Marcelinho Huertas 38
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: Final preseason edition
The 2010-11 Euroleague season tips off tomorrow? Right, then. Presenting the last preseason – and thus last totally subjective, because we’ll be able to base these things on, you know, wins and losses beginning next week – BallinEurope Official Euroleague Power Rankings™. (Plus lots of video clips.) Enjoy! 1. (↔) FC Barcelona – Yeah, as […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: October update
Got the vitriol brewing? All right, then, with BallinEurope now caught up on some preseason basketball viewing, it’s time for another edition of BiE’s Official Euroleague Power Rankings. Just one quick note for irritated fans (we’re looking at you, Olympiacos, Žalgiris and Lietuvos Rytas backers): Remember that these rankings are first totally subjective and secondly […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 3.0
All right, now everything about the 2010 FIBA World Championship is coming into focus! For example, now we know how good the relatively unknown Lithuanian squad will be – because they beat Slovenia after having to come back and go overtime against the Czech Republic. Um, and Argentina showed they’re awesome by … blowing a […]
What FC Barcelona must do (with special reference to Lakers-Celtics)
Two teams teetering on the edge, two series remarkably similar in a few outstanding features. With FC Barcelona one game from elimination at the hands of Caja Laboral Baskonia in the ACB championship series, BallinEurope – like so many others – is looking for answers to the Blaugrana’s mysterious woes. Perhaps some might be found […]
Giant slayers: Caja Laboral Baskonia wins 70-69, pushes FC Barcelona to brink
In a season already spiced with big playoff upsets, Caja Laboral Baskonia may be adding the biggest to the list yet, as the Basque Country boys held on through an insane final minute of play to eke out a 70-69 win over FC Barcelona. And now things in Spain have become suddenly unthinkable as the […]
Not so fast, hombre: Baskonia stuns mighty Barcelona to take ACB game one, 63-58
I guess this is why they actually play the games, eh? Caja Laboral Baskonia leapt out to a 12-0 lead behind the dominant play of Tiago Splitter to start game one of the ACB championship finals and hung on for the 63-58 win. The achievement of Baskonia’s win is reflected in historical statistics: Barcelona has […]
Baskonia brings too much Splitter, Huertas; drops Madrid to 3rd in ACB
A frustrating second half of the season just got a bit worse for Real Madrid as Los Blancos dropped an absolutely critical home game to Caja Laboral Baskonia, to complete a slow descent from an 11-0 start in the ACB and land the team in third place on the ACB table with two games left […]
Everything you've always wanted to know about Barcelona vs. Unicaja (in English)
On Saturday, perhaps the marquee matchup on the ACB slate – if for historical significance only – will be the FC Barcelona vs. Unicaja match. The league’s official website has quite the extensive collection of facts ‘n’ figures about this match and the 15-year record of meetings between these two clubs, of which BallinEurope attempted […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup: Top 16 finales
Better late than never (totally BiE’s fault, let me tell you) comes Ball in Europe’s dispatch from Francesco Cappelletti rounding up the week that was in Euroleague basketball. For your amusement and edification, Francesco discusses, among other topics, the Terrell McIntyre Backup Curse, which teams should sweep into the Final Four, why Maccabi Tel Aviv […]
Sound bites in advance of Copa del Rey tournament
The party’s already starting in Bilbao to be sure … after all, the Copa del Rey basketball tournament isn’t just a sporting event; heck, it’s not even just another national cup competition. Instead, the “King’s Cup” consumes much of the national population’s attention as determines the class of Europe’s top hoops superpower is confirmed. Concerts […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup: Top 16, week one
Which team has already clinched a Euroleague Final Four spot? Who’s most to blame for Panathinaikos’ loss? What did Ergin Ataman do wrong? And why did Aito Garcia Reneses pull Cesar Augusto Lima with seven minutes to play? These questions are answered – OK, not that last one: That one’s a real riddle for the […]
The Spanish league explained: Part one
The quality of a national league here in Europe is not given by the value of top teams – every league has a number of top teams – but is more appropriately determined by how good the medium-to-low range clubs are. Spain’s are good like no others are: This is why ACB is today the […]