Author: Manuel Schust

Champion vs. Cup Winner and The 8 Free Throws Story

When the reigning champion meets the reigning cup winner it is always a special game.

Last week EWE Baskets Oldenburg were facing Alba Berlin in a game that many experts expect to be a possible finals constellation in June.

While Oldenburg could only win one game in this year’s Euroleague competition Alba Berlin is doing a great job in the EuroCup. Luka Pavicevic’s team had to play in Le Mans during the week, but that did not prevent Berlin from a very good start into the game. After just six minutes in the first quarter Alba Berlin managed to establish an impressive 2:16 lead. This was a result of Alba playing their typical pick and roll offense combined with some tough defense. At this early stage of the game Oldenburg looked pretty helpless on offense. It really is a pleasure to see a team like Alba Berlin move the ball fluently on offense. They have got mobile big man on offense with a very good feeling about how to set a block and then move away from the defender. Usually Adam Chubb is probably their best tool for this kind of offense. But the 28-year old American, who received a contract extension, is out for several weeks. Blagota Sekulic and Jurica Golemac, who was signed as a replacement for disappointing Kenan Bajramovic, know how to play their part as well. Both are very active and very good passers.

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Struggle Against Relegation In The BBL

With half of this year’s BBL season played it is worth to take a look at the bottom of the rankings and analyse which teams have to fear relegation.

In our off-season Teamchecks German Hoops previewed all teams. Like many other experts we predicted Mitteldeutsche BC and Walter Tigers Tuebingen to face trouble to stay in the league. Surprisingly both teams are currently in the race for a play-off spot. While MBC had a great start into the season, Tuebingen is currently on 5 game winning streak – and that’s a new club record in their BBL history.

A team that really looked a lot stronger on the paper, but could not fulfill expectations so far is the Düsseldorf Giants. Our author Mario predicted Düsseldorf to be a force to be reckoned with in the BBL race.

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Jason Boone Reviews Goettingen’s Year 2009

Who ever thought that Goettingen’s success during the 2008/09 campaign was just some sort of cinderella story that had to come to an end sooner or later has to admit that the team looks as hot as last season at the moment. The road win in Berlin (check out the highlights) must have convinced all doubters that MEG Goettingen is probably again one of those teams that should still be playing in May and maybe even June.

Head coach John Patrick had to deal with losing keyplayers like Kyle Bailey, Charles Lee and Clif Brown. But Goettingen also managed to keep important players with Chris Oliver, Ben Jacobson, Jason Boone, Robert Kulawick and John Little. They all improved a lot over the summer and helped to fill the gap. With Taylor Rochestie, Chester Frazier, Chris McNaughton and Dwayne Anderson the 41-year old Patrick found perfect additions to the roster.

Unlike the other two sensations from last season Ulm and Paderborn MEG Goettingen find themselves in a nice position at the end of 2009. They managed to win 9 of their first 14 BBL games and lead Group A of the EuroChallenge competition with a record of 3-1.

MEG Goettingen Center Jason Boone took some time to review one of the most successful years in Goettingen’s basketball history.

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Brandon Woudstra talks about his retirement

Three time BBL All-Star Brandon Woudstra retired quietly this summer. I had the opportunity to do an interview with Brandon a couple of weeks ago that was published on Eurobasket. Since Eurobasket only publishes the latest 20 news and posts this interview was about to disappear. Due to the request of some readers I decided to publish the full interview on German Hoops as well.

So this is a compementary post and information to the “Brandon Woudstra retires quietly” report. Most of Brandon’s answers can be found in the report, but those who already know about it will find some additional questions and answers here.

Usually players don’t retire at the age of 29 unless severe injuries force them to. What were the main reasons for you to stop playing basketball?

The main reason was my family. We were expecting our second child and we wanted to be in a place we felt comfortable for the birth and it got to be a lot more work and stress taking a family back and forth. The summer went on and the opportunities I had to play somewhere were not where we thought was best for us at the time, so we decided to stay home for the time being.
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Brandon Woudstra retires quietly

With so many great players having difficulties to find new teams this summer it was not easy to retain an overview. E.g. the BBL assist leader of the last season (6.2 per game) Michael Hakim Jordan is still available. A remarkable player who still is without a new team, but not available any longer is three-time BBL All star Brandon Woudstra. The 29-year old american was in the prime of his career but surprisingly to many decided to retire from professional basketball.

Retiring at 29 is something players usually only do when severe injuries force them to. Woudstra’s retirement was not entirely planed, but something that just became reasonable for the family man:

“The main reason was my family,” stated Woudstra. “We were expecting our second child and we wanted to be in a place we felt comfortable for the birth and it got to be a lot more work and stress taking a family back and forth. The summer went on and the opportunities I had to play somewhere were not where we thought was best for us at the time, so we decided to stay home for the time being.”

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TBB Trier fighting for a play-off spot

In recent years the BBL has more than ever before become a hire-and-fire league.

With the cancelation of the foreigner restriction in 2005/06 many teams started to stick to a personnel policy that would bring in new americans year by year. Especially low-budget teams started to play this kind of game and hoped to get away with a steal transfer to spend less money for a quality player.

With players available that are willing to play for just 20.000 – 30.000 $ it obviously is a sweet seduction to try your luck in the college boy lottery. But in the long run it certainly pays off to keep your key players for more than just one season. Playing with a core of guys who already know the country, the league, the club, their team mates and the coach’s philosophy and systems certainly does not harm the team’s success. Oldenburg’s championship last season proved that it can really pay off to let your team just grow.

Of course a team needs the financial power to keep all good players. The wealthier teams of this league already seem to go more and more into that direction. Alba Berlin, Bamberg and as I mentioned before Oldenburg did just make some minor changes and relied mainly on the core last season’s squad.

But also two teams from the mid-field with mediocre budgets decided to re-sign most of their players: Düsseldorf Giants and TBB Trier.

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Exclamation marks in Frankfurt

There are many words to describe the off season moves the Skyliners made this summer: odd, strange, weird, atypical – and probably the best description of all is economical.

You don’t need to be an expert to recognize that most of the new signed players do not earn a lot of money. And they clearly do not make as much cash as their predecessors.

Murat Didin pointed out early this summer that money is not the key to success in general:

” If you start to analyze a team by their budget, then you don’t need to play. We will be a strong team and I feel we can belong to the upper places in the standings.”

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Teamcheck: Alba Berlin

[written by Gruebler, who runs the great german blog Gruebelei.de]

If you listen to Euroleague officials and many European coaches, one thing you can frequently hear is that ALBA Berlin is one of the best basketball organizations on the continent. Of course, financially ALBA is just a medium sized club. A club budget just above 7 million euro, player salaries amounting to something around 2.5 million euro net. That’s a huge step away from the European powerhouses and contenders for Euroleague participation. Last season ALBA made it to the Euroleague Top 16. It was a really big success for this ambitious club. But when the playoffs in the German league came, ALBA struggled mightily against Paderborn, who just made it to the playoffs. And in the semis Eurocup participant Telekom Baskets Bonn eliminated ALBA. Not being in the finals, not reaching out for the Championship, that was a huge blow for ALBA Berlin. They are the only German team who openly state that they just have one goal, the highest one: A season without winning the Championship is a lost season.

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Strange Ranking and Early Hot-Shots

Trouble with the rankings bekobbl

It had been a press release no one really cared about during the off-season. On the 7^th of June the DBB (German Basketball Federation) announced that for the 2009/2010 campaign all german leagues will have to follow the FIBA scoring system. Just like before a winning team is now rewarded with 2 points. But with the new system also the losing team earns 1 point for attending the game. Last season and all those years before the loser got no point, but had to deal with 0:2 points.

If you follow the BBL you might remember the odd story about Gießen not making it to the game in Ludwigsburg. The 46ers’ teambus was stuck in traffic and the team could not make it in time. Ludwigsburg got the win and Gießen was punished by the league with the loss of all direct comparisons. If a situation like this would come up now, the team not attending the game would have to deal with 0 points.

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Teamcheck: New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig

For sure Braunschweig’s basketball project has seen better times. During the 2002/2003 campaign the team made it to the semi-finals and was close to beat reigning champion Alba Berlin. With a huge lead in game 4 Braunschweig’s public announcer mentioned that tickets for the finals could be bought after the game. But Berlin fought back, managed to win game 4 and sealed the deal in game five to advance to the finals.

Ever since 2003 Braunschweig could not make it to the play-offs. Just three years later in 2006 the team finished the season at the bottom of the table and almost had to face relegation. Only the extension of the league to 18 teams and the provision of a wildcard helped Braunschweig to stay in the league.

Names like Demond Mallet, Pete Lisicky, Joakim Blom, Szymon Szewczyk or Gordan Firic are still vivid in the minds of supporters. There had been some promising teams in the last couple of years. Head coach Emir Mutapcic mainly relied on Americans in his rotation while talented germans like Flavio Stückemann or Jannik Freese had to sit on the bench.

In 2008 the Phantoms got really close to a play-off spot and finished the season on 9^th position. Expectations were high for the 2008/2009 season and with the re-signing of Andrew Drevo and Kyle Visser and the addition of point guard Will Franklin and wingman Dustin Salisbery the foundation of Mutapcic’s team looked pretty good. But an eight game losing streak at the end of the season ended all post season dreams. After 34 games Braunschweig found itself on the 12^th spot. The team had earned a reputation for losing close games and certainly an era had come to an end.

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