Besiktas 11
Sarica’s got nothing to lose
Besiktas are looking to win the Turkish title for only the third time in the club’s history but go into their best-of-7 series with Fenerbahce as whopping underdogs against the Euroleague and reigning BSL champions. Emmet Ryan looks at what to watch in this pairing and why one man involved with the underdogs can already […]
Ugly turnovers, dumb fouls, but hey some drama in pre-season
The Rixos Cup final was exactly what one would expect from a pre-season tournament. The play was sloppy, the rosters weren’t complete, but at least Besiktas and Olympiacos provided some excitement in Istanbul. We don’t expect much when the main focus for teams is to get warmed up and stay healthy but there were enough […]
Sunday bullets: NBA-flavored European action, USK Prague beats USA, Deron Williams generally trashed, more
Your lazy Sunday just got a little lazier. BallinEurope gives you another few good minutes of clock killing in rounding up some stories for your perusal. As the NBA lockout continues – and many reckon no blinking will be done by either side on Monday, therefore necessitating cancellation of the 2011-12 schedule’s first two weeks’ […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: First of the Season edition
Right, then. With the last teams advancing into the Euroleague two dozen for the regular season and a break in the Kobe-to-Bologna soap opera today, BallinEurope breaks out an old favorite: power rankings! Once again, the BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings are based on current trends, i.e. who’s hot, who’s not. For this edition of the […]
Euroleague Qualifying Round: Galatasaray, Spirou Basket fill final two spots
Well, at least BallinEurope got one of ‘em right… In Vilnius, it wasn’t so pretty or high-scoring, but Galatasaray used a couple of scoring runs and outlasted Lietuvos Rytas to become the third TBL team in the 2011-12 Euroleague season in its first-ever bid in the big league … by the way, does this make […]
Top salaries in European basketball, 2011-12
Kudos and thanks to BallinEurope reader Agent, who recently crunched some numbers for basketball fans vis-à-vis the top salaries in European basketball for the 2011-12 season. In case you’re wondering why some top NBA names are seriously considering jumping the puddle, check out the findings below. Using euros as the currency, and figuring for net […]
Business as usual in Lithuania: Romanov sound bite, L.Rytas signs Newley
What was that about the fat cat singing…? Followers of Lithuanian basketball this season were no doubt immensely let down by Žalgiris Kaunas owner Vladimir Romanov’s superbrief post-game press conference after his coachless team’s defeat in game seven of the LKL championship series. Lasting approximately 12 seconds, the entire “conference” with media representatives consisted of […]
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 […]
Grouping the ladies: Draws for Euroleague, EuroCup Women announced
FIBA Euroleague Women’s basketball doesn’t start until late October, but the season officially kicked off today with the ceremonial draws of groupings for both Euroleague and EuroCup Women competitions. In Euroleague Group A, it’s Cras Basket Taranto; TEO Vilnius; Ros Casares; TTT Riga; UMMC Ekaterinburg; and Galatasaray. Group B has Gospic Croatia Osiguranje; CSKA Moscow; […]
Attendance Figures for European Competitions (EuroCup)
In our second part of our report on the attendance figures of the different European competitions, we take a closer look today at the EuroCup, the second highest level of competition in Europe. You can find here the first part of our analysis which covered the FIBA EuroChallenge.
Monday's cigarettes
Here we go for a new week with Euroleague action. But today, we have a very special women’s cigarette for you… …because Sylvia Fowles came up with a breakaway dunk in the Euroleague game between Spartak Moscow and Schio. KK Split and Cibona Zagreb met this weekend in the Adriatic League. And the least we […]