Xavi Pascual 29
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 […]
Statistically dominant Tiago Splitter wins ACB MVP award
Congratulations to Tiago Splitter, who, to the surprise of extremely few, took home the ACB MVP title for 2009-10. Statistically, Splitter dominated the Spanish League while leading the ACB “playing ranking value” over 27 of the league’s 34 weeks. He ended up ranking first in ranking points per game (at 21.2, he blew away second-place […]
Top 10 reasons why BallinEurope loves the Barcelona-Olympiacos final
How thrilled is BallinEurope to see tonight’s Barcelona-Olympiacos final? Let us count the ways… 10. Both teams earned the trip with tough semifinal wins. Against CSKA Moscow, Barcelona played smart while deploying Europe’s best defense in 2009-10 against a much bigger Red Army team; Olympiacos truly gave everything in overcoming plucky Partizan Belgrade. The result: […]
“We are here to work”: Opening up the post-Euroleague semifinal quotebook
Since last night’s games ended, it’s been a blur of press conferences and meetings for us here in the press section at the Euroleague Final Four … so here’s another round of wit ‘n’ wisdom from the men guiding and playing the games. On winning “Yesterday, we played beyond our limits. My players gave everything. […]
Euroleague Final Four history by the numbers
Attention, all statistics addicts! With the time to tipoff running down steadily, BallinEurope this morning puts things into a little numerical perspective. Which players, coaches and teams will forever be immortalized in the record books when all is said and done at the 2010 Euroleague Final Four? Some measuring sticks for would-be heroes are listed […]
Euroleague Final Four head-to-head matchups: CSKA Moscow vs. FC Barcelona
With the Euroleague Final Four mere days away, the giddiness increases at the prospect of figuring that, yes, without hyperbole, basketball fans could well be getting a complete slate of four classic games. While FC Barcelona and Olympiacos are the heavy favorites (and, ahem, BallinEurope.com’s teams predicted to make the finals at the beginning of […]
Three games remain; records will fall in Spain
With three games left to play in what has been another truly great ACB season, some folks are thumbing through the league record books to see which bits of 2009-10 might be immortalized in statistics when it’s over. Over at the league’s official website, Daniel Barranquero takes a long look – no, a loooooooooooong look […]
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 […]
Simply put, Barcelona cruises, 84-73
Guess that game two loss was little more than a speed bump, eh? Anyone who supposed that FC Barcelona was vulnerable after getting taken down by Real Madrid last week (ahem) can again repress doubts about Xavi Pascual’s team after last night’s dominating performance against their ACB “rivals.” That’s right, that “rivals” is in quotes; […]
The Frank Euroleague Roundup: Top 16, week five
With one more week of Euroleague play to go before the field of viable contenders officially shrinks again, Ball in Europe contributor Francesco Cappelletti wraps the round that was in the big league. In this week’s roundup, Signor C. laments Montepaschi Siena’s fate, Sergio Scariolo’s precarious position and the reason Olympiacos might yet give Barca […]
State of the nations: European basketball organizations today
While not interested in passing definitive judgment, we think it would be useful and fair to take a look at the European basketball panorama. There will be no ratings or rankings here, just a snapshot of what the most important ballin’ countries offer us. Ten years into the third millennium, it’s common to hear repeated […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup: Top 16, week two
It’s time for the look back at the wacky Euroleague week that was with Francesco Cappelletti. This week, BallinEurope’s man in Italy examines messing with rotations in Olympiacos and Unicaja; praises Partizan for the potential blueprint win over FC Barcelona; and chides the narcissistic defending champions for their shameful general laziness. No instant replay, Partizan […]