ULEB Cup

by **A-Sot** on Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:15 am

Is somebody interested in the ULEB Cup? The draw was today and here are the groups :
Group A
Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania)
AEK Athens (Greece)
Gran Canaria (Spain)
Sluc Nancy (France)
KK Hemofarm (Serbia)
Brose Bamberg (Germany)

Group B
BC FMP (Serbia)
BK Ventspils (Latvia)
Snaidero Udine (Italy)
Anwil Wloclawek (Poland)
Strasbourg (France)
Besiktas (Turkey)

Group C
BC Khimki (Russia)
Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem (Israel)
Lukoil Academic (Bulgaria)
Montepaschi Siena (Italy)
Alba Berlin (Germany)
Telindus Oostende (Belgium)

Group D
Real Madrid (Spain)
Dynamo St.Petersburg (Russia)
Dexia Mons-Hainaut (Belgium)
KK Crvena Zvezda (Serbia)
PAOK (Greece)
EiffelTowers (Netherlands)

Since the bulgarian team Lukoil Academic is playing in Group C i had to write a profile for each team, and i will ask you to comment my work, any critics is appreciated :

Team Profile: Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem - Hungry for another Cup

Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem is probably the best team in Group C of the ULEB Cup. The champions from the 2004-2005 edition of the tournament, maintain strong after the off-season, as they managed to keep their key players from last year: Mario Austin, Tamar Slay, Meir Tapiro and the Israeli national player Matan Naor, who is considered by many as the most rough player in Europe, as he is a defensive nightmare for every player. They also got a good new addition in the face of Ed Cota, who played for Barcelona last season. Once again Migdal, who finished second in the Israeli championship, will be one of the main pretenders for winning the ULEB Cup this season.
The key losses for Migdal are Horace Jenkins who went to Efes Pilsen, and Roger Mason Jr., but with the arrival of Ed Cota and Timmy Bowers they once again have some quality guards and Jurica Golemac is expected to strengthen the paint with his 209 cm.

Team Roster :
Ed Cota (187-G-76)
Timmy Bowers (188-G-82)
Meir Tapiro (192-G-75)
Dror Hagag (178-G-78
Raviv Limonad (190-G-84)
Mario Austin (206-F-82)
Matan Naor (195-F-80)
Tamar Slay (204-F-82)
Jurica Golemac (209-F/C-77)
Erez Markovich (207-C-78)

Head Coach : Dan Shamir

Team Profile: ALBA Berlin - Trying to return the old glory

ALBA Berlin is well-known to Lukoil Academic, as they played in the same group last year. The german team is also known as Berlin Albatrosses. ALBA is maybe the most successful German basketball team in the last 10 years, as they won the national title seven times in a row between 1997 and 2003. The team has 5 German Cups, and way back in 1995 ALBA achieved it’s biggest success by winning the Radivoj Korac Cup.
The team is coached by Henrik Rodl (head coach) and Calvin Oldham (assistant coach). ALBA managed to keep some of their leaders from last season – Demond Greene, Jovo Stanojevic and Nenad Canak, as well as Matej Mamic who is now fully recovered from his serious back injury. The new additions in the team are Julius Jenkins from Euphony Basket Bree, who was one of the candidates for the ULEB Cup MVP award last season. ALBA was joined by some other quality players like Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, who comes from the Orlando Magic, William Avery who has three seasons in the NBA and 206-cm tall Sharrod Ford who spent the last season with the Phoenix Suns.
Last year ALBA was eliminated in the group stage of the tournament.

Team Roster :
William Avery (188-G-79)
Demond Greene (185-G-79)
Johannes Herber (197-G-83)
Julius Jenkins (187-G-81)
Nicolai Simon (190-G-87)
Oskar Fabler (198-G-88)
Koko Aniekan Archibong (205-F-81)
Nenad Canak (204-F-76)
Chris Owens (204-F-76)
Matej Mamic (203-F-75)
Sharrod Ford (206-F-82)
Philip Zwiener (201-F-85)
Yannick Evans (202-F-86)
Jovo Stanojevic (207-C-77)
Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje (212-C-78)

Head Coach : Henrik Rodl

Team Profile: Montepaschi Siena - Beware of the champions

Montepaschi looks like as the worst possible opponent in the group. The Italian team is the national champion for the 2005-2006 season. Also Montepaschi managed to build a very talented team this summer, and made a transfer bomb, by acquiring Joseph Forte, one of the best players in the history of the University of North Carolina. Last year wasn’t one of the best for Montepaschi in Europe, as they finished 6th in their Euroleague group, and after that poor performance this year’s aim for head coach Simone Pianigiani is winning the ULEB Cup, and defending the title in Italy. ULEB decided, that this year’s opening game is going to be held in Palasport Mens Sana, Montepaschi’s arena on Monday, October 30. The team from Siena also managed to keep their leader from last season – Rimantas Kaukenas, who was averaging 15.1 points per game in the Euroleague.
Montepaschi already has experience with Bulgarian teams, as they thrashed CSKA 90-55 in a preseason friendly tournament.

Team Roster:
Joseph Forte (192-G-79)
Rimantas Kaukenas (192-G-77)
Terrell McIntyre (175-G-77)
Lorenzo D'ercole (200-F-88)
Shaun Stonerook (201-F-77)
Romain Sato (195-F-81)
Luigi Datome (202-F-86)
Marco Carraretto (197-F-77)
Vladimer Boisa (206-F-81)
Luca Lechthaler (206-C-86)
Benjamin Eze (208-C-81)

Head Coach: Simone Pianigiani

Team Profile: Telindus Oostende - Champion in Belgium, anonymity in Europe

Telindus Oostende is the current club champion of Belgium. In the final series last year, they defeated the other Belgian ULEB Cup participant – Dexia Mons-Hainaut with 3 victories to 1. Head coach Mihailo Uvalin is currently setting up a good selection, with a couple of interesting names in it – Rashad Wright, who was drafted by the Indiana Pacers in the NBA, Eric Hicks from the University of Cincinnati (NCAA Division 1), and the youngster Marko Simonovic from Ergonom Nis. Oostende has won the Belgian Championship 11 times, and also has 10 National Cups, and has played two seasons in the ULEB Cup – 2004-2005 and 2002-2003 but both times was eliminated after the group phase. Telindus’ best international performance is the 2001-2002 participation in the Euroleague.

Team Roster:
Sam Van Rossom (188-G-86)
Laurent Lhote (182-G-84)
Rashad Wright (188-G-82)
Denis Wucherer (195-F-73)
Christian Ilongo (194-F-85)
Veselin Petrovic (194-F-77)
Lavor Postell (196-F-78)
Marko Simonovic (202-F-86)
Eric Hicks (197-F-83)
Vanja Plisnic (207-C-80)
Elvir Ovcina (212-C-76)
Sebastien Bellin (205-C-78)

Head Coach: Mihailo Uvalin

Team Profile: BC Khimki - The Debutants of the group

BC Khimki finished third in the Russian championship last season, under the guidance of head coach Sergei Elevitch. The team has some very impressive name in its roster – starting from Pavel Podkolzin - a 226-cm giant, going through American point guard Melvin Booker & Argentinian star Ruben Wolkowiski and finishing with German national player Ademola Okulaja. Khimki’s best achievement in the Russian league is the second place back in 1999, and in Europe they played in the Final four of the FIBA EuroCup this year, and one year earlier in 2005 lost the Cup Final against Joventut Badalona 63-88. Before this season the team was left by its biggest star – the Venezuelan top scorer Oscar Torres.

Team Roster:
Boris Gorenc (195-G-73)
Alexei Savkov (196-G-79)
Gianmarco Pozzecco (180-G-72)
Melvin Booker (185-G-72)
Vitaly Fridzon (195-F-85)
Sergey Krasnikov (202-F-79)
Roman Levter (209-F-84)
Ademola Okulaja (207-F-75)
Vladimir Diachok (204-F-80)
Pavel Podkolzin (226-C-85)
Sergey Karaulov (215-C-84)
Ruben Wolkowiski (207-C-73)
Denis Ershov (220-C-81)

Head Coach: Sergey Elevich

by **J@3** on Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:16 am

Pavel Podkolzine! He's starting? Wow that's worrying, do you know if Dallas still owns his rights?

by **Marquis** on Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:13 am

Good analysis. (Y)

I can know now where Ed Cota is going to play, who played for Barcelona last season, but also in our country at the first half of the season, but he fucked up all the things here. :lol: