DEUTSCHE BANK SKYLINERS Look East in EuroChallenge
The DEUTSCHE BANK SKYLINERS can start to unleash their heavy winter coats, because they were handed teams in Russia, Estonia and the Ukraine for the group play in the EuroChallenge. "I got to get me a nice big Nike jacket, because it will be cold there", said Jimmy McKinney.
Their were many attractive teams still remaining and The DEUTSCHE BANK SKYLINERS organization and fans can be very very content that they will see top class teams like BC Kiev, BC Triumph Lyubertsy and BC Kalev Cramo. The top two teams in this group will advance to the top 16. Frankfurt have their first game on the road in Tallin at Kalev on November 25 and first home game on December 2nd against BC Triumph Lyubertsy. "I am really excited about these teams. I am sure I will be able to play in December", explained Jimmy McKinney.
The most dangerous team that Frankfurt will face is BC Kiev, who are still undefeated in the Ukraine Superleague with a record of 6-0. The team has many familiar ex BBL faces. The most recognizable has to be coach Sascha Obradovic, who cant be missed in a bunch of players, because his bald head is his trademark.
As a player, he won it all including the European championship 1995 and 1997 and World Championship 1998 with Yugoslavia. He also showed his winning ways in the BBL winning the cup as a player in 2004 and 2005 with Cologne and as a coach 2006 leading Cologne to the BBL title. The team has many superstars including American Scoonie Penn, who reached the NCAA final four with Ohio State in 1999 together with ex Skyliners Ken Johnson and George Reese. Even though he was drafted 2000 in the second round by the Atlanta Hawks, he never made the NBA, but has had a fine European career playing for top notch teams like Olympiakos S.F.P. Pireus and Efes Pilsen. "I am looking forward to playing against him. He has a lot of experience and was great in college and is playing well in Europe", stated American Jimmy McKinney.
American Alex Scales was near the NBA entrance, but never was let in, but he also found his nishe in Europe. He played for top teams Real Madrid and Aris Thessaloniki the last years. Last season, he played for CSK VVS Samara and was the fourth best scorer in the F.I.B.A Eurocup with 17,4 points per game. This is a team that can score and they were further helped by the signing of American Clay Tucker, who played for Siviglia Wear Teramo (Italy-SerieA) last season and led the league in scoring with 21,0 points per game. He can do it all from the guard position and could give the Skyliners immense problems with his wheeling and dealing in the zone. After a strong college career at Florida where he won 89 games and reached the NCAA final in 2000, he has had a very successful career winning league titles in Sweden, Lativa, Belgium, and Croatia. American Ryan Stack does the dirty work under the boards and has been a top center in Europe for years. He played in Greece from 2002-2007 with Aris Thessaloniki and Olympiakos S.F.P. Pireus. After being drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1998, he played two seasons in the NBA, before he was released for serious physical problems including a glandular imbalance. If that wasn´t enough star power, the team has ex Alba Berlin big man Jovo Stanojevic he won the BBL title in 2003 and cups 2003 and 2006. He played in Berlin from 2002-2007 and was in this time one of best and most elegant centers in the BBL.
BC Triumph Lyubertsy is the other huge hurdle that The DEUTSCHE BANK SKYLINERS will have to leap over in order to reach the last 16. They haven´t started out so well in the Superleague with a 1-2 record, but this is a team that has an arsenal of basketball weapons that would please any coach in the world.
The most recognizable name is Serb Nenad Krstic, who spent the last four seasons in the NBA for The New Jersey Nets. He played 226 games in the NBA establishing himself as a solid center. In his first two seasons, he averaged 10,0 and 13,5 points, but was then stalled by injuries the last two years. In his third season he had a torn knee ligament and was never able to recover again missing 89 games his last two seasons. He is still young at 25 and is looking to conquer Europe. Skyliner fans will remember American Marcus Goree with a lot of joy. He played only one season in Frankfurt in 2001-2002, but his stats were incredible as he averaged 19.5ppg, 9.3rpg, 1.6apg, 1.3bpg, 1.0spg points per game. He had some fine seasons with Benetton Treviso winning the Italian championship 2006 with ex Sklyiner American Travon Bryant.
American Alan Anderson is the top scorer currently for BC Triumph averaging 17,0 points, 4,0 rebounds and 1,5 assists per game. He played at Michigan State reaching the NCAA Elite 8 in 2003. He played in the NBA for the Charlotte Bobcats in 2005-2006 and split time in the D-league and Charlotte in 2006-2007. Last season he showed his skills in Italy at Bologna averaging 29 games: 14.4ppg, 4.9rpg, 1.3apg, 1.6spg, per game.”I remember Alan from college. He is a great shooter”, warned Jimmy Mckinney. Another great shooter is American Ernest Bremer, who as a rookie played 68 gamers for the Boston Celtics and averaged 8.3ppg, 2.3rpg, 2.6apg per game. The next season, he fell off the NBA bandwagon getting a few ten day contracts with the Golden State Warriors, but not much more. He then went overseas and played in Spain, Italy and Greece. Last season, he played for Spartak Primorie Vladivostok (RUS-A Superleague) and was the fourth best scorer in the Superleague with 16,4 points and top assist man in the league with 5,7 per game. The team also has one of the top Turkish players Kerem Tunceri, who has won more than ten Basketball titles in his career.
The weakest opponent for the DEUTSCHE BANK SKYLINERS is BC Kalev Cramo from Estonia. They are leading the EMKL standings in Estonia at 5-0, but don’t have the experience or quality of players that the other two opponents have. The most known name is American Nate Fox, who is averaging 10,2 points and 5,4 rebounds per game this season.
He made a name for himself in Germany playing for parts of four seasons with Bayer Giants Leverkusen. His best season was 2005-2006, where he averaged 15,2 points and 9,5 rebounds per game. He was also having a good season last year, and if it hadn´t been for his worldwide suspension for seven and a half months in March 2008 because of drug use, then The Bayer Giants Leverkusen could of possibly gone even farther in the playoffs. Top scorer of the team is 30 year old American John Linehan, who started his basketball career at Providence and after a short stint with the Worlds most famous Basketball team Harlem Globetrotters in 2004, he made a name for himself in the French league playing two years for Racing Paris and two years with Sluc Nancy. He could have an interesting duel with feisty Sklyiner defender Adam Emmenecker, because he is a Tough, tenacious defender who drives opposing point guards crazy with his non-stop pressure and hustle.
A pure scorer for BC Kalev Cramo is American Josh Pace, who already reached a milestone at the age of 2000 winning the NCAA title in 2003 with Syracuse. After dominating in Finnland and New Zealand, he went back to the States last season and led the CBA league in scoring with 23.0ppg, 7.1rpg, 4.4apg per game. Big man American Kevin Lyde is the 206m, 122 Kilo monster under the boards having played in Argentina, Poland, NBDL league and D-league. Last season, he averaged 12,3 points and 7,8 rebounds for the Dakota Wizards in the D-league. He is very physical under the hoop and has a nice touch around the rim. Estonian Kristijan Kangur might also ring a bell for some BBL die hard followers, because he played for the Bayer Giants Leverkusen from 2004 to 2006.
This is a very interesting group, and The DEUTSCHE BANK SKYLINERS will need luck and good play to advance. BC Kalev Cramo is the long shot, while BC Kiev, and BC Triumph Lyubertsy are the favourites. Frankfurt will need to find a way to get past one of these two teams in order to advance to the final round of 16. In the past, The DEUTSCHE BANK SKYLINERS have been unsuccessful in international competition losing 20 games in a row in the 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 seasons. However this season, they have a fantastic 3-0-1 record, but against lesser talent. Now with this group, Frankfurt will have the ultimate test, if they can advance. Of course, it would be useful, to get guys like Lorenzo Gordon, Keith Simmons and Jimmy Mckinney back as soon as possible. NBA legend Pat Riley always said that defense wins titles and in the last weeks, Frankfurt has been showing, that they can win with a strong and forceful defense. Frankfurt allows the least points in the BBL and this can only be beneficial for the difficult future EuroChallenge games. American Skyliner Jimmy Mckinney has a positive outlook to the EuroChallenge. “We have good chances to advance. We are playing very well now and if we play strong defense, then we can beat anyone”.
Miles Schmidt-Scheuber
