BBL

David Teague And The Gießen 46ers Are Slowly Crawling Out Of The BBL Cellar

David Teague is a 26 year old 196cm guard who is an athletic wing player who possesses an excellent perimeter shot, is a solid penetrator who can get to the basket off the dribble and is a tenacious defender who can shut down dribble penetration. He grew up in Indianapolis and went to Pike high school and at Bridgeton Academy. He played at Purdue from 2002-2007. In his senior year, he played 34 games averaging 14.3ppg, 5.0rpg, 2.0apg, FGP: 44.0%, 3Pts: 41.2%, FT: 75.4% .

In his first professional season, he played in Greece for AEL 1964 playing 23 games averaging 9.7ppg, 3.5rpg, 2FGP: 48.0%, 3PT: 32.0%, FT: 78.0%. Last season, he played in France for JA Vichy Val d’Allier Auvergne basket playing 4 EuroChallenge games: averaging 8.8ppg, 4.0rpg, 1.8spg and playing 29 games in the French League averaging 13.8ppg, 3.6rpg, 1.3spg, FGP: 42.7%, 3PT: 30.9%, FT: 73.4%.

This season, he is playing for the Gießen 46ers and is currently leading the BEKO BBL in scoring with 22,3ppg, 5,2rpg and 1,4spg. He spoke with German Hoops about the turn around in the play of The Gießen 46ers.

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Achmadschah Zazai Wants To Set His Speedy Gonzalez Abilities Loose On The Basketball Court Again

Achmadschah Zazai is a 22 year old German/Afghani 177 cm guard that is currently looking for a team. He started his basketball career for TUS Lichterfelde Berlin (2.Bundesliga) in 2003 and played there until 2005. In the 2005-2006 season, he played for SG FT/MTV Braunschweig (2.Bundesliga) playing 28 games and averaging 6.3ppg, 1.3rpg, 2.2apg, 1.6spg, 2FGP: 48.3%, 3FGP: 26.9%, FT: 75.0%. In 2006-2007, he played for BSG Ludwigsburg (Germany-Regionalliga) playing 15 games averaging 19.3ppg, and also had a license for EnBW Ludwigsburg (1. Bundesliga) playing 12 games and averaging 1.1ppg. In 2007-2008, he played for the Bremen Roosters (Germany-ProA) playing 14 games averaging 3.4ppg, 1.1apg, and then went to Denmark to play for Horsens IC playing 8 games and averaging 9.8ppg, 3.0rpg, Assists-3(4.5apg), 2.4spg, 2FGP: 44.4%, 3PT: 29.0%, FT: 92.0%. Last season, he played for Telemotive Muenchen (Germany-ProB) playing 25 games averaging 13.6ppg, 2.4rpg, Assists-4(5.5apg), Steals-5(2.2spg), FGP: 53.9%, 3PT: 37.7%, FT: 82.4%. This season, he signed a three month contract with the Artland Dragons to help fill the void for injured Flavio Stuckemann. He only played sparingly for The Artland Dragons. At the moment, he is looking for a team and interested teams can contact him at achmadschah2@yahoo.de

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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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Is This The Season Where The Artland Dragons Win Their First BBL Title?

Sometimes, you can go miles in the calm Artland country enjoying the scenic and tranquil surroundings without seeing a single person, but one place that is always loud and rather hostle for opponents is the Artland arena, the home of The Artland Dragons. The area is beautiful and there is surely a lot that people can do in the region with field trips and visiting historic sights, but when its game time for the Artland Dragons, the small pretty town of Quackenbruck that only has a population of 12,000 people comes to life as if Mike Tyson was boxing a heavy weight championship bout against Evander Holyfield.

Ever since The Artland Dragons entered the BBL in 2003, the town that is also known as frog town has become basketball crazy. The town is so small that you can walk from one end to the other in about five minutes and even catch a frog if you are bored and have adventure on your mind. In what other BEKO BBL city is everything so close that players can get to work so comfortably without having to sit in traffic and go 45 minutes to practice in Berlin. In the past, you could witness ex Dragons Adam Chubb or Lamont Mcintosh coming to the arena on bikes.

“The players all live on the main street in Quackenbruck in apartment buildings. I walk to work and it takes about five minutes”, joked Texas tech alumnist Ronald Ross.

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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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The MBC Wolves Are Making An Impact In The BEKO BBL

The 2009-2010 BEKO BBL season is less than a month old, but already the league has seen some spectacular games from players like MBC David Teague showing that he could become the next Tommy Adams with consistency, Jared Mr pass Jordan dazzling in the Ulm win with 14 assists, or Bremerhaven American guard Louis Campbell continuing to amaze fans with his all around play and is on course of being the first player to achieve a triple double in the new season, but the biggest surprise has been new team MBC Wolves that have returned to the BEKO BBL after having vanished from the German basketball world in 2004 after winning the FIBA Eurocup and then all of a sudden as if some cruel basketball god had stabbed them with absolute no mercy in the back as they became bankrupt and had to depart from the German league. It took the club five long hard years of landing in the low Regionaliga, reaching the second Bundesliga and then showing exceptional poise and strength by dominating the PRO A the last two years and finally reaching the promised land again in the top German league in 2009.

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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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Qarraan Calhoun Is Not Your Typical BBL Rookie

The BBL season started a few weeks ago, and new Skyliner Qarraan Calhoun or simply refered to as Q by his teammates after playing 12 test games and suffering an injury in the last pre season game is still slowly finding his rhythm after showing a ot of ability in the preseason. At times, the 203cm forward looks totally kittenish and in experienced like a eight year boy all excited about getting his first hot fudge Sunday as was the case in a test game against Galatasaray Istanbul, but then again at other times like at the Phoenix Cup looked like a seasoned veteran on the court doing a little bit of everything like hitting an open three pointer similar to how Luther Head was dropping them at 49% in his second season in the NBA, making raw behind the back passes like a Larry Bird in the day or leaping out of nowhere like an agile Alan Anderson or making a spectacular block like Dennis Rodman in his best days as a Detroit Piston.

“I think he can be a very good shot blocker on the European level, he just got too stay focused with defensive things and he will be fine”, warned teammate Derrick Allen. But playing like the wurm, who won three NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls is not on the mind of the 22 year old. “Coach tells me to be wild on the court. I don’t want to play like Dennis Rodmann, but play my own game”, warned Qarraan Calhoun. “Coach means by being wild, that Q has too be more active on the court, because we know Q can do so much for us on the basketball court”, stressed Derrick Allen

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Jeff Gibbs Set To Lead Bremerhaven Into The Playoffs

Jeff Gibbs is a 29 year old 188cm forward/center from Columbus, Ohio. He played at Otterbein(NCAA3) from 1998 to 2002. He was NCAA3 champion and Final Four MVP in 2002. He holds the record for rebounds in a game (25) at NCAA3 Final Four, record for rebounds (40) in a NCAA3 Final Four and holds Otterbein’s record for career rebounds. He went to Germany in 2003 to start his professional basketball career to play for TSG Ehingen. In 2004-2005, he tore up the second bundesliga playing 22 games and averaging 21.5ppg, Reb-1(12.8rpg), 1.8apg, 2.3spg, 1.2bpg, 2FGP: 62.6%, 3FGP: 31.6%, FT: 70.7%. In 2005, he went to Ratiopharm Ulm where he would play for until 2009. In 2005-2006, the team won the second BUndesliga south and came to the BBL. He was the BBL top rebounder for three straight years (2007,2008,2009). This season, he is playing his first season for the Eisbaeren Bremerhaven and spoke to German Hoops.

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Gießen, we have a problem

The Gießen 46ers started the new season with great ambition and confidence. After being granted a wild card by the BBL, Gießen vowed to not make the same mistakes they did in the past and wanted to come out running early. Now, six games into the new season, Gießen finds itself yet again in last place in the BBL. Technically, they are still 15th in the league (thanks to the strange new FIBA rule that gives teams a point for just showing up), but the 46ers remain the only one of the 18 teams in the BBL that is still winless. Sure, the 46ers caught a bad break with injuries to starters Lorenzo Williams and Johannes Lischka, both of whom will be out for the next four to six games. And yes, Gießen played a strong game against ALBA, giving the odds-on-favorite all it could handle in an overtime loss. ALBA’s recent loss in Tübingen, however, helps put this game in perspective, as Berlin’s slow start to the BBL season (due to their Euroleague qualification games) has led to ALBA not being as consistent now as they undoubtedly will be later on during the season.

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