FIBA 348
Team Spain beats Slovenia behind fearsome foursome, announces final roster
The Spanish Basketball Federation is reporting that coach Sergio Scariolo has finalized his 12-man roster, and that Carlos Suarez has been passed over for Caja Laboral’s Fernando San Emeterio. Scariolo informed his team of the decision after yesterday’s 79-72 win over Team Slovenia in Ljubljana; he was quoted on the Spanish Basketball Federation’s official website […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 3.1
While nearly everybody (perhaps too many, in BiE’s opinion) await the final shape of Team USA’s roster going into the 2010 FIBA World Championship, a bunch of other teams spent the weekend making statements. Said statements could take the shape of confirmation of awesomeness (Spain), reminders of “hey, we still exist” (Brazil), and red-alert level […]
Lamar Odom: Spain is the team to beat at FIBA Worlds
Is there such a thing as anti-billboard material? Typically before a tournament as big as the 2010 FIBA World Championship, you’d expect a little posturing a la the “We’re the team to beat” variety. This is absolutely not the case with prospective Team USA player Lamar Odom. Over at Spanish-language Sport.es, a piece suggestively entitled […]
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. […]
Love Cyprus Tournament: Greece tramples Russia, Croatia survives Germany
From the four-team Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament, Team Greece has sent a loud and clear message to the international hoops world: Fear us. Team Hellas utterly torched a seemingly competitive Russia in a 101-63 laugher last night as one heck of an announcement to the 2010 FIBA World Championship field. Greek national sport media praised […]
Spain, Turkey post big wins in FIBA World Championship warmup games
Team Spain showed why it’s such a threat to take the 2010 FIBA World Championships yesterday by dispatching Lithuania with ease, 97-76. Lithuania enjoyed its biggest lead of the game at 8-4 in the third minute of play, but Spain’s subsequent 26-8 run capped by five points from Ricky Rubio put the defending champs up […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 3.0
All right, now everything about the 2010 FIBA World Championship is coming into focus! For example, now we know how good the relatively unknown Lithuanian squad will be – because they beat Slovenia after having to come back and go overtime against the Czech Republic. Um, and Argentina showed they’re awesome by … blowing a […]
Team France's Rodrigue Beaubois injured, out of FIBA World Championship
Team France is rapidly becoming a team of have-nots in advance of the 2010 FIBA World Championships. Just one day after coach Vincent Collet made Joakim Noah’s non-participation with France official, the squad has also been forced to announce that 22-year-old Dallas Maverick Rodrigue Beaubois has suffered a foot injury and will not be playing […]
Turkiye’ye hosgeldiniz, Rolando Blackman!
In advance of the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Team Turkey has announced the addition of a new assistant coach: long-time Dallas Maverick and Italian league titlist Rolando Blackman. Blackman last coached with Team Germany for the 2002 Worlds and was tempted into coming out from behind his desk in the Mavericks front office to do […]
FIBA: Go blow your vuvuzela elsewhere
There was this joke in the 1990s … old Russian guy goes to a café, orders a cup of coffee and a copy of Pravda. “Excuse me, sir,” says the waiter, “but they don’t print that anymore.” “All right then,” says the guy. “Cup of coffee and a copy of Pravda.” “Sir, they don’t print […]
Power rankings (already updated): 2010 FIBA World Championship
See, BiE secretly knew this would happen … you break down, make a few fearless predictions online and bam! The inconvenient fact of a loss – two losses in fact, one particularly egregious – goes down and you suddenly have to rework the whole damn post on 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings. In the […]
Hope for the future: Young Lithuanians crush Russia, 90-61, take U18 European title
Congratulations go out this morning to the Lithuania under-18 team, which capped an undefeated romp through the 2010 FIBA U18 European Championship with a 90-61 crushing of Russia in Vilnius. A crowd of 13,000 – the all-time record for a youth game in Europe – contributed their efforts as 13th man. While not much is […]