(Pallacanestro Cantu - October 2011)
Euroleague - Here we go, it's the Turkish Airlines Euroleague! This is the number one competition in international club basketball. Much like the Champions League of European club football (soccer), the Euroleague is a super competition where championship level squads of various countries compete against each other. European club basketball has a long history, but the modern Euroleague era under the current leadership began in 2000 when European basketball cabal ULEB broke away from FIBA Europe. (Here's an informative link on the history of the Euroleague.)
Two former Ohio State Buckeyes have competed in the prestigious Euroleague since its first season in 2001-2002, the great Scoonie Penn and Je'Kel Foster!
Scoonie Penn's international career ranks as the greatest of any former Buckeye to date. Many words can be used to describe Penn's overseas run, elite would definitely be one of them. Scoonie competed with and against some of the best in the world for a good part of the last decade. Penn played in six Euroleague seasons which included a marvelous five year run from the 2003-2004 season to 2007/2008. Penn's Euroleague resume boasts two Top 16 (2nd round) appearances (KK Cibona Zagreb 2006, Efes Pilsen Instanbul 2008), two Top 8 playoff (3rd round) appearances (Scavolini Pesaro 2005, Olympiacos 2007), and one Euroleague Championship Game in 2010 after returning to Olympaicos). (we'll be going into more detail about Penn's extensive Euroleague career in a later post)
Je'Kel Foster's Euroleague appearance in 2009/2010 capped off an incredible two year run with German club EWE Baskets of Oldenburg, Germany. Foster achieved a career mark in Spring 2009 by capturing the BBL championship. Winning the German Championship gave Oldenburg their first ever league title & automatic berth into the Euroleague. Je'Kel participated in 10 Euroleague games from 2009/2010, finishing as the 26th ranked best scorer in the 2009 Euroleague regular season.
Former Ohio State star David Lighty now joins these elite Buckeyes as the third Ohio State player to compete in the ULEB era Euroleague! Bennet Cantu is pretty much on schedule right now. They battled league champion Siena in a close & exciting Super Coppa Final to close the pre-season (October 1). And then Cantu took care of business in the opening two weeks of regular season play by getting past Vanoli Cremona and Dinamo Sassari. Bennet Cantu now prepares for the Euroleague schedule to hit on October 19 which will then present a Euroleague game during the week, in addition to Italian League games on the weekend (until at least early 2012).Vital links
Official Euroleague Website - http://www.Euroleague.net
Bennet Cantu - Euroleague Team Profile Page (Schedule, results stats)
Field And Format - The 2011/2011 Euroleague Regular Season features 24 teams from 14 different countries. The field includes 13 league champions from last season, 3 runner-ups, last year's Eurocup Champion, five wild card/license teams, and two teams from this fall's Euroleague qualification tournament. Via a draw, the 24 Euroleague teams were placed in 4 six team groups for regular season play. Every team in the group plays each other home away which totals to a ten game regular season. The best four teams out of the six advance to the last 16 stage (followed by the top 8 playoffs & final four).Most of these Euroleague teams are perennial powers within their countries and in Europe. The top European clubs like CSKA Moscow, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Barcelona, & Panathinaikos use big budgets to keep a core of guys together for a couple years or longer while signing top free agents to continue the winning ways (in fact, those four clubs are responsible for every euroleague championship in its 10 year history). There's a group of top teams who want to dethrone the four traditional champions and then yet another group of squads that want to make some noise by making it out of the regular season stage. The bolstering of rosters by NBA players competing in Europe as a consequence of the lockout has only added to the excitement for fans. Each & every game should have some big names.
Bennet Cantu's goal for the Euroleague is unknown as one of this year's newcomers. Cantu finished second in last season's Italian League Playoffs which earned an automatic birth into Europe's top competition for the club's first time in 18 years! Any Euroleague victory they get will be gold.
Group A. - Every Euroleague group is tough and Cantu's Group A is no different. The Spanish ACB is the strongest national league in Europe. Spain has a league high five teams in the Euroleague including two in Group A, league runner-ups Bizakia Bilbao Baskets, and power Caja Laboral. Joining the two Spanish teams are reigning Turkish Champions Fenerbahce Ulker of Istanbul, the French Champions SLUC Nancy, Olympiacos of Greece and of course Bennet Cantu..the Italian League runner-ups.
Euroleague Opener - Bennet Cantu vs SLUC Nancy - October 19, 2011
Thoughts - Bennet Cantu's Euroleague opener is very interesting. While this is Cantu's first entry into top play in quite some time, they do bring veterans like Gianluca Basile (off-season acquisition) & Denis Marconato who have significant Euroleague experience. Cantu is a club that wins most of its battles with strong ball movement and clever play. Their opponents, SLUC Nancy, bring an up-tempo transition game to Italy led by NBA French Star Nicolas Batum (Portland Trailblazers) who was signed by Nancy shortly after the season started (lockout).
We got a good look at Nancy last season when Ron Lewis & Mons played them in the Eurochallenge. Their center Akin Akingbala is a beast, long and athletic. They also have pretty good guards in John Lienhan & Jamal Shuler. We think Cantu's defense and tempo will be enough to dictate pace at home. Nancy's guard's should not hurt Cantu considerably much, but it will be awfully difficult to contain Batum & Akingbala down low. Cantu needs good games from forwards Vladmir Micov, Marty Leunen, and Marko Scekic.
We are certainly wondering what David Lighty's role might be in his Euroleague debut. Cantu in'ts playing him much so far so we shouldn't expectt big minutes in such a huge game. From watching a little big more of Cantu, we can already see that as the club's most athletic & versatile player, Lighty will be a defensive wildcard for this team where they can use him to match up/lock down various players (he'll be an offensive wildcard down the line as well). We can probably expect Dave to be matched with Batum when he gets in. Offensively, we thought it was great that Lighty was able to the three agianst Sassari late in the 4th a couple days ago..it was his first regular season points in Italy & something to build on. Good luck Cantu!
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