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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 […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup: Top 16, week four
The critical week four of Euroleague Top 16 action is in the books, but Ball in Europe’s man in Italy, Francesco Cappelletti, is still musing on the shifts ‘n’ events thanks to these eight games. This week’s frank roundup wishes Panathinaikos bye-bye, gives mucho deserved props to Pini Gershon, and bestows an “accolade” upon Zabian […]
The Frank Euroleague Roundup: Top 16, week three
With a scene-shifting week three of Euroleague Top 16 play in the books, BallinEurope’s Francesco Cappelletti defines his surprise, from Montepaschi’s masterful play to Sasha Kaun’s success to the curse of a Panathinaikos title defense, and more. Read on! Pianigiani’s lesson to Messina “I think it was a masterpiece from my players. One of the […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup, week five
Once again, BallinEurope.com contributor Francesco Cappelletti weighs in on all the happenings in Europe’s top basketball league in week five of play in ruminating on just how good FC Barcelona is; on CSKA Moscow’s resurrection due to coach Pashutin and possibly the “heart of a champion”; and on a flashback to one year ago. The […]
Euroleague team preview: Montepaschi Siena
Can Montepaschi still improve? That’s the question many fans and even Euroleague 2007-2008 Executive of the Year winner Ferdinando Minucci put to the team. It’s easy to talk about windows of opportunity, but never has it been so appropriate, as Montepaschi looks at perhaps its final opportunity to get to the top of Euroleague. In […]
The Italian League explained: Part one
Some consider Serie A to be the second best European league behind (and I mean, kilometers behind) only the ACB, others consider the league’s unstoppable decreasing level which began at the beginning of new millennium. Anyway, between clubs which fail year by year, rules about US and EU players never staying consistent for more than […]
Just how good is Montepaschi Siena, anyway?
Poring over some Sporting Bet odds and lines on Lega Uno basketball reveals a stunning amount of continued domination from Montepaschi Siena. Not only is Ferdinando Minucci’s team a 4/15 favorite to take the Italian title, they’re also an incredible 3/10 favorite to once again (again!) go undefeated at home. So the question to our […]
D-Hawk lands with Montepaschi Siena
David “D-Hawk” Hawkins, a man on a mission since going undrafted out of Temple University in 2004, is taking his high-scoring game to Montepaschi Siena. On Friday, the team announced Hawkins’ signing a two-year contract with an option in 2011. When no NBA team drafted him in 2004, Hawkins signed with Sebastiani Rieti. From Rieti […]
Tips from the Euroleague boss
Hello everybody at BallinEurope, this is once again Javier Gancedo, all the way from Euroleague headquarters in Barcelona. This has been arguably the best Top 16 since I joined the company in 2003. I have great memories of my first Top 16 as an insider (Sharp’s three-pointer against Zalgiris, Basile’s triple against Efes followed by […]
Tips from the Euroleague Fantasy Boss: Top 16 Week 2
Hello all at BallinEurope, once again this is Javier Gancedo, as always from Euroleague Basketball. If you don’t know by now, my team Meet The Boss was the first-ranked, number one OVERALL in the NIKEiD Fantasy Challenge last week. Needless to say I am very proud about this, beating dozens of thousands of basketball fans […]
Yarone's Weekend Joints – Part II
Part II of the Weekend Joints is presented to you with visits to Kaunas, Nancy’s hot dog stands, Pionir, Milano and Greece. Can’t go wrong with that route. The matchup that never happened The Le Mans-Unicaja match had the potential to host one of the most intriguing match-ups Euroleague 2008/09 can offer. Unicaja’s big lead […]
My Euroleague Wednesday
When I came home tonight, I immediately checked on the situation in the different Euroleague games was. And it looked like the two first games of the day would become blowouts: Olympiacos finally beat Air Avellino without any trouble, but the score between Panionios and Real Madrid somehow surprised me as the Greeks were up […]