National Leagues 372
A week in highlights: Spanish block party, mighty Milos, Utah rap and some dude dunking in L.A.
Yes, readers, it’s Sunday. Or, as BallinEurope likes to think of it, “YouTube Trawlday.” (As though BiE avoids the ‘Tube on the other six days. Yeah, surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre.) Whatever you want to call it, start your day with these 10 video clips starring Nando De Colo, Mirza Begic, Mehmet Okur, Milos Teodosic, Ibrahim Jaaber, Bojan Bogdanović […]
February Madness in Croatia: Zadar uses no subs, wins on buzzer beater, causes coach’s resignation
Talk about your February Madness. In the Krešimir Ćosić Cup, a.k.a. the Croatian Cup, semifinals last night, unheralded KK Zadar (10-19 overall in 2010-11) stunned Eurocup Top 16 team Cedevita Zagreb (16-13), 83-82, on the favorites’ home court. What’s that you say? Not so crazy? Upsets happen all the time? Okay, consider that KK Zadar […]
Top 100 Teams in Europe: Pre-Cups Running Over Edition
As most European domestic leagues are taking a break for a week or two for national cup and/or all-star festivities, BallinEurope crunches the numbers again to determine where the Continent’s finest stand. Near the top, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Euroleague-side punishment of Union Olimpija shook things up a bit within the top 10 and Olympiacos reasserted […]
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. […]
BallinEurope’s completely relativistic 2010-11 All-Star Team (or, What? You’ve never heard of Bambale Osby?)
With most domestic basketball hitting a halfway point and the Euroleague into its second round, BallinEurope today pays tribute to some outstanding individual performances by naming its all-star team. No relative merits or penalties were assessed for the league in which BiE’s all-stars compete, and domination in one league was a top criteria for making […]
Top 100 Teams in Europe: Barcelona back to no. 1
BallinEurope took a little extra time with the Top 100 Teams in Europe list this week after a suggestion that certain ACB teams were getting the shaft of non-inclusion in the calculations – and so the pool has been widened accordingly. In calculating the Top 100 for this week and heretofore, all teams in major […]
Kalev/Cramo scores big upset, nice poster dunk
Europe’s dunk of the week may well be the posterization that went down in perhaps Europe’s upset of the week, namely BC Kalev/Cramo’s 77-70 VTB United League win over Euroleague side Asseco Prokom on Wednesday night. To make matters worse for the Polish side, Ratko Varda (and Prokom’s entire half-court D, essentially) was caught completely […]
The Top 100 Teams in Europe: Calm before the storm edition
All right, another Thursday means another look at BallinEurope’s Top 100 Teams in Europe chart, the last until the big pan-Continental leagues gear up again with sweet 16 action. (BiE was just waiting for the dust to settle in Athens after the PAO-Olympiacos match, but settling may yet be a few days in the making.) […]
The Top 100 Teams in Europe: Now with new formula!
You have commented and BallinEurope has heard. Thanks in large part to the proddings and machinations of a somewhat indignant Y. (BiE’s man in Lithuania), we’ve reworked the formula to determine the official Top 100 Teams in Europe list. Not to go into any boring detail, but Y. was kind enough to install somewhat arbitrary […]
NLB wrap: Zagreb bests Radnicki, Buducnost upsets Partizan, CEZ Nymburg no. 1
The first week of play in the Adriatic League (a.k.a. the NLB Liga ABA) was capped yesterday with KK Zagreb’s 82-76 home-opener win over Radnički despite an amazing performance by Michael Lee – and just check out who’s atop the standings. Lee, a two-sport star at St. Bonaventure who was with the Hungarian league’s Albacomp […]
Da Mayor: Coach Dusko’s dream start with CSKA
As you’ve probably heard, former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov resigned last week under duress. But it seems that citizens of Russian capital don’t have many reasons to be worried: The new sheriff is already in town! Of course, we’re speaking here about Dusko Vujosevic, Partizan’s proven “miracle worker,” who recently coached CSKA in his first […]
Montepaschi Siena crushes AJ Milano again to take Italian title, 93-69
It’s official: Montepaschi Siena closed out European club basketball last night with yet another emphatic win, taking game four of the Serie A championship series, 93-69, to complete a sweep of outmatched AJ Milano – and a perfect 10-0 run through the Italian League playoffs. Siena rode the hot hand of Terrell McIntyre, who went […]