Eurocup 2010-11 31
Eurocup Championship, Khimki vs Valencia: The Official BallinEurope (sort of) Fearless Prediction™
BallinEurope this morning sends out congratulations to BCs Valencia and Khimki Moscow region for their advancement into the 2011-12 Eurocup finals . The Spanish representative managed to get up to a 20-point lead before fending off a furious comeback by Lietuvos Rytas to take the 80-70 victory. Khimki meanwhile won the battle of Russian sides, […]
Fenerbahçe Ülker outlasts Galatasaray Café Crown, 91-88, for TBL title
BallinEurope this morning congratulates newly-recrowned 2010-11 TBL champions Fenerbahçe Ülker, who topped Eurocup side Galatasaray Café Crown, 91-88, in game six of the championship series. This marks the fourth championship for Fenerbahçe in the last five years and a defense of their 2009-10 title. Fenerbahçe’s big guns were all firing in the game, with five […]
List of 2010-11 European champions: Nearing the finish edition
While some domestic leagues will seemingly be hosting playoffs right through to next season’s tipoff – BiE’s looking at you, ACB, French LNB, Serie A and Ligat HaAl – the great majority of European basketball associations have named their champion for 2010-11 … or are very close to doing so. Below runs BallinEurope’s updated roundup […]
Donatas Motiejunas declares for draft; BallinEurope revisits prospect
One of last year’s projected top five selections in the NBA Draft has declared instead for the 2011 edition of the world’s biggest hoops talent lottery: Big man Donatas Motiejunas deferred in 2010 because “really felt like he needed another year of international ball before he was ready for the NBA” … so how has […]
Video clips: Unics Kazan wins, Real Madrid loses, and YouTube shows how not to dunk
While much of the basketball-loving world was distracted by the squall of opening-round NBA playoff games, the roundball game nevertheless played on in leagues throughout Europe and beyond. Of course, this lead-in mainly serves as an excuse to justify running the below handful of highlights, links and pithy bon mots to (help you waste some […]
Eurocup Championship: Unics Kazan master plan coming to fruition
Better late than never, as the old expression goes; and in the case of Unics Kazan’s 2010-11 season, continuing to achieve late could prove much better in the medium- and long-term future. Few teams so actively rebuilt and retooled with purpose last offseason as Unics Kazan, bringing aboard Slavko Vranes out of Partizan Belgrade, 2009-10 […]
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 […]
The angst of Primoz Brezec (in 141 characters or less)
You heard it here first … unless you get Primoz Brezec’ tweets, that is. Brezec’ Krasnye Krylia (a.k.a. the Red Wings), have dropped to 2-7 in Russian Superleague play – “good” for ninth place in the 10-team association – after losing to top-of-the-table Spartak St. Petersburg this afternoon, 81-65. The Slovenian big man soon expressed […]
The Top 100 Teams in Europe: Calm before the storm edition
All right, another Thursday means another look at BallinEurope’s Top 100 Teams in Europe chart, the last until the big pan-Continental leagues gear up again with sweet 16 action. (BiE was just waiting for the dust to settle in Athens after the PAO-Olympiacos match, but settling may yet be a few days in the making.) […]
Asvel Basket GM: “Bling-bling” players cost us Eurocup
If it were up to Asvel Basket general manager Pierre Grall, at least two of his players would have found a stockingful of coal this morning for their recent lackluster play. A 2009-10 Euroleague team, Asvel was ignominiously bounced from Eurocup contention this week despite beating KK Hemofarm Stada, 81-80, before over 4,600 fans in […]
“I am comin”: Iverson to Sydney Kings for 2012-13 season?
The Allen Iverson story gets more far-flung … at least on Twitter, great breeding ground for gossip and idle speculation. (BallinEurope loves Twitter.) With fewer than 140 characters, A.I. captured some media time in Australia yesterday with his tweet: “I hear Sydney is a real good city to live in. my boy Rodney O asked […]
Allen who? Iverson sits as Chatman pours in 43, Beşiktaş loses OT barnburner
Though he probably wasn’t aware of the statistical significance of Mire Chatman’s performance for his Beşiktaş Cola Turka Eagles last night, Allen Iverson surely knew he was watching one heckuva one-man show – and perhaps the best Eurocup game of the 2010-11 season thus far. One of the finest TBL players in 2009-10, Chatman went […]