FICYMIs from September 24, 2021
FICYMIs from September 24, 2021
Friday In Case You Missed Its: What Eli John Ndiaye's debut says about Pablo Laso; Dzanan Musa goes off; top youth showdown in Germany; Shane Larkin thinking repeat; women TV announcers
The WWW is an endless ocean of exquisite content. Unfortunately so much is out there we are bound to miss some great stuff. Here are just some of the gems found this week by the Taking The Charge substack.
The under-appreciated greatness of Pablo Laso
Overlooked in all the drama and heroics of Real Madrid’s magical comeback 88-83 win over FC Barcelona on September 11 to claim the Spanish SuperCup for the eighth time - and fourth consecutive crown - was a 1 minute 27 second appearance by Eli John Ndiaye.
The Senegalese born center made his Real senior national team debut at 17 years and 2 months. That alone does not mean that much but consider the fact that Ndiaye became the 17th (!!!) youth to make his debut under Madrid’s veteran head coach Pablo Laso. Ndiaye joins the group of Dani Díez, Alberto Martín, Willy Hernangómez, Jonathan Barreiro, Luka Doncic, Santiago Yusta, Dino Radoncic, Samba Ndiaye, Daniel De la Rua, Melwin Pantzar, Mario Nakic, Usman Garuba, Boris Tisma, Matteo Spagnolo, Tristan Vukcevic and Juan Núñez.
While you digest that list - which features some outstanding names of course topped by Luka Doncic - think also about all the pressure that Laso has to win Spanish titles and also compete for the EuroLeague crown. Still, Laso has regularly had the fortitude to give youngsters a chance to get their feet wet in the best domestic league outside the NBA. Seventeen youth players in 11 players is truly a magical number when you consider the royal expectations Real management have on Laso to deliver hardware. This is not a club like Mega Belgrade or Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt who have built a reputation of playing youngsters but are not playing at the highest level in their country and Europe. This is Real Madrid. Hat’s off to Pablo Laso - and Real Madrid management for supporting him in this.
Musa massive in start in Spain
Taking The Charge was really excited to see Dzanan Musa return to Europe last season - signing with Anadolu Efes Istanbul after being unable to make an impact in the NBA with the Brooklyn Nets. Musa really didn’t leave his mark in Turkey either and he headed to Spain and El Rio Breogan in the off-season. The Bosnia and Herzegovina whirlwind shined in his first game for Breogan - a 92-73 victory over Lenovo Tenerife. Musa went 4-of-4 on three-pointers in scoring 16 points in the first quarter (!) and ended with 25 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 fouls received for an index rating of 35. All that earned the 22-year-old Musa Player of the Week honors in the Spanish League. Musa - yep, still only (!) 22 years old - was not quite as impressive in Round 2 with 7 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, but Breogan won again with an 87-62 victory at San Pablo Burgos for a 2-0 mark.
German ProB tip-off: Bayern youth vs Ulm prospects highlights opening weekend
The 2021-21 German ProB third division league tipped off this past weekend and one of the highlights was the youth teams of FC Bayern Munich and ratiopharm ulm (OrangeAcademy) facing off. There were a few interesting names in this game - Mohamed Sillah (2002 - Sierra Leone refugee), Serbian PG Aleksa Vucetic (2004), Montenegro guard Amar Licina (2004), Jeremia Agyepong (2001), 6-10 big man Daniel Helterhoff (2003), Christian Skladanowski (2004) from Bayern; Michael Rataj (2003), 7-0 center Antonio Dorn (2003), Jacob Ensminger (2003), Latrell Großkopf (2001), Julius Ferber (2001), Lenny Liedtke (2004) from Ulm. The link above is for the box score and below is the live stream.
Larkin confident about Efes’ chances of repeating
The last club to repeat as Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion was Olympiacos Piraeus in 2012 and 2013. Anadolu Efes Istanbul kept together a major core of the title-winning team from Cologne, and superstar guard Shane Larkin sees no reason why the Turkish team can’t make it back-to-back. Would it be a shock? Nope, not at all.
“The biggest challenge we will face will be to maintain our motivation. Working every day to be the best team you can be, is not an easy thing. It’s a very difficult thing to be back-to-back champions and there are very few teams that can do it. Many teams can take their foot off the gas after winning the championship. After the championship, they can lose that fire. The biggest challenge for any championship team is to stay at the same level and continue on with the same motivation and hunger.” - Larkin to Eurohoops.net
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Women hoops lovers … become the next great TV announcer!
FIBA has been working hard at getting more women presence in basketball and this is a fantastic action … She Calls Game is a call to action for women to apply to become the next basketball commentators. If you’re interested, apply by October 10, 2021 … the top candidate will travel to the FIBA Women’s World Cup 2022 in Australia.
BCL Americas Season 3 update: 12 teams and start in December
FIBA released news about Season 3 of the BCL Americas, which will feature 12 teams from seven countries with the start of action moving back from October 2021 to December 2021. The league will run five months with a Final 8 scheduled for April 2022. Here the 12 teams: Quimsa, Boca Juniors and Obras from Argentina; São Paulo, Minas, and returning champion Flamengo from Brazil; Bigua and Nacional from Uruguay; Universidad de Concepcion from Chile, Cangrejeros from Puerto Rico, season 2 runner-up Real Estelí from Nicaragua, and the Edmonton Stingers from Canada. The draw will take place in the first week of October 2021. The BCL Americas champion will book a spot in the 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup.