Pablo Prigioni 20
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.
BallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™: 2012 Olympic Basketball Group A
Okay, with just a few hours before men’s basketball tips off at the 2012 Olympics, BallinEurope’s got just enough time for some Official Fearless Predictions™. If done properly, these things are never as easy as they look. Right, starting with Group A, then, we’ve got: 1. USA (5-0) also 5. Nigeria (1-4) 6. Tunisia (0-5). […]
Bernard Hopkins’ bizarre stat line (sort of) leads Blusens to 82-63 win
Amidst Blusens Monbus’ 82-63 blowout of Mad-Croc Fuenlabrada in Liga Endesa play last night, 39 year-old Bernard “Mister Récord” Hopkins logged one of the season’s more bizarre stat lines. Read his bit of the boxscore: 14 points on 4-of-6 overall shooting and 6-of-7 on FTs; four rebounds; one assist; one steal; five (!) fouls drawn; […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: First of the Season edition
Right, then. With the last teams advancing into the Euroleague two dozen for the regular season and a break in the Kobe-to-Bologna soap opera today, BallinEurope breaks out an old favorite: power rankings! Once again, the BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings are based on current trends, i.e. who’s hot, who’s not. For this edition of the […]
Euroleague Final Four, 2011: Some trivia and factoids on this year’s tourney
As with any major sport tournament these days, the informational factoids flow freely through fandom, giving both typical fans and stat addicts extra stuff to look for in the games ahead … and who is BallinEurope to buck such a habit? Below run a few interesting milestones, achievements and straight-up trivia about the 2011 Euroleague […]
Euroleague Playoffs: Games four highlights
And suddenly, the Spanish influence on the Euroleague has been reduced to just one team in the final four – exactly as many squads as Greece, Israel and Italy’ll have. Caja Laboral in the end just didn’t have enough answers for Maccabi Tel Aviv’s depth and star power, while Panathinaikos displayed the blueprint for taking […]
Basketball highlights of the week: Featuring Prigioni, McIntyre, Llull and some jackasses
On a lazy Sunday before the ACB tips off, what better way to wile away a few minutes than checking out some recent video clips? BallinEurope has a half-dozen short vids encapsulating basketball this week from The Continent and ‘States. Enjoy! • Weirdness and excitement in Spanish basketball? You bet! BiE recalls that this was […]
Euroleague week three talking points, part II
Five Euroleague games are to be played tonight, each bearing a number of scintillating storylines – well, okay, maybe not the nearly history-bereft Cholet-Lietuvos Rytas matchup, but you get the point. For your perusal, then, a few factoids, bites of information and videos in the leadup to tonight’s action. Enjoy the games, and best of […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 4.0
BiE was waiting for a result from last night’s Brazil-Argentina game in Spain before preparing this week’s edition of the official BallinEurope 2010 FIBA World Championship Power Rankings. Now that those numbers are in, the long-awaited list may be unveiled; who’s hot and who’s not? In BiE’s opinion, readings off the lay lines of the […]
In afterglow of Baskonia OT playoff win, high praise for Tiago Splitter
Checked out the Caja Laboral Baskonia-Real Madrid game on Sunday as part of BallinEurope’s personal playoff tripleheader (the ACB semifinal was bumpered by Lakers-Suns NBA Western Conference Championship game six and game two of the Olympiacos-Panathinaikos EΣAKE championship) and thoroughly enjoyed Madrid’s last gasp in the 2009-10 season spirited late comeback to send the game […]
The ACB point guard of the year is … c'mon, like you don't know
Yet another anticlimactic accolade has been bestowed upon Ricky Rubio for the 2009-10 season, as Spain’s ACB League yesterday officially crowned The Human YouTube Clip/defending back-to-back FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year as Point Guard of the Year. It’s the second such nod for Rubio, who also received the award for the 2007-08 season […]
Baskonia brings too much Splitter, Huertas; drops Madrid to 3rd in ACB
A frustrating second half of the season just got a bit worse for Real Madrid as Los Blancos dropped an absolutely critical home game to Caja Laboral Baskonia, to complete a slow descent from an 11-0 start in the ACB and land the team in third place on the ACB table with two games left […]