David Logan 12
Cold blood, hot hands
With the Italian, and indeed European season as a whole, nearly over Nicolò Origgi looks at the men teams turn to when the game is on the line. Across Lega Basket, there are a few heads you know will be turned to when it’s time for that final push. They are the closers, the guys […]
Panathinaikos tops Maccabi Tel Aviv, 86-85 to advance; Greens to take on Red Army, history in Istanbul
The 2011-12 Euroleague Final Four field is now filled, as Panathinaikos’ cliffhanger of an 86-85 win against Maccabi Tel Aviv last night sets up a May date with the monsters of CSKA Moscow in Istanbul. (And now, a slight bit of horn-tooting. Note a few Official BallinEurope Fearless Predictions™ made good, i.e. Dimitris Diamantidis as […]
ACB race tightens: Madrid, Baskonia escape; Unicaja slips further on table
With 19 of its 34 weeks nearly complete, the ACB race is tightening quickly, as evidenced by three games of last night which were decided by a combined four points. (This just in: Real Madrid 62, Assignia Manresa 61, so surely BiE’ll have clips from that soon as well.) You want highlights? BallinEurope’s got your […]
Euroleague week three talking points (part I)
Seven Euroleague games go off tonight as the season rounds into form a bit. The marquee match tonight has got to be the Khimki-Baskonia showdown to establish early supremacy in that tough Group A; Olympiacos-Unicaja will surely be worth the viewing as well, although the way the Reds have dominated on their home floor lately […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: The preseason
Since BallinEurope’s Official Power Rankings were so, um, popular during the FIBA World Championships, today we’re kicking off the same schtick for the upcoming Euroleague campaign. The rules, again: These rankings are basically purely subjective (at this point; once the games are played, actual wins and losses will be figured in) but are based loosely […]
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 […]
Fantasy tips from the Euroleague boss: Week six
Hello everyone, this is Javier Gancedo, as always from Euroleague Basketball. Well, well, well … the regular season has reached its halfway mark and there are only a few underpriced players in the SportingBet Fantasy Challenge. In other words, the real competition starts now. People won’t play to accumulate credits, but will have to analyze […]
After Eurobasket, the future: Part Two
In part two of Ball in Europe’s look at Europe’s top teams following Eurobasket 2009, Francesco Cappelletti contributes his analysis of present and future for those nations who did not finish in Eurobasket’s top four. Part one, featuring looks at Spain, Serbia, Greece, and Slovenia, may be found by clicking here. FRANCE Absences: Mickael Pietrus, […]
BallinEurope's Alternate Eurobasket 2009 All-Tournament Team
While the FIBA folks duly announced their EuroBasket 2009 All-Tournament Team directly after Spain’s thrashing of Serbia last night – and a dandy quintet it is, too – BallinEurope would like to extend some approbation to a few other ballers, some guys who proved revelatory in assisting their teams’ success almost as much or even […]
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 I
Week 8 of the Euroleague presented some unusual numbers in the Zalgiris-Prokom game, a junior big guys battle in Athens, a Turkish delight thanks to veterans and a big tie in the Le Mans battle. Part I will present all that before Part II, in which the games in Barcelona and Roma take center stage. […]
Last-second choices for the NIKEiD Fantasy Challenge
My transfers were already set Tuesday afternoon but when I came home on the evening, I read that Juan Carlos Navarro will probably miss the next game. So I had to change those nice picks I’d already made. OUT: Nikola Pekovic (Panathinaikos), Mirsad Turkcan (Fenerbahce) and Giorgios Printezis (Olympiacos). IN: Lior Eliyahu (Maccabi), David Andersen […]