Jonas Maciulis 28
A tale of two coaches
Aleksandar Djordjevic and Jonas Kazlauskas had a battle of wits on Friday. It was the Lithuanian supremo who prevailed and is going to the final. Emmet Ryan tells their story This place wasn’t full but it sure was loud. All day the talk was that this was Serbia’s to lose. The only people giving Lithuania […]
VIDEO: Jonas Maciulis reacts to Lithuania’s OT win over Italy
Jonas Maciulis spoke at length follow Lithuania’s overtime win over Italy to progress to the semi finals of EuroBasket 2015. Watch the full interview below. BallinEurope is in the running for two awards at Blog Awards Ireland. Go here to vote for BiE
A rainy day in Lille
Rather than report on every game individually, Emmet Ryan has treated the second day of Last 16 play as one continuous piece. That and it rained 12.00 – My bed, Ronchin I realised something was up. My alarm hadn’t gone off. Turns out it doesn’t work if you turn the phone off. Not to worry, […]
Real Madrid end 20 year famine to win Euroleague title
Real Madrid survived a third quarter charge by Olympiacos and shut down Vassilis Spanoulis to end a 20 year wait and win the Euroleague title for 2014/15. Emmet Ryan reports from the Barclaycard Centre. Whatever amount of Real and Olympiacos fans were in the house on Friday, their numbers had clearly surged for this one. […]
Twas the night before the Final Four
The heat is hot and the air is dry but the action is about to finally kick off at the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid. Emmet Ryan was at the Barclaycard Centre to talk to the players who will take the floor on Friday. Thursday was a mild improvement from Wednesday, with temperatures hitting just […]
Is Jonas Valanciunas the problem for Team Lithuania?
And here’s a second question: Shall composition of the requiem for Lietuva’s 2012 Olympic bid begin now? Sadly, it doesn’t look good for our heroes with Team USA on the slate tomorrow and a first-round date with presumably Spain or (BiE’s pick) Russia in the knockout stage – and this in the 20th anniversary year […]
Plan Y for Team Lithuania (plus Official Fearless Predictions™)
BallinEurope’s Lithuanian agent Skyped BiE today with two words on his mind: “Lithuania’s doom.” “Today?” BiE countered. “No, it already happened two days ago,” said Y. and he was off with a prescient, simple formula for success after the 23-point blowout at the hands of Argentina.
Upset in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament today: What are the chances?
Right, so BallinEurope has already publicly logged Official Fearless Predictions™ for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament knockout stage in bracket format. Europe’s four representatives – group winners all – take on some decent African and North American competition, but nevertheless the bookies like an all-Europe final four in Venezuela. Indeed, there’s a high probability that […]
2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview: Lithuania
The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men tips off in Venezuela today at 11am local time (11.30am EST, 5.30pm CET) with the Russia-South Korea match. Of the 12 national teams competing, four are European. The last of BallinEurope’s previews of these qualifiers features an assessment of Lithuania. Roster: Tomas Delininkaitis, Paulius Jankūnas, Mantas […]
Lithuania “struggles” in 77-68 loss to Russia: Kaun nets 21; Valanciunas gets 12, eight boards
For lack of YouTube clips and FIBA posts, BallinEurope directs you to Lithuania Basketball for a brief writeup on the Russia-Lietuva friendly in Houston last night. The general gist: Despite taking a 37-35 lead into halftime, Team Lithuania struggled enough in the third quarter to take a 77-68 loss. In fact, “struggle” appears to be […]
Kemzura releases extended Team Lithuania roster: No to Lavrinovic brothers, yes to Kleiza
National head coach Kestutis Kemzura has released his list of 18 candidates who could be suiting up for Team Lithuania in the 2012 Olympic qualifiers and beyond. On paper at least, the selection looks pretty good – particularly compared to the Eurobasket 2011 version of the team which included a single true no. 3 after […]
On the demise of Lithuanian Basketball
BallinEurope is not exactly sure what led our man in Lithuania, the enigmatic Y., to contemplate the fortunes of his country’s national team … but who are we to question a Lietuva hometowner when it comes to basketball? Y. goes back eight years to figure out where things went so terribly wrong and unfortunately finds […]