Results Pending

There are a few games that have completed that I've not written up. Basically, the reasons have to do with boxscore availability. Either the league website is down, or official boxscores have not been posted.

The games in question:


LFB (France): Union Hainaut (7-4) vs. Landes (2-9)
LFB (France): Mondeville (4-7) vs. Villeneuve d'Ascq (6-5)
TBBL: Samsun (3-2) vs. Çankaya Üniversitesi (1-5)

I'm only saying that we don't have boxscores. We have results. (Hint: the teams with Dream players won.)

Superleague A Russia 7/2008 - Dynamo Kursk 63, Nadezhda Orenburg 61

After Betty Lennox helped Nadezhda Orenburg (3-4) to their first Euroleague win on Wednesday, would her luck continue. Dynamo Kursk (2-5) came for a visit and took over from the first quarter. Despite a third-quarter comeback attempt, Nadezdha Orenburg fell short, 63-61.

The boxscore is here.

Dynamo Kursk jumped out to a 24-13 lead after the end of the first quarter, and led by nine at the end of the first half. It wasn't over. Nadezhda Orenburg outscored Dynamo Kursk 20-8 in the third quarter to take over the game with a 48-45 lead. Unfortunately, they were unable to hold on to the lead and Dynamo Kursk won by three.

Part of Nadezhda Orenburg's problem was their shooting. They only shot 31 percent from the field compared to Dynamo Kursk's 40 percent.

Part of the problem of analyzing this boxscore is that it's difficult to determine what the headers are. I assume that the "Selection" header actually means "rebounds". In which case, Nadezhda Orenburg and Dynamo Kursk had 42 and 39 rebounds, respectively.

Shameka Christon led all players with 20 points and seven rebounds. Anastasia Veremeenko scored 17 points and 14 rebounds for Nadezhda Orenburg.

As for Betty Lennox, "Noox" scored 14 points. It was...well, she shot 5 for 17. Not the best night.

Maria Garifullin scored 14 points for Dynamo Kursk. Anastasia Fomino scored 11 points and Anastasia Bocharova scored nine points and nine rebounds. Nikita Bell, a 2005 graduate of North Carolina, scored 10 points and four rebounds.

Will there be pictures? I don't know. Maybe the Russian league can't afford it.

PLKK 13/2008 - Rybnik 68, Cukierki 65

The second half of the Polish League season is on its way, and Utex Row Rybnik (9-4) would like home field advantage in the eventual playoffs. That means finishing in fourth place or better. They're a further step on the way, as Cukierki (3-10) falls at home by a score of 68-65.

By the end of the third quarter, Rybnik had built up a 55-44 lead over the home squad, but Cukierki began to pour it on over the last ten minutes. Amber Petillon brought Cukierki to within one, 66-65, with twenty seconds left, but Cukierki was forced to foul Ketia Swanier, who hit her free throws to secure the win for Rybnik.

Rybnik won the battle of shooting 47 percent to 44 percent, including 10 3-point shots. It was a close game statistically, reflecting the closeness of the final result.

Amber Petillon, formerly of Richmond University, led Cukierki with 20 points and 10 rebounds, followed with Ofa Tulikihihifo and Eliza Gołumbiewska with 15 points each. Ashley Key, a graduate of North Carolina State, scored nine points. Tysell Boseman, formerly of Arizona and Felician College, was held scoreless in 20 minutes of play.

Magdalena Radwan led all Rybnik scorers with 20 points. Ketia Swanier scored 15 points for Rybnik, and Kasha Terry scored 13 points and seven rebounds. LaTangela Atkinson was the Tysell Boseman of Rybnik, scoring two points in 21 minutes of play.

TBBL 6/2008 - Tarsus 64, Ceyhan 61

With the TBBL site wonky all morning, it's hard to access articles and I was lucky enough to get one of the boxscores and articles just now. Despite a great performance by Ivory Latta, Ceyhan (2-4) would fall to Tarsus (3-3) by a score of 64-61.

From the crappy Turkish translator on line, here's what I can make of the game. It was a pretty tight game all the way. Ceyhan fell behind 15-7 when Tarsus went on an 8-0 run, and for the rest of the game, Tarsus would have to fight to make sure Ceyhan didn't take the lead. Ceyhan managed to tie in the second quarter....and the third quarter...and the fourth quarter.

With the score tied 61-61, I suspect that Barbara Turner either a) made a 3-point bucket, or b) hit three free throws after being fouled while shooting. With 10 seconds left, Ceyhan put the ball in Ivory Latta's hands, but she missed the final shot.

It wasn't the sharpest of games from either team. Ceyhan shot 36 percent; Tarsus shot 34. Tarsus won the critical battle of rebounding, outrebounding Ceyhan 40 to 27 and picking up 13 offensive boards. Turnovers were fairly even. Both teams hit the same number of free throws.

In scoring, Ivory Latta led both teams with 21 points, four rebounds and six assists (she also had four fouls and five turnovers). Michelle Campbell and Hulya Özkan each had 11 points for Ceyhan. Campbell had eight rebounds and Özkan scored six. Tiffani Johnson would only score four points and three rebounds (she only played 15 minutes) and Charel Allen would be held scoreless in the ten minutes she played - she scored 27 in her last outing.

Barbara Turner led Tasrus with 13 points. Turner was a guard for the Connecticut Sun last year. Tatum Brown, a forward from Arizona who graduated in 2000, scored 11 points and 11 rebounds. Jessica Dickson, who seems to have replaced Nina Norman, scored four points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of play.

Greek Women's A1 7/2008 - Paleo Faliro 61, Apollon Kalamarias 51

Paleo Faliro (3-4) looks like it's busy crawling out of the hole it dug for itself early on in the year. The victim was visiting Apollon Kalamarias (3-4) who fell by a score of 61-51.

The boxscore is here.

Paleo Faliro jumped out to a 20-16 lead after the first quarter and maintained the lead going into halftime, 34-30. In the second half, Paleo Faliro slowly extended its lead, outscoring Apollon Kalamarias 27-21 in the second half.

Paleo Faliro outshot Apollon Kalamarias 43 percent to 34 percent. The visitors were outrebounded 39 to 28 overall, and outrebounded 14-5 on the offensive boards. Turnovers were almost even.

Free throw shooting kept Apollon Kalamarias in the game. Apollon Kalamarias hit 13 of 18 free throws, with Paleo Faliro hit a miserable 6 for 15. (If there's anything that should teach a player the importance of hitting free throws, it's a European box score.)

Teana Miller, back from her unexplained absence in the previous game, led all scorers with 18 points and eight rebounds. She was the only player to score in double figures. Fotini Volonaki and Atalanti Tasouli also scored nine points. Kristin Haynie scored seven points, six rebounds and six assists in forty minutes of play - her assists total led all players on both teams.

for Apollon Kalamarias, Johanna Solverson led all players as a one-woman scoring machine with 23 points and 10 rebounds - she also had six turnovers. Solverson was a senior at Iowa during 2007-08. Aggela Tomkaki and Magda Karabatzaki each had nine points for Apollon Kalamarias.

Game Results, November 29 2008

Liga Feminina (Spain)

Ros Casares 82, Zaragoza 67. Ros Casares (9-1) continues dominating the Spanish league, with Zaragoza (3-7) the victim. Erika de Souza is still out due to a muscle pull.

Cadi La Seu 58, Extrugasa 53. It's the same old story for Extrugasa (2-8) - almost good enough, but not quite good enough to win. Extrugasa hit 94 percent of their free throws - going 15 for 16 - but this was the only part of the game in which they excelled. Kelly Santos, a forward with the Seattle Storm, scored 17 points and seven rebounds for Cadi La Seu. Scoring duties were split in Extrugasa between Katia da Silva with 14 points and nine rebounds, Mandisa Stevenson with 10 points and five rebounds, and Tamera Young with 10 points. Unfortunately, Young also had five turnovers to go with her 10 points, leading both teams in turnovers. The loss puts Extrugasa at 12th place among the 14 Spanish League teams.

WCBA (China)

Beijing 83, Yunan 69. The win puts Beijing (8-5) all by itself in fourth place in the Chinese League. Four players scored in double figures with Zhang Wei leading the team with 24, but Jennifer Lacy had 10 points...and 16 rebounds. The entire Yunan (4-9) team only had 26 rebounds. The mysterious "Walter Green" (who might be Tangela Smith, as there are only four WNBA players in the Chinese league) scored 17 points and three rebounds. She also drew 12 fouls. Hope she has a nice bath after the game, whoever she is.

Jiangu 88, Shanghai 84. Jiangsu (9-4) hit the road and beat Shanghai (4-9) to move up to third place in the Chinese league. Shooting 54 percent from the field helped. "Jiaolan" led all Shanghai players with 18 points and eight rebounds. Five players scored in double figures for Jiangsu, led by Bian Lan with 19 points and Wang Xiao-Li with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ann Strother scored eight points and picked up eight rebounds.

The Return of the Dreamer

Back again, jiggity jig. There's a lot to catch up on, so my hope is to write up some brief blurbs about Saturday's games and write about Sunday matches in more detail.

Thanks to Jaime, Ethan and Rebecca for keeping the comments sections warm:

Jaime, good luck to Olivais in Eurocup competition. I hope that Aja Parham is okay.
Ethan, thanks for reminding me that I was not only leaving my cellphone behind, but a copy of the Dream's win over Los Angeles as well.
Rebecca, in a just world, there would be a universal naming convention. At least we can get some joy out of the botched translations and players listed by their middle names.

Random Stuff

Don't have much time at the terminal, so here goes:

* Had a great visit with Ethan Johnson - the writer who is half of ethmar.com - where we talked about the W, major league soccer, women's basketball, and wine among other things.

He had this thought: we know that Katie Feenstra takes religion seriously. She's married by now - she got married this month. Ethan pointed out that if she takes her husband's family name...then this is the last we've heard of "Katie Feenstra", so to speak. (Of course, Feenstra could hyphenate her name. Hope the Dream have some extra letters of the alphabet.)

* A nice human interest story with the Dream organization making a contribution. It looks like the Dream know how to pay it forward, too.

Extrugasa Advances to Second Round of Eurocup

With forty teams competing for thirty-two Eurocup second-round spots, the easiest way to make it to the second round was to finish second in your group. When Extrugasa lost to Olivais to end up in third place, this left Extrugasa at the mercy of the fates. Only eight of twelve third place teams would advance to the second round.

The good news: Extrugasa was one of those eight teams.

The bad news: Finishing 28th, Extrugasa will next play fifth place Ibiza in the second round. A sister Spanish League team, Ibiza went 6-0 in Eurocup.

The two teams will play a "best of two" home and away series against Ibiza on December 11th and December 18th.

What is a "best of two" series? Very simple. The teams will play a pair of games each other. If you win both games you proceed to the "Sweet Sixteen" of Eurocup. If you split the games, however, the seed is decided by aggregate: whoever has the most points over both the games goes forward. In short, if Extrugasa loses by nine at home, they'd better win by ten or more in Ibiza or Ibiza advances.

The two teams have already played once in regular Spanish league play, where Ibiza beat Extrugasa by 12 at home.

Oddly enough, both teams are 2-7 in Spanish League play. Maybe Extrugasa has a chance.

Eurocup - Thursday

Olivais 66, Extrugasa 65 (OT). In the final match of the first round of Eurocup, Olivais (3-3) comes to Spain and beats Extrugasa (2-4) in overtime, 66-65. They had lost to the Portugese team in Olivais by two points the first times the teams met, and then Olivais beats them in overtime.

There's a writeup right here. It definitely sounds like a very exciting game.

Tamera Young led all Extrugasa players with 13 points and eight rebounds. She also had five steals and six turnovers. Jill Anderson would lead Olivais with 28 points.

Reads like a not-so-Happy Thanksgiving for Tamera Young. I hope she was able to find some turkey somewhere.

CSKA Moscow is Back (?)

At least, according to this article on the Silver Stars Nation message board.

So what does this mean for Dream fans? For one, it means that Villeneuve d'Ascq - Iziane Castro Marques's team - is probably going to be stuck with those two losses in Euroleague again.

Oh well. I'm still quite happy to see that CSKA Moscow is back.

Where the Weather is Nice and Warm

Mike in Minny has heard from Kristin Haynie in Greece.

I hope she's enjoying the warm weather, and yes, I'm hoping that she'll blog again.

Euroleague Results

Nadezhda Orenberg 82, Halcion Avenda 63. What a difference Betty Lennox makes! After not winning a single game in Group A of Euroleague, Nadezdha (1-6) finally defeats a Halcion Avenda (5-2) team that beat them in Spain. About 2,500 spectators got to see Betty's debut.

Shameka Christon led all Nadezhda players with 20 points and six rebounds. Betty Lennox had a fairly decent game for Nadezhda - 17 points on 24 shots. At least, it's better than a lot of debuts after extended layoffs. (However, a poster at RebKell notes that most of Noox's points were garbage points, scored when Nadezhda was up by 15.)

Le'Coe Willingham led Halcion Avenda with 16 points. Other American/NCAA/WNBA performances were by Donette Snow (7 points) and by Paula Clocan (2 points).

Ros Casares 88, Prague 69. Erika de Souza remains injured, but her team climbs to 5-2 in Group B, getting a little closer to mathematically securing a spot in the second round.

Union Hainaut 80, Sibenik 69. Union Hainaut climbs to 3-4 in Group B with three games left, and 3-4 is good for third place when you have Ekaterinburg and Ros Casares in your group.

Five players scored in double figures for Union Hainaut, including Bernadette Ngoyisa with 17 and Chioma Nnamaka with 10. Constance Jinks scored 24 points for Sibenik, with Kerri Gardin pitching in 11.

Catching Up

We've made it to Texas. I want to at least get some results and boxscores up.

WCBA

Beijing 82, Guangdong 63: Beijing (7-5) hits 70 percent of their two points shots, and holds Guangdong (6-6) to eight points in the third quarter. Jennifer Lacy scored seven points and two rebounds in the win. Chasity Melvin of the Chicago Sky scored 14 points and seven rebounds for Guangdong.

Jiangsu 96, Zhejiang 72: Zhejiang (0-12) remains without a win this year as Jiangsu (8-4) wins easily at home. Ann Strother scored 17 points and five rebounds for Jiangsu, which stays in third place.

Euroleague

Gambrinus 81, Villeneuve d'Ascq 61: All CSKA Moscow games in Group B have been erased as the Moscow superteam has declared bankruptcy. Villeneuve d'Ascq (1-4) gets rid of two losses, but picks up another one against Gambrinus (2-4), which has no trouble with Villeneuve d'Ascq. However, with only five teams in Group B now, Villeneuve d'Ascq merely needs to finish fourth, and it has already beaten last place team Riga once.

For Gambrinus, Hamcheto Maiga-Ba scored 13 points and six rebounds. Tamika Whitmore scored 14 points. For Villeneuve d'Ascq, Iziane Castro Marques scored 11 points and Jolene Anderson scored six points.

Pre-Vacation

We head out of town tomorrow morning. Back Sunday, hopefully. Take care.

What Happened to Bernadette Ngoyisa

We have some news about Tiffany Stansbury's injury and about Bernadette Ngoyisa's one game suspension at Union Hainaut.

The link is here, and Women's Basketball in France provides news about other clubs.

According to eurobasket at Rebkell, "She was a little but unlucky with her third technical. She felt that she was the fouled player and basically made her feeling known. The offical called a T and that was it." The suspension is only for the French league and does not suspend to Euroleague. However, if Ngoyisa gets further technicals, they could lead to further suspensions.

Wow. The French leagues are really tough. If they suspended players in the NBA for their third technical, I bet there would be players that wouldn't play all season.

(Old) Breaking News: Betty Lennox to play for Nadhezhda Orenburg

Speak of the devil. As soon as I start talking about Russian Superleague play, it appears that Betty Lennox will be playing for Nadezhda Orenburg. This was announced in the "Where Are They Now?" section of the Dream website on November 20, 2008.

The only American teammate that I know Betty will have will be Shameka Christon of the New York Liberty. Nadezhda is 3-3 in Russian League play. They will play again on Sunday, November 30th against Dynamo Kursk (1-5). Of course, with 7-0 CKSA Moscow theoretically shutting down, it's untelling what will happen with the schedule.

This leaves Katie Feenstra as the only player active as of the end of the 2008 WNBA season who is not signed up to play somewhere.

Update on CSKA Moscow

Supposedly, CSKA Moscow will no longer compete in Euroleague games, either.

I have no idea how Euroleague will handle this. Villeneuve d'Ascq - Iziane Castro Marques's new team - is in the same group that second place CSKA Moscow was in. Villeneuve d'Ascq was in fifth place in Group B in Euroleague.

If Euroleague decides to choose the top four of the remaining five Group B teams, this gives Villeneuve d'Ascq a fighting chance. Of course, Euroleague could just give automatic wins to the four teams that haven't played Moscow twice yet. Which is a pity for Villeneuve d'Ascq - they were the only team that CSKA Moscow got around to playing twice and Villeneuve d'Ascq dropped both games.

John and Mary

I was inspired by a blog post from a blog called Bloggin' NBA: The Good Girls of Basketball. The gist of the article is that WNBA seem to be rarely involved in the sort of "bad boy" behavior associated with NBA players.

Part of it is that from the time a player is a young prospect until the time he's an NBA veteran, there are pressures on all of the authority figures involved in his life to do two things when he gets in trouble:

a) cover up, and
b) look away.

You can look at multiple examples of a male basketball player and a female basketball player in the same situations, but each will have to live by a different set of rules to be successful.

For example, there are several major colleges * that feel the need to improve their college basketball status by grabbing a successful player out of high school. There is pressure both from the high school administration and from outside forces for this kid to make it to college. If grades have to be "brought up" artifically by means legal or not, there is the money and the willpower to do it.

If John Doe Baller is an all-"D" student, lots will happen. His grades will be altered. Someone will take his SATs for him. Or he'll be extensively tutored, or he'll be sent to a private school that is simply a memorization boot camp for future college ballers.

If Mary Roe Baller is an all-"D" student, she'll just be allowed to fail. There aren't powerful alumni support organization in women's basketball that are going to make those kind of arrangements for a prospect. Pat and Geno will just sign someone else. Mary might have to get her GED, or spend two years in JUCO before she gets to put on the orange or blue.

John will get money under the table, under the belief that he brings money to the school. (He doesn't, according to statistical studies - the college will at best break even; basketball and football are status symbols and not money earners.)

Mary will get a handshake. Maybe some new shoes.

If John is pulled over for speeding and is under the influence of alcohol, Joe says, "I play for Money U." The officer recognizes him. Joe is allowed to go on his way.

If Mary is pulled over for speeding and Mary says, "I play for Money U," Mary spends 24 hours in the drunk tank and probably faces suspension from the team or worse.

If John gets mad at someone and beats Richard Victim with an inch of his life, a massive game of cover-up begins. Alumni play good cop and bad cop. The good cops of the alumni offer Richard Victim money to make the assault charges go away. The bad cops tells Richard that he'll become persona non grata at the campus. The evil cops threaten Richard's life if he squeals. Richard drops the charges and the record is expunged. The media department has no comment.

If Mary gets mad at someone and beats Rhonda Victim with an inch of her life, Mary loses her scholarship and gets 200 hours of community service. Next year, she's playing for a bottom-tier Division I school after sitting out a year. The coach and the media department of the school lament Mary's hair-trigger temper.

John can leave college after a year if he doesn't like it. He claims hardship. He walks right into a seven-figure salary.

If Mary doesn't like college, tough titty. She sweats it all four years. If Mary suffers an ACL tear in her sophomore year that ends her career, well, life is tough.

By the time Mary reaches the WNBA, all of the really bad apples have been weeded out. The violent types, the boozers, the chronic fuck-ups. Mary has learned that talent takes place to not screwing up your shot. Whereas John and his friends have learned the opposite lesson - if you screw up your shot, talent provides a multitude of second opportunities.

The NBA is a player's league. The players set the rules. They are primary.

The WNBA is an owner's league. The owners set the rules. They are primary.

If John is seen partying it up at discos with lines of cocaine freely offered, the media cover it up.

If Mary is seen partying it up at discos with lines of cocaine freely offered, the media doesn't cover it up. Nothing Mary does draws any attention from the media. Unless Mary Roe Baller is snorting cocaine off a (heretofore supposedly) heterosexual supermodel's backside. Then everyone cares.

If John Doe Baller is snorting cocaine off a (heretofore supposedly) heterosexual male model's backside, that bit of information NEVER reaches the media. The cocaine, maybe; the homosexuality, never. Any NBA reporter who reported it would be shut out of locker room news gathering so fast it would make his head spin. Even Mike Lupica would never have the same level of access if he reported something like that. Even though the NBA's player culture might be notoriously intolerant, the players would roast that unfortunate reporter alive. The editor, were he so foolish to let such a story reach the print or the air, might lose his job.

(There is an exception - if John is suffering from HIV. Then John's tale of woe becomes a cautionary tale.)

There are times, frankly, when John wishes he could be forgotten.

There are times, frankly, when Mary wishes she could be remembered.



* - These major colleges are sometimes called "basketball colleges". The tirem is not mean to compliment the institution reaching its athletic goals. In essence, these are trade schools. As Paul Fussell wrote, the quality of an educational institution is usually (but not always) inversely proportional to the quality of its sports teams and the role that sports plays in campus life.

CSKA: It's Over

From the RebKell Message Board: a poster quotes an article from http://news.sportbox.ru - the Google translated version.

Women' s CSKA of removed of from of the of country' s of championship of because of of funding of problems, transmits of radio of " Mayak" , referring to of the Of president of of the Of russian Of federation Of sergei Of chernov of basketball. In the club itself information about the removal from the championship they did not confirm, but also they did not refute, after saying that the official solution thus far no one assumed. In of the of club of about of withdrawing of from of the of championship is of not of confirmed of nor of refuted, saying of that a of formal of decision of yet, no of one of has. In the federation of the basketball of Russia the information so remained unconfirmed; however, the representatives OF [RFB] were intended to soon meet with the management the TsSKA (Central Sports Club of the Army) and to discuss the future of command in the championship of Russia. In of the Of basketball Of federation of Of russia in of the of same of information of remains of unconfirmed, but of the RFB of intend of shortly to of meet of with of the of leaders CSKA and discuss of the of future of of the of team of championship in Of russia.

In short, CSKA Moscow is probably declaring bankruptcy. Hammon, McCarville, all of their stars will be released. Says "HotforHammon" at RebKell:

We had feeling it was comming yesterday. Some of our Russian members reported Becky and her parents went out after the game yesterday and she told them she would likely be leaving the club soon then gave over her signed shoes and posed for pics and signed autographs for the members of her Russian fan site that traveled to the game. It sounded like a goodbye.

Our Dream players in the Spanish, French, Polish, Turkish, Chinese and Greek leagues are all right.



So far.

Ngoyisa Suspended for One Game

Reading the French media, it appears that Bernadette Ngoyisa of Union Hainaut has been suspended for one game due to picking up her third technical foul of the season. At least, that's what I *think* the reason is. The suspension will take place during the Union Hainaut-Villeneuve d'Ascq game on December 7th.

I'll ask someone who knows more about Ligue Feminine basketball than I do to confirm this.

Schedule of Week's Games

Okay, this schedule might be a little different.

As some of you might know, I'm going to be away from the computer for substantial amounts of times between Tuesday, November 25th and Sunday, November 30th. This means that reports on the games below will either be:

a) not written at all,
b) have a box score only, or
c) be substantially delayed.

You heard it here first. The game I'm most interested in this week is Extrugasa-Olivais, as the outcome of that game will be a major factor in whether Extrugasa goes on to the second round of Eurocup.

Tuesday

WCBA: Beijing (6-5) vs. Guangdong (6-5)
WCBA: Zhejiang (0-11) vs. Jiangsu (7-4)

Wednesday

Euroleague: Ros Casares (4-2) vs. Prague (2-4) *
Euroleague: Union Hainaut (2-4) vs. Sibenik (2-4) *
Euroleague: Gambrinus (2-4) vs. Villeneuve d'Ascq (1-5) *

Thursday

Eurocup: Extrugasa (2-3) vs. Olivais (2-3) **

Saturday

LFB (Spain): Ros Casares (8-1) vs. Zaragoza (3-6)
LFB (Spain): Cadi La Seu (3-6) vs. Extrugasa (2-7)
LFB (France): Union Hainaut (7-4) vs. Landes (2-9)
LFB (France): Mondeville (4-7) vs. Villeneuve d'Ascq (6-5)
WCBA: Beijing (6-5) vs. Yunan (4-7) ***
WCBA: Shanghai (4-7) vs. Jiangsu (7-4) ***

Sunday

PLKK: Cukierki (3-9) vs. Rybnik (8-4)
TBBL: Ceyhan (2-3) vs. Tarsus (2-3)
TBBL: Samsun (3-2) vs. Çankaya Üniversitesi (1-5)
Greek Women's A1: Paleo Faliro (2-4) vs. Apollon Kalamarias (3-3)

* - Euroleague standings
** - Eurocup standings
*** - WCBA standings as of Monday, 11-24-2008

TBBL 5/2008: Fenerbahçe 58, Samsun 56

The second game between a Turkish team with an Atlanta Dream player on the team and an undefeated team took place today. It looked like Fenerbahçe (6-0) was going to cruise to its sixth victory until a disastrous third quarter forced both teams to fight it out at the end, with Fenerbahçe winning by one bucket over Samsun, 58-56.

The quarter by quarter score displays a Fenerbahçe team in firm control of the first half, leading 34-23 going into the haltime break. Fortunately for Samsun, Fenerbahçe would only score five points in the third quarter and Samsun would close to within two points, 39-37. The result would be that Fenerbahçe would have to fight Samsun neck and neck, managing to finish one basket ahead at the end.

Fenerbahçe won the shooting battle, 47 percent to 38 percent. Samsun stayed in the fight by destroying their opposition on the offensive boards, picking up 19 offensive rebounds to seven offensive rebounds for Fenerbahçe. Fenerbahçe also had four more turnovers than Samsun, giving Samsun extra opportunity to keep pace with Fenerbahçe.

For Fenerbahçe, Esmeral Tunçluer scored 21 points, four rebounds and five assists. Nevriye Yilmaz scored 15 points for Fenerbahçe.

They were the only players on Fenerbahçe to score in double digits. Matee Ajavon of the Houston Comets scored six points...but had twelve turnovers. Tammy Sutton-Brown - a center for the Indiana Fever - scored six points, and Kristen Newlin, a graduate of Stanford scored two points.

Nesibe Uzun led Samsun with 19 points. Erlana Larkins scored a double-double for Samsun with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Alison Bales scored seven points, but on 3 for 9 shooting. However, she picked up seven rebounds. Julie McBride scored three points and four assists.

After a lot of hitches with the TBBL website, it looks like pictures are finally showing up. Both Turkish game leagues should have pictures soon.

The Great Dream-Comets Merger

Note: The following is a work of fiction, and hopefully not a premonition.

In the later months of 2008, the WNBA realized that it had a problem with the Houston Comets - there were no takers. A planned relocation to Dallas had unfortunately fallen through, and it looked like the Comets would be forced to disappear as a franchise, its players scattered in a dispersal draft.

WNBA President Donna Orender had been told by NBA Commissioner David Stern that given the choice between only 13 teams and the Houston Comets existing in some manner, he wanted the Comets to exist. Many of the WNBA's hardcore fans - who posted at the Rebkell Message Board - were of the opinion that if the Houston Comets disappeared, it would be a disaster. The Comets had won the first four WNBA championships. Some posters marked that it would be "the end of the league".

With a declining economy, however, it looked to Orender that saving the Comets was impossible until a football playing friend suggested a radical solution. The Comets would not be dissolved. Rather, they would be merged with an existing franchise until the nation's recession/depression faded and some new owner arose. At that point, the merged team would be "demerged", and the Houston Comets part of the team would go off to Houston, or wherever. The Comets would still exist - maybe not in Houston, but somewhere.

He pointed to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who, to help the NFL survive during World War II, merged first with the Philadelphia Eagles (becoming the "Steagles").

Granted, Houston would only exist in the sense of a technicality - the team would be only theoretically alive - but it was better than nothing. Donna Orender proposed the solution in December after the deal with the new Dallas owner fell through (he was facing serious insider trading charges).

The first problem was which team would have to merge with Houston. Everyone turned to Atlanta, since a) Atlanta's fans were very supportive of the Dream despite its poor record, and b) Atlanta had the least clout, having only been in the WNBA for one year.

The matter went to a league vote, which voted in favor of the idea - 7 to 6. Furthermore, the league would only allow the merger to exist for one year. Teams were afraid that the new Atlanta-Houston team would be a juggernaut, combining the best of the Dream and the Comets.

Since Ron Terwilliger was paying the money, he had a large say in how the team would operate. The new team would be called the Atlanta Dream, much to the dismay of Houston fans. The Comets-Dream combination was called "Come-D" (pronounced "comedy") by the fans of the WNBA on Rebkell.

It would wear the powder blue, red, white combination associated with the Dream, and there would be no addition of either Houston insignia or colors. Houston fans were very unhappy and turned their anger towards the Dream organization.

The team would play 10 of its scheduled home games at Philips Arena in Atlanta, and seven games would be played at the Reliant Center in Houston. Houston, still sore over the absorption of their team, would only cheer Houston players and boos could be heard from the rooftops at Reliant whenever Betty Lennox or Ivory Latta were announced in the lineup. Fans of neither the Dream nor the Comets liked the new schedule. Furthermore, the teams that were the best draws in the Western Conference - San Antonio, Los Angeles, Seattle - would all have their home games in Atlanta and not Houston. Houston was particularly unhappy about not playing San Antonio at home and viewed the Dream organization as a bunch of poachers.

The team would have co-head coaches for the only time. It might have worked in theory but not in practice. Marynell Meadors and Karleen Thompson did not see eye to eye and clashed. Meadors would have control over the offense with Thompson given the defensive duties.

Players from Houston felt no loyalty to Meadors, and the Atlanta clique saw no need to obey Thompson. There were also clashes between players. Tina Thompson and Betty Lennox did not get along. Michelle Snow and Kasha Terry got into a fight during practice that brought players from the merged teams to blows. It ended with Terry being traded to the Sky for virtually nothing. The Houston press fueled fan anger and the Atlanta press viewed the proceedings as proof that the WNBA was a joke league.

Oddly enough, attendance went up in both Atlanta and Houston. Scarcity drove up the need to attend games - there were only so many home games in either Atlanta or Houston. The "Atlanta Comedy" finished at 18-16, good enough to send the Dream to the playoffs for the first time...where they were swept by the Connecticut Sun.

Houston would find a new buyer, and the next year the Comets would move back to Houston, taking their coaching staff and their players with them. Of course, in 2010 the Chicago Sky was in trouble. Once again, the league turned to the Dream....

TBBL 5/2008 - Ceyhan 81, Beşiktaş 78

For Ivory Latta and Alison Bales, each of their Turkish teams would play an undefeated team in the Turkish League. Ceyhan (2-3) had only one win in four tries and was on the road but managed to defeat formerly undefeated Beşiktaş (4-1) by a score of 81-78 on their own home court.

The quarter by quarter score suggests a game that teeter-tottered back and forth. Ceyhan jumped out to a 23-15 lead after the first quarter, but by halftime, the visitors were only up by three points, 35-32. Beşiktaş poured it on in the third quarter 28-19 to take a 60-54 lead into the final quarter -they finished the quarter with a 12-2 run - but Ceyhan would outscore Beşiktaş by almost ten points in the final quarter for a comeback win.

Each team shot exactly 40 percent from the field. Beşiktaş had the rebounding advantage but they also turned the ball over more. This game would be decided on free throws, with Ceyhan granted an insane twenty-nine visits to the free throw line, hitting seventeen of them. You wouldn't think 59 percent free throw shooting helped the winning team win, but there you go.

Milica Dabovic led all Beşiktaş players with 22 points. Alexis Hornbuckle, a rookie guard with the Detroit Shock this year, scored 17 points, six rebounds and four assists. Shay Doron, who played for the New York Liberty in 2007, scored 15 points and nine rebounds and Laura Harper, a rookie forward for the Sacramento Monarchs, picked up eight points and eight rebounds.

Charel Allen would lead all players with 27 points and 12 rebounds for Ceyhan. Michelle Campbell scored another double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Ivory Latta added 19 points and four rebounds, but was 7 for 18 from the field and 3 for 5 from the line - it wasn't a great game for Ivory. Tiffani Johnson returned back to the lineup, but only scored two points in 10 minutes.

Pictures will probably be up on the TBBL website. However, the site was down for most of the morning, so we might have to wait.

LFB (France) 11/2008 - Union Hainaut 64, Tarbes 62

Just last year, the Valenciennes and Saint-Amand teams in the French League could expect to find themselves at or near the top of the league. When those two clubs combined to become Union Hainaut (7-4), they found themselves looking up at the top for the first time. Despite a slow start and unimpressive slew of Euroleague games, Union Hainaut marched into Tarbes (10-1) and sent Tarbes to its very first loss this year in either the French League or Euroleague as the visitors scored an upset, 64-62.

The boxscore is here.

It looked as if Tarbes could keep Union Hainaut away form a win. They led 34-24 at halftime, and probably expected to expand the lead. Instead, Union Hainaut kept up with Tarbes in the third quarter and were still within 10 points, 51-41. In the fourth quarter, Union Hainaut held the home team to 11 points and managed a come from behind victory - down 58-57 with just two minutes left, Bernadette Ngoyisa scored five consecutive points for Union Hainaut to lead them to third place in the French League.

Based on shooting percentage, someone reading the boxscore would expect Tarbes to win automatically - they shot 49 percent compared to Union Hainaut's 40 percent. Rebounding was even, but Union Hainaut picked up six offensive boards compared to Tarbes's two. Furthermore, Tarbes turned the ball over six more times than Union Hainaut. Union Hainaut also shot 90 percent from the free throw stripe and scored three more free throws than Union Hainaut. Add to that the fact that Tarbes only hit one 3-point shot and Union Hainaut found enough space in the boxscore - so to speak - to edge out a win.

For hometeam Tarbes, Isabelle Yacoubou-Dehoui led all players with 21 points and nine rebounds. Ndeye Ndiaye had 17 points and seven rebounds but also five turnovers. Tanisha Wright, a guard for the Seattle Storm playing for Tarbes, had 14 points and eight assists.

The distribution of points for Union Hainaut was a bit more evenhanded. Sabrina Reghaissa led all players with 13 points, but Bernadette Ngoyisa had nine points and 11 rebounds. Sabrina Palie added 11 points and Chioma Nnamaka added nine points for Union Hainaut.

I'm sure there will be pictures of the game soon.

Greek Women's A1 6/2008 - Panionos 61, Paleo Faliro 51

It's always hard to find out how well "Κριστίν Χάινι" is doing playing for her new team "Παλαιό Φάληρο" - and now you know why it's so hard. Paleo Faliro (3-3) tried to move further away from .500, but they were brought down to earth by Panionios (3-3), as the home team won the battle 61-51.

The boxscore is here.

Paleo Faliro managed to take a 17-13 lead after the first quarter, but Panionios came back in the second quarter to take a 29-25 lead into halftime. Panionos extended their lead to nine points in the third quarter and held Paleo Faliro at arm's length for the last 10 minutes for the victory.

Panionios outshot Paleo Faliro 44 percent to 40 percent. The biggest difference was in rebounding, as Paleo Faliro was outrebounded 36-25 - Paleo Faliro only had five offensive rebounds. Paleo Faliro shot 10-for-14 from the free throw line - Panionios only went eight times for giveaway shots - but it wasn't enough to overcome Panionios's rebounding advantage.

Another problem for Palea Faliro was that they only played seven players. Four of those players played a full forty minutes. Karen Mourd and Teana Miller did not play at all.

Aikaterina Deli led all players at Panionios with 18 points. Dafni Stavrakaki added 15 points for Panionios. Sheri Sam, a guard/forward with the Detroit Shock, scored seven points and six rebounds in 30 minutes for Panionios.

As for Paleo Faliro, Kristin Haynie finally found the game she had been looking for. She scored 20 points and 12 rebounds for Paleo Faliro and played all forty minutes, shooting 7 for 14 from the field and 5 for 6 at the free throw line. Tatiana Zotovo scored 10 points and nine rebounds in 40 minutes, and Fotoula Volonaki scored 10 points and seven rebounds in 40 minutes.

I doubt that we'll be able to find pictures.

New Gallery of Rybnik-Leszno Pictures

Kasha Terry and Detrina White share a moment.

It can be found right here.

There have to be at least sixty or seventy pictures here. The one above is one of my favorites.

Polish Cup Play to Begin

An event which is called the Polish Cup will take place beginning in December. Information from the PLKK website is here.

Ten teams will take place, but as it turns out, CCC Nandyal and Utex Row Rybnik are not only taking place, but have byes. They won't be expected to play any games until January 28th, when they play the winner of Jelenia Góra – Cukierki.

If I can remember that those games are taking place, I'll create write-ups.

PLKK 12/2008 - Rybnik 78, Leszno 72

Kasha Terry (#35) and her friends celebrate another job well done.

Even though the PLKK hasn't made it to the halfway point of the season, Rybnik (8-4) has played half of its games. Each team plays all of its league opponents once at home, and once away. Despite their win over a team from Leszno (3-8) on Saturday by a score of 78-72, Utex Row Rybnik is still stuck in sixth place - there are six teams over .500; the rest are under.

A gallery of pictures from the game is here.

Looking at the quarter-by-quarter score, this appears to be a very close game. The game was tied at halftime 44-44, and even though Rybnik had a three point lead at the end of the third quarter - the score was 60-57 - a three-point lead is nothing in basketball. It's one of those games I read about and say, "Boy, I wish Utex Row Rybnik carried some sort of live feed."

Visiting Rybnik outshot home team Leszno 44 percent to 37 percent. Rybnik won the battle of rebounding, but Leszno had three more offensive rebounds than the women of Rybnik. Leszno would send their visitors to the line 24 times, and this would give Rybnik seven extra points - which, if you look at the score, might have been the key to Rybnik's victory.

Two players did the bulk of the heavy lifting for Leszno. The first was Ashley Shields, who played seven games as a member of the Detroit Shock this year. Shields led all players on both teams with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Assisting her was Edyta Krysiewicz with 24 points. DeTrina White, who last played for the New York Liberty in 2005, was a recent acquisition by Leszno and scored six points in her debut.

For Rybnik, Nataliya Trafimava led with 24 points and seven rebounds. Kasha Terry had a great day, scoring 19 points on 7 for 11 shooting and 5 for 5 shooting from the free throw line. She also picked up nine rebounds. Ketia Swanier would score 18 points and seven rebounds in her second game for Rybnik.

LaTangela Atkinson was suffering from a concussion and did not play.

Westhead Out of Work in Oklahoma City

NBA fans will pay close attention to the fact that P. J. Carlesimo is out of a job at Seat--uh, at Oklahoma City. WNBA fans, however, read the fine print:

It's a players' league and if a team's best player doesn't completely buy into what the coach is preaching, the coach almost always takes the fall. Magic Johnson effectively had Paul Westhead fired after the Lakers won a title.

Carlesimo, at 21-74 with the Sonics/Thunder, had no chance. (Paul) Westhead, coincidentally, was an assistant on Carlesimo's staff and was also let go.

This means that Paul Westhead, who won a WNBA title with the Phoenix Mercury in 2007, is currently available. The strange sound you heard is the sound of the ears perking up of every team in the WNBA that didn't make the playoffs.

Well, maybe not the Atlanta Dream. Let's see, we have:

Marynell Meadors, a head coach in the WNBA for three seasons
Carol Ross, an SEC coach of the year and a very successful college coach for several seasons as a Dream assistant coach
Fred Williams, a head coach of USC and also a head coach in the old NWBL

Even if you look at the Vice President of Media Relations (Tonya Alleyne), she was the head coach at San Diego City College. Something tells me that the Atlanta Dream would have no problem finding a new coach in the organization if Meadors leaves.

LFB (France) - 11/2008 - Villeneuve d'Ascq 77, Montpellier 69

Two of the five teams tied at 5-5 in the French league were looking for an important win - with two undefeated teams and no team better than 6-4, every team needs all the attention it can get. Against Montpellier (5-6), home field advantage might have provided a little bit of help as Villeneuve d'Ascq (6-5) won 77-69 in front of a crowd of 1,100 spectators.

The boxscore is here.

It was actually a close game for the first half. Montpelier only led one in the first quarter, and by halftime, the game was tied 42-42. In the third quarter, Villeneuve d'Ascq marched out to a six point lead and outscored Montpellier 35-27 over the course of the final twenty minutes.

Montpellier outshot the visitors 44 percent to 41 percent. It was Villeneuve d'Ascq, however, that won the battle of rebounding on both the offensive and total rebounding sides of the coin. Furthermore, Montpellier turned the ball over 22 times. Those two keys of the game made the difference for Villeneuve d'Ascq against Montpellier's slightly superior shooting.

Four players scored in double figures for Villeneuve d'Ascq. Géraldine Robert led all scorers for Villeneuve d'Ascq with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Iziane Castro Marques would score 18 points, but it would take 23 shots for Izi to score all of those points - the 18 points are misleading. Milijana Evtoukhovitch scored 10 points and 11 rebounds for Villeneuve d'Ascq, the only player on either side to score a double-double. Jolene Anderson played for 25 minutes but only had four points to show for it.

As for Montpellier, Sheana Mosch led all plyers with 22 points and four assists. Three other players scored in double figures for Montpellier, including Elodie Bertal with 14 points and seven rebounds. Khadijah Whittington, who played for the Indiana Fever this year, was out for Montpellier with an injury.

Pictures will either come or not come. C'est la vie.

LFB (Spain) 9/2008 - Joventut 75, Extrugasa 68

For Extrugasa (2-7), it's turning out to be a very disappointing season. With the players they had on the roster at the beginning of the season, Extrugasa expected to compete, but Sholokova and Alexis both disappeared, and Extrugasa was left to scramble to replace them. At least they were playing at home against Joventut (7-2). Maybe Extrugasa could break its losing streak in the Spanish league.

Not today. Extrugasa lost 75-65 at home. It was the sixth straight loss for Extrugasa in the Spanish women's league, and puts them in 13th place among 14 teams.

The boxscore is here.

Extrugasa fell behind in the first quarter and by halftime they were down by 12 points, 42-30. In the third quarter, Extrugasa would stage a comeback, and the third quarter would end 53-51 with Extrugasa just a basket behind. Unfortunately, the fourth quarter would end with Joventut firmly in control and Extrugasa on their way to yet another loss. enCancha.com called it "a day without surprises" and that in the fourth quarter, Extrugasa fell into their old lapses. However, the news was not all bad: according to encancha.com, Mandisa Stevenson seems to be picking up the offense well.

Joventut came out shooting 50 percent as opposed to the 39 percent of Extrugasa. The other keys of the game - offensive rebounding, turnover, and free throw visits were virtually equal for both teams. A high point for Extrugasa was in its free throw performance, where it hit 13 out of 14 attempts.

Leading Extrugasa was new acquisition Mandisa Stevenson, with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Miriam Herrera Arevalo would score 11 points and Maria Asurmendi Villaverde added 11 points. For Tamera Young, it was a disappointing game - two points on five shots - but she played 20 minutes and picked up four rebounds for Extrugasa.

The leaders of Joventut were Armintie Price with 19 points and nine rebounds and Linda Page with 13 points. Price is a shooting guard with the Chicago Sky. Page was a graduate of North Carolina State (and has a shooting clinic, if you don't know).

LFB (Spain) 9/2008 - Ros Casares 65, Ibiza 57

Erika de Souza is still out with a muscle pull. Ros Casares is concerned that without Erika de Souza's rebounding power, it might have a hard time competing against teams in Euroleague. Even though Ros Casares (8-1) kept its second-place position in the Liga Feminina with a 65-57 win over Ibiza (2-7), it wasn't an impressive win.

The boxscore is here.

Both teams rebounded evenly well. Ros Casares had Jana Vesela leading them in rebounds, with seven. Their next match is on Wednesday against a Prague team with Swin Cash and Lindsay Whalen. Jana Vesela is okay, but she's no Erika.

WCBA 11/2008 - Jiangsu 91, Guangdong 73

Dean Oliver, a basketball stats maven, once wrote that there is more to be learned when two teams with identical records play than there is when two teams, say 8-2 and 2-8, play. Jiansgu (7-4) was tied with Guangdong (6-5) going into Saturday's game, but in the second half of the game the two teams were in no way even. Home team Jiangsu beat Guangdong 91-73.

The win puts Jiangsu in third place by itself in the WCBA. Only Bayi Telecom (8-3) and Liaoning (9-2) are ahead of Jiangsu, and these are the only two teams to win WCBA championships in its short history.

The boxscore is here.

Hometeam Jiangsu took a 21-16 lead after the first ten minutes and would keep the lead for the rest of the game. Guangdong closed to within four by halftime, 44-40. Jiangu would begin to extend its lead in each of the following quarters and by the end, Jiangsu was threatening to win by twenty.

Each team shot extremely well. Jiangsu shot 51 percent and Guangdong shot 47 percent. It was the sheer volume of shots that gave Jiangsu the edge. Their number of two-point attempts exceeded all of the shots Guangdong took. Add to that the fact that Jiangsu scored 17 offensive rebounds and that Guangdong turned the ball over 25 times, and Jiangsu's victory was almost a foregone conclusion. I'd love to see the first half stats of this game and compare them with the second half.

Xu Song led Jiangsu with 22 points and nine rebounds. Five players would score in double points for Jiangsu, among them Bian Lan. Lan, an important figure in women's basketball in China, came very close to a triple double - 16 points, eight rebounds, 10 assists.

What about Ann Strother? She started and played 33 minutes, but only scored five points and four rebounds. She was 2-for-7 in shooting, a subpar day for Ann.

Chasity Melvin would lead all players from Guangdong with 19 points and eight rebounds. Melvin plays for the Chicago Sky of the WNBA. Zhu Lin would also scored 10 points and seven rebounds, bu talso turned the ball over six times for Guangdong.

WCBA 11/2008 - Beijing 73, Hayao 69

We're at the halfway point of the WCBA season. There are 12 teams in the Chinese League, and each team plays the other twice - once home and once away. Teams play in the second half of the season in the exact same order as they did in the first half.

It looks like in order to make it to the playoffs - eight of the 12 teams go to the postseason - a team will need at least a .500 record. Beijing (6-5) needed to crawl a little further from that questionable margin, and they made it, beating Hayao (6-5) on the road by a score of 73-69.

The translated boxscore of the game is here.

Hayao only put seven players on the floor, and immediately began to fall behind, losing the first quarter 23-15 and going into halftime down 39-33 to visiting Beijing. Hayao managed to close the gap to within three points at the end of the third quarter, 55-52, but Beijing managed to hold off the shorthanded home team and move to one game above .500.

Both teams shot evenly well, each team in the mid-forties. Beijing clearly won rebounding battle with 18 offensive rebounds. Hayao turned the ball over four more times, but they were also sent to the line more frequently. Most likely, rebounding was what gave Beijing the victory.

Liu Jiacen most likely had the best performance of the Hayao players, scoring 19 points and 10 rebounds. Miao Lijie picked up 25 points and four assists, and the only other player in double figures for Hayao was Gao Song, with nine points and six rebounds.

Beijing was able to field an entire team, and to spread the burden of the scoring around to four performers, all starters. Zhang Fan led all players with 17 points and eight rebounds. Jennifer Lacy had 16 points and eight rebounds, but it was a so-so game for her - she was 6-for-16 from the floor and one for two from the line. Zhang Wei would also score 16 points and Zhou Honghua added 10 points and seven rebounds for winning Beijing.

I don't know if pictures will ever be found for many of these games. For now, I'll just try to make sense of it all.

NBA Attendance Numbers Begin to Sag

There's a story at YaHoo! Sports about how NBA teams are seeing noticable declines in attendance. One commenter proposes the following theory, with which I agree.

1. Yuppie fans are flush with money, can pay high ticket prices and prices for merchandising, which leads to
2. ...an increase in the NBA's operating costs and salaries.
3. The financial crisis hits, and yuppies have better ways to spend their money.
4. However, NBA teams have to generate revenue based on an earlier financial model. They assumed these free-spending yuppies would always be there. In order to raise more revenue, they....
5. ...raise ticket prices.
6. This drives the "financially marginal fans" out. The "financially marginal fans" are the ones most sensitive to ticket prices, which leads to....
7. ...notable decreased attendance at NBA games.

First, yuppies generally don't go to WNBA games. The purpose of a yuppie is not to watch the game, but to be seen by the power elite. Since a NBA (and not a WNBA) franchise is a massive vanity purchase, it's more likely that the power elite would be at an NBA game and not an WNBA game. You're more likely to see a) lesbians, b) ordinary families bringing their daughters and sons, and c) women's basketball fanatics - these groups can overlap by the way - than the elite in the audience at a WNBA game. The disappearance of the yuppie contigent would have less impact on the W than on the NBA.

Second, the salary cap in the WNBA isn't that large. Hell, it's only around $1 million dollars. This is the cost of two replacement NBA players, neither having any NBA experience. I'm sure that most of the money involved in running a WNBA franchise is in operating costs, and not salaries. Unless NBA teams sharing arenas with WNBA teams attempt to charge more in arena operating rents to make up their decreased incomes, that shouldn't change.

Third, WNBA fans don't pay much in ticket prices compared to their NBA counterparts. Rises in ticket prices would hit them more proportionally than the rise in NBA tickets - remember the concept of "utility" in ECON 101?
There are probably more financially marginal fans in the WNBA. It's a game that people without a lot of money (but a lot of heart) can affordably attend.

Either one or two things would happen - either a rise in WNBA tix prices would drive out the marginal fans, or the cost of the rise would be so much smaller (compared to a similar percentage rise of a NBA team's tickets) that the WNBA fan would be more willing to pay the difference. The NBA has basically priced poor and middle class fans out of attending games; WNBA fans that aren't making $100 K a year can actually afford tickets.

Fourth, WNBA fans are probably more...uh...fanatical than NBA fans. There's the joke among WNBA fans that you can't give away WNBA tickets to your friends...because your friends are also season ticket holders. WNBA fandom is a real labor of love, and I think the community there is a bit tighter. The yuppies can take a casual attitude toward game attendance; WNBA fans arrange their whole evening around it.

In the NBA, the price is above the quality of the product. In the WNBA, the price is either at quality or below the product quality - in which case, you get a bang for your buck.

In this recession/depression/deflation, will the WNBA be taking a financial hit? Yes. Everyone will be taking a financial hit, particularly sports like the WNBA. But as a commenter at RebKell put it, "The WNBA will be the first to feel the pain...but the NBA will be doing all of the hemorrhaging."

Jiangsu, Nanjing, Yixing

More information from Ann Strother about her time in China.

* Jiangsu is owned by a steel company in Nanjing. The Jiangsu games are played in Yixing. According to Strother, there is a big training center in Nanjing where all of the athletes live in dorms. They spend most of their year there and train all year round for these four months of WCBA competition. Due to China's "one child" policy, most of these girls are very close to each other (having no sisters or brothers at home).

* Britney Spears's star may have dimmed somewhat in the U. S., but she's still very big in China...at least in Karaoke.

* One time, Strother went to practice with her court and the practice court dimensions were in the middle of a large gym surrounded by badminton courts. In addition to practice, Strother had to dodge badminton birdies every now and then. (I'm sure the badminton players had to deal with loose basketballs as well.)

More to come.

Women in Sports Illustrated - November 24, 2008

Number of pages: 81, counting the cover
Number of pages devoted to women: 1.08

One 3/4 of a page is an article about women's judo legend Rena Glickman.

Another 1/9 of a page is a hot tip from Ashley Judd - talking about University of Kentucky men's basketball.

1/9 of a page highlights Florence Schelling - a freshman goalie at Northeastern. This is the random "Faces in the Crowd" section, where you're most likely to find a story about the accomplishments of women athletes.

Another 1/9 of Faces highlights Joy Monahan, a surfer. Another 1/9 highlights Marcela Gurzel, a volleyball player.

The article in the back by Selena Roberts doesn't count. Nor does Jimmie Johnson's eye candy, ol' what's-her-name.

Total percent of magazine devoted to women, counting Ashley Judd - 1.33 percent.

"So what are you implying, Pet?" some might ask. My answer. "Nothing at all. Simply stating a fact." Interpret it how you wish; we aim to please.

One More Game for Extrugasa....

With only one game left in Group J of Eurocup, here's how Group J looks after five games:

Tarbes	5-0
Olivais	2-3
Extrugasa	2-3
Ribera	1-4

On Wednesday November 26th, Tarbes plays Ribera. Tarbes had a tough time playing Ribera, winning by one point in Italy 65-64. This time, Tarbes will be playing on its home court and it hasn't lost a game all year. It doesn't really matter if Tarbes wins or loses; Tarbes is fighting for position.

Assuming that Tarbes wins, this leaves a game versus Olivais on Thursday November 27th - Thanksgiving Day in America. Olivais won at home 74-72 in their last meeting and this match could go either way.

So how does the second round work? There are twelve groups with four teams in each group. Forty teams in all. Thirty-two of those teams go to the next round:

12 first-place finishers
12 second-place finishers
8 third place finishers
___________________

32 total second-round teams

If Extrugasa beats Olivais, that will clinch second place in Group J. Extrugasa will automatically advance to the second round.

If they lose, then they finish in third place. Ribera could theoretically beat Tarbes and tie with Extrugasa, but both of Extrugasa's victories have come at Ribera's expense. If Extrugasa finishes third, then

a) they only have a 2/3 chance of going to the second round, and
b) they'll end up playing one of the top eight teams in Eurocup in the second round - and seven teams in Eurocup are currently undefeated.

Extrugasa had high hopes this year both in the Spanish League and in Eurocup. Going to the playoffs in the Spanish League is more and more uncertain; going to the second round - even if they lose - would save Extrugasa some embarassment. Like it or not, this Olivais game next Thursday is looking like a must-win situation.

Sylvia Fowles Dunks in Euroleague

Chicago sky rookie Sylvia Fowles dunked in a Euroleague game. She was a dunker for Spartak Moscow. The dunk-ees were Bereatta Familia. It happened yesterday, November 19th, 2008.

Go here to see the dunking. Worth two points in anybody's league.

Of course, the haters will say that her dunk doesn't count because she didn't dunk the "proper" way. Whatever.

Eurocup 5/2008 - Tarbes 56, Extrugasa 51

If home is where the heart is, then Extrugasa (2-3) had to find the heart to secure a place in the second round of Eurocup around against Tarbes (5-0), undefeated both in Eurocup and French league play and 1-0 against Extrugasa, having defeated them 83-52 in France. Extrugasa had heart and attempted a comeback, but they once against fell short to Tarbes,

The boxscore will be posted when we have it.

Tarbes started the first quarter with a 13-3 run, with Isabelle Yacoubou-Dehou picking up six first quarter rebounds for Tarbes and Ndeye Ndiaye scoring seven first quarter points. Tanisha Wright finished the first quarter with a three-pointer to put Tarbes up 21-9 after 10 minutes. Extrugasa fought back in the second quarter, closing the gap to 25-23 with 4:46 left before Tarbes went on a 9-0 run to close out the quarter. In the first half, Tarbes shot 46 percent to Extrugasa's measly 25 percent.

Extrugasa battled back in the fourth quarter, closing to one point, 40-39, with 2:53 to go. However, Tarbes would score the next eight points in the game. Once again, Extrugasa battled back, closing to 54-50 with 37 seconds left, but Frida Eldebrink scored two free throws to put the game out of reach.

By the end of the game, Extrugasa would still be shooting 28 percent. What pulled them to within five points of undefeated Tarbes? Turnovers and free throws. Tarbes turned the ball over 23 times and what was worse, allowed Extrugasa to go to the line 19 times where they hit 17 shots. The outcome could have been much worse for Extrugasa; the game highlights the importance of good free throw shooting.

Tamera Young scored a double-double for home team Extrugasa against undefeated Tarbes - 12 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists. Katia da Silva had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Jaklin Zlatanova added 12 points. Mandisa Stevenson did not play.

As for Tarbes, Isabelle Yacoubou-Dehoui led all scorers with 14 points and 12 rebounds - eight of those rebounds in the first half. Ndeye Ndiaye scored 12 points. Tanisha Wright, a guard for the Seattle Storm playing for Tarbes, had nine points and four turnovers but also five assists.

This is the next to last game for teams in Group J in Eurocup. Tarbes has already secured its place in the second round of Eurocup. We'll have a better idea of what Extrugasa needs to do to go to the second round after the Ribera-Olivais game concludes.

Euroleague 6/2008 - Ros Casares 85, Gdynia 59

With Alana Beard and Monique Currie on their side, and at home in front of a crowd of 1,800 spectators, Lotos Gdynia (2-4) hoped they could beat Ros Casares (4-2) after losing by over forty points to El Ros in Euroleague play in Spain. Gdynia made a valiant second-quarter comeback with 25 points - but only scored 23 for the rest of the game as visiting Ros Casares won easily 85-59.

The boxscore of the game is here.

Ros Casares's win puts them alone in second place in Group C with just four games left to play. The top four finishers of each of the four groups will go on to second-round play.

Erika de Souza did not play in this game. She is still suffering a muscle injury. I suspect that if Ros Casares wins one of its four remaining Euroleague games, they should be a clinch to go to the second round. 5-5 in your group should get you there.

Rumors about Schedule, WNBA Lottery

From JRae at Rebkell:

I was called by my season ticket rep today and she told me that the Draft Lottery will be held on dec 3rd or 4th and that they were also going to release the wnba schedule sometime in dec as well. I thought it was weird that they were releasing the schedule so early but then again I havent paid attention in past seasons so i really have no idea when they usually are.

If the WNBA releases a schedule, you can be damn sure I'll post it.

Euroleague 6/2008 - Moscow 88, Villeneuve d'Ascq 79

"Janel I stp on yr foot." "OW MAI FOOT!!"

What is that they say about "any given day"? Isn't that supposed to be a football thing? Don't teams like CSKA Moscow (4-2) get what they want when it comes to Euroleague? Didn't they beat Villeneuve d'Ascq (1-5) by 52 points to open Euroleague play?

I guess that having home court advantage changes things. Against a relatively packed home court of 1600 spectators, Villeneuve d'Ascq came this close to upsetting Moscow, losing 88-79.

The boxscore is here. The writeup is here.

Looking at the quarter-by-quarter score, Villeneuve d'Ascq had a successful first half. They led 24-21 after the first 10 minutes and took a 47-41 lead into halftime. Moscow closed the gap to a bucket after the third quarter, 64-62.

For the first part of the fourth quarter it was the same story: Moscow would tie. Villeneuve d'Ascq would get the next bucket. And so on. The last time that Villeneuve d'Ascq had the lead was at 70-68 with 6:49 remaining. Becky Hammon on the Moscow team would score a three-pointer to put Moscow in the lead for the first time, and Katie Douglas and Becky Hammon would add five more quick points to go up 76-70. Moscow would never lose the lead from that point.

It was definitely a close game with lots of great play. Villeneuve d'Ascq shot 50 percent and Moscow shot 53 percent. Moscow would edge Villeneuve d'Ascq in the battle of the boards. Both teams kept turnovers low (only 11 turnovers for each team in the entire game), and both teams were miserable at the free throw line. Moscow simply muscled their way to a win.

Iziane Castro Marques was the human highlight for Villeneuve d'Ascq. She played almost the entire game, and scored 25 points in just 17 shots - very efficient. Ljubica Drljaca scored 20 points and seven rebounds, and Geraldine Robert scored a double double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Jolene Anderson played for 15 minutes, but didn't score a single point - if she or Florence Lepron (26 minutes, two points) had stepped up Villeneuve d'Ascq might have won.

As for the All-Star team that calls itself "CSKA Moscow", Ann Wauters (San Antonio Silver Stars) scored 23 points, 11 rebounds and four assists to lead the faux Muscovites. All of the Americans scored in double figures. Becky Hammon (San Antonio Silver Stars) scored 18 points and five assists, Janel McCarville (New York Liberty) scored 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and Katie Douglas (Indiana Fever) scored 16 points.

Exhaustion

Let's see, yesterday I had:

a) a doctor's appointment,
b) a full day of work, and
c) traveled through downtown traffic to watch the Georgia Tech women play.

In short: I'm exhausted. I still have the CSKA Moscow/Villeneuve d'Ascq game to post for Euroleague. I regret not posting it yesterday, as Iziane's team had a shot at knocking off Becky Xammoh.

I can't promise that it will be posted today. I'll just say it again: man, I'm tired. And more stuff to do at my "job o'work".

Euroleague 6/2008 - Prague 83, Union Hainaut 58

For Prague (2-4), it was a chance to crawl away from the bottom of Group C in Euroleague. For Union Hainaut (2-4) it was another crushing loss as Prague beat Union Hainaut at home 83-58.

The writeup is here. The boxscore is here.

According to the writeup. Prague got off to a fast start and led 24-10 after one quarter. At one point, Prague led by 20 in the first half, 41-21 when Union Hainaut went on a 13-0 run with just three minutes left in the first half to close the score to 41-34 at haltime.

After that, Swin Cash took over the game for Prague. Union Hainaut was outscored 42-24 in the second half, simply overwhelmed by the home team in front of 920 spectators in the Czech Republic. The win for Prague avenges an opening game Eurocup loss at Union Hainaut.

Prague outscored Union Hainaut 52 percent to 37 percent in field goal shooting. Up close - that is, in front of the 3-point arc - Prague was 30 for 47 in 2-point shots, shooting 63 percent. They doubled Union Hainaut over in rebounding, and were sent to the free throw line 20 times where they hit 85 percent of their shots. Union Hainaut was crushed.

Swin Cash had a monster game for Prague with 27 points, eight rebounds, and four steals. Cash plays for the Seattle Storm during the regular WNBA season. Lindsay Whalen of the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA helped in the drubbing with a 20 point, eight rebound game. Sandra Le Dréan, a French player playing in Prague, scored 11 points and 11 rebounds for Prague.

Only two players would score in double figures for Union Hainaut. Bernadette Ngoyisa would score 20 points and eight rebounds, and Kathy Wambe would have 10 points and four assists. Chioma Nnamaka would contribute eight points, but commit four personal fouls.

No gallery of pictures exists yet, but Euroleague is pretty good about that.

Cardboard Belt Time

"You know who I used to be? Max Bialystock, king of Broadway. Six shows running at once! Lunch at Delmonico's, two-hundred-dollar suits...Look at me now. Look at me now! I'm wearing a cardboard belt! I used to have thousands of investors begging, pleading to put their money in a Max Bialystock production. Look at my investors now...Hundreds of little old ladies stopping off at Max Bialystock's office to grab a last thrill on the way to the cemetery."--Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) to Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), The Producers

This was recently posted at RebKell. It is a posting from a Becky Hammon fandom board, for Russian Becky fans. It discusses the financial situation of CSKA Moscow, Becky's current club.

Another article is here. One commenter writes "This is the beginning of the end. Our basketball threatens to collapse. And across the country. "

Rumors are that the club won't make it until the end of the Russian league season. Other clubs might be affected.

Granted, the financial model of the Russian league clubs has always been suspicious. The typical rumor is that at best the clubs are owned-operated by Russian oligarchs flush off oil money or the speculative economy at best, and at worst are operated by outright Russian Mafiosi. Owning a Russian league club has been a real vanity purchase, with Russian club owners throwing the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars at the best American players for their participation in the league, even though the clubs never made that much money back or had that much attendance. The owners absorbed the loss.

Now with the global recession/depression, this might not be the case anymore. Reality is setting in. I suspect some fortunes are collapsing overnight in Russia. Rumor has it that some players in Russia haven't been paid in over a month.

My wonder is how much of the shrinking economy will affect the rest of European basketball as well as the United States. When times get tough, the sports dollar is one of the first "dollars" to take a hit. European leagues might shrink. Some European clubs, usually the ones who keep a (non-competitive) team alive because, well, because the town's had a basketball team for the last thirty years might make the tough decision to move on.

Would such a problem affect the United States? If it affects the WNBA, or NASCAR, or MLS, then the big leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB) better start quaking in their boots. Does the WNBA need to expand? (More on that, later.) Probably not right now - maybe contraction would be a good idea. For those interested in the pulse of women's basketball, any little quiver or quake can cause a whole lot of people to shiver.

Carol Ross Joins Atlanta Dream Coaching Staff

Carol Ross, a former Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year with 16 seasons of coaching experience, has just been named as an assistant coach to the Atlanta Dream.

She will be joining Fred Williams and Sue Panek on the Dream bench. The contract of Katy Steding was not renewed.

The story is here.

A taste of Ross's CV:

1978-81 - Four year starter for the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), playing for coach Van Chancellor.
1980 - Named to the SEC All-Tournament team as a player for Ole Miss.
1982 - Completes BA degree at Ole Miss.
1980s - Seven year assistant coach at Auburn University.
1990 - Takes over as head coach at the University of Florida.
2001 - Fourth basketball player to be inducted into the University of Mississippi Athletic Hall of Fame.
2002 - Leaves the University of Florida with a 247-121 record, leaving as the winningest head coach of all time of the women's basketball program. In her last 10 years, the Gators go to the NCAA tournament nine times.
2004 - Ross is named the head coach of the Women's Basketball team at Ole Miss. Each of the four years that Ross is head coach, Ole Miss would go to the post season - three times to the NCAA tournament and once to the WNIT.
2007 - Ross resigns as head coach at Old Miss after four seasons.

This can only be good news for the Dream. As for Coach Steding, we wish her the best from the Pleasant Dreams blog.

2008-2009 WNBA Calendar

Here are some important dates to keep in mind during the off-season and for 2009:

First two weeks of December 2008: teams are required to send out qualifying offers to their own players who are not signed, but to whom who they still own the rights.
Mid-December 2008 or later: 2009 WNBA Draft Lottery
December 15, 2008: Clubs may talk to any free agent in the league, but may not sign agents
January 5, 2009: Clubs may sign free agents
April 2009: WNBA Draft in St. Louis (current date unknown, April estimate)
June 6, 2009: WNBA regular season begins
September 13, 2009: WNBA regular season ends



P. S.: Corrected location of the WNBA Draft. I was looking at the NBA Draft. I blame the underpants gnomes.

My Thanksgiving Schedule

Next week, my wife and I plan to drive all the way from Atlanta, GA to Dallas, TX. We will be attending Thanksgiving with my in-laws. We intend to be back either very late Saturday or very early Sunday.

I shall be bringing my trustly Mac laptop with me, but as you can guess internet access will be few and far between. Of course, you know that the European and Asian seasons will not come to a halt just because the Americans have Thanksgiving. I'll try to post boxscores at the very least.

So if you have loved ones playing overseas, now might be a great time to mail them some pumpkin pie.

Two Hundred Days

...it is now two hundred days until the regular season of the WNBA starts in June of 2009.

And yes. It's too damn long to wait. As soon as I can find a Blogger widget that will do a running countdown, I plan to adorn the blog with a lil' clock.

President Johnson?

Washington Mystics part-owner Sheila Johnson is making a trip to Rwanda to promote sports for young women in Africa. She's making the trip under the auspices of CARE, a humanitarian organization that fights global poverty..

It's a great idea. The article gets one fact wrong, though - Johnson is not president of the WNBA. She's president of the Washington Mystics. However, it does lead to conjecture...who would make a good WNBA president once Donna Orender decides to step down?

WCBA 10/2008 - Yunan 104, Jiangsu 80

Jiangsu (6-4) had an outside chance to take third place in the WCBA. If Hayao lost and Jiangsu won, it would left Jiangsu one game behind Liaoning and Bayi Telecom. Jiangsu's opponent was 11th-place Yunan (3-7), so it should have been a simple task. Instead, Jiangsu went to Yunan and got flattened 104-80 on the road.

The boxscore is here.

Looking at the quarter by quarter score tells you all you need to know. Instead of rolling over, Yunan fought Jiangsu point by point. They ended with a tied first quarter, and going into halftime, the home team led by one, 49-48. When the third quarter started, Yunan began to roll over Jiangsu and continued rolling over them into the third quarter and for the rest of the game. Barring some significant injury, Yunan sensed that they could win this one, and they did win it.

If you're a bad team, you have to do something significant to win, and it was Yunan's shooting that sealed the deal. They hit 66 percent from the field, shades of Villanova-NC State. Shanghai "only" hit 46 percent, but Yunan was on fire. Shanghai beat them in rebounding, had about the same number of turnovers, and scored more points on free throws than Yunan, but that 66 percent shooting was just impossible to overcome.

Mystery "foreign aid" player "Walter希斯蒂格林" returns to the boxscore, and "Walter Green" just killed Jiangsu singlehandedly. She scored 40 points on 17-for-17 shooting. She hit all of her free throws, and picked up three rebounds as well. Cao Bette scored 21 points and "Lina Money" scored 10, but without "Walter" and that amazing performance, Yunan might not have had a chance in the world.

Jiangsu almost pulled it off, but they weren't good enough today. Bian Lan scored 24 points to lead Jiangsu, and Wang Xiao-Li had a double double of 13 points and 10 rebounds. As for Ann Strother, she would start but would only play 25 minutes, only scoring five points and four rebounds. She was 2 for 4 in shooting and 1 for 4 (??) at the free throw line. It wasn't her day today.

If there are pictures, I'll try to post them.

WCBA 10/2008 - Beijing 84, Shanghai 81

It looks like Beijing (5-5) is on the verge of getting the sort of team that they want. They didn't need much help from Jennifer Lacy, taking a 17 point lead into the fourth quarter against visiting Shanghai (4-6). Shanghai attempted a fourth-quarter comeback, but it wasn't enough as Beijing won 89-81 at home.

The boxscore is here.

Both teams came out of the chute raring to go, and at the end of the first quarter the score was 34-27. (If you were playing for the Indiana Fever, that might be the final score.) Beijing took a 53-41 lead into halftime and simply made sure to protect their lead. Extending the lead by five in the third quarter essentially sealed the victory.

It was definitely a high scoring game all around. Beijing shot 56 percent from the field and Shanghai shot 48 percent. Rebounding was essentially even, and so were turnovers. Beijing finally managed to have a good day at the free throw line, shooting 13 for 16.

It was the night of the Zhangs in Beijing, with all players with "Zhang" as part of their name scoring in double digits. Zhang Fan led all scorers on both teams wtih 28 points and four assists. Zhang Wei scored 20 points and Zhang Lin scored 16 points for Beijing. Jennifer Lacy would start for Beijing, and score eight points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes of play. She shot 4 for 10 for the game.

For Shanghai, "Feng Yi was" led all players with 18 points and seven rebound, leading in both scoring and rebounding. Wang Jue scored 15 points and Yang Li added 12 points for the visitors.

Angel McCoughtry a "Milo"?

There is an interesting article in the Louisville Courier-Journal about two basketball stars at Louisville - Angel McCoughtry for the women's team and Terrence Williams for the men's team.

Some relevant quotes:

McCoughtry came with even more rough edges. Former U of L coach Tom Collen, who recruited her, kept a one-way ticket to her home in Baltimore on his desk all season.

"You don't know how many times I was sure I was going to have to use it," he said.

She pouted on the court and off. She didn't take instruction well. She could not harness her ability.

The article goes on to say that both players are now "in full command of their talent", which I assume includes the ability to take direction.

The reason I highlighted this article is because of the "Milo" effect, about which I wrote about in an earlier blogpost. The point was that young or underperforming teams - and the Dream is both - cannot afford the psychological hand-holding that comes with mentally maladjusted players. They can't afford to make mistakes in the draft; they need players with as little baggage as possible.

Granted, Coach Collen is speaking about the Angel McCoughtry that arrived at the Louisville campus, and not the one that is a senior today. However, it's good practice for teams to be aware of "head" issues with looking over draft talent. There are already (unsubstantiated) rumors about Paris's laziness; I pray to god that if the Dream drafts McCoughtry that she doesn't turn out to be a primadonna.

That Was Yo

According to a blog entry from Tangela Smith, Yolanda Griffith is playing in the WCBA. So I guess that that was Yolanda Griffith in the Henan-Jiangsu game.

Ann Strother and The Twenty Year Old Fish

I've gotten some news about Ann Strother's stay in Beijing through a secondary source. I'll share some of what I've learned with you about how well Strother is doing in China. All reports tell me she's quite happy.

Right now, Strother is staying at an army base hotel, a small hotel with small rooms that have slate-like twin beds. There is a TV, and a shower stall without a tub attachement.

She states that the game is "much faster than I expected" and "they play with so much intensity and movement". Her teammates are welcoming even thought they don't know much English. The teammates that want to improve their English skills spend a lot of time with Strother.

Strother has had to face some culinary challenges. One of them was eating a twenty-year old fish which her hosts considered a delicacy. Of course, Strother tried it - I don't believe she's ever turned away from a challenge - and then was faced with plucked sparrow (head still attached) and crab innards.

Top this off with chopsticks being the only silverware - there were no knives or forks - and with wine that was "vodka times ten" according to Strother. However, Strother knows how to use chopsticks. She came out on top and mastered a new cuisine, or at least is on her way.

Storther states that her assistant coach - who self-identifies by the name of "Ding Dong" - is good friends with the owner of the Jiangsu club. Therefore, when she was there, coach and owner ingaged in a drinking contest. Everyone has their own shot glass and the custom in Jiangsu is to thank the owner for his hospitality and challenge him in downing the shot of superfortified wine. After about five glasses of this, both the coach and the owner had red faces...and after that, conversation comes easy...!

P. S. Some minor corrections added.

This Week's Games

Here's what's on tap for this week:

Tuesday

WCBA: Beijing (4-5) vs. Shanghai (4-5)
WCBA: Yunan (2-7) vs. Jiangsu (6-3)

Wednesday

Euroleague: Villeneuve d'Ascq (1-4) vs. Moscow (3-2) *
Euroleague: Prague (1-4) vs. Union Hainaut (2-3) *

Thursday

Euroleague: Gydnia (2-3) vs. Ros Casares (3-2) *
Eurocup: Extrugasa (2-2) vs. Tarbes (4-0) **

Saturday

LFB (Spain): Ibiza (2-6) vs. Ros Casares (7-1)
LFB (Spain): Extrugasa (2-6) vs. Joventut (6-2)
LFB (France): Villeneuve d'Ascq (5-5) vs. Montpellier (5-5)
LFB (France): Tarbes (10-0) vs. Union Hainaut (6-4)
PLKK: Rybnik (7-4) vs. Krakow (10-1)
WCBA: Hayao vs. Beijing
WCBA: Jiangsu vs. Guangdong

Sunday

TBBL: Beşiktaş (4-0) vs. Ceyhan (1-3)
TBBL: Fenerbahçe (5-0) vs. Samsun (3-1)
Greek Women's A1: Panionos (2-3) vs. Paleo Faliro (3-2)

* - Euroleague standings
** - Eurocup standings

LFB France 10/2008 - Union Hainaut 76, Reims 64

With two teams - Bourges and Tarbes - remaining undefeated at 10-0, there were four teams that were stuck at 5-4. Union Hainaut (6-4) was one of those teams, along with Aix-en-Provence, Arras, and Calais. The three other teams lost on Sunday, leaving Union Hainaut in sole possession of third place as they defeat Reims (4-6) at home, 76-64.

The boxscore is here.

Union Hainaut seems to have taken over in the second half. They hung on to a one point lead, 33-32, at halftime, before extending the lead to seven points after three quarters and winning by twelve.

Union Hainaut would shoot 44 percent compared to the 40 percent shooting of Reims. In rebounding, Union Hainaut had a distinct edge - they led both in offensive and defensive rebounds. Reims would score 19 points at the free throw line compared to the eight of Union Hainaut, but Reims would turn the ball over 21 times in the game.

Kathe Wambe led all players for Union Hainaut with 19 points and eight assists. Chioma Nnamaka was second in scoring with 16 points. Bernadette Ngoyisa would only contribute three points.

As for Tiffany Stansbury? Plantar fascitis. She's going to be out for at least four weeks for Union Hainaut. Union Hainaut is looking to sign someone on a short-term basis.

For visiting Reims, Amélie Pochet led all scorers with 14 points. Valeria Berezhynska, formerly at Rice University, had 11 points and five rebounds, and Manon Sinico scored 11 points as well.

Greek Women's A1 5/2008 - Aris Holargos 75, Paleo Faliro 71

After a disappointing start, undoubtedly the fans of "Κριστίν Χάινι" hoped that Paleo Faliro (2-3) would introduce Haynie to a Greek victory celebration. Unfortunately, Paleo Faliro fell short on the road again, this time to Aris Holargos, 75-71.

The boxscore is here.

Both teams played a close game in the first half. Home team Aris Holargou only led by one point, 22-21, at the end of the first quarter and led 40-38 at halftime. Unfortunately for the visitors, they were held to 13 points in the third quarter and Aris Holargou took a 61-51 lead after thirty minutes. Paleo Faliro worked towards a comeback, but fell short by four points.

Aris Holargou would shoot 50 percent form the field against the visitors, and Paleo shot 49 percent. Both teams rebounded similarly well, but Paleo Faliro was a better team on the offensive boards. Turnovers were low on both sides, with Paleo Faliro holding a slight edge.

Free throws? Both teams went to the line 27 times, and neither team shot that well - Holargou hit 19 free throws; Paleo Faliro had 17 one-pointers. All and all, the boxscore tells the story of a very close exciting game.

For Aris Holargos, Zoi Kehagia led all players on both teams with 21 points. Tamara Bowie, a graduate of Ball State in 2003, scored 21 points and 13 rebounds, a double double. Brooke Reeves scored 13 poitns and nine rebounds. Reeves was a graduate from Kansas in 2000.

Four players from Paleo Faliro scored in double digits, led by Tatiana Zotova with 19 points. Fotoula Volonaki scored 12 points, ten of them at the free throw line. Karen Mourd - our mystery player - scored 11 points and Teana Miller - I'm going with Rebecca's guess at her identity - scored eight points. Miller last played from the Charlotte Sting in 2005.

As for Kristin Haynie, she only scored eight points, on 2 for 8 shooting from the field. Kristin still hasn't found her touch in Greece - I'm hoping she finds it soon.

For pictures, consult the Oracle at Delphi.