Team Montenegro 26
2012: The year in Euro-centric basketball highlight clips
What say we close out 2012 with a whole bunch of highlight clips? BiE knew you’d be willing. Tomorrow, a list of the most popular BallinEurope stories of the calendar year will be running, but today comes an attempt to encapsulate the past 365 days in European hoops, YouTube style. From Ibaka’s blocks to the […]
On Hezonja, Todorovic plus a couple of Swedes: FC Barcelona’s future as bright as the present?
As though FC Barcelona’s red-hot play – they’re now at 14-4 overall after an 0-2 start in Spain – weren’t enough to keep European basketball devotees watching, here are two more reasons for you: Mario Hezonja and Marko Todorović. At just 17 years old and despite missing the entire 2011-12 regular season, Hezonja finally got […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: 2012-13 Opening Day Edition
All right, it’s that time again! With hours to go before the 2012-13 Euroleague season tips off, BallinEurope breaks out its first power ratings for the big league. Whereas normally a disclaimer to the effect of “the following ratings are based on current trending only and are not necessarily based on the overall quality of […]
EuroBasket 2013 draw seedings: Some thoughts
Exactly what the title says then – BallinEurope takes a look at the seedings for the EuroBasket 2013 draw and riffs a bit. As we know, the six groups from which the final divisions will be comprised look as follows. No. 1 seeds: Spain, France, Russia, FYR Macedonia No. 2 seeds: Lithuania, Greece, Slovenia, Great […]
BallinEurope’s All-FIBA EuroBasket 2013 Qualifying Round Team
Last night’s recap of the action in FIBA EuroBasket 2013 qualifying round, in brief: Serbia and Turkey took care of business, the miracle campaign of dark horse Azerbaijan ended sadly, and the 24 teams that will comprise The Continent’s big tournament are now known. BallinEurope has a podcast with Germany-based heinnews on more general matters […]
Eurobasket 2013 qualification round bullets: Picture taking shape
Everything is coming to a head as we’re finally getting a picture of Europe’s big basketball tournament. With eight teams still in the running for five spots, four of today’s FIBA EuroBasket 2013 qualifiers are potentially crucial to making up the final bracket in Slovenia: Germany at Sweden, Serbia at Estonia, Turkey at Portugal and […]
Montenegro 72, Serbia 62: Déjà vu from Guess Who in fourth quarter
“It. Uh … it … it happened again.” “It? It? It? No! No, Billy! What the f*** is it, it, it? There is no it! It is you! You happened again!” – dialogue from White Men Can’t Jump Until the 2013 Euroleague Final Four then, for which CSKA Moscow is already Fearlessly Predicted™ to appear, […]
Good Milos vs. Bad Milos: Is Teodosic the problem for Team Serbia?
The increasingly good Bball Headlines reported on a little high-profile commentary from the peanut gallery recently, quoting former Team Serbia head coach Zoran Slavnic in singling out Milos Teodosic as central to the current team’s woes in EuroBasket 2013 qualifiers. “Some of the players that I called up to the national team for the first […]
Montenegro 73, Serbia 71: A star is born as Ivanovic hits buzzer-beater three
How do you quiet one of those notoriously airplane-loud crowds in Belgrade? Eighteen-year-old Nikola Ivanovic, showing poise beyond his years, had the answer to that riddle on Saturday in Team Montenegro’s Eurobasket 2013 qualifying round game against Serbia. To cap the stunning upset victory, Ivanovic calmly launched a near-halfcourt three, struck gold and instantly utterly […]
How good is Nikola Vucevic? Very.
Not long ago, BallinEurope handed out mid-season grades for NBA players representing The Continent; rookie Nikola Vucevic was awarded a solid 3 out of 5 – a 3.5, really, if only this self-imposing grading system weren’t so harsh. BiE assessed that “subjectively speaking, Vucevic has been particularly impressive for the surprisingly impressive Philadelphia 76ers; if […]
Minnesota Timberwolves play “Where’s Nikola?”
In a season when Nikola Pekovic finally seems to be coming into his own in the NBA (not too shabby that 18.2 ppg/10.7 rbg average through 20 games), the Minnesota Timberwolves PR folks are apparently having some difficulty locating the 6’11” (2.11m) big man – at least that’s what they’d like you to think. Check […]
Jaycee Carroll, Nik Caner-Medley: Proud to be Azerbaijani?
One hot-button topic in the European basketball world got a bit more heated yesterday: Word has it that The Azerbaijan Basketball Federation has opened talks that would install American-born players Jaycee Carroll and Nik Caner-Medley on the men’s national team in preparation for Eurobasket qualifiers. Twitter tremors on the acquisitions – and let’s just call […]