BuckeyeBallersTV - Scoonie Penn Terrorizes Zalgiris (VTB Superleague 2008)

(Scoonie Penn of BC Kyiv drives past Khalid El-Amin - Ukraine 2008)

It's crazy to think about all the different leagues, Cups, & Tournaments a player overseas may participate in over the course of one season. First there is the National League like the German Bundesliga or Italian Serie A. Then each country may have a National Cup Tournament with more or less eight teams. These are the same squads from the national league, but the Cup is a separate competition from the regular season..some leagues will hold the Cups prior to the regular season or right in the middle (Italian League Version).

So the national Cup, national league & playoffs is play within the country. But the unique feature of International Basketball (Europe, Asia, South America, Africa) is that the best teams in a league are able to travel outside of their country and plays teams from different national leagues.

It definitely makes sense when looking at a map of Europe where several countries are not of the size of American States. Take Belgium where Ron Lewis plays for instance, it's really nothing to play a pre-season or European competition game with a team from neighboring Germany or France.

FIBA, the International Basketball governing body sponsors three main cross continental competitions in Europe, the Euroleague, Eurocup, and Eurochallenge.

In addition to the leagues that span all across Europe like the Euroleague, there are also regional leagues as well. Just like how the Big Ten Conference has teams from the Midwestern United States, it can be the same situation in Europe. There is the Adriatic League which is mostly comprised of countries from the former Repubic of Yugoslavia, and the Baltic Basketball League with Baltic State teams from countries like Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia. All of these leagues play their schedules concurrently with the different national leagues.

In 2008 VTB Bank, a leading Russian Bank founded the VTB United Super League. This regional league is almost like an East Europe Superleague with teams from Russian, Ukraine, & Lithuania. Why does this all matter?? Because Buckeye legend Scoonie Penn played in the inaugural VTB season in late 2008 when he was with Ukrainian club BC Kyiv. The organization & attendance of the first VTB league was not that good, but the considerable amount of good teams and recognizable players made for interesting basketball.

We've been sitting on a couple games from VTB season and decided to post one in light of recent news. Earlier in the week Lithuanian team Rytas announced on going negotiations with former UConn guard Khalid El-Amin & Scoonie. Well Rytas ended up signing Khalid, but the news made us think about the 2008 season when Penn & El-Amin went head to head in Ukraine as well participating in the VTB (and of course the NCAA final four). As for Penn, hearing about talks with high level teams like Rytas is a good thing to hear :)

(Video - There are two major teams in the country of Lithuania..Lietuvos Rytas, the team that was reportedly in talks with Penn..and another club called Zalgiris. Scoonie Penn & BC Kyiv defeated Zalgiris on 12.20.28 in the VTB League Tournament. Scoonie destroyed Zalgiris on defense with multiple on ball rips & off the ball steals, he also makes a guy fall..what else is new!)