Efes Pilsen Istanbul 27
Basketball weekend: Tournaments in Germany, (probably) Italy ending; Eurobasket Women starting
The 2010-11 professional basketball season may effectively be over this weekend, with a final championship series game scheduled in Germany tonight plus a possible elimination game in Italy happening on Sunday. But no worries: the end of club play means the beginning of summertime national-team tournaments, starting with the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket Women competition. In […]
February Madness: Rounding up the cups, serving up some highlights
Can it all be over so quickly? February Madness peaked this weekend in Europe, with several domestic cup tournaments being played out and celebrations aplenty. BallinEurope this morning provides a rundown of the action – and, naturally, video clips. Without further ado, then, let’s look in on the insanity. • To no one’s surprise, Spanish […]
Omer Önan: TBL second only to ACB
Team Turkey/Fenerbahçe Ülker guard Ömer Onan makes a few declarations in this morning’s Today’s Zaman, summing up well the current state of TBL and Turkish international ball. “[ACB] aside,” opines Onan, “in Turkish basketball, we have long surpassed important European domestic leagues, including the Italian and Greek leagues. In these countries, only one or two […]
Euroleague Top 16 groupings set
Word has it that an overload of traffic brought down the live broadcast of today’s Euroleague Top 16 draw. So, in case you were shut out, the groupings for the next round of top-level European action looks like so:
Turnover City: Solving the mystery of Zalgiris Kaunas
“Do[es] all the little things with surprising grace and feeling – and an iron will to win.” – characterization of prototypical Lithuanian player in FreeDarko’s The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac BallinEurope’s latest obsession started with a tweet. Specifically, a message from BiE’s main Lithuanian, Martynas “Air” Pocius. Pocius retweeted a fascinating stat about his Žalgiris […]
Frank answers to four burning Euroleague questions
He’s back! Emerging out of hiding (or perhaps digging himself out of work with youth squads plus Italian-language sports media) is BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Francesco Cappelletti. As the season progresses, Cappelletti will be opining as to what really went down in a week’s worth of Euroleague matches. Today, four key themes that will be […]
Euroleague announces seedings for 2010-11 draw
In advance of the draws on Thursday, Euroleague basketball have announced the seeds of the 22 Euroleague teams that will be divvied into four divisions in the 2010-11 season, as well as the 16 teams competing for the remaining two EL spots in the Euroleague Qualifying Rounds. This seedings do not of course determine the […]
Fenerbahce Ulker whips Efes Pilsen (in possible last-ever meeting) to take TBL title
Congratulations go out today to Fenerbahçe Ülker, who tore apart Efes Pilsen at home, 76-51, to take the Turkish Basketball League title in six games. Four players – Mirsad Turkcan, Roko Ukic, Semih Erden and Tarance Kinsey – scored in double figures for Fenerbahçe, while Efes Pilsen was held to a lowly sub-33% on 16-of-49 […]
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 […]
My chat with Francesco (or, WTF is up with Montepaschi Siena?)
Whilst watching the Efes Pilsen-Montepaschi Siena game with horror fascination last night – probably somewhere around the Ferdinando Minucci ejection – BiE couldn’t help but wonder what Francesco Cappelletti, this website’s man in Italy, thought of it all. Seriously. Montepaschi came into the game having looked strong in Euroleague competition this season thus far; with […]
SportingBet lines and odds for Euroleague week eight matchups
Another Thursday, another round of Euroleague lines for your perusal. First thought? “Whoa, Partizan is favored by just three at Orleans?” Second thought: “And that’s the closest game on the slate, as the ‘book sees it?” Whoa. Pointspreads and over/under lines for tonight’s games, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor Sporting Bet, run below […]
Betting on basketball: Pointspreads and odds for Euroleague week 3, part 2
Whoa, there’s a nice slate of games scheduled in the big league tonight, including a true piece de resistance in the Real Madrid-Panthinaikos matchup, the first true clash of Euroleague basketball titans in the 2009-10 season thus far. The pointspreads and over/under lines for the half-dozen matches tipping off tonight, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in […]