Estonian basketball

[Demarr]

Martin Müürsepp (NBA and CSKA Moscow during his best years) could be making a comeback. After more than 2 years of absence, Rakvere Tarvas added the 35-year-old veteran to their roster.

[Demarr]

Valga signed Lithuanian guard Gediminas Navickas. He will be their second foreigner player as they also signed Giedrius Rinkevicius few weeks ago.

[Demarr]

Demarr,

Club Kalev/Cramo plays in 3 leagues, Estonia, regional Baltic, & VTB United. As follower from the States this is very interesting. What effect does playing in three different leagues have on the players physically? Does the club approach every game in the same way or do they place some games of higher importance? And what do you think about Kalev in Estonian League..now 6-3 but it is really competitive league, not sure they have enough to get back near the top of the standings.

Our coach Nenad Vucinic usually tries to rest some key players when we are playing Estonian league games. The results there aren't exactly good, as you pointed out. The most important league at the moment for us, I believe, is the Baltic League. Last season we had a great team but narrowly missed out on the Final Four, therefore it would be nice if we could make it up this season.

So far I haven't heard the players whine about being tired, but I am afraid that sooner or later it might start having an effect, especially on our frontline. We only got 3 guys, who are taller than 2 metres - Ken Johnson (210), Rait Keerles (201) and Viljar Veski (215). Veski usually doesn't do anything useful for us so Vucinic can't really rely on him. Lack of big men soon could be a big problem for us.

It might be Mazutis, I've read that some estonian team shows interest in him, but he has few offers from latvian and lith clubs too

Would be a very good signing for Valga imo. I highly doubt they could afford him though.

[Mindozas]

Rakvere Tarvas keeps making pleasant surprises - this time they managed to beat Tartu Rock by 19 points, 93-74! Kristo Saage scored 29 points, Valmo Kriisa & Rain Veideman supported him with 23 and 17 points respectively. Todd Abernethy got 20 points for Rock.

Meanwhile Valga/CKE Inkasso is looking to add a new pointguard at the beginning of the new year. It will probably be a Lithuanian, according to headcoach Augenijus Vaskys,

It might be Mazutis, I've read that some estonian team shows interest in him, but he has few offers from latvian and lith clubs too

[Chigusa]

Demarr,

Club Kalev/Cramo plays in 3 leagues, Estonia, regional Baltic, & VTB United. As follower from the States this is very interesting. What effect does playing in three different leagues have on the players physically? Does the club approach every game in the same way or do they place some games of higher importance? And what do you think about Kalev in Estonian League..now 6-3 but it is really competitive league, not sure they have enough to get back near the top of the standings.

[Demarr]

Estonian NT got themselves a new headcoach - Tiit Sokk (or also known as Tout Giannopoulos for Greeks). The contract length is 2+2.

The plan is to use our time in the B-division so we could rebuild the team and return to the A-division as a stronger and more competitive team.

Sokk said that he wanted to start using players from younger generation a lot earlier but back then, the pressure to stay in the A-division was too big (Sokk was the NT coach during 2004-2007). Now that we are in the B-division, we got nothing to lose. I hope these aren't just words that mean nothing and the dead wood will be actually gone.

What was also mentioned, was that we are probably going to naturalize a foreign center. According to Sokk, it should be a rather young player, who would be ready to commit his future with Estonia.

Hopefully this long-term plan will end well and the rise of Estonian basketball will eventually start. Naive, but optimistic as I am.

[Demarr]

Rakvere Tarvas keeps making pleasant surprises - this time they managed to beat Tartu Rock by 19 points, 93-74! Kristo Saage scored 29 points, Valmo Kriisa & Rain Veideman supported him with 23 and 17 points respectively. Todd Abernethy got 20 points for Rock.

Meanwhile Valga/CKE Inkasso is looking to add a new pointguard at the beginning of the new year. It will probably be a Lithuanian, according to headcoach Augenijus Vaskys,

[Demarr]

Demarr, how do you think, Estonian BB is becoming more popular or is it going forward last two years? Yes, we've noticed more competitive Estonian teams in BBL lately, but I can't decide is it the progress of your teams or just the result of Latvian and Lithuanian club level being dropped. How about NT? Are there interesting prospects around?

Sorry for the late reply, didn't notice this until today.

In my opinion, last year BC Kalev/Cramo and Tartu Rock had the best rosters in their history. However this year, the level of the two grand clubs (BC Kalev/Cramo & Tartu Rock) has dropped, no doubt about that. Mainly because the foreigners aren't as good as they were last year. BC Kalev/Cramo's budget decreased about 40%-50% compared to last year.
Rest of the Estonian teams on the other hand, seem to be a bit stronger than they were before. So thats what makes the level more even.

Popularity? I dare to say that average attendances have gone up this year. Rakvere Tarvas is a very good example - f.e 1700 people attended Tarvas-Rock game according to the official stats. Some people on the contrary claim that there were more than 2000 people at that game. Pretty good number for a town with a population of only 17000. I don't really know the numbers for smaller clubs in the LKL (would be interesting to know though) but for Estonian league that kind of number is quite good. Wouldn't surprise me at all if that number keeps growing during the season.

About the national team..we still haven't chosen the new headcoach. There seems to be two candidates, both Estonians, for that job - Indrek Visnapuu of Tartu Rock and Tiit Sokk. The most interesting prospects, atleast for me, are two guards - Rain Veideman (Tarvas, born 1991, 13.5 PPG this year) and Rannar Raap (KK Pärnu, born 1992, 13.8 PPG). I don't really expect much from them but at the moment they seem to be the brightest talents we got.

[Gytaz]

That's not sarcasm, that's reality Richey is talking about

Damn, I was so used to Richey bashing everything related to Lithuania, I just automatically assumed that it was sarcasm.

[Straight forward]

What's the point of your sarcasm?

That's not sarcasm, that's reality Richey is talking about Valga is one of the best Estonian teams so far.

Demarr, how do you think, Estonian BB is becoming more popular or is it going forward last two years? Yes, we've noticed more competitive Estonian teams in BBL lately, but I can't decide is it the progress of your teams or just the result of Latvian and Lithuanian club level being dropped. How about NT? Are there interesting prospects around?

[Demarr]

The championship is surprisingly even this year. It's been a long time since anyone else than BC Kalev/Cramo or Rock played in the finals. The table at the moment:



The first 3 columns are: games played, victories, losses.

[Basket_]

Estonian league (KML), national team et al should go here


Valga signed Lithuanian centre Darius Šilinskis.

In his debut game, Šilinskis scored 17 points, grabed 12 rebounds and blocked 7(!) shots and his team won the game.

[Gytaz]

Surprising Valga was able to hire Silinskis, he's gonna bring them medal in Estonian championship for sure.

What's the point of your sarcasm?

[Richey666]

Surprising Valga was able to hire Silinskis, he's gonna bring them medal in Estonian championship for sure.

[rikhardur]

Estonian league (KML), national team et al should go here


Valga signed Lithuanian centre Darius Šilinskis.