Marcus Douthit: A look at his recent European stints
After several dissapointments of getting the services of attitude-disgruntled talented American players, Rajko Toroman is hoping that the search will end finally with this former Providence star who actually known more as a team player and defensive stopper rather than an offensive player.
I hope you find time reading through the most recent European stints of Marcus Eugene Douthit.
Russian Super League 2009-2010
As reported, Douthit played in the recent season of Russia’s premier basketball league for Krashnye Krylya, a team based in Samara.
When the season started, Douthit missed the first 7 games of his team making the double round regular stage of Krashnye a dissapointment with a 5-11 win-loss record that automatically put them on 7th place from the 9-team field of the league.
Due to its poor showing in the regular round, Krashnye found itself in the bracket of cellar dwellers and fought it out with 4 other teams in a one round robin affair to determine which teams will join the other early four qualifier starring perennial champion and number one placer CSKA Moscow who took bye in the quaterfinal playoff round together with three other teams.
Krashnye barely made the playoffs as it landed 4th from the field of 5 in the elimination stage that technically placed them at the 8th spot overall after the regular round.
As per playoff format, the 8th placer will face the number 1 seed, then the 7th against the 2nd, the 6th against the 3rd and the 5th against the 4th.
Being on 8th placed, Douthit’s Krashnye was facing a big wall in the quaterfinal phase of the playoffs, the perennial champion CSKA Moscow.
As expected, CSKA dominated Douthit and company 3 games to nil in their best of 5 series thus relegating Krashnye to fight for the 5th to 8th place consolation playoff round.
After all the playoff stages were over, Krashnye was revealed to be one of the most mediocre teams in the tournament as it finished second to the last placer or 8th overall from the field of 9 teams.
Douthit’s numbers with Krashnye were 8.8 points (4th in the team), 4.8 rebounds (1st in the team and 14th in the league) and 0.7 blocks (1st in the team and 12th in the league).
It would be unfair to judge that Krashnye’s poor showing is an indication that Douthit is a failure as an import, so I thought it would be more logical to dig deep on Douthit’s performance against top dog CSKA Moscow as competition against this team is a sure top-notch one.
Krashnye never won even a single game against powerhouse CSKA Moscow in their 5 meetings in the tournament. Beside the 3-0 domination of the Moscow-based squad against their Samara-based counterpart in the playoffs, the two met twice in the regular round where the former won both games.
However, Douthit played 4 games of the 5 against CSKA Moscow averaging a creditable 9.75 points and 6.4 rebounds.
Douthit did not back down and proved to be competitve against CSKA Moscow’s center and Russian national team mainstay 6-11 Aleksandr Kaun who was a member of the US NCAA Div-1 2007-2008 champion University of Kansas and is considered the best center in Russia today.
Against Kaun, Douthit showed respectable form as he garnered 18 points and 10 rebounds in their first meeting then 13 points and 8 rebounds on their fourth meeting.
However, CSKA Moscow’s teamplay and rosters that is made up of at least 6 national players is simply too much for Douthit and company to handle.
It is worthy to note that CSKA Moscow is not only the best club team in Russia but also in the rest of Europe.
CSKA Moscow went on to represent Russia in this year’s season of the Euroleague where they finished a strong third behind Spain’s FC Barcelona and Olympiacos Pireaus of Greece.
CSKA Moscow grabbed the 3rd place at the expense of Serbia’s best Partizan Belgrade, the team that gave our Smart Gilas a neat European basketball lesson during their meeting early this year in Serbia.
CSKA Moscow’s eliteness in the European circuit speaks well of Marcus Douthit extensive basketball experience in the European top level brand of basketball.
Eurochallenge 2009-2010
The Eurochallenge is another club championsip in Europe and is perceived to be a level below from the Euroleague.
The campaign of Douthit and his team in this year’s version of the Eurochallenge was a far cry from their Russian tourney performance.
This time around Krashnye went straight to the finals and finished second to eventual champion BG Gottingen of Germany.
It was a best-of-3 finals duel where Krashnye bowed 2 games to 1 to the German club that featured 7 american-born players as against only 3 of Krashnye.
On the 3-game finals series against BG Gottingen, Douthit averaged a respectable 8 points and 8.4 rebounds. The downside however is his shot-blocking prowess ws nowhere in sight.
Douthit was cited as a big contirbutor to the team’s entry to the finals when he patrolled the slot with utmost effectivity producing 14 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 shot blocks in what Krashnye coach Mikhail Mikhailov called a slotman’s performance of a lifetime.
Krashnye won 73-70 over the Italian team Scavolini Spar Pesar, paving the way for Douthit’s team into the finals against the said German club.
Douthit’s overall stats in the Euroleague counts at 11.5 points (2nd in team), 7.6 rebounds (1st in team and 4th in the league) and 0.8 blocks (7th in the league).
It was a good show for Krashnye and Douthit as it peformed above the other 38 teams of the league.
Douthit as we all know was a product of Providence in the US NCAA Division 1league, the best highlight of Douthit’s collegiate career was his shot blocking prowess as his 3.2 average in his senior season ranked 7th in the nation.
In 2004, Douthit was the 56th player chosen in the NBA draft, he was chosen just behind prominent Asian players Matt Frieje (Lebanon) 53rd overall, Ha Seung-Jin (South Korea) 46th overall and Jackson Vroman (Lebanon) 31st overall.
Marcus ‘the slink” Douthit logged behind the NBA draft because despite of his shot-blocking talent and quickness underneath, his lean frame of 223 pounds became a suspect if and when he goes up against those wide bodies in the NBA, the Providence star also did not show enough offensive prowess as compared to the other top big men from the draft.
USA Today and NBA draft.com both described Douthit as a long and athletic big man that can run the floor. His 7-4 wingspan (same as CJ Giles) naturally reinforced his shot-blocking prowess.
In college, Douthit is known as a defensive player rather than an offensive player. However through years of playing, Douthit showed that he can score as shown in his European career stats.
I would like to note that Marcus Douthit seemed like the mature version of CJ Giles. Their body configuration simply gifted them with the same dimension of athletic ability and likings on the floor. In other words, they seemed to have the same playing style like quickness underneath, good medium range jumper, activeness off the boards and love to block shots.
However, with Douthit’s maturity we are assured of better teammanship, dedication and most importantly understanding of the game.
Douthit may not be as quick as athletic as he was before, but for sure his basketball experience and added bulk (now 240 lbs.) while still having that 7-4wingspan and athleticism should balance the need for basketball smarts for teammanship, size and athleticim for stability at the middle.
Douthit has 6 years of European basketball experience, no wonder coach Rajko Toroman seemed up beat with his new import.
The European exploits of Marcus Douthit that I have lined up here should give us confidence that this cager from Syracuse, New York could be it for Smart Gilas.
But then again to see is to believe, seeing him on actual action is the most accurate answer.
Let us see how he would fare tonight against China and the rest of the Philippine invitational.
