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,Artland-Dragons 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 theSkyliners 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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Ricky Hickman Playing In Finland, But Still Keeps The BEKO BBL In The Back Of His Mind

Ricky Hickman is a 24 year old 190 cm guard from Kernersville North Carolina. He played hisGiessen-46ers college basketball career at North Carolina-Greensboro from 2003-2007. In his senior year, he played 30 games averaging 14.3ppg, 3.4rpg, 2.4apg, 1.7spg, FGP: 36.5%, 3Pts: 27.8%, FT: 70.9%. In 2007-2008, he played in Romania for CS Otopeni Bucuresti playing 11 games and averaging 19.0ppg, 4.2rpg, 4.3apg, 1.8spg, 2FGP: 60.4%, 3PT: 29.8%, FT: 70.8%. In 2008-2009, he played in Germany for LTi Giessen 46ers playing 24 games and averaging 6.9ppg, 1.7rpg, 1.3apg, 1.3spg, FGP: 41.4%, 3PT: 28.6%, FT: 65.7%. This season, he is playing in Finland for Namika Lahti and is second in the league in scoring with 24,4ppg. He took some time to talk to German Hoops.

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Robert “Hollywood Globetrotter” Turner Setting Cold Finland On Fire

Robert Turner is a 27 year old 206cm center from Buena Park, California. He played at the beautiful Pepperdine University in Californiabekobbl from 2001-2005. His best season was 2002-2003 where he played 27 games averaging 7.0ppg, 3.1rpg, 1.4apg. In the fall of 2005, he became a member of the world famous Harlem Globetrotters and was able to tour the world and play the game he loves. In 2008, he decided to play organized basketball in Europe and went to Germany to play for the Koeln 99ers playing 34 games and averaging 9.1ppg, 3.6rpg, FGP: 60.0%, 3PT: 27.9%, FT: 65.6%. This past summer, he played in the IBL for the Phoenix Red Rock Raptors. A month ago, he signed with Lappeenranta NMKY in Finland. Through 6 games, he is averaging 19,0ppg, 7,7rpg, 1,8apg, 2,7spg and 2,3bs. He spoke to German Hoops before going to Finland.

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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 likeMBC 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

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 12Skyliners 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 140309_1_mittel_Logo_Eisbaeren_BremerhavenNCAA3 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 Giessen-46ersnot 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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Strange Ranking and Early Hot-Shots

Trouble with the rankingsbekobbl

It had been a press release no one really cared about during the off-season. On the 7th 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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