Shooting stars in Euroleague sky

May 25, 2012

Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net

Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. For the new 2009-10 season, he offers a series of opinion blogs about what's happening on and off the court in the Euroleague.

In basketball, as in many other sports, there's the general opinion that when a player jumps from a small club to a bigger one, or when he changes levels of competition to a higher one, he will have to go through a period of adaptation and learning, even more so if the player is young. In many recent cases, the newly signed player goes to a club's "B" team or even is loaded to another club in order to gain minutes and experience. And then, there's Ante Tomic. The young Real Madrid center, and hero of Game 2 against Regal FC Barcelona, who shatters this theory even though some will claim that he's the exception who proves the rule. The biggest merit, however, goes to the player himself, who with his talent and hard work simply "forces" his coach not only to give him minutes, but to make him a starter and a key part of the team, in this case Real Madrid. His head coach, Ettore Messina, is too much of an expert not to recognize the diamond in the rough that he has in his hands, and we can all enjoy the result now: a 2.17-meter center with the body of a forward, who can score, block shots (4 against Barça!), grab rebounds, pass... When Tomic was signed in mid-January, there was some doubt. It was known that he had been the Adriatic League MVP last season, and also this one before leaving, but the doubts came because of his "soft body" or the modest level of his former team, KK Zagreb, where supposedly it was "easy to shine". Instead, Ante Tomic has shown an excpetional talent that is worthy of any club. But not of any coach. That's the difference.

A good vintage

I first saw Ante Tomic, who was born February 27, 1987 in Dubrovnik, at the 2005 European Championships for Junior Men in Belgrade. Tomic was already grabbing attention because of his height and his coordination. He was the leader of the Croatian team, with 8.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.8 blocks. Croatia may have finished eleventh, but they had a pearl for the future. Tomic's move into the spotlight now brought me back five years in time, to those 2005 junior championships, which were the source of some great Euroleague talent. Serbia and Montenegro won the gold medal led by current Olympiacos guard Milos Teodosic, who was the Euroleague's January MVP this season. The team of Spain also had Sergio Llull, now starring for Real Madrid (not to mention a European champion with the Spanish national team last summer) and Pau Ribas, a playoffs starter with Caja Laboral. Others from that tournament who have already had impact in the Euroleague include of Serbia and Montenegro winners Milenko Tepic, a former Partizan star now with Panathinaikos, and Vladimir Dasic, who is on loan from Real Madrid to Eurocup quarterfinalist Gran Canaria. It also featured former Euroleague Rising Star Trophy winner Danilo Gallinari of Italy and Nicolas Batum of France. Definitely, 2005 was a very good year.

Playoff patrol

Alright then, so far we have two 2-0 and two 1-1. The favorites beforehand have done their job at a 50% rate, even though Olympiacos was not free from problems in Game 1 against Asseco Prokom. The only team to solve the home games at ease was CSKA Moscow, who is already holding a 4-0 record against Caja Laboral this season. But Regal FC Barcelona was also 4-0 so far in the season against Real Madrid, and after losing Game 2 at home, it will have to suffer a lot to reach Paris in May.

In the past, there were instances of a team that lost the first home game (for instance, Barcelona vs. Tau or Panathinaikos vs. Montepaschi last season) but then came back to take the series. It's true that after the 1-1 in Tel Aviv and Barcelona, the psychological advantage goes now to Partizan and Real Madrid, but nothing is decided just yet. In the last two seasons, only two of eight playoff series finished with the minimum number of games possible: Montepaschi Siena 2-0 Fenerbahce Ulker in 2007-08 and CSKA Moscow 3-0 Partizan in 2008-09.

Partizan will play the next two games at Belgrade Arena, with the idea of setting new attendance records for European club basketball. The current one is 22,567, which Partizan set against Panathinaikos in the 2007-08 season -and it's in real danger now. The arena already sold out all available tickets a few days ago, but because Partizan usually plays its game as at the smaller Pionior Hall, the total number will depend on the attendance by season ticket holders. Expect them all to make it. The night of the first win in Game 1 against Maccabi Eelectra, the national TV news in Serbia opened the midnight report with the game even though country's Central Bank governor had resigned earlier in the day. In other words, Partizan's success is almost a state issue.

In a strictly sports sense, I will say nothing new if I repeat that it's always more important to play better when it matters. For instance, Barcelona's team performance index rating of 54 against Real Madrid in Game 2 was much less than its average this season of 97. The other way around, Partizan had a combined index rating of 106 in Game 1 against Maccabi, while its average was 73 until that point. But the good thing about the Playoffs is that it doesn't matter whether you win by one point or by 20. You have to win three games, so everyone still stands a chance.

The numbers

Real Madrid played its 150th Euroleague game of the decade with a victory on Thursday, for a win total total of 87, while Partizan also played game 150 but lost, leaving it at 57 wins. CSKA Moscow entered the 200-game club which only had two teams before: Caja Laboral (210) and Barcelona (205). The Moscow team added a new win to the count for a total record of 158-43, while Caja Laboral is the first team to reach 18,000 points...Curiously enough, Nikola Vujcic of Olympiacos didn't grab any rebounds against Prokom and is still 11 boards short of 1,000, while Theo Papaloukas also of Olympiacos reached 826 total assists with the three he dished in Game 2.

POSTED BY

Vladimir Stankovic - Euroleague.net

DATE:

Saturday, March 27, 2010