Keaton Nankivil

Dane Watts (ratiopharm Ulm): After Keaton Nankivil Wins The Three Point Shooting Contest, You Can Refer To Him As Money Ball

Dane Watts is a 25 year old 203cm forward from Warrensburg, Missouri. He is playing his first season for ratiopharm Ulm. He played at Creighton (NCAA) from 2004-2008 with NBA player Anthony Tolliver. In his senior year, he played 33 games: 11.3ppg, 6.4rpg, 1.0apg, FGP: 53.4%, 3Pts: 42.5%, FT: 71.8%. In 2008, he came to Germany and started his professional basketball career with EnBW Ludwigsburg (Germany-1.Bundesliga, starting five): 32 games: 8.9ppg, 3.8rpg, FGP-1(68.4%), 3PT: 30.8%, FT: 68.7%. In 2009-2010, he came to The Walter Tigers Tuebingen playing 34 games: 10.2ppg, 5.4rpg, 1.5apg, FGP: 57.1%, 3PT: 37.6%, FT: 71.0%. Last season for Tuebingen, he played 33 games: 13.7ppg, Reb-4(7.6rpg), 1.1apg, 1.2spg, FGP: 57.9%, 3PT: 36.7%, FT: 54.5%; in May’11 moved to Hyeres-Toulon Var Basket (France-ProA): 3 games: 7.0ppg, 6.3rpg, 1.7apg, 1.0spg.  At Creighton, he won awards such as MVC Tournament Winner -05, 07, MVC All-Freshman Team -05, MVC Regular Season Runner-Up -07, and MVC Tournament Semifinals -08. He spoke to German Hoops before their game against the LTi Giessen 46ers January 8th.

Congrats on the 76-75 win at home against FC Bayern Munich. How much have you been aware of the German sports brand FC Bayern Munich since you arrived in 2008?

It wasn’t until last year until I realized how big they were when they put their basketball team together in Pro A. I had heard a little bit about soccer before but I don’t follow it too much.

ratiopharm Ulm had a great start and controlled the game until the fourth quarter when FC Bayern Munich tied the game. What were the main reasons for letting the team come back?

They played zone the 2nd half and we did not attack it aggressively enough and allowed them to come back.

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Keaton Nankivil’s Buzzer Beater Seals 76-75 Win Over Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich seems to have a knack for losing close games. After unfortunate overtime losses against the Telekom Baskets Bonn (80-78) and the Artland Dragons (86-83), Bauermann’s team also lost the road games in Bremerhaven (73:71) and Würzburg (64:55).

In the game against Ulm Bayern Munich was able to come back from a double digit deficit and take a 2-point lead within the last few seconds. But then former Badger Keaton Nankivil made a 25-foot three point shot and gave Bayern Munich another close loss on the road. Thorsten Leibenath’s (Ulm’s coach) time out speech looked quite desperate as he was not really sure what play he wanted his team to execute. Somehow the ball ended up in Nankivil’s hands and with just a few seconds remaining he just took the shot.

You can watch the full game here:

Bayern Munich’s soccer team is known to sign the opponent’s best players. I don’t know what Bayern’s team manager Marco Pesic and Dirk Bauermann have in mind for next season. But maybe we see Nankivil in a Bayern Munich uniform next season. I would not bet my money on this though. If Bayern should really be interested in a player who defeated them it should rather be Artland’s David Holston…