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Donatas Slanina and Tomas Masiulis of Prokom Trefl Sopot spent an important part of their respective career with Zalgiris Kaunas. Slanina plays for Zalgiris from 1999 to 2002, helping the team to win the 2001 Lithuanian League title. He averaged 14.5 points on 32-for-58 three-pointers in the 2000-01 Euroleague season and improved his average up to 16.6 points in 2001-02. Meanwhile, Masiulis helped Zalgiris to win the 1999 Euroleague title and played for Zalgiris from 1995 to February 2002. He also won four Lithuanian League titles with Zalgiris. Masiulis averaged 10 points in 16 Euroleague games with his former team.
Boris Gorenc still has to make his Euroleague return with Union Olimpija. If he plays this week, Gorenc will face one of his former teams, Olympiacos. Gorenc played for the Reds in the 2003-04 season and then again from January 2005 until the end of the 2004-05 campaign. He averaged 8.5 points in 20 Euroleague games in the 2003-04 season. He did even better in 2005, averaging 10.3 points in 6 Euroleague games.
David Andersen of CSKA Moscow travels to Siena to face his former team, Montepaschi. Andersen has great memories of his only season in Siena in 2003-04. Andersen helped Montepaschi to win its first Italian League title, as well as reaching the 2004 Euroleague Final Four in Tel Aviv, Israel. Andersen joined CSKA in summer 2004 and has played there since that moment. He averaged 9.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in 21 Euroleague games with Montepaschi.
Virtus VidiVici Bologna faces Tau Ceramica in a rematch of the 2001 Euroleague final. Both teams went against each other in the first-ever Euroleague final in an unforgottable best-of-five playoff final series, that Virtus won 3-2. The first two games took place in Bologna, as Tau won Game 1 65-78 while Virtus tied the series with a 94-73 home win in Game 2. Both teams travelled to Vitoria, as Virtus got Game 3 with a resounding 60-80 triumph while Tau stayed alive with a 96-79 success in Game 4, good to tie the series at 2-2. Virtus host Game 5 at PalaMalaguti Arena and downed Tau 82-74 to become the first Euroleague Basketball champion behind 18 points from Antoine Rigaudeau. Sergi Vidal will be the only player in this week's game that took part in the 2001 final series.
 It will be a special game for Davor Kus of Unicaja, who travels to Zagreb to face his former team, Cibona. Kus joined Unicaja this summer after having a career-best season with Cibona, averaging 13.6 points on 91.5% free throws and 3.1 assists in 14 Euroleague games. Kus played six seasons for Cibona from 2000 to 2007, helping his former team to win five Croatian Leagues and two Croatian Cup titles, as well as the 2001 Euroleague Opening Tournament in Ljubljana. Kus already played against Cibona this season, scoring 23 points on 5-for-5 triples to make Unicaja thrash his former team 102-64.
Ademola Okulaja will see some familiar faces when Brose Baskets hosts Panathinaikos. Okulaja and Dejan Tomasevic were teammates in the 2004-05 season, as both players were in Pamesa Valencia, helping their team to reach the ULEB Cup semifinals. Also, Okulaja played with Panathinaikos superstar Sarunas Jasikevicius in FC Barcelona in the 2001-02 season.
Some Lottomatica Roma players will be especially motivated when Real Madrid comes to town. Roko-Leni Ukic, Christian Drejer and Gregor Fucka all played for Madrid's archrivals FC Barcelona in the past. Fucka helped Barcelona to win its only Euroleague title in 2003, as well as lifting back-to-back Spanish League trophies in 2003 and 2004. Drejer will not be able to play due to a severe ankle injury.
AXA FC Barcelona small forward Ersan Ilyasova grew up with Ulker Istanbul youth teams and made his Euroleague debut with this team in the 2004-05 season. Ilyasova played 6 Euroleague games with Ulker in 2004-05, before the club merged with Fenerbahce. He scored 10 points in 28 minutes on court during those 6 games.
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Monday, December 17, 2007
Euroleague.net
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