Recogntion for Rowdy

[vu72]

The game is on ESPNU right now!

[humbleopinion]

Thanks for posting that the game was on, 72.  It was the quarterfinal game.  It looks like the semifinal will be aired tonight at 6:00 and the finals will be on tomorrow at 8:00 pm (both times CDT).

[valpotx]

Please beat Russia.  Nobody likes Russia 

[agibson]

Gold Medal Game: Russia - Australia (BH1)
ESPNU: July 16 @ 9 pm ET || July 17 @ 6 am ET

The actual game time is 12:30 pm CT, 9:30 PM Kazan time.

Nice to see Rowdy getting big minutes, apparently making key contributions, and certainly fun to see him lead in points for a game (Lithuania).

It took a little digging to find them, but it looks like replays of the Serbia, Lithuania, and US games against Australia are available on ESPN3.  Not sure about the final - ESPNU games are normally blacked out live on ESPN3 (at least for non-subscribers; with my like it's available here at the office, but these relpays won't be at home tonight).

Go Uniroos!

[koala]

Silver medal for Rowdy and the Aussies at the World University Games going down by 7 to Russia.   Fantastic effort by the team 

[wh]

Well, this was fun watching our guy help lead his national team to a Silver.  It will be exciting to see what he does next. 

[a3uge]

Broekhoff didn't have the greatest game - he turned the ball over at the end when Australia had a chance to come back. Ellis from SLU looked especially terrible... Not just at basketball, in the face as well. Guy needs to shave.

Russia had an NBA player and played in front of their home crowd, so Australia was an underdog to begin with.

[agibson]

Russia had an NBA player and played in front of their home crowd, so Australia was an underdog to begin with.

The NYT had an interesting piece related to this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/world/europe/russia-stacked-team-with-stars-for-world-university-games.html

Russia Stacked Team With Stars for World University Games
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: July 17, 2013

It didn't mention professionals - it was more about Russia stacking their teams with Olympians while other countries sent college-type players.  But, the theme was obviously Russia stacking their teams.  I don't know what the rules were wrt to amateurism - I wonder how stacked _was_ the Russian team?  An NBA player sounds like a good start.

There's a certain tradition, of course, of the home team trying to pack in the medals.  And, of Russia and friends stretching boundaries, of course.  But, sounds like they opened a new chapter this time.

[vu72]

Australia had a couple of pros as well, but certainly not any NBA types (other than Rowdy!  )

[Smj]

Excellent results for Australia.   Ryan played great.   It was great seeing him play again.   Really hope to be able to follow his career...

[valpotx]

Wait....Russia tried to gain an advantage in something?  Say it ain't so 1972 Munich Olympics 

[valpotx]

Geez, 155 golds, or around half of all available?  Russia really likes to pretend that it is still good at stuff, but when other countries are sending competitors such as below, wouldn't you feel embarrassed that you send so many top athletes against kids??

http://wordpress.spfldcol.edu/World-University-Games/

[a3uge]

Sergey Karasev was a first round pick for the Cleveland Cavaliers, 19th overall this past draft. He was Russia's leading point scorer.*

*Not completely sure if that's true.

[swiftmutiny]

Rowdy has signed with Besiktas, a Turkish team!

https://twitter.com/billpotter_HL/status/364433638860914689

http://basketball.eurobasket.com/team/Besiktas_Istanbul/1035?Page=1

[valpotx]

Congrats Rowdy!  I believe that is a good league for him to start in.  Hopefully he works his way to the Spanish or Italian leagues, as I believe that they are the best Euro leagues, along with Israel.

[agibson]

Fantastic!   Congratulations to Ryan!

According to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_national_basketball_league_rankings
Turkey is maybe 5th or 6th in Europe.

Istanbul's a pretty neat city, too.

It looks like Besiktas won the league in 2012, knocking off the guys who appear to be something like the Yankees of Turkish basketball, Anadolu Efes. 

Besiktas finished sixth last year, 19-11, qualifying them for this year's Eurocup competition (2nd tier European international competition - where he could potentially bump into Brandon Wood, whose Hungarian team is in the same competition this coming season).

Besiktas' website is running the headline "Eagles to boost scoring with American 3-point expert".

https://www.bjk.com.tr/en/

Unfortunately.... it refers to Santa Clara's Kevin Foster.  And they can't even manage to get the name of his school consistently right in a three-sentence piece.

OK, no surprise, their English site is a little out of date.

We do better in Turkish.

https://www.bjk.com.tr/tr/haber/56223/

Google translates it as

Men's Basketball Team, the Australian striker Ryan Broekhoff'u added staff.
Men's Basketball Team continues to work before the transfer to the new season, the Australian striker Ryan Broekhoff two-year contract to be signed with a one year option.


Who is Ryan Broekhoff?


August 23, 1990 Australian-born player, who has played the most recent American College League, Valparaiso University. Australia's national team played in the striker position, playing young players and 2.01 meters tall.

So, Valpo gets a mention.  As does the Aussie national team, of course.  And I learn that it's a two-year contract with apparently some sort of option (player? club?) for a third.

And I lose a lot in translation.  (I can _pronounce_ a _little_ Turkish.  Beshiktash?  Or is it Beshiktas?  But I can understand basically none.)

[agibson]

There seem to be a number of articles in the Turkish media.  I'll pass on them for now

In Australian Senior Men's team news, I notice
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/basketball/boomers-squad-without-jason-cadee-and-chris-goulding-8216best-in-years8217/story-fni2uang-1226691467978
that Ryan missed the cut for the 15-man roster for a couple of games against New Zealand.  But, he does get mentioned by the coach among the prospects

Lemanis said it was impossible to not be excited about Australia's prospects.

"I'm excited," he said.

"Both Dante and Ben (Simmons) have an athleticism we don't commonly see in this country.

"And Ryan Broekhoff and Cam Bairstow have done well for us and have exciting futures."

[Mommy Goat]

Its pronounced Beshiktash.  Australia and Turkey share a great deal of respect due to their mutual losses at Gallipoli.  Ryan will be loved in Istanbul. 

"Iyi canslar", Ryan,  Good luck.

[vu72]

Its pronounced Beshiktash.  Australia and Turkey share a great deal of respect due to their mutual losses at Gallipoli.  Ryan will be loved in Istanbul. 

"Iyi canslar", Ryan,  Good luck.

Oh come on Apostle, your style is WAY to obvious as are your goofy names! 

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Oh come on Apostle, your style is WAY to obvious as are your goofy names!

...i'm not sure whether to be offended or laugh.  not my style, although a historical reference to Gallipoli might be--I'm a stickler for "it's" when it should be thus, and I know zero Arabic. :/

...and I have only ever had one account here, too, btw!

[valpotx]

Surrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee Saders 

[Mommy Goat]

With a name like Mommy Goat, I won't demand respect but would offer the following:

1. Turkey and Australia share mutual admiration that will be a boon for Ryan.
2. I am not LaPorteAveApostle.  Due to the informality of this board, I am comfortable with the occasional misplaced contraction but would never be so vapid  as to suggest Turks speak Arabic.  Mustafa Kemal is rolling in Anitkabir right now. My alleged alter ego and I share very different, but perhaps equally annoying, contempt for bad grammar, on the one hand, and linguistic ignorance, on the other.  75 million Turkish speaking Turks certainly would think the latter error is far graver. 

[agibson]

Oh come on Apostle, your style is WAY to obvious as are your goofy names!

B+.

I'm pretty sure he was joking.  I was torn, myself, between another koala reboot (the more the merrier! she's always welcome here), and some sort of follower of the Turkish league getting on board here.

And, MommyGoat, whoever you are, welcome!  (Back?)   We'll take anyone who's a fan of, or has some insight into, Australia, Turkey, Ryan, etc.

[agibson]

I am comfortable with the occasional misplaced contraction but would never be so vapid  as to suggest Turks speak Arabic.

B+ as well!  Would have been at least an A-, except for the seemingly idiosyncratic use of vapid.

[agibson]

Glancing a bit more at Besiktas (bonus points for anyone who can get the diacritical marks going that remind us to pronounce those s's like sh's).

It looks like 75% of the squad turned over since last season?  I wonder if that's typical?  For the team?  For the league?

It looks like _all_ of their international players left since last season, for other European teams.

Looks like they've had a couple of prominent NBA players in the past, but under unusual circumstances. 

In 2010, after retiring from the NBA, Allen Iverson signed a two-year, $4M deal with Besiktas.

In 2011, during the NBA lockout, they had Deron Williams on a $5M contract.