EuroCup Last 16: Game 6

[Vilnietis]

Last 16, Game 6, February 28, 2012

BCM Gravelines vs. CEZ Nymburk
VEF Riga vs. Valencia Basket

Aris BSA 2003 vs. BC Donetsk
Asvel Basket vs. BC Khimki

Buducnost Voli vs. Krka Novo Mesto
Banvit BK vs. Spartak SPB

Lokomotiv Kuban vs. Alba Berlin
Benetton Basket vs. Lietuvos Rytas

Match of the week Benetton Basket - Lietuvos Rytas. Better team goes to 1/4, no space for interpretations.

[madmax]

right, so Final 8 in Eurocup has arrived it seems...
Valencia - Buducnost
Rytas - Donetsk
Spartak - Nymburk
Kuban - Khimki

The only team which seems to be out of place here is Buducnost I guess, but you can never underestimate fighting qualities of Balkan warriors anyway...as for pair favorites, I think Valencia, Rytas, Spartak and Khimki should prevail, if we go by season results and team strenght indicators. Concerning Rytas, as much as it pains me to say it, I think ukrainian team can really upset us, due to the fact that they have much better coach and Dzikic more than likely will be outsmarted again. I really wish we won this trophy again just to stick it into Jordi's greedy mug, but realistically few teams are better than us.

[Straight forward]

Rytas saved the season because of Lithuanians - Seibutis, Valančiūnas, Katelynas and Babrauskas. While Rice and Rasič proved again Rytas is naked at pg section. Both players are literally horrible as PG. The worst PG lineup in Rytas history. Babrauskas btw proved again he has balls and playing well when the ball hot. Jonas proved he's special - being 19yo made difference in the last quarter. If this Rytas would have a point guard, they could fight for the title. Now I doubt very much. Till Seibutis and Babrauskas took the ball in their hands, it was stupid and primitive offense lead by two "playmakers".

[Chopin]

right, so Final 8 in Eurocup has arrived it seems...
Valencia - Buducnost
Rytas - Donetsk
Spartak - Nymburk
Kuban - Khimki

The only team which seems to be out of place here is Buducnost I guess, but you can never underestimate fighting qualities of Balkan warriors anyway...as for pair favorites, I think Valencia, Rytas, Spartak and Khimki should prevail, if we go by season results and team strenght indicators. Concerning Rytas, as much as it pains me to say it, I think ukrainian team can really upset us, due to the fact that they have much better coach and Dzikic more than likely will be outsmarted again. I really wish we won this trophy again just to stick it into Jordi's greedy mug, but realistically few teams are better than us.

Well, Buducnost has continuity, solid defence and a great mixture of experience and young talent. They are probably going to be on final four of adriatic league for the second year in a row. And I am sure they are better team than Nymburk for example (Nymburk played last year in adriatic and finished 8th).

Krka was very dissapointing this year. After last season, which was perfect for them (Winner of Eurochallenge, Slovenian championship and F4 of adriatic league) I was expecting them to be even better since I expected youngsters (Muric, Dragic), that had important role last year, to improve and play even better this year. Unfortunately that did not happen, probably because of too many foreigneirs that did not stay for the whole season and the lack of quality of the new foreigneres.

[forumvardedilergeldik]

right, so Final 8 in Eurocup has arrived it seems...
Valencia - Buducnost
Rytas - Donetsk
Spartak - Nymburk
Kuban - Khimki

The only team which seems to be out of place here is Buducnost I guess, but you can never underestimate fighting qualities of Balkan warriors anyway...as for pair favorites, I think Valencia, Rytas, Spartak and Khimki should prevail, if we go by season results and team strenght indicators. Concerning Rytas, as much as it pains me to say it, I think ukrainian team can really upset us, due to the fact that they have much better coach and Dzikic more than likely will be outsmarted again. I really wish we won this trophy again just to stick it into Jordi's greedy mug, but realistically few teams are better than us.

Totally agree.

Valencia, L.Rytas and Spartak seem to be the candidates for the winner of the trophy and getting a ticket to Euroleague for next year.

IMO, as Rytas, you need to stop unnecessary turnovers (maybe a better pg) to go further but still has the capacity to finish on the top.

And Buducnost All Buducnost supporters should thank to Banvit for leting them being here. I still can't understand how Banvit had lost against Krka.

[hustlerlt]

Rytas saved the season because of Lithuanians - Seibutis, Valančiūnas, Katelynas and Babrauskas. While Rice and Rasič proved again Rytas is naked at pg section. Both players are literally horrible as PG. The worst PG lineup in Rytas history. Babrauskas btw proved again he has balls and playing well when the ball hot. Jonas proved he's special - being 19yo made difference in the last quarter. If this Rytas would have a point guard, they could fight for the title. Now I doubt very much. Till Seibutis and Babrauskas took the ball in their hands, it was stupid and primitive offense lead by two "playmakers".

Well I wouldn't say that this PG lineup is the worst ever.Last year Rytas also had pretty horrible PG's.Sure,they had Saras,who only played there for a month,and El-Amin,who's maybe better in clutch than Rice,but much slower.Besides that everything else was horrible.Milosevic was terrible,Johnson barely even played,DJ Strawberry wasn't even a PG,but was forced to play there and Rasic,who at least can hit a few three pointers.Last year when Rytas had Saras and El-Amin as their PG's,it was probably the best PG lineup ever,but it only lasted for about a month.El-Amin also in the last Euroleague top 16 game got injured for the rest of the season.That meant that Rytas had to end the season with Strawberry and Rasic as their PG's.In my opinion Rice is much better than Strawberry,so it isn't the worst PG lineup in Rytas history.

[INTEGRAL]

Silly Banvit..I cant understand how they couldnt qualify..

[Straight forward]

Well I wouldn't say that this PG lineup is the worst ever.Last year Rytas also had pretty horrible PG's.Sure,they had Saras,who only played there for a month,and El-Amin,who's maybe better in clutch than Rice,but much slower.Besides that everything else was horrible.Milosevic was terrible,Johnson barely even played,DJ Strawberry wasn't even a PG,but was forced to play there and Rasic,who at least can hit a few three pointers.Last year when Rytas had Saras and El-Amin as their PG's,it was probably the best PG lineup ever,but it only lasted for about a month.El-Amin also in the last Euroleague top 16 game got injured for the rest of the season.That meant that Rytas had to end the season with Strawberry and Rasic as their PG's.In my opinion Rice is much better than Strawberry,so it isn't the worst PG lineup in Rytas history.

Last year when Šaras gone was not much also, BUT El- Amin is lightly better passer than Rice and could play some pick and rolls. Besides Gecevičius had a big role and he is perfect pick and roll player and good passer overall, better passer than Seibutis for example.

[hustlerlt]

Last year when Šaras gone was not much also, BUT El- Amin is lightly better passer than Rice and could play some pick and rolls. Besides Gecevičius had a big role and he is perfect pick and roll player and good passer overall, better passer than Seibutis for example.

But Gecas wasn't a PG.Also I wouldn't say that El-Amin was a good pick and roll player.He had a lot of difficulities passing after them,because he was so small and other guards were much bigger.I think his and Rice's passing level is about the same.Still,that means that at the end of last year the PG spot was much worse than this years.However,I wouldn't mind if Rytas got a pass first PG the next season.