Davor Kus 12
Cibona Zagreb retakes Croatian title over Cedevita, 77-64
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope to Cibona Zagreb, which won a closeout game four 77-64 over Cedevita Zagreb in the HKS championship series for the Croatian national title. Reported Eurobasket.com, “Cibona led from the first minutes and controlled entire game increasing their lead in each quarter. They made 16-of-21 free shots (76.2 percent) during the […]
Sunday roundup: Serbia, Germany, Greece, Tall Blacks win
A few exhibition games between national teams were played this weekend as the Istanbul Cup and the Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament wrapped with some interesting clashes, indeed. In Turkey, Team Serbia emphatically demonstrated that they should be discussed among the 2010 FIBA World Championship elite by decisively beating the home team in an 83-70 win. […]
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 […]
Entente Orleanaise can win tonight if…
The Euroleague 2009-10 regular season hasn’t even begun yet and Entente Orleanaise is just one game – even a respectable loss – away from becoming the first headline story of the basketball year. Heck, the team’s advancement past Spirou Basket was newsworthy in and of itself but the nine-point victory over big-named Benetton Treviso on […]
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 […]
Euroleague qualifying round game threes tonight
Round two of the Euroleague qualifying round tips off tonight, meaning that – oh boy – the Euroleague regular season is nigh upon us. This evening, it’ll be Maroussi BC hosting Alba Berlin and Benetton Basket at home against Entente Orleanise in Treviso. Previews follow.
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, […]
Tipping it off in Euroleague qualifiers
Even though the official website proclaims the Euroleague season tipoff to start in 16 days, 8 hours, 53 minutes and some seconds, Ball in Europe considers the real beginning to 2009-10 Euroleague action to be going tonight with the four qualifying round games going on. The slate of games and team rosters are as follows.
Croatia-Macedonia meet in World Cup final, Eurobasket preview
The dust has mostly settled in Ankara, with Croatia and Macedonia the final two terms standing. Though Croatia should prevail in this one and the “World Cup of Basketball” isn’t really much more than a lot of friendly matches bound together loosely and packaged as a tournament, the game tonight could prove to be crucial […]
Yarone's late Friday's joints
Globalization – The player with the highest VAL on Zalgiris of Lithuania was US center Loren Woods. The players with the best VAL for Italian Montepaschi were Rimantas Kaukenas and Ksistof Lavrinovic from … Lithuania. In fact, the latter two combined for a VAL of 45 while all Lithuanian players on the Lithuanian team combined […]
The Euro player-blogger roundup
With the new Euroleague season approaching and the number of player-bloggers in Europe increasing, I will give you a (more or less) regular roundup about interesting stories these writers have to share with us.
After the Olympics: What's the future of Croatia?
Today, I am going to talk about the youngest European participant in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Croatian national team featured nine players born in 1982 or younger, something that no other team could offer. Let’s check how the next tournaments could look like for Jasmin Repesa’s guys.