Team France 160
France over Spain, damn right! (or, Eurobasket 2009 fearless predictions for day 11)
With all due respect to Turkey and Slovenia, two teams which have often gotten the short of the stick in the BiE fearless prediction series in Eurobasket 2009, what fun is making picks if you don’t mix in some upsets? And taking France to win the tournament right now is quite the stretch, for two […]
Hack-an-Asik and other fearless predictions for Eurobasket 2009, day 10
How do you explain “they should swallow their whistles” to someone who knows nothing about sports? (And I mean really nothing; we’re talking live-six-years-in-Chicago-during-the-Jordan-Era-and-still-not-know-the-difference-between-Bulls-and-Bears nothing.) That was my situation during large portions of the second and third quarters of the France-Greece game last night as to the wife’s chagrin I yelled at the TV. While […]
Normalcy returns to Eurobasket 2009 (?); plus not-so-fearless predictions
All right, so normalcy has apparently returned to normal in Eurobasket 2009, with favorites going three-for-three and BallinEurope’s ratio of correct-to-incorrect fearless predictions brought down to a more realistic level. As It Should Be Then: Turkey rolled on but got a good overtime fight from Serbia (they’ll both be in final eight), while Poland’s dream […]
Fearless predictions for Eurobasket 2009 day seven
After the dust settled from a scintillating trio of Eurobasket 2009 games played yesterday, two questions remained: 1) Should we now pencil Turkey in for the finals or merely the final four? And 2) which is the bigger train wreck right now, Spain or Lithuania? Today’s slate of games looks to be a fairly predictable […]
Fearless predictions for Eurobasket 2009 day five
Children’s flus and other duties prevent a longer entry today, but it wouldn’t be Eurobasket 2009 without BallinEurope’s fearless predictions. Tonight’s slate of games includes: Russia v. Croatia. Team Russia has done an admirable job with limited resources, while any mojo Croatia may have worked up in summer friendlies has disappeared in two consecutive fairly […]
Betting on Eurobasket 2009 outright winner
With just hours to go before the 4.30pm CET tipoff of Eurobasket 2009, time is running out for those willing to “make things interesting” with the ponying-up of a few Euros on the results.
Eurobasket 2009 preview capsules, part one
While counting down the days ’til Eurobasket 2009 tips off, BallinEurope.com will take a brief look at the field of 16 teams in brief. Enough said — onto today’s capsules! Bulgaria Group: D In brief: The word is “plucky.” With Team Bulgaria’s one bonafide superstar, Ibrahim Jaaber, out, all the pluck in the world won’t […]
Sportsbooks expecting blowout in France-Belgium AQR final
Whoa, can Team Belgium’s chances against France tonight really be as bad as the bookmakers insist? OK, so a Belgium victory tonight in Pau would indeed be considered “the shock of the summer” and perhaps the Belgians’ win over Les Bleus required a “nearly perfect game,” but come on! What does a team need to […]
Odds and lines on Belgium-France Eurobasket AQR game
Tomorrow night, the penultimate match in the Eurobasket 2009 Additional Qualifying Round goes down when France and Belgium tip it off for game one of their two-game playoff in determining Eurobasket team no. 16. Care to bet on it? Check out Ball in Europe sponsor SportingBet.com’s lines and odds for the game below.
Europe's top 12 basketball team names
The worst thing about NBA basketball? That’s easy: The team names! What with the rapid franchise movement and just incomprehensible obsession with the uncountable noun, American professional basketball is simply bogged down with names that are mostly laughingly displaced (e.g. Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies), generic (e.g. Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Hornets, Phoenix […]
Betting on basketball: Lines, odds for tonight's Eurobasket preliminaries
Don’t know about y’all, but this punter is still reeling from Monday’s slate of upsets in the Eurobasket Additional Qualifying Round and Relegation Round games. Seriously, who had Finland over France? Anybody? Who knew Team Ukraine could win on the road, not to mention finally play up to their potential? And after all but penciling […]
Betting on basketball: Tonight’s EuroBasket lines, lessons learned
Four more games in EuroBasket land tip off tonight with two games each in the Additional Qualifying Round and Relegation Round to be played. By now, the punter should have accumulated enough short-term data to bet tonight’s games with a little wisdom and confidence. Hopefully. Below run some sample odds on tonight’s games posted by […]