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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).

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.

 

FIBA U18 Eurobasket Quarterfinals: Russia Advances

Lithuania, Serbia, Latvia and Russia will play in the U18 Eurobasket semifinals in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The first three teams cruised to victory in powerful exhibitions of basketball while Russia needed an overtime to avoid the upset against France.

Russia vs. France

• Russia advanced to an u18 Eurobasket semifinal game for first time ever in beating France (73-68). Les bleus managed the game during the first three periods but they were limited by their own mistakes, committing 26 turnovers.
• Russia came back in the fourth quarter but couldn’t finish the game in regulation. Both teams had a chance to win the game in their last possessions but France’s Rudy Gobert missed two free throws and Russian Gleb Goldirev turned the ball over with just two seconds to go.
• Russia played great defense in overtime, limiting France to just one basket in the first 4 minutes.
• Alexander Varnakov was a huge contributor in the Russian victory with 13 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds and 6 steals. Vladislav Trushkin added 22 points (including 6 triples) and 9 rebounds
• Hugo Invernizzi was the French top scorer with 20 points while Gonzaga recruit Mathis Keita sealed 12 points and 6 assists.

Lithuania vs. Greece

• The host team and favorite for the gold medal, Lithuania, overwhelmed Greece (84-51).
• Powerful and versatile guard Dovydas Redikas paced his team with 19 points. 
• Sensational shooter Deividas Pukis, finishing his prep schooling in the States, added 15.
• Top European prospect Jonas Valanciunas just had two field goals attempts, but was able to reach 10 points and 17 rebounds.  He can dominate a game only taking two shots.
• 6’9 Linos Chrysikopoulos scored 21 points and grabbed 8 rebounds for Greece in the loss. 

Nike Global Challenge

The Nike Global Challenge will take place outside of Portland, Oregon tomorrow through Sunday. The tounament format pits four U18 teams from the United States against four international teams.

The International participation includes national teams from Canada and Brazil, INSEP of France, the winner of the Nike International Junior tournament and an All-Asia All-Star team featuring six players from Taiwan and China.

The United States teams are broken down into four separate teams representing the West, Midwest, South and East. The top U.S. players participating include:

• Bradley Beal: The #2 ranked shooting guard of the 2011 class, the 6'4 Beal has committed to play at Florida. He's a deadly shooter with NBA ramge and averaged over 29 ppg last season.
• Rakeem Christmas: Ranked as the #1 center of the 2011 class by Rivals.com, the 6'9 Christmas led the state of Pennsylvania in blocked shots. He's considering Georgetown, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida.
• James McAdoo: The 6'8 power forward will play at North Carolina and averaged 22 points and 10 rebounds last season.
• Michael Carter-Williams: Williams was the top overall scorer at the Peach Jam earlier this month (27.3 ppg). The 6'5 combo guard will head to Syracuse. He was the MVP at the National Prep School Invitational in Rhode Island this past February.

The international players include:

• Kyle Wiltjer: A 6'9 Portland native who will compete for Canada. Wiltjer is a versatile big-man who three-point range and can score inside as well. He's being recruited by most of the Pac-10 schools as well as Gonzaga, Kansas and Wake Forest.
• Anthony Bennett: The 6'7 Canadian has been playing for Mountain State Academy (WV) and impressed us at the National Prep School Invitational. He has a man's body at 235 pounds and can score inside and out.
• Raul Neto: The 6'1 Brazilian point guard scored 32 points against Canada and Kevin Pangos in the U18 FIBA Americas Championship. He has great potential as a scoring point guard.

NetScouts Basketball will be reporting on the action all weekend. It should be a great tournament.

Carl Berman is a Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball and can be followed on twitter @carlberman.

U16 Eurobasket 2010: Croatia and Lithuania to the Final

Another huge exhibition of talent and versatility from European top prospect Dario Saric led Croatia to the championship game of the U16 Eurobasket, being played in Bar (Montenegro). With a bit less than 3 minutes to go in the game, Saric fouled out while his team had a 13 point lead. Spain then came back and had two consecutive shots to tie the game with 6 seconds to go. Alberto Diaz missed both and Croatia closed the game from the free throw line (86-82).

• It was a great duel between Dario Saric and Josep Perez. The Croatian star sealed 14 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 blocks. The Spaniard scored 26 points, leading his team to a first comeback in the second period to grab the lead  (40-37) at halftime.
• Saric found more help from his teammates and Croatia was more accurate from the arc as well. Mislav Brzoja and Martin Junakovic helped Saric party with 17 and 15 points respectively.

In the second semifinal, Lithuania beat Turkey (80-65) and clinched its third U16 Eurobasket title game in a row. The Lithuanians won the gold medal in 2008 and lost against Spain in last summer’s final as the host team in Kaunas. In this game, the Baltic team was better from the start  and took an early 12 point lead in the second quarter. Turkey tried to recover in the third led by Kenan Sipahi but was only able to cut the gap to 10 points several times. On both occasions, Marius Grigonis (pictured on the left) and Augustinas Jankaitis, Lithuania’s leaders, stopped their rival.

• Augustinas Jankaitis scored 17 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the winners. Marius Grigonis added 12 points and 8 rebounds.
• For Turkey, 15 year old guard Kenan Sipahi shined with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

Croatia and Lithuania will play tomorrow for the gold medal. The game will start at 9pm CET and could be watched live on FIBAtv.

Carl Berman, Managing Partner and Alejandro Gonzalez, International Scout/Correspondent of NetScouts Basketball contributed to this report. Thanks to FIBA Europe for the picture.