BBL (Baltic Basketball League) Official Thread 2007/2008

[elaj]

Kedžo is a steal for a team like BC Kalev/Cramo. I really like him, huge body, can play inside but also has some nice shooting touch, all what needs is a bit more experience.

How long did Kalev/Cramo sign him for?

[Demarr]

Kalev/Cramo signed Howard Frier (193:G). Last year he played for Polpak Swiecie (POL-DBL) where his stats were 8.7ppg, 2.5rpg, 3.1apg, 1.6spg.
In 2005-2006 season he played for Kalev, so fans know him very well.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XCbhh41va8)
The contract with Mateo Kedzo is also signed and the Croatian player is in very good physical shape.

[rusher]

Stimac does have a lot of potential to be great in Europe but i think hes a little short for hes position to make it in NBA.
I expected more from him against Tartu Rock but Rock did theyr homework and shut him down.

Well, he was playing against Cusworth. ASK Riga or Rytas also have good centers but they didn't concentrate on him so much because these are teams of different class. And only Stimac and Bankevics can score regularly and big for Valmiera and Rock really did a great job shutting them down

[Troll]

Stimac does have a lot of potential to be great in Europe but i think hes a little short for hes position to make it in NBA.
I expected more from him against Tartu Rock but Rock did theyr homework and shut him down.

[rusher]

Can somebody give me some information about the game of Vladimir Stimac? His stats are great for a player that is 20 years old. He played well against the big teams in this league. So perhaps somebody who watched him playing this year can write something about him.

He's surely talanted player. Main force for Valmiera team. He belongs to Zalgiris so probably next year he'll be playing for them if not go to NBA draft. He's a great rebounder and big threat under the basket. Not very tall as a center but quick, massive and aggresive. Today he played against another good big man- Brian Cusworth from Rock and he did a great job neutralising him, he wasn't that good today but neither was Cusworth too. Anyway Tartu Rock won 83:69

Barons won Ventspils today too in a close game. Finally some improvement from rather dissapointing team so far. They have won last two games and next they play against Rytas so I don't think 3rd victory in a row will come to them in Baltic League but anyway, some improvement. Alexander starts to show some of his best quality, Ventspils tried to stop Skele today but he scored 15 points anyway, Berzins was a key factor in this game with important three pointer in the end of the game and then two subsequent blockshots that eliminated even the smallest hopes of Ventspils to win the game. As for Ventspils, one of the worst seasons so far, maybe even not because they are so weak but because of Baltic (and Latvian) level of basketball which is increasing. Now we see teams that do not play in Baltic Elite division giving hard times to teams like Ventspils and ASK in Latvian League. So it's not like Baltic League is the only challenge our teams face this year. I think, two teams in LBL are already slightly better or the same level as Valmiera.

[Demarr]

BC Kalev signed Croatian player Mateo Kedžo.

2006/2007 - KK Split - NLB League: 26 games: 15.1 ppg (2PT 59.7%, 3PT 40%, FT 89.1%), 4.4 rpg, 0.7 apg, 1.1 spg, idx. 15.7; 29:38 mpg. CRO A-1 League Stage 2: 14 games: 8.1 ppg (2PT 56.9%, 3PT 36%, FT 87.5%), 4 rpg, 0.6 apg, 1.1 spg; 22:49 mpg.

[Buducnost PG]

Can somebody give me some information about the game of Vladimir Stimac? His stats are great for a player that is 20 years old. He played well against the big teams in this league. So perhaps somebody who watched him playing this year can write something about him.

[rusher]

In few weeks Estonians own sport channel will start working, named Kalev Sport.
That means more basketball for us

Luckily in Latvia this year the broadcaster is LTV7 so we'll see lot more games, even those played during the primetime for tv's. Today it was ASK-Barons, two days later- Ventspils- LR
About today's game- ASK-Barons 77:62, both teams had a lot of mistakes but Barons were worse in shooting, terrible percentage so the loss, could not be so heavy if not the last minute's trying to save the game that couldn't result in anything good for Barons. Gustas plays terrible even for Barons at the moment, Skele played with injury, Alexander looked better today but still not that good, Adomaitis for a change played well too but defense is still his weak point (don't know why), for ASK Valters and Millage were flying, as well as Broyles. If they continue to play like now, they could be trouble for Zalgiris or LR too. Barons still need to improve their game. I hope they'll improve it!

[Demarr]

Kalev is trialing Slovenian power forward Igor Jokic. He haven't impressed me so far. Jokic looks very slow and against Pärnu (one of the weakest teams in KML) he scored only 2 points and got fouled out.
Nate Johnson is also on trial-period. He plays both, pointguard and shootguard spot. He made it to the LA Lakers, but got released soon. He got earlier experience of playing in Europe. In 2005-2006 season he played in SerieA for Cantu. He had 8.3 ppg, 2.1 apg and 2.5 spg. After that he played in USA leagues like USBL.

In few weeks Estonians own sport channel will start working, named Kalev Sport.
That means more basketball for us

[greystone]

...

https://www.takeforum.com/bbl

a new Basketball baltic league forum - made by WindCliff (Estonia). This forum created today - everybody join please

[C-ka]

Barons buy good player, they have moneys, but everyone after this game see that they are not so strong - defeat with Zalgris, who play without Beard that's sound not good for future Bad info, because I like this time - in Barons play players who was very close with Poland - Skele, Adomaitis, Hlebowicki, Stewart

Yes, losing to Zalgiris bad news for Barons... Zalgiris almost always plays its BBL games without some major players and Beard's absense is nothing so important in a Barons game..

[rusher]

Barons buy good player, they have moneys, but everyone after this game see that they are not so strong - defeat with Zalgris, who play without Beard that's sound not good for future Bad info, because I like this time - in Barons play players who was very close with Poland - Skele, Adomaitis, Hlebowicki, Stewart

Two days after this game they lost to ASK Riga in LBL game by 99:100 in overtime (These two teams can't win either without an overtime or with higher margin than +1 and this time there were both cases). I still think that referees helped ASK to win the game but ok). In my opinion when they'll play more games and get used to each other (because team is practically new, diferent from the last season, different players, different game strategy) the results will be good.

[PHILIPeurobasket]

Zalgiris, in Riga without T.Beard won against Barons 102:80 (21:19, 21:24, 25:12, 35:25)

here's box score:
http://www.bbl.net/index.php/ZnVzZWF...dfaWQ9MTA1Mw==

Barons buy good player, they have moneys, but everyone after this game see that they are not so strong - defeat with Zalgris, who play without Beard that's sound not good for future Bad info, because I like this time - in Barons play players who was very close with Poland - Skele, Adomaitis, Hlebowicki, Stewart

[rusher]

Žalgiris played agains Valmiera yesterday and won 91:78.

The game had an incident, when the arrived Žalgiris fans lounched petards after the game. That wasn't very appreciated by the hall security, and they decided to take them away. The security wasn't allowed to get to those fans, so security decided to buckle one of the fans - our fellow Joker . Then Goran Jurak, Mantas Kalnietis and Marko Popovič got out of the locker room and saved him from the crawls of the security and brought him with them.

source - an article with the headline Team + Fans = Unity

Photo's from that article for those, who do not want to get into the source page:

Unfortunately our security don't like petards in our halls, and sometimes there are some sucurity guys who tend to get even violent when they don't like something

ASK Riga - Neptunas 96:67 ( 26–18, 26–10, 18–13, 26–26 )


After an overtime thriller in LBL game- Riga derby (ASK won it again, thanks to 2 Millage's free throws in the last second with 100:99), ASK had its debut in BBL against Neptunas, there were some 2000 spectators only this time and Arena looked empty, not like in the previous showdown. At first, ASK had difficulties but soon they found their game and after the half time it was all clear (52:28), in the third period margin of the score started to become sth from +32 +34 and the third quarter ended (70:41), in the fourth quarter reserves came in, including Freimanis and Bertans and they didn't manage to gain +30 or 100 points though but non the less, convincing win. Only one problem- Vilums got injury and he's out for 6 months. First loss in ASK's roster.

After the game Butautas said ''We cared about the quality, not the result today. I am satisfied that guys played as if it was a close game and displayed professional attitude. Unfortunately Vilums injury is probably serious - he is a very tough guy so judging by his reaction it does not look good (OUT FOR 6 MONTHS). ''
Head coach Rudis of Neptunas said that " ASK Riga is a great team that will achieve a lot this season and I wish them to do so. We are a team of different level, our budget is three times smaller. Our task this season is to keep the spot in Elite division.''

SO NEXT TWO GAMES TOMORROW:

Rock - Siauliai (Will Rock prove that they can beat 4th strongest BBL team at home or not)
Valmiera- ASK (Will Valmiera continue to lose in BBL or they'll find some quality at home to beat LBL champions)

[sashikas]

Žalgiris played agains Valmiera yesterday and won 91:78.

The game had an incident, when the arrived Žalgiris fans lounched petards after the game. That wasn't very appreciated by the hall security, and they decided to take them away. The security wasn't allowed to get to those fans, so security decided to buckle one of the fans - our fellow Joker . Then Goran Jurak, Mantas Kalnietis and Marko Popovič got out of the locker room and saved him from the crawls of the security and brought him with them.

source - an article with the headline Team + Fans = Unity

Photo's from that article for those, who do not want to get into the source page: