ULEB Cup Final 8: Joventut 14 years later

April 14, 2008

DKV Joventut Badalona won the ULEB Cup yesterday with a win over the Spanish competitors of Akasvayu Girona. In front of disapointing (official) 5060 spectators in Torino, the squad of legendary coach Aito finished the game of in an excellent second half to win it 79-54.

I can’t tell you that much about the game as I did not see it, except the highlights on the official website of the UlebCup. When checking out the news releases, you see that Rudy Fernandez got the MVP trophy for his performances in Madrid but he gave it to Frenchman Jerome Moiso who Rudy estimated to be the true MVP of the competition because of his defensive presence.

Ok, Rudy has already collected MVP trophies in the past, and even earns them in 2-year stretches (2004 MVP of Copa del Rey, 2006 MVP FIBA EuroCup, 2008 MVP Copa del Rey and ULEB Cup) but giving the trophy to probably the most host hated player in his homecountry of France is a nice move by the Spanish guard.

What is more of a disappointment for the ULEB is the number of spectators. I don’t know about their future plans for this competition but this Final 8 tournament looks a bit like a bust in terms of spectator interest. It may be a big success concerning Media presence but it is normal that when you have 8 teams playing that there are more Media present than when there are only 2 teams. I preferred the One-Game Final like it was before in Charleroi by far.

Still coming back to the winners, with this success, the "Penya" is assured to play the Euroleague next season as the winner automatically qualifies for the top competition. What this means for the Portland Trailblazer fans is that Rudy Fernandez will most likely not to come over to Oregon this summer but stay with his hometown club and try to imitate the former glories around Jordi Villcampa who won the Euroleague in 1994.

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This post was published on April 14, 2008
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Comments: 7
  1. 16 years ago

    questions:

    1) what are the names of the usual english basketball commentators for eurosport? i hear one used to be a basketball player.

    2) which tournament is more prestigious: euroleague or ULEB

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  2. uhg80
    16 years ago

    Euroleague is way more prestigious. This is where the top teams play, though there are always about 2 or 3 teams in ULEB-Cup every year, which would be among the better teams in Euroleague.

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  3. 16 years ago

    1. I think I have read an article once about the Eurosport commentators where it was mentionned that one of them is a former British basketball professional player. Unfortunately, I could not find the link back nor find their names on the Eurosport Homepage

    2. Generally, the Euroleague is more prestigious than the ULEB Cup. The third highest European competition is FIBA Eurocup as said uhg80

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  4. john marzan
    16 years ago

    thanks guys. here’s my additional comments

    i saw ricky rubio three times in ULEB. nothing spectacular about his game. i was expecting him to wow me by outplaying the older players. no luck.

    but he did do okay against people who were twice his age. i guess i was expecting too much since he’d be dominating the game if he played against his 17 year old peers.

    but no, i did not see anything special other than to say that HE BELONGED in that team. he did not look out of place against his elders.

    here’s my scouting report on rubio: he can’t shoot the outside shot, but he plays terrific defense. good instincts. a decent passer. but in the finals against girona, it was rudy fernandez (playing alongside rubio) who usually handled the ball and played the point because he was a threat in the perimeter. rubio played off the ball. hmmm… i guess the joventut coach wanted to win and he wanted an experienced hand to control the offense.

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  5. Carlos Paternain
    16 years ago

    First of all I would like to give my opinion on this experiment that ULEB cup organisers have tried to bring on in Turin, rubbish! It is true that more media has come to cover the event but the thing is you can not organise a tourney in a place (Turin) that has no basketball tradition at all and in a country (Italy) that didn’t have any team in this tournament, obviously the results in attendance haven’t been a surprise.

    On the other hand I was able to see some games, almost all from la Penya (Joventut) and they were really one level ahead of the other teams, they didn’t have any tight game and they seemed to have an extra basketball in their reserve if they’d needed it in any moment, and that was not necessary.

    I hope Rudy stays one more year playing for Joventut ’cause he still has something to say in euroleague, I think Joventut has a team right now to be fighting for the Final Four spots, and they can even improve a lot. He is still young and another year here playing at the highest level in Europe would be great for him.
    About Ricky, it’s true that he needs to improve his shot, and he needs to have a jump shot. A part from that, I have nothing to say to him, more than chapeau, he is 17 years old, he is playing more maturely than many guys that have twice his age. And the important thing is that Aito, is not giving him to many responsability yet on scoring. As I said before, if a guy with 17 years old needs only to improve his shot, men! He is a heck of a player I think!

    That’s all, sorry for the length of the comment…

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  6. john marzan
    16 years ago

    “they didn’t have any tight game and they seemed to have an extra basketball in their reserve if they’d needed it in any moment”

    the stinkin refs helped them too against galatasaray. dee brown was abused by the zebras.

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  7. john marzan
    16 years ago

    “As I said before, if a guy with 17 years old needs only to improve his shot, men! He is a heck of a player I think!”

    i agree. developing an outside shot this year helped push chris paul to mvp status. it was the one thing lacking in his game until this season.

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