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European Basketball Signings This Week
There were several big name signees throughout Europe from various NCAA, NBA, and Euroleague teams this week...
SPAIN
Barcelona resigned Pete Mickeal (Cincy). Mickeal was a key contributor to the FCB success this past season.
CB Granada signed Russian forward Yaroslav Korolev who was a 1st Round Draft Pick (LAC) and recently played in the NBA Summer League Las Vegas.
Real Madrid signed center D'Or Fischer, last at Maccabi Tel Aviv. This is a good pick up for RM.
Basquet Menorca signed 2-time MVP of LEB Gold, Joakim Donaldson.
Valladolid signed Jason Robinson, last with Melilla Baloncesto (LEB Gold)..jpg)
Caja Laboral signed Marcus Haislip. Hoping to ease the loss of All-EL performer Tiago Splitter who went to the San Antonio Spurs (NBA).
Gran Canaria 2014 signed Spencer Nelson, last at Peristeri.
Gran Canaria also signed Taurean Green (Florida) to a two-year contract.
Menorca Basquet signed Rafa Huertas, who last played at CB Melilla.
Murcia signed Taj Gray, last at Chalon in France. A good sign for the LEB Gold team.
GERMANY
The Artland Dragons signed Boston College PG Tyrese Rice, a lefty scoring guard who last played for Panionios. A good acquisition for the new coach.
The Dragons also signed Bryan Bailey who played last season for EWE Baskets Oldenburg.
Telekom Baskets Bonn signed Arizona’s Nick Wise.
ISRAEL
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv signed Alabama’s Mikhail Torrance who played very well in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.
Nymburk signed Chester "Tre" Simmons, who had a nice season last year at Hapoel Jerusalem in Israel.
Galil Gilboa signed Tyler Wilkerson (Marshall)
Maccabi Rishon signed Denis Clemente (Kansas State/Puerto Rico).
Another note from Israeli basketball: The Tokyo Apache (Japan) signed former San Diego high school player Jeremy Tyler, who left school early and played a portion of the season with Maccabi Haifa in Israel. He left the team late in the year after not playing very much.
ITALY
Siena signed point guard Bo McCalebb to a three year deal who is coming off a great season.
Verona (site of Romeo and Juliet's balcony) signed shooter/"point guard" A.J. Abrams from Texas.
Scavolini Pesaro has signed Morris Almond, last at Real Madrid...the experiment apparently didn't work out.
Montepaschi Siena signed Rimas Kaukenas, last at Real Madrid.
Montepaschi Siena signed former Oregon Duck and San Antonio Spurs SG Malik Hairston to a two year deal...he joins Maarty Leunen & Luke Jackson as Ducks in Italy.
Scavolini Pesaro signed USC’s Daniel Hackett.
Sutor Montegranaro signed Bobby Jones (UW).
TURKEY
Bornova re-signed Tennessee’s Tyler Smith.
Aliaga Petkim signed Cal’s Jerome Randle who was MVP of the PIT in Portsmouth but curiously played for the Washington Wizards (John Wall) in the NBA Summer League Las Vegas.
Aliaga Petkim signed Houston’s Aubrey Coleman.
Efes Pilsen signed Lawrence Roberts to a one-year contract. Roberts is coming off a nice year with Partizan.
Chris Denker is Managing Partner of NetScouts and can be followed on Twitter @chrisdenker.
Top 30 Players at the Las Vegas Fab 48
Fab 48 All-Tournament Team
We enjoyed our time at the Las Vegas Fab 48. The media at the tournament elected a All-Tournament Team of 30 players. Here they are in alphabetical order.
MVP: Jabari Brown, Drew Gooden Soldiers
- Kory Alford, Danny Granger Hurricanes
- Kyle Anderson, Playaz
- Ryan Anderson, California Supreme
- Brandon Ashley, Drew Gooden Soldiers 17s
- Wayne Blackshear, Mac Irvin Fire
- Jabari Brown, Drew Gooden Soldiers 17s
- DeAndre Daniels, Belmont Shore
- Nick Emery, Salt Lake Metro Black
- Christian Frankling, LA Rockfish
- Amir Garrett, Belmont Shore
- Ricardo Gathers New Orleans D-I/Elite Ambassadors
- Sterling Gibbs, New York Panthers
- Savon Goodman, Team Philly
- Cezar Guerrero, Belmont Shore
- Maurice Harkless, New York Panthers
- Amile Jefferson, Team Philly
- Grant Jerrett, Belmont Shore
- Nick Johnson, Drew Gooden Soldiers 17s
- Myck Kabongo, Grassroots Elite Canada
- Brandon Kearny, Team Detroit
- Chance Murray, LA Rockfish
- LeBryan Nash, Dallas Mustangs
- DeMarcus Nelson, Team Odom
- Josh Oglesby, Iowa Barnstormers
- Walter Pitchford, Team Detroit
- Norman Powell, San Diego All-Stars Gold
- Josiah Turner, Drew Gooden Soldiers 17s
- Seth Tuttle, Iowa Barnstormers
- Byron Wesley, California Supreme
- Tony Wroten, Seattle Rotary Select
Carl Berman is a Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball and can be followed on twitter @carlberman.
A Basketball Filled Week in Las Vegas
NetScouts Basketball enjoyed a basketball-filled five days in Las Vegas attending the top youth tournaments along with coaches from just about every Division 1 school. We attended the adidas Super 64, the Fab 48 and the Juco Showcase.
Our first recap is of the Las Vegas Fab 48. This was an inaugural event which had strong attendance from coaches. The Drew Gooden Soldiers were crowned the winners in the presence of King LeBron James at Bishop Gorman High School on Sunday night. James stayed for most of the Soldiers' 86-66 victory over the Iowa Barnstormers to win the Invitational Division in front of 1,500 spectators.
"It was a very good event," said Drew Gooden Soldiers coach Mark Olivier. "There were some very good teams and it was a diverse field." Jabari Brown had 19 points four assists for the Soldiers, who won the Drew Gooden Extra and finished in the top eight of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in the spring. Brown was named the tournament MVP following the conclusion of the game. Nick Johnson and Kyle Wiltjer added 16 points each for Oakland while Seth Tuttle led Iowa with 16 points.
Led by Nick Emery's19 points, Salt Lake Metro Black won the 17 Open championship by defeating Southwest Elite Black, 68-48. Savoy Goodman had 24 points and Brandon Taylor added 20 as the Team Philly 16s beat the Oakland Soldiers 16s, 81-47, to win the 16-under Division championship.
More than 175 teams from over 20 states and Canada participated in the four-day event that ended on Sunday. Deron Williams, Drew Gooden and Kyle Lowry were a few of the NBA players who showed up to support the traveling teams that they sponsor.
We’ll list the Top 30 players at the event in a future post. Next year's tournament will be held July 22-25, 2011 at Bishop Gorman and other nearby locations.
Carl Berman is a Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball and can be followed on twitter @carlberman.
USA Wins FIBA U17 World Basketball Championship for Women
United States complete U17 sweep.
The boys did it a couple of weeks ago in Hamburg. The girls beat France today in Toulouse to grab the gold medal and become u17 World Champions. With that, the United States confirmed its authority at this level.
Team USA has been way better than its opponent during the tournament and the championship game (92-62) was not an exception. The Americans started strong (28-16) before the one and only French attempt to compete for real in this game. The host team grabbed the momentum in the beginning of the second period and took the lead (30-31) with a 2-15 run led by Alice Nayo and Sara Chevaugeon.
But that was it. 
The USA reaction came quickly. An Ariel Massengale three pointer and Elizabeth Williams inside job was the first blow. The Massengale "and 1" lay up at the buzzer to close the first half represented sort of an early knockout (50-38).
United States dominated second half playing solid defense and converting transition opportunities on offense to pull away. The French, whose World Silver is a great improvement over their Eurobasket 09 Bronze were great hosts.
A talented trio paced Team USA again.
- Ariel Massengale scored 20 points and dished 6 assists.
- Elizabeth Williams and Kaleena Lewis added 15 each.
- Sara Chevaugeon was French top scorer with 11 points.
China won the bronze medal after beating Eurobasket 09 runner-up Belgium in the third place game. The 15 year old Chinese sensational shooter Meng Li was named MVP of the tournament. Li, playing against older players, averaged 15.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and shot 43% from the arch.
Final standings:
1. United States
2. France
3. China
4. Belgium
5. Japan
6. Russia
7. Australia
8. Spain
9. Argentina
10. Turkey
11. Canada
12. Mali
NetScouts Basketball will keep travelling around Europe in order to cover all the young (U20) basketball action. Next stop will be u18 Eurobasket for men as final round of the tournament will be played next weekend in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Chris Denker, Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball, and Alejandro Gonzalez each contributed to this post and can be followed on Twitter @chrisdenker and @netscouts. Special Thanks to FIBA for the photo.