Bizkaia Bilbao Basket 32
74 is the magic number: Nancy takes French title; Barcelona wins game two; Freak City cruises in Germany
While much of the basketball hype from the ‘States in currently focused on tonight’s scintillating NBA championship game six, BiE today runs a quick jaunt through Europe’s championship action, with video-embedded stops in France, Spain and Germany. Official BallinEurope Fearless Prediction™ at the very bottom. First up, congratulations to new LNB champs SLUC Nancy, who […]
Championship basketball: Galatasaray stays alive; Barça, Mavericks take care of business
It’s hard to believe the 2010-11 season is drawing to a close, but so it goes. Leagues in Turkey, Spain and the United States could be all shutting down for the summer (or, in the latter’s case, perhaps a good deal longer) within a week. A brief roundup this morning, then, of action in this […]
Shocker in Spain: Real Madrid falls to Bizkaia Bilbao, 80-72
Congratulations this morning go out from BallinEurope to perhaps the underdog of the year, as Bizkaia Bilbao Basket has advanced to the ACB final by defeating Real Madrid in game four of their semifinal matchup, 80-72. The club which had never won a playoff game going into 2010-11 dispatched the Euroleague Final Four squad and […]
Dirk, Dydek and beyond: Weekend video clips
European basketball leagues and the NBA may be coming to a close for 2010-11, but there’s still plenty of hoops to keep up with – and even more online video clips for the watching! BallinEurope starts your Sunday with a dozen clips shot in the U.S., Greece, Spain, Israel and other locales. Enjoy today’s action […]
Monday videos: Barcelona beaten, Cook cookin', remembering Moses and more
Welcome to the week, BallinEurope readers. We’ll get Monday started with a few video clips, stories, links, and some apocalyptic thinking about FC Barcelona. • Now here’s some motivation for Ricky Rubio to, you know, give that Minnesota Timberwolves thing a try: The decent possibility that Barcelona will not recapture the ACB championship title and, […]
February Madness, Copa del Rey-style
“February Madness” begins this week in Europe, with a number of top domestic leagues hosting national cup tournaments; probably tops in pageantry and hype on The Continent is Spain’s Copa del Rey, a hoops bloodbath since 1984. BallinEurope this morning provides a few links, clips and whatnot in preparation for what they just had to […]
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: 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 […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: Final preseason edition
The 2010-11 Euroleague season tips off tomorrow? Right, then. Presenting the last preseason – and thus last totally subjective, because we’ll be able to base these things on, you know, wins and losses beginning next week – BallinEurope Official Euroleague Power Rankings™. (Plus lots of video clips.) Enjoy! 1. (↔) FC Barcelona – Yeah, as […]
¡Triples, triples, triples! Checking out the ACB’s new three-point line
With the ACB converting its courts to that with the new FIBA standard three-pointer and key, most fans will be closely watching the effects on the Spanish league’s many sharpshooters. And while one week’s worth of games is an awfully small sample size, the early numbers show that lovers of barnburners have nothing to worry […]
Vrankovic names preliminary Team Croatia roster; includes 11 Euroleaguers, just six from Eurobasket
How do you say, “Let’s clean house!” in Croatian? Because that’s the phrase Team Croatia coach Josip Vrankovic was certainly employing when he assembled his 17-man preliminary FIBA World Championship. After the disappointing finish by the Croats in the 2009 Eurobasket competition, then-head coach Jasmin Repesa hastily resigned and thereafter replaced by Vrankovic; now Vrankovic […]
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 […]