Official Eurobasket 2013 Thread

Post #101 » by **Nuntius** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 3:35 pm

JV4MVP wrote:
Nuntius wrote:Ukraine became the first team to punch a ticket for the second round. This EB is weird

More like lucky that their first games were against Belgium, Israel and Germany lol.. and they almost lost to Belgium

Yeah, but still. France was unable to beat Germany and then Germany couldn't beat Belgium while Ukraine beat all 3 of those.

A 4-1 finish for Ukraine seems extremely possible right now.

Post #102 » by **suckfish** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 3:43 pm

Van Oostrum for GB for some terrible reason has been playing behind 3 other guards who are pretty awful. He finally got some burn yesterday vs France though and proved what he could do.

By far our most dangerous guard offensively.

Beorn · Post #103 » by **Beorn** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 3:54 pm

Spanoulis sprained his ankle yesterday, and he'll sit out vs Turkey tomorrow. It doesn't help that we came into the tournament with 3 Guards and 7 forwards.

BelgianMagic · Post #104 » by **BelgianMagic** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 5:02 pm

JV4MVP wrote:
Nuntius wrote:Ukraine became the first team to punch a ticket for the second round. This EB is weird

More like lucky that their first games were against Belgium, Israel and Germany lol.. and they almost lost to Belgium

They really should've lost that game vs Belgium .. One of the most epic (or dumb) choke jobs I've ever seen from Belgium

Still didn't expect Ukraine to win those other 2 games either. Germany really surprised me in a negative way. Really expected more from them

Heck even Belgium can make the 2nd round if they win this game vs GB .. That was our goal but I'm sure not lotta people outside of Belgium would expect it

mixerball · Post #105 » by **mixerball** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 5:03 pm

Euro77 wrote:
aporel18 wrote:
Euro77 wrote:Yeah Slovenia really took it to the spanish d-bags.
Great game. Props to the slovenian center who lost a tooth and still played great in the 4th.

spanish d-bags? that's funny as hell, kid. Any other great joke?

Not having Pau, Ibaka or Mirotic, let alone veterans like Navarro or Reyes will do that to a team... melting down under home team pressure. Nothing to argue, good win for the Slovenians.

Elimination games will be another animal, though. I think Greece, France and Lithuania are Spain's biggest rivals when it's win or go home. Calderon needs to play off the ball, with Ricky and Rodríguez setting him for open 3s, and Marc needs to rest a bit more. Spain has done nothing to deserve the favorite label, so they'll need to go game by game.

No joke, I despise the way guys like Fernandez play the game. Always acting, complaining and flopping.
And Marc knocked a tooth out of a guy and didn't check once to see if he was okay.

its true that spanish players tend to act and complain a lot, but to be fair, marc apologized to Vidmar after the game ended.

JV4MVP · Post #106 » by **JV4MVP** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 6:53 pm

Macedonia vs. Serbia... huge game. A loss for Macedonia would very likely mean an exit from the tournament.

Btw these games are streamed legally on ESPN3. Depending on your internet/cable provider this link may work: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1081177/

shokase · Post #107 » by **shokase** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 6:56 pm

Ukraine stand up!!!!!!!!!!!! I was there for a month on a vacation and let me tell you why im proud. There are very few courts built, most of them have grass that can reach knee high, some are on gravel and other just have crooked ass rims or a wooden backboard. No one plays ball there or even likes ball. Soccer is way of life.

Post #108 » by **suckfish** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 6:59 pm

Serbia vs FYROM could be a thriller. Hopefully.

GoldenGoose · Post #109 » by **GoldenGoose** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 7:02 pm

First game I'll get to see Nedovic live, though I'm curious to see how Bogdanovich looks.

Beorn · Post #110 » by **Beorn** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 7:29 pm

FIBA Europe's decision to increase the number of the teams from 16 to 24 is horrible, from basketball perspective. Too many mediocre-to- bad teams in the tournament, and as a result we are dozing in half of the games of this round. Fortunately, there were some surprises and close matches to negate it

JV4MVP · Post #111 » by **JV4MVP** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 7:54 pm

Beorn wrote:FIBA Europe's decision to increase the number of the teams from 16 to 24 is horrible, from basketball perspective. Too many mediocre-to- bad teams in the tournament, and as a result we are dozing in half of the games of this round. Fortunately, there were some surprises and close matches to negate it

I strongly disagree. The tournament has been very competitive. Besides Spain vs. Croatia and Greece vs. Sweden there have been no other blowouts. I'm actually surprised how well the bottom tier teams have played against the usual countries.

The games I've watched have always been intense... not sure which teams you think are dozing.

Euro77 · Post #112 » by **Euro77** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 7:56 pm

BelgianMagic wrote:Still didn't expect Ukraine to win those other 2 games either. Germany really surprised me in a negative way. Really expected more from them

Well that's us, historically. To be fair there weren't really any expectations for this team and they didn't look completely lost out there. It's just inexperience and lack of games together.
Those result in unforced turnovers etc. The two losses could have easily prevented if they took better care of the ball and made their goddamn freethrows. I couldn't watch the game vs Ukraine because my stream went to sh*t, but from what I've heard they started out great, went totally cold (again) and then kept it close at the end.
If we can keep this roster together with some minor adjustments (Tadda's just worthless) it should be fine.

Rasho Brezec · Post #113 » by **Rasho Brezec** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 8:10 pm

Beorn wrote:FIBA Europe's decision to increase the number of the teams from 16 to 24 is horrible, from basketball perspective. Too many mediocre-to- bad teams in the tournament, and as a result we are dozing in half of the games of this round. Fortunately, there were some surprises and close matches to negate it

From basketball perspective, this is one of the few good decisions FIBA Europe has made. It increases popularity in countries that would otherwise be condemned to losing in qualifications and no one cares about those games.

If you really want to criticize FIBA Europe, you should complain about their stubborness over not wanting to increase the roster limit to 14 from 12. Everyone actually involved with basketball is calling for it except the suits who know nothing about it.

JV4MVP · Post #114 » by **JV4MVP** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 8:19 pm

Macedonia is beasting on Serbia... up as much as 25 in the 3rd. If they win with a large deficit then Group B's standings will be a mess. +/- will be huge

GoldenGoose · Post #115 » by **GoldenGoose** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 8:31 pm

Yep they're laying down an absolute smackdown.

NamelessHero · Post #116 » by **NamelessHero** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 8:35 pm

MagnusPinus wrote:Italy is doing great, so proud of my guys.. without Gallinari, Bargnani, Hackett, Mancinelli... arguably 4 of the most important players.. a team very very small, and less physical than the opposite teams is really playing well.. Guys are producing offensively and putting energy.. Guy to watch is Gentile.. showing his amazing talent. He has to work on his shot, body and defense for the Nba, btu he has so much talent and mentality he will get there.

was there in the past a great italian player named Gentile as well...or it was a soccer player?

Post #117 » by **Nuntius** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 9:29 pm

Beorn wrote:FIBA Europe's decision to increase the number of the teams from 16 to 24 is horrible, from basketball perspective. Too many mediocre-to- bad teams in the tournament, and as a result we are dozing in half of the games of this round. Fortunately, there were some surprises and close matches to negate it

It's an awesome decision, actually. Did you see how much Belgium improved in these last two years? This decision is going to help the basketball culture of many European countries to grow and thus produce better basketball players in the future.

Toxicity · Post #118 » by **Toxicity** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 9:30 pm

NamelessHero wrote:
MagnusPinus wrote:Italy is doing great, so proud of my guys.. without Gallinari, Bargnani, Hackett, Mancinelli... arguably 4 of the most important players.. a team very very small, and less physical than the opposite teams is really playing well.. Guys are producing offensively and putting energy.. Guy to watch is Gentile.. showing his amazing talent. He has to work on his shot, body and defense for the Nba, btu he has so much talent and mentality he will get there.

was there in the past a great italian player named Gentile as well...or it was a soccer player?

Yeah... his father, the great Nando Gentile!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinando_Gentile

Post #119 » by **Nuntius** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 9:33 pm

NamelessHero wrote:
MagnusPinus wrote:Italy is doing great, so proud of my guys.. without Gallinari, Bargnani, Hackett, Mancinelli... arguably 4 of the most important players.. a team very very small, and less physical than the opposite teams is really playing well.. Guys are producing offensively and putting energy.. Guy to watch is Gentile.. showing his amazing talent. He has to work on his shot, body and defense for the Nba, btu he has so much talent and mentality he will get there.

was there in the past a great italian player named Gentile as well...or it was a soccer player?

This guy -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinando_Gentile

Alessandro is his son.

IFeelsYaBrah · Post #120 » by **IFeelsYaBrah** » Fri Sep 6, 2013 11:08 pm

Macedonia basically raped their geographical neighbor - Serbia.

Bo McCaleb was beasting with 27 points, while Atlanta Hawk Pero Antich had 16 points and 14 rebounds.