Team Turkey 89
Eurobasket 2009, lucky day 13
This tournament just keeps getting better and better. Whether you dig the comeback or prefer a back-and-forth tug of war, Eurobasket 2009 had basketball lovers all smiles yesterday with a pair of fantastic contests truly reflecting the excellence of this field. And today there’s *four* more games? Nice. Jumping right in, then…
Eurobasket 2009, day 12: Quickie thoughts, congratulations, predictions
Whoa, a bit too much Pau Gasol for Team France last night, eh? Now that was the Spain everybody’s been wanting to see, if only as an object to hate on. And congratulations to Serbia as well, for just playing a wonderful game in basically brushing aside Russia; i’ve not been so happy being wrong […]
Hack-an-Asik and other fearless predictions for Eurobasket 2009, day 10
How do you explain “they should swallow their whistles” to someone who knows nothing about sports? (And I mean really nothing; we’re talking live-six-years-in-Chicago-during-the-Jordan-Era-and-still-not-know-the-difference-between-Bulls-and-Bears nothing.) That was my situation during large portions of the second and third quarters of the France-Greece game last night as to the wife’s chagrin I yelled at the TV. While […]
Eurobasket 2009 fearless predictions VIII: Titanic vs. Hindenburg headline matchup
If you had told a basketball fan about today’s Spain-Lithuania Eurobasket second-round matchup two weeks, he/she might have figured it to be one of the tournament’s most interesting games. It still is, of course, but for the exact opposite reason one may have expected. In one corner is Team Spain, a bunch of household names […]
Momentum shift! (Or, fearless predictions for Eurobasket 2009 day six)
Two days may not seem like much in reality (thus the bliss of a three-day weekend); in Eurobasket 2009, the 48 hours off for Group F teams could prove to be the most crucial stretch of the tournament. Today’s thought: Beware shifts in momentum. Fearless predictions for tonight’s three matches follow. Turkey v. Spain. Turkey […]
Eurobasket 2009, day 3: What the hell happened to Lithuania? (Also, increasingly fearless predictions)
After Lithuania fell to unheralded Poland for its second consecutive Eurobasket loss against teams they really should have outclassed, coach Ramunas Butautas had some choice quotes for his team and the public at large. “We played terrible,” Butautas said, getting no argument from any quarter. “We had no defense, no offense. We lost our game.” […]
Eurobasket 2009 preview capsules, part three
Ball in Europe wraps its capsule coverage of Eurobasket 2009 competitors today with a look at the last five teams in the bunch. You can read part one here and part two here. Russia Group: B In brief: Two years after winning gold, Team Moscow – i mean, Team Russia – brings the “new look” […]
World Cup of Basketball (really?) now underway
The Efes Pilsen’s 2009 “World Cup of Basketball” may be a bit of a misnomer for the international friendly tournament that tipped off last night in Turkey, but this show is certainly professionally done – really top marks for the organizers here – and well worth checking out. The World Cup field is comprised of […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Calm Before The Perfect Storm edition
The pickings for basketball-related news online this week were a tad slim, with that inevitable last-weeks-of-August malaise that conquers Europe annually and sends the entire continent on holiday really settling in. Ah well, Eurobasket 2009 tips off in a couple weeks, followed by national leagues awakening, and Euroleague/NBA isn’t that far off, really. In the […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Everybody's YouTubing edition
Was everybody YouTubing this week? Seriously, all the best basketball-related websites from tiny to massive/official have been plastered with YouTube clips as though it’s all part of a vast conspiracy to assist us in wasting valuable work time. Not that that’s a bad thing…
U18 Finals: France vs. Serbia; consolation match pits Valanciunas vs. Kanter
Over in France in the U18 European Championship Men, it’ll be France and Serbia duking it out in the finals today after both squads used teamwork to overcome a potentially devastating individual performance. Team France held off Lithuania, 68-63, again allowing the opposition to claw its way back in the fourth quarter yet holding on […]
Final Four set at U18 European championship: Turkey, Serbia, Lithuania, France
The FIBA U18 European Championship Men tips off its semifinal round with four teams keeping title hopes alive: Lithuania, Serbia, Turkey, and France. All the teams played the quarterfinals games yesterday, with Turkey pulling off the notable upset over Spain. Today’s games pit Turkey against Serbia at 6pm CET and Lithuania against France at 8.15pm. […]