Dance Team displays sweet routine
For those of you with Facebook accounts, drop everything you’re doing immediately (or perhaps after you get to the end of this post) and check out the Baltic Basketball League page for what could well be the coolest-ever number performed by a basketball dance team. Therein, the Lietuvos Rytas ladies are not only wearing some […]
Vesely named FIBA Europe young player of 2010
[Editor’s note: BallinEurope apologizes for a previous edition of this piece which incorrectly identified Jan Vesely as having rights owned by the Oklahoma City Thunder. This was a grievous error of which you surely need not know details. Rest assured that the infinite number of monkeys formerly ravaging the BiE headquarters are now under control […]
February Madness: Rounding up the cups, serving up some highlights
Can it all be over so quickly? February Madness peaked this weekend in Europe, with several domestic cup tournaments being played out and celebrations aplenty. BallinEurope this morning provides a rundown of the action – and, naturally, video clips. Without further ado, then, let’s look in on the insanity. • To no one’s surprise, Spanish […]
Top 100 Teams in Europe: Tops in ACB tops on Continent
The changes begin near the top in this week’s edition of the BallinEurope Top 100 Teams list, as Montepaschi’s third consecutive Euroleague loss dumps the Italian side down to no. 3, passed by their most recent vanquisher, Real Madrid. The top 20 stays fairly stable thereafter, with some jostling of position but no seismic shifts. […]
Worth another look: Khalid El-Amin's Upset of the Year capper
Readers of BallinEurope know that BiE loathes hyperbole in sports reportage. But seriously, Lietuvos Rytas upending Caja Laboral Baskonia, 89-86, in Spain last night? Upset of the 2010-11 season thus far, no? So below the break runs a short clip of heroics from Khalid El-Amin, who contributed 22 points on crazy 7-of-8 overall shooting, and […]
Euroleague Top 16 highlights: Day one
It wasn’t exactly the most inspiring set of Euroleague basketball games last night, with all four losing sides “held” under 60 points and nearly all blown out. (The operative verb gets quotation marks because the three crushed teams all shot under 40% overall with incredibly abysmal numbers from beyond the arc, to some extent helping […]