It was on the 3rd of October 2008, when we first saw APOEL. It appeared at Keravnoss tournament and played against Marousi. We stated then, that APOEL would have been a very strong contender and it did.

APOEL was surely a better team than Keravnos mainly for three reasons.

Keravnos had indeed more depth (basically had 13 players ready to play), but APOEL had more quality players. It was certainly stronger at all 5 positions than Keravnos with Jo Jo Garcia, Lonnie Cooper, Rasheed Brokenborough, and Gerben Van Dorpe being among the best players in the league.

We should never forget the captain of the National team, George Anastasiades whose contribution was significant especially defensively and also players like Martin Zeno and Siril Makanta who also had significant contribution.

Yes, Apoel stuggled a lot during the 1st round, but we need to account in our analysis that it played 6 games away due to court punishment. On the other hand Keravnos with a lot higher budget than Apoel had no excuse to struggle and it did. Someone needs to have in mind that during the 1st round Keravnos won 5 games by 1-point, two of those in overtime.

Lastly, in the games against each other APOEL won 5 (2 of those by 25) and lost only 2 close games (1 in overtime).

The above reasons prove that Apoel was indeed a better team.

Congratulations need to be given to Christodoulos Ellinas who has kept the promise he gave to us. We remember giving him a call in mid- July and asked him about his plans. He basically promised a new era for the team and he said his goal was to build up a team that would become a threat to contend for the titles in the years to come.
His exact words were: 'I will do my best so that APOEL enterers a new era. More over, I will do everything in my power to support all those fans that stood by the team last year''.

In our personal opinion, Keravnos was not a championship team this year mainly because was not built that way. It struggled a lot, especially in the 1st round and in general, it paid for serious mistakes made by Vasilis Frankias (team's coach).

At the 1st round it won 5 games (Apollon, AEL, Apoel, Omonoia, AEK) by one point, two of those in overtime. It could have easily lost a few of those games. It was clearly far behind last year when it swiped all games in its home court.

Kindly, we wish to state that the championship was lost, not because of the referees, nor because of bad luck, or eurobasket reporters (who by the way have been criticized a lot this year for just doing their job), and not because of anyone else, but because of mistakes taken place.

Mistakes

1) The team has been without a CENTER PLAYER all year long. Not a bad idea to play only with power forwards (as the original idea was), but it is only good for Panathinaikos, Olymbiakos or the NBA; certainly not for Keravnos.
We have noted this many times. Keravnos has never won a championship without a quality center on the team.

When the team decided to land a center on the team, it was too late, obviously because at that time of the year it is too difficult to spot a dominant center player.

The end result was that all year long Keravnos could no beat APOEL with Jo Jo Garcia in the team. In our opinion, Garcia has been the best Center in the league.

2) A winning team was let to be destroyed (lost Anastasiades, Randojevic, Smith). What were the chances of replacing all three of them with the same calliber players?

3) With a higher budget than all other teams (except AEL), the team kept changing players all year long and besides Greer, was not able to land another quality player. This year it has probably changed more players than all the other teams together (note: this has been going on during the last 3 years).

How can a team with a lot higher budget than Apoel, end up having a worse team? Keravnos had indeed more depth (basically had 13 players ready to play), but APOEL had more quality players. It was certainly stronger at all 5 positions than Keravnos with Jo Jo Garcia, Lonnie Cooper, Rasheed Brokenborough, and Gerben Van Dorpe being among the best players in the league.

It is not about how much players you have, but how well they can play. And we have many examples of teams that have less players but are better 'teams'.

Dusseldorf Giants 87 Artland Dragons 86

Dusseldorf played spoiler Sunday afternoon at Burg-Wachter-Costello edging Artland 87-86 behind a terrific team effort. Hoping to overtake Paderborn for the 8th and final playoff spot, Artland started the game strong opening a 26-21 lead after 1Q but a Dusseldorf 2Q run helped the Giants take a 41-39 halftime lead. The Dragons responded out of halftime regaining the lead and taking a tight 60-58 margin into the 4th. Dusseldorf earned the exciting home win edging Artland 87-86 before the final buzzer. Dusseldorf's Matt Lottich buried 4 of 9 threes to topscore with 17pt while Brant Bailey and Gordon Geib contributed 12pt apiece, TJ Carter added 11 and Zack Whiting 10 against his former team. The statistically even game saw Artland shoot 49% and Dusseldorf 48% from the floor with the Dragons making 12 of 27 (44%) and Giants 10 of 30 (33%) from beyond the arc. Dusseldorf held two advantages, helping themselves win by hitting their foul shots (17 of 23 78%) and taking care of the basketball suffering only 8 turnovers. Artland outrebounded Dusseldorf 38-27. The Dragons were led by an excellent effort from Toby Bailey who hit 6 of 9 threes finishing with 25pt 7reb and Ronald Ross who produced 16pt 4ast before fouling out. Head coach Achim Kuczmann and his Giants improved to 13-19 while Artland evened at 16-16. The Dragons remain behind Paderborn in the race for the final playoff spot.

Deustsche Bank Skyliners 73 ALBA Berlin 66

Deutsche Bank Skyliners earned an important 73-66 home win Sunday at Ballsporthalle in a game shown live on BBL.TV. With Oldenburg losing on the road in Tubingen Saturday night, Sunday's game presented ALBA Berlin with the opportunity to even Oldenburg's league best record with a win. Lorenzo Gordon led the Skyliners with 15pt 8reb, Konrad Wysocki finished with 12pt 4reb before fouling out and Keith Simmons chipped in 10. ALBA controlled play early building a 19-15 1Q lead before Frankfurt fought back and the teams went into halftime tied at 32. Throughout the physical second half, Frankfurt edged ahead and took a tight 54-52 lead into the 4th. Down the stretch, several turnovers led to Berlin empty possessions and Skyliners Lorenzo Gordon and Konrad Wysocki converted important baskets to help their team pick up the impressive home win. Casey Jacobsen paced the ALBA attack hitting 3 of 5 threes to topscore with 14pt while Adam Chubb and Immaneul McElroy had 10pt apiece. Frankfurt hit 49% of their shots including 6 of 15 from three (40%) while ALBA shot 51% from the floor making 7 of 17 threes (41%). In the close game, Frankfurt made 13 of 19 FT (68%) while Berlin hit only 9 of 17 (52%). Berlin also suffered 14 turnovers compared with 8 from the Skyliners. Frankfurt outrebounded Berlin 31-27. Head coach Murat Didin and his Skyliners improve to 21-12 while ALBA slips to 24-7.

NewYorker Phantoms Braunschweig 98 LTi Giessen 46ers 94 3OT

In one of the most thrilling games of the Bundesliga season, NewYorker Phantoms Braunschweig took an exciting 98-94 triple overtime win Sunday at Volkswagonhalle in Braunschweig. Dustin Salisberry led the way with 28pt 9reb while Kyle Visser added 18pt 9reb, Jonathan Levy 15pt 5reb and Andrew Drevo 11pt 12reb double double. Michael Umeh paced Giessen with a 22pt night and Johannes Lischka chipped in 20pt 14reb. Corey Rouse also finished with a 13pt 10reb double double in the loss for the 46ers. The Phantoms raced to a 20-12 lead before taking a 33-29 lead at half. Regulation ended even at 79 before the teams competed throughout three exciting overtimes. In the win, Braunschweig shot 50% from the floor while holding Giessen to 36% but the 46ers made 29 of 51 FT (56%) compared with Braunschweig's 20 of 42 (47%) from the foul line. The exciting triple overtime game saw both teams take turns making big plays before Braunschweig earned their second straight win. Head coach Emir Mutapcic and his Braunschweig team earned the triple overtime home win and improved to 13-20 while Giessen falls to 8-25 falling for the fifth straight time.

TBB Trier 73 Koln 99ers 58

TBB Trier used a balanced team effort and strong second half to take a 73-58 home win over Koln 99ers Sunday night at Trier Arena. Brian Brown led the scoring with 14pt followed by 13pt apiece from Derek Raivio and Chris Copeland along with 12pt from Norman Richardson. Jeremy Hunt was the leading scorer for Koln finishing with 18pt 6reb. Koln opened the action moving to a 21-16 lead after 1Q and holding a 33-30 halftime lead. Trier outscored the 99ers 19-14 in the 3rd assuming a 49-47 advantage heading into the 4th. But Trier finished the game 24-11 in the final ten minutes to earn the nice win. Trier shot 46% from the floor and held Koln to 34% but the 99ers were slowed by 3 for 20 three point shooting (15%) and 24 turnovers. Head coach Yves Defraigne and his Trier team won their 4th straight game improving their recored to 16-17 while Koln dropped to 9-22.

New interest in the league of the second division as Arkadikos lost in his home court from Serelis's Lavrio who succeeded the most importand road win of the seazon, an amazing step for Lavrio team who succeeded to beat Arkadikos in his unbeaten home court (12-0), Lavrio is currently among the top favorite teams to be promoted in the A2. At the same time, Apollon Kalamarias beat Amyntas and now there are 6 teams for three positions (Amyntas 19-7, Ikaroi Serron 19-7, Lavrio 18-8, Ikaroi Kallitheas 18-8, Arkadikos 18-8, OFI 17-9). The results with more analysis are as follows:
Arkadikos - Lavrio 84-86
The quarters were: 22-23, 42-39, 56-64, 84-86.
Top scorers:
Arkadikos: Giannis Manos (186-G-71) 26, Moutran 17
Lavrio: Nick Psileas (200-F-80) 24, Dionysios Giannakopoulos (195-G/F-82) 23

Apollon Kalamarias - Amyntas 91-88
The quarters were: 29-17, 44-40, 66-69, 91-88.

Top scorers:

Apollon Kalamarias: Panagiotis Nanis (195-F/G-80) 29, Papadopoulos 14, Thymnios 15.

Amyntas: Samothrakis 16, Zoupas 14 and Moumouris 10

Ikaroi Serron - Pierikos/Arhelaos 68-54
The quarters were: 20-13, 35-25, 51-42, 68-54.

Top scorers:

Ikaroi Serron: Konstantinos Pehlivanis (192-F-79) 19, Topouzis 19 and Georgantzas 17

Pierikos/Arhelaos: Nemanja Cuk (208-C-74) 13, Chrisanthopoulos 13

Sporting - OFI 62-75
The quarters were: 16-17, 22-34, 40-51, 62-75.

Top scorers:

Sporting: Kritsalos 15, Houmas 10

OFI: Tsakiridis 34, Vagenas 10