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2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview: Team Russia
With the lengthily-named 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men tipping off in Venezuela on Monday, BallinEurope takes some time this week to catch up on the four European squads in the running for a trip to London and reckon on a brief assessment of each’s chances in the competition. First up is Russia, […]
British Basketball announces 21-man national team roster, dubbed “strongest Team Britain ever”
Head coach Chris Finch and the British Basketball Federation today released a preliminary roster of 21 players to compete for spots on the host team’s 2012 Olympic team. Given the fairly short modern history of FIBA-level basketball on the ‘Isles, the claim from the federation that this is the “strongest-ever preliminary GB men’s squad” isn’t […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: Final preseason edition
The 2010-11 Euroleague season tips off tomorrow? Right, then. Presenting the last preseason – and thus last totally subjective, because we’ll be able to base these things on, you know, wins and losses beginning next week – BallinEurope Official Euroleague Power Rankings™. (Plus lots of video clips.) Enjoy! 1. (↔) FC Barcelona – Yeah, as […]
FIBA’s Baumann frets about British basketball post-2012; Spice reassures
UK-based Sporting Life recently posted an couple of articles regarding the odd state of the national program and which insinuate FIBA’s greater concern with basketball in the country. On Monday, the ‘paper presented a long interview with FIBA secretary-general/International Olympic Committee inspector Patrick Baumann. Among other issues, Baumann spoke at length about what he and […]
Everything you've always wanted to know about Barcelona vs. Unicaja (in English)
On Saturday, perhaps the marquee matchup on the ACB slate – if for historical significance only – will be the FC Barcelona vs. Unicaja match. The league’s official website has quite the extensive collection of facts ‘n’ figures about this match and the 15-year record of meetings between these two clubs, of which BallinEurope attempted […]
Fantasy tips from the Euroleague boss: Final 16, week four
Hello again and welcome back! This is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net ready to discuss week four of the Top 16 in the SportingBet Euroleague Fantasy Challenge. The game is coming to an end: Just three weeks remain to find out who will be our special guest at the 2010 Final Four in Paris. There is […]
Fantasy tips from the Euroleague Boss: Final 16, week three
Hello, everybody, and greetings from Euroleague headquarters! This is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net, ready to give you all some thoughts about our very own Sporting Bet Euroleague Fantasy Challenge – with just four rounds to go in the competition. First and foremost, what an exciting Top 16 this is! If anyone had thought that CSKA […]
The Spanish league explained: Part one
The quality of a national league here in Europe is not given by the value of top teams – every league has a number of top teams – but is more appropriately determined by how good the medium-to-low range clubs are. Spain’s are good like no others are: This is why ACB is today the […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Never Gonna Give You Up edition
Found in Ball in Europe’s meanderings online this week: A buncha stuff on Eurobasket, the Allen Iverson-in-Memphis deal, and what Ron Artest was doing on September 11th this year. Happy Surfing Sunday! As Eurobasket progresses, the Euroleague page on Facebook has naturally had capsule blurbs on the action posted this week, and a certain team’s […]
Great Britain coach Finch: “We're going to win it”
Today’s news: Everyone’s favorite ragtag bunch in the upcoming EuroBasket 2009 tournament, Team Britain, maintains their “pip pip tally ho” attitude heading into what is certain to be one hell of a barrage. The official website for EuroBasket 2009 is running a story about Britannia head coach Chris Finch’s continued positive attitude, despite the loss […]
Vanderbeken chooses Great Britain over Canada
Team Britain may not be playing EuroBasket 2009 with Luol Deng and Ben Gordon, but at least they’ve got … Jamie Vanderbeken. Vanderbeken’s decision was actually something of a lifetime commitment: The 23-year-old was feeling a bit pressed to choose between his father’s home country of Canada and Britain, due to his Scottish’s mother’s citizenship. […]
Unicaja’s center combo named to Team Great Britain for Eurobasket 2009
Unicaja fans will find something more than a little familiar with Team Great Britain’s big guys in Eurobasket 2009, as both Robert Archibald and the just-acquired Joel Freeland were officially named to the national squad this week. The announcement follows in the wake of Luol Deng’s announcement that he would be taking August off to […]