Igor Rakocevic 31
Eurocup Last 16: Ratiopharm ulm must stop Rakocevic to top Red Star
A rough week doesn’t get any easier for Ratiopharm Ulm in its inaugural Eurocup Last 16 game tonight, with the Bundesliga side playing host to Red Star Belgrade after losing an 80-78 heartbreaker to FC Bayern Munchen on the weekend. Sport Eagle TV got a few minutes with Ulm head coach Thorsten Liebenath and player […]
How far can Red Star Belgrade go this season?
BallinEurope’s man in Serbia, Marko Savanovic, brings us another preview of an Adriatic League power: Today, Marko takes a look at Crvena Zvezda (a.k.a. Red Star Belgrade) to assess the team’s chances in 2012-13 after a sloppy 0-2 start and the quick sacking of coach Milivoje Lazic, plus offers an Official BallinEurope Fearless Prediction™… “If […]
The BallinEurope All-American Euroleague team (also all-Russian, -Greek and -former Yugoslavian teams)
Now here’s an argument starter for you … with much debate perpetually going on among European basketball fans vis-à-vis the influence of American and/or NBA players on the Euroleague, BiE decided to take a look back at the 2011-12 season in hopes of drawing some comparison on an individual, player-by-player level. Below, then, runs four […]
The Italian Maccabi: Why Montepaschi Siena must win the Euroleague
With the Euroleague quarterfinals tournament beginning later this month, many are penciling in either CSKA Moscow or FC Barcelona as 2011-12 title holders. (Indeed, the odds at a representative sportsbook have the former at 4/5 and the latter at 5/2.) Meanwhile, relative dark horse Montepaschi Siena (running, with shortest odds, at 11/1) may be under […]
Euroleague Top 16, Week Two, Night One: Six games, 100 facts
Courtesy the Euroleague folks, BallinEurope brings a compendium of facts and figures spanning history and record books regarding tomorrow night’s slate of a half-dozen games – plus lines on the games and highlight clips. Enjoy! CSKA Moscow vs. Anadolu Efes Istanbul • CSKA leads the all-time series between the teams, 8-7. • Nenad Krstic has […]
Coppa Italia preview: Can anyone stop Montepaschi Siena?
February will see Turin playing host to the Coppa Italia, a grueling four-day tournament featuring Italy’s top eight teams. With the matchups now determined, BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Enrico Cellini, provides a brief preview of the competition. The first half of Serie A season is over and the table is set for a little appetizer […]
Euroleague Top 16 Draw: Final results, early reactions
Get ready for phase two of the 2011-12 Euroleague season, as today league officials will be determining the groupings for the Top 16 round. BallinEurope will be watching the live stream over at Euroleague.tv, though quite a few nations — Spain, Greece, and Israel among them — have local sports stations shows the draw as […]
Not exactly “no basketball anymore”: Notes on 34 pan-European games
“No basketball anymore”? Are you serious? The next two days will see some 34 games played out in the top three European basketball competitions: Euroleague, EuroCup and FIBA Eurochallenge. Below, BallinEurope presents some links, highlight clips and like on some of the competing teams starring Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, D.J. Strawberry and that Williams guy, […]
NBA Nuclear Winter settling in; Twitter bursts with news of player exodus
You know who benefits from the NBA player lockout? Twitter, that’s who. The website has become an endless source of interest as each event/non-event transpires in the NBA lockout soap opera. Minute to minute, commentators, players, pundits and rumormongers pithily weigh in and/or report on the immediate future of professional basketball in America… …and Europe! […]
Allen Who? Beşiktaş Cola Turka shocks Efes Pilsen in Turkish Cup
Just two games are in the books in the 2011 Türkiye Kupasi, but certainly the shocker of the tourney has already been played: Last night in Kayseri, the scoreboard read “Beşiktaş Cola Turka 57, Efes Pilsen Istanbul 55. In what was not exactly a shooting clinic – Beşiktaş (10-7 in TBL play in 2010-11) collectively […]
Iverson, Besiktas blue-chippers not enough against Efes Pilsen, 85-83 (OT)
Say what you want about the European extension of Allen Iverson’s basketball career, the man can still play. Unfortunately, an utter lack of depth ultimately killed Beşiktaş Cola Turka and Ergin Ataman’s coaching debut with the Turkish club against Euroleague side Efes Pilsen Istanbul last night, 85-83 in overtime. Iverson played a sliver under 40 […]
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 […]