Report (Germany) Matt Marinchick to join the Dusseldorf Giants for 2011 Season!

(Hudson, Ohio's Matt Marinchick)

The Vet of Deutschland: The 2011 Summer transfer period officially began with a big update on former Ohio State Buckeye Matt Marinchick. Following his departure from Columbus (2000-2005 OSU), Matt has played all of his overseas professional basketball stints in the country of Germany, and it looks like his career will continue in Deutschland for the 2011/2012 season.

Late June reports out of Dusseldorf, Germany announced the addition of Matt Marinchick to the locally based Gloria Dusseldorf Giants. Like many countries throughout Europe, The German Basketball Federation consists of several levels of play. It starts at the top with the Bundesliga aka the BBL. The second highest level is Pro A followed by Pro B and the lower Regionalligas.

Dusseldorf played in the Bundesliga last season, but they were recently regulated to Pro A after finishing as one of the last place teams in the 2010/2011 BBL regular season standings (Each year, the lower BBL teams are dropped to Pro A while the top Pro A squad gets promoted to the BBL). With Dusseldorf, Matt will now move up to Pro A competition after a two year stint with TSVE Bielefeld, a Regionalliga club in the same West German State as Dusseldorf (North Rhine-Westphalia State).

6.22.2011 - Duesseldorf Local - The Giants hit a Three-Pack (translated)

Using his video blogs as evidence, it seems as if Matt has really enjoyed his time overseas. We hope that he will continue to document his experiences in Germany for the next season!

One of Matt's last videos from Bielefeld



(Four former Ohio State Buckeyes played in Germany last season, Matt Marinchick, Velimir Radinovic, Matt Terwilliger, & Cherise Daniel...Je'Kel Foster & Ken Johnson played on opposing teams in the 2009 Bundesliga Finals, with Je'Kel teams Oldenburg emerging as the best team in all of Germany)

- Marinchick's Pro Career timeline

• 2005/2006: (Rookie Season) TSV Crailsheim Merlins (Germany Pro A - According to Eurobasket, Matt broke his foot before the season began)
• 2006: Cuyahoga Falls Cougars (IBL)
• 2006/2007: BBG Herford (Germany Regionalliga)
• 2008/2009: BBG Herford (Germany Regionalliga)
• 2009/2010: TSVE Bielefeld Dolphins (Germany Regionalliga)
• 2010/2011: TSVE Bielefeld Dolphins (Germany Regionalliga)
  

NBA Draft - They Got Next

(David Lighty - Spring 2011 Sports Illustrated Cover)

Twas the night before Christmas...well not really..it is the night before the 2011 NBA Draft, but it must feel like Christmas Eve for the handful of talented prospects who hope to fulfill their dream of making a team roster in the National Basketball Association. And that's what it is all about. The dream of being a Pro is what enters the mind for almost every player who seriously picks up a basketball.

For many of these players, the overall feeling has to be a little overwhelming..all the conditioning sessions, all the practices, all the games, all the meetings, all the interviews..and the day is finally here where all that hard work ultimately pays off.

Three more well regarded Buckeyes look to join Jantel Lavender as members of the 2011 Ohio State Rookie Class. There are mock drafts a plenty, as well as numerous articles out there that feature analysis and speculation about the pro prospects of Dallas Lauderdale, Jon Diebler, and David Lighty. Frankly, we do not care to speculate and really do not have to. Buckeye Nation already knows what these three will bring to a pro squad..incredible work ethic, impeccable character, and great ability. It's all about the opportunity because when blessed with good health and the support/backing of the organization, the pro Buckeyes always succeed.



His Time - Ohio State fans equally hope for these three prospects to reach the best positions possible. But it is hard to deny that one guy stands out as maybe most equipped Buckeye to make an impact in the league. David Lighty's Ohio State career is well documented. As a collegiate, he did it all from playing in multiple NCAA tournaments to representing the United States in international competition. A member of the famed 'Thad Five' super recruiting class of 2006, David has seen several of his former OSU teammates depart from Columbus and enter the realm of professional basketball, and now it is finally his turn to say, "I got next" !

David Lighty's pre-draft workout schedule was aptly named he Lighty Tour as he worked out for some 13/14 NBA squads. Known as a lock-down defender, David (pictured left:interview after a workout with the Kings) wanted to show teams that he can contribute much more in the form of play-making ability and a capable jumper. Simply put, David Lighty is ready to compete with & against the best players in the world. His all around game and versatility will be a great addition to any team. He's talented, he's a hard worker, and he's a Buckeye.




David Lighty Pre-Draft Interview New Jersey by BuckeyeBallersTV

NBA Draft - Jon Diebler Pre-Draft Interviews

Jon Diebler Pre-Draft Interviews by BuckeyeBallersTV

(Video) Former Buckeye Stars Greg Oden & Evan Turner on the Jimmy Kimmel Show!

(6.5.2011 - Evan Turner, Andre Iguodala, Lamarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden - Jimmy Kimmel Live)

Buckeyes in Hollywood - Former Ohio State greats Greg Oden & Evan Turner participated in the 'Team Mating' game with NBA teammates Andre Iguodala & Lamarcus Aldridge on the Jimmy Kimmel Show in early June. Check it out!

Top Performances of April - #4 George Reese's Heroics led Koszalin to a playoff win over Polish power Prokom !

(George Reese - Poland)

When it comes to Polish League Basketball, there is a squad named Asseco Prokom that is currently on a run of championships which is nothing short of a Dynasty. The Gdynia, Poland based club entered the 2011 playoffs as having won seven straight Polish League titles dating back to 2005.

As you would expect, Prokom is known in Europe as the premier basketball team in Poland, and they are also a perennial participant in the prestigious Euroleague competition. Former Buckeye George Reese & his team AZS Koszalin had the almost insurmountable task of taking down the champs in the opening round of the 2011 Polish League Playoffs.

4.5.2011 - AZS Koszalin 83 Prokom 78 (Playoff Quarterfinals Game 3)
- George Reese: 20 points, 3 steals, 2 assists (9-11 from the field) !

Top Performances #4 - The month of April 2011 was home to several great performances partly due to playoff tournaments starting up for players around the around. Post-season competitions are where fans can see some of the most courageous individual efforts from ball players to lift their teams to the top. Regarding our Buckeyes, one of the very best efforts occurred on April 5th in Koszalin, Poland.

Big Home W - Buckeye veteran George Reese & Koszalin knew Prokom would be a super tough out. It was best of 5 game series, and the first two contests were on the road on the Champs' home floor. Prokom enjoyed two fairly comfortable wins in games one & two at home. It could have been a 3 game sweep, but Koszalin responded in a big way in game 3 in front their raucous home fans.

Koszalin trailed by three at halftime (43-46), but they were able to outscore the champs 40-32 in the next half to capture a huge 83-78 home victory. George Reese was most definitely on point by hitting an efficient 9 of 11 shots from the field, finishing with 20 points! Fellow American Winsome Frazier added 16 points for the victors.

Video - Some Game 3 Clips of Prokom at Koszalin (features 3 nice face up jumpers from Columbus' own George Reese - #9)

WNBA - Katie Smith Made Debut with Defending Champion Seattle Storm!!

(Image - Seattle Storm - three future Hall of Famers - Sue Bird, Katie Smith, Lauren Jackson)

6.4.2011 - Seattle Storm 78 vs Phoenix Mercury 71 (WNBA Regular Season Gm 1) - Katie Smith: 8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal

tOSU legend joins the Champs! - The Washington Mystics announced the retaining of WNBA veteran Katie Smith's free agent rights in late January. The D.C based club stated that keeping Smith as one of their core players was a top priority for the 2011 season, however, that announcement came at a time when there were already strong rumors about Smith possibly joining the defending WNBA champion Seattle Storm of the Western Conference.

Well the rumors about Smith to the Storm ultimately came into fruition when a three team sign & trade featuring Seattle, Washington, and Indiana was announced in April.

Trade Specifics:

• Seattle gets: Washington guard Katie Smith, Washington center Jacinta Monroe, Indiana's second-round pick in 2012 draft.
• Washington gets: Storm guard Jasmine Thomas, Storm's first-round pick in 2012 draft, Indiana's third-round pick in 2012 draft.
• Indiana gets: Storm guard Erin Phillips, Storm's third-round pick in 2012 draft.

Familiar faces: The Seattle Storm presented many enticing incentives for Smith, one of which was meeting up with some familiar coaches & players from the past.

As a member of the Storm, Katie is now reunited with two of her former coaches..head coach Brian Agler (pictured left: 2011 Pre-season photo with Katie) who coached Smith in the ABL & in Minnesota, and former Ohio State Head Coach, and now Assistant coach for the Storm Nancy Darsch! Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch wrote a nice article in May that detailed the Seattle/Columbus connection (with a review of Smith's overall career as well).

- Dispatch - WNBA trade reunited Katie Smith with two former coaches

In addition to the coaches, Katie Smith is also reunited with her former Detroit Shock teammate Swin Cash, and former Olympic teammate Sue Bird. Bird, who is one of, if not the best point guard in all of women's basketball was a big proponent of adding Smith.

"I was very excited," Bird said. "Adding her to this team, coming off a championship year, you're getting an experienced, veteran, smart player. And she's tough as hell. Everything the Storm has stood for, Katie stands for the same things."

ESPN - Katie Smith should make defending WNBA Champs even better

Season Opener: As noted earlier, the Seattle Storm are the defending WNBA Champions. They feature the dynamic duo of point guard Sue Bird & and league MVP Lauren Jackson at forward. Add in smooth forwards Swin Cash & Camille Little and you have one strong starting core. This squad is so deep that they can afford to use Katie Smith in a support role off the bench.

Katie made her official debut with the Seattle Storm in the season opener vs Diana Taurasi (image left: Smith & Taurasi share a laugh) & the Phoenix Mercury on June 6, 2011 (her 37th birthday!). Katie entered the game at the 5:09 in the 1st quarter to a thundering applause by the home Seattle crowd. She immediately fired up a missed three, but came back and nailed another three point attempt on the very next possession. Smith finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in her debut with the Champs. It is definitely going to be fun to follow Katie & Seattle this season!

Video- Katie Smith Debut with the Seattle Storm!

Belgium - Ron Lewis & Dexia Mons Captured the 2011 Belgian Cup Championship!!

(4.25.2011 - Former Ohio State Star, Ron Lewis celebrates the Belgian Cup Championship with son Te'Mar in Lotto Arena - Antwerp, Belgium)

(2011 Belgian Cup Results)

(Quarterfinals)

10.11.2010 - Dexia Mons 65 at Verviers-Pepinster 72 (Cup Quarterfinals Gm1)
- Ron Lewis: 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists

2.8.2011 - Dexia Mons 76 vs Verviers-Pepinster 62 (Cup Quarterfinals Gm2)
- Ron Lewis: 16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists

(Semifinals)

3.8.2011 - Dexia Mons 99 Charleroi 94 (Cup Semifinals Gm1)
- Ron Lewis: 24 points, 3 assists, 3 steals!!

3.15.2011 - Dexia Mons 66 at Charleroi 68 (Cup Semifinals Gm2)
- Ron Lewis: 19 points, 3 rebounds

(Finals)

4.25.2011 - Dexia Mons 68 Oostende 66 (Cup Finals)
- Ron Lewis: 9 points, 4 steals, 3 rebounds, 3 assists!

(Belgian Cup Championship) - In European basketball, the national cup tournaments are separate competitions from regular season play where a select number of elite teams compete to determine a national champion. Attaining a cup title in Europe is viewed as a prestigious accomplishment. (It's really a big deal in these countries..much in the same way as winning the end of the season playoffs)

Most European leagues typically map out a certain weekend to play the whole cup tournament, but Belgium's cup format differs in that their competition is a prolonged event with week & month long breaks in between each round (regular season games are played in between).

The 2011 Belgian Cup featured eight teams which included Buckeye star Ron Lewis' squad, Dexia Mons-Hainuat of Mons, Belgium. The first two rounds of the tournament paired teams against one another in a two game series format. The winner of a two game series is determined by the aggregate point total of both games. The cup finals is just one game to crown the champ. Lewis (pictured left with the Block O hat!) explained Mons' run to the finals in his Belgian Cup post on http://RonLewisBlog.com .

"There are 2 Championships during the season, the Belgian Cup championship & the Playoffs Championship. On our journey through the Belgian Cup we had to overcome a lot of adversity. In our 1st round we have to face a tough team in Pepinster which beat us away by 7 points, meaning that we have to win at home by 8 or more. We got it done, but it wasn’t easy, barely squeezing by with a 8 point victory.

The Next Round we faced the favorites to win the Cup, Charleroi. Which will be a tough 2 games for us, In the 1st game we beat them by 4 or 5 pts, not sure at this time. Which is a major success but for us. The next game was on the road at their home, which is even more tough to play. We lost the game but we got the advancement because of the point difference. We only lost by 2 or 3, which led us in the Championship game. This is one of our goals to get to the Finals of the Cup."

Ron Lewis was huge in the cup semifinals vs Charleroi, the top rated team in Belgium. Lewis scored 24 points in the game one victory at home, and he then followed that up with 19 points on the road in game two.

One of the best aspects of Ron's game is that he is always in attack mode. So in the event that he is not at his best from the field, you can bet that he is still going to contribute by getting to the free throw line. He shot a total of 21 foul shots (making 16) in the semis vs Charleroi. Lewis' mindset to constantly attack the basket makes him a great asset to any professional club.


(Video - Some clips of Ron in the Cup semis vs Charleroi)



The Finals - Dexia Mons advanced to the Cup finals where they met rival BC Oostende in the neutral court setting of Lotto Arena in Antwerp, Beligium. The atmosphere in this finals game seemed super intense just from watching online, so one can only imagine what is was like to be inside the pressure packed Lotto Arena on April 25, 2011. One look at the crowd, and all you see was Mons blue or the yellow & black of Oostende.

Like a heavyweight match, both teams exchanged blows in this classic Belgian Cup finals. Mons rallied from six down after three quarters, and ended up riding Ronell Taylor (16pts) & Shan Foster (13pts) to a super close 68-66 victory. Ron Lewis, (pictured left in the finals), contributed an all around effort in the finals with 9 points, 4 steals, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in 23 minutes. This was Ron's second consecutive cup championship as he won the 2010 Czech Cup with Nymburk last season!

(Clip - Ron Lewis' big block on Darrell Mitchell in the first half of the finals!)



(Clip - Ron Lewis big 3 in the first half, plus Mon's celebration)


Ron Lewis 3 in Cup Finals by BuckeyeBallersTV

(Clip - Lewis Post-game interview!)

Top Performances of April - #5 Je'Kel Foster leads Cremona in Win over Air Avellino!

(4.10.2011 - Cremona, Lombardia - Italy - Air Foster! - Former Buckeye Je'Kel Foster soars for sweet one handed dunk vs Air AV)

4.10.2011: Vanoli Cremona 89 Air Avellino 78 (Serie A Regular Season)
- Je'Kel Foster: 26 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals!

The Takeover: The Palasport Arena in Cremona, Italy was home to one of our favorite performances of the year on April 10, 2011.

Former Buckeye Je'Kel Foster led Vanoli Cremona past a tough Air Avellino club with an explosive 26 point performance! Foster (pictured left: laying it up vs Air AV), turned in perhaps his best game of the 2010/2011 season by hitting 10 of 13 shots from the field, including two three pointers and 4 out of 4 shots from the foul line. #23 also added 4 rebounds and 3 steals..one of the steals resulted in a super nice fast-break one handed slam! (pictured above)

Foster's game high performance helped contribute to a satisfying 89-78 victory against Air AV, a team that defeated Cremona by 14 in the previous meeting.

Video: (Short clips of Vanoli Cremona vs Air AV - Check out the steal & dunk in the opening seconds and the three at the end! Go Je'Kel!)

Top Competition: Je'Kel has consistently played against some of the top teams that Europe has to offer in the last two seasons.

You may remember that Foster played with the defending Bundesliga Champions, EWE Oldenburg, in Germany last season (2009/2010). With Oldenburg, Foster participated in the German League and the prestigious Euroleague where they battled top teams from Spain, Greece, Italy & Poland. Je'Kel then moved on to the Italian Serie A for 2010/2011, one of the top national leagues in Europe in our opinion (every team is tough in Italy, especially clubs like Siena & Milano). Je'Kel Foster is definitely one of the elite Buckeyes in professional basketball.

Top Peformances of April - #6 Jessica Davenport Destroys Spartak SP in the Russian League Playoffs!

(Vologda, Russia - Jessica Davenport competes against French team Arras in the Eurocup competition - 3.28.2011)

4.18.2011 - Chevakata 91 vs Spartak SP 79 (Russian League Playoffs - 5th place finish game)
- Jessica Davenport: 32 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists !!

Huge night in Vologda - Our top performances of April list resumes with a monster game by center Jessica Davenport in the Russian League Playoffs. Jessica's 2010/2011 overseas squad, Chevakata (based in Vologda, Russia), fell to Dynamo Kursk in the playoff quarterfinals (3 game series). Chevakata then moved on to the second bracket to play two more three game series against clubs Spartak SP & Novosibirsk in games to determine the 5 through 8 place spots.

Game two against Spartak St. Petersburg on April 18 was one to remember. The former Columbus Independence High & Ohio State star lead Chevakata with an unstoppable 32 points & 11 rebound effort in the 91-79 victory. Davenport scored 22 points from the field on eleven makes, and she also got he free throw line with ease by netting 10 more points from the charity stripe. After advancing past Spartak SP, Chevakata defeated Novosibirsk in the next series to finish 5th in the Russian League Playoffs (also finished 5th in the regular season). (Playoff Standings & Results)

Elite Buckeye: Jessica Davenport departed for a return to the United States in March from yet another successful overseas stint. In fact, next to Mike Conley Jr., we would say Davenport had the second best individual/team 2010/2011 season of all the professional Buckeyes.

Davenport averaged 18 points & 9 rebounds in Russia (one of the toughest woman's leagues in 2011). She also scored 21 or more points on 12 different occasions, the most of any Buckeye in the 2011/2012 season (Russian League Stats). Further, Jessica helped Chevakata advance all the way to the 2011 Eurocup final four before narrowly missing the finals by just one point (Eurocup Stats). We have no doubt that Jessica has emerged as a top 15 or top 10 center in woman's basketball due to her 2010 season with the Indiana Fever & the 2010/2011 stint in Russia. She will look to continue her excellent play with Indiana for the upcoming 2011 WNBA season.