TWSS: International Roundup

by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Oct 7, 2009 12:40 PM CDT in Outside the League

Hey it's Tuesday (now Wednesday). Do you know what that means? I bet not. It means it is time to get caught up on all your international basketball news. Yep, that's right. I'll be here every Tuesday giving you an update on our Spurs abroad. Tops on the list is Tiago Splitter. The next two men of interest are James Gist, aka G.I.S.T; and Nando De Colo, aka SpurNando. Of all the guys involved/related to the Spurs, they are the most likely to be in a Spurs uniform.

There are an additional set of guys that I have an interest in following. Robertas Javtokas, 2001 second round pick by the Spurs. He played with Moscow Dynamo last year. I haven't figured out where he is this year. 2004 second round pick Sergei Karaulov. I haven't found him yet either. Eric Dawson, who spent the last two years with the Austin Toros and logged a DNP-CD in each game for the Spurs Summer League team, is playing in Japan for Mistubishi Diamond Dolphins. The Spurs don't own his rights and I doubt there is much of a chance of us ever seeing him in a Spurs uniform. I like Eric though and want to keep an eye on him. Plus, Pop gave him a nice slap on the back and talked to him after the Summer League, so I figure he likes him. And that's good enough for me.

European basketball is structured just a bit differently than the NBA. All European teams are in a domestic league. There are LOTS of domestic leagues. The best domestic league is the Spanish ACB. The domestic leagues play one game per week on the weekend. The better teams from the domestic leagues also play in various Euro leagues. There are 3 (I think) right now. EuroLeague, EuroCup, and EuroChallenge. The teams play their Euro league games mid-week

Tiago Splitter

Tiago will be with the Spurs next season. You can take that to the bank. I'll give you my reasons next week. He's playing for the same team in the Spanish ACB league that he has always played for. The team changed names though. It used to be Tau Ceramica. Now, it is Caja Laboral. They kick off their season this Sunday morning at 5:30 (Spurs time) against CB Murcia. CB Murcia is a lower-tier team in the ACB. Caja Laboral is also playing in the Euroleague. Their Euroleague seaons gets started Thursday, October 22nd vs Virtus Roma. Euroleague is the highest level of competition after the NBA.

Caja Laboral is playing Group C which is LOADED. It has Caja, CSKA Moscow (perennial final four team), Maccabi Tel Aviv, Virtus Roma, Union Olimpija Llubljana, and some fodder to be determined in a qualifying round.

Links:

ACB home page

Euroleague home page:

Nando De Colo

Nando is lacing them up for Valencia in the ACB as well. This recap of a Valencia preseason game calls SpurNando "Gran Protagonista". I think that is a good thing. He led his team with 15 points. In this other preseason game, he lead the team with 22. They kick off their regular season Sunday morning as well against Estudiantes.

Valencia is playing in a qualifying match to get into EuroCup. EuroCup is the league just below Euroleague. Valencia plays a home-and-away against Dexia Mons-Hainaut ( a French league team who just lost their coach to the Rio Grande Vipers. The Vipers are the Rockets D-League team) on October 20th and 27th. Valencia should be heavily favored to win this qualifying round and get into EuroCup.

ACB home page

EuroCup home page

James Gist

I'm not sure where James is playing yet. It doesn't appear that he is back at Angelico Biella in the Italian league. They are now called Lauretana Biella and are also in the EuroCup.

Robertas Javtokas and Sergei Karaulov

Still don't know where they are.

Eric Dawson

Eric is playing with the Mistubishi Diamond Dolphins in Japan. They started their season last week with a pair of losses to the Aishin Sea Horses. They lost 80-65 and 85-71. Eric had 19 points and 11 rebounds in the opener and 18 points with 15 rebounds in game 2. He took 20 and 26 shots, respectively, so they are definitely allowing him to shoot. I haven't followed the Japan League before so I'll let you know anything interesting I find as I go. I'm fairly certain they are only allowed 2 non-Japanese players so they are pretty choosy about who they pay to play for them.

That's it for the opening salvo of the International Roundup. See you next week.

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Comments

I wonder if Tony might sign Gist to L’ASVEL. It couldn’t be a bad thing…

9.20.21.24.34
ACLs are like crutches. They’re only for the weaklings who can’t get along without them. -jollyrogerwilco

by Tim C. on Oct 7, 2009 1:34 PM CDT reply actions

Gran Protagonista

Main character, the star of the show. It’s a good thing.

Straight from the No-Stat Zone to your computer!
Dunkin' Cheerleaders

by LatinD on Oct 7, 2009 1:35 PM CDT reply actions

If McClinton ends up in Europe, you might add him to your list. I look forward to reading these every Tuesday.

by BlaseE on Oct 7, 2009 1:57 PM CDT reply actions

Yeah, I will definitely do that.

I’ve also seen Darius Washington (Galatsaray sp?) and Melvin Sanders (Gran Canaria) are signed to European teams this year.

We specialize in misinformation around here. Facts and stats just get in the way.

by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Oct 7, 2009 2:58 PM CDT up reply actions

I had really high hopes for Darius Washington for about 20 minutes. And I remember thinking, during the playoffs as Mase was trying to bring the ball upcourt while Tony got his wind, that we missed Darius right about….now.

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain

by spurchief on Oct 7, 2009 10:00 PM CDT up reply actions

I’ve wondered how Euro ball works for a while but I’ve never been able to find the answers (or at least too lazy to look). Thanks for this. I look forward to following our guys through out their seasons!

"Some defeats are only installments to victory." Jacob Riis.

by tiagocometh on Oct 7, 2009 2:32 PM CDT reply actions

Wayne, thanks for putting this together! Like TC, I’ve been Euro-curious for a while and I think this will put me over the top. Especially having one place to go to for all the info.

Here, have a JTU.

From under the radar to hanging in the rafters - Big50
5 in 10

by J.R. Wilco on Oct 7, 2009 4:56 PM CDT reply actions

I may be mistaken, but my understanding is you have domestic league (i.e., Italian League, Spanish ACB League, etc) that is similar to regular season, then “domestic cups” (i.e. Italian Cup), which are like playoffs, then Euroleague, where you have the top teams from around the domestic leagues competing for the grand prize. All 3 of these are considered a separate championship, so you can win a regular-season title, a Cup (like winning a tournament or playoff), and then you can win the higher-up/bigger tourney, which is Euroleague.
If I am incorrect, feel free to correct me.

by Gino20 on Oct 7, 2009 7:01 PM CDT reply actions

Sounds about right, but the analogy fails a bit because, as you said, there’s no correlation between the domestic league and the cups. So comparing them to the regular season and the playoffs seems off to me. The criteria for making the local cups usually varies a lot.

Straight from the No-Stat Zone to your computer!
Dunkin' Cheerleaders

by LatinD on Oct 7, 2009 7:12 PM CDT up reply actions

Thanks for the updates, boss-man. Javtokas’ wikipedia page says he just recently signed a contract with Khimki Moscow Region, also in the Russian League.

The Roleplayer's Realm

by silverandblack_davis on Oct 7, 2009 8:03 PM CDT reply actions