H.T. checks in with an update on the most recent goings on of Blazers' draftee and noted salmon aficionado Petteri Koponen. Our man still is having trouble finding minutes at pointguard. Are we to start a free Koponen movement?
Virtus Bologna prepares for the playoffs. + LOSING! + DRAMA!
Things aren't looking too chipper for Petteri Koponen's Virtus Bologna right now. Despite winning the FIBA EuroChallenge championship just three weeks ago, Bologna hasn't been able to get a win in Italian Serie A competition after the first week of April. In the last week of Serie A regular season, Bologna lost an away game against Premiata Montegranaro (72-75) and then an overtime game at home against Benetton Treviso (85-90).
Virtus ended their regular season losing four Serie A games in a row and sliding from 2nd spot in standings to 5th spot, which means that they won't be having home court advantage for the 2009 Serie A Playoffs. Even more concerning is that Bologna will meet Benetton Treviso in the playoffs, a team that they haven't been able to beat during the 2008/2009 regular season. Treviso has been improving throughout the season and they are looking really strong now, and having home court advantage will definitely help them.
Petteri Koponen finished his first ever regular season as a professional averaging 3,0 points, 1,2 rebounds, 0,9 assists, 0,7 steals and 1,0 turnover in 15 minutes per game. Petteri played total of 29 games and was in Virtus Bologna's starting lineup 17 times. His field goal percentages (2pt 36,2% 3pt 24,4%) were notably lower than the ones he recorded in EuroChallenge play (2pt 56,7% 3pt 39,4%).
It has been much of a learning season for 21-year old Koponen. Because of strong presence of scoring-minded point guard Earl Boykins, Koponen has been mostly playing off his natural point guard position. Petteri has never been very good without the ball, and that clearly shows in his field goal percentages; he hasn't been able to create his own shot and his catch and shoot technique needs improvement. But there have been moments of brilliance; Virtus Bologna's coaching staff has noticed that having Koponen on the court stabilizes the game while Boykins, despite being probably the best pure scorer in whole Serie A, can't really create opportunities for others. Koponen has also improved from good on-ball defender to an excellent one, regularly defending opponent's best scorer.
All the people around Finnish basketball haven't been too happy with Koponen's current situation. His biggest critic right now is his former coach, Mr. Mihailo Pavicevic, who stated in Finnish MTV3 (All Finnish music videos, all the time? -Ed) interview, that he is "indeed very sad for Petteri". Pavicevic stated in the interview that he "knew immediately, that signing with Virtus Bologna wasn't a good solution. Virtus coach Matteo Bonicinolli can't see Petteri as a point guard and he doesn't trust young players." Anyway, Pavicevic also said that there are difficult seasons for every player and that "now Petteri has to work hard, be positive and see what to do after the season is over."
(Courtesy of http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/muutlajit/uutiset.shtml/arkistot/muutlajit/2009/05/870334?koripallo)
Despite all the controversy, Virtus Bologna will now prepare for the first round playoff series against Benetton Treviso. The best-of-five series tip off this Thursday. Benetton's most notable players include Americans Gary Neal, Charles Judson Wallace and DaShaun Wood, Croatian pivot man Sandro Nicevic, Slovakian Radoslav Rancik, Italian national team players Matteo Soragna andMassimo Bulleri, not to forget Iceland-born shooting guard Jon Stefansson, who had a brief stint with Dallas Mavericks a few years ago. That's a lot of firepower and a sure challenge for Boykins, Koponen, Keith Langford, Sharrod Ford and company.
Here's a statistical recap of Bologna's last two Serie A games:
Premiata Montegranaro - Virtus Bologna 75-72 (17-16, 37-37, 60-50)
Montegranaro: Dejan Ivanov 15/9, Brandon Hunter 13/11, Kiwane Garris 12/3/6ast.
Virtus: Keith Langford 17/5/3stl, Earl Boykins 17/1, Dusan Vukcevic 10/1.
Petteri Koponen: Min 10 2pt 1/2 Ft 1/1 Pts 3 Ast 1 Stl 1
Virtus Bologna - Benetton Treviso 85-90 (16-11, 41-27, 58-47, 72-72)
Virtus: Earl Boykins 23/2/4ast, Keith Langford 22/3/4stl, Guilherme Giovannoni 10/9.
Treviso: Ioannis Kalampokis 22/7, Charles Judson Wallace 20/8/4ast/5stl, Massimo Bulleri 16/1/3ast.
Petteri Koponen: Min 12 2pt 0/2 Reb 2 Ast 3 Stl 3 Pf 2, Start
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Petteri Koponen. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Petteri Koponen. Sort by date Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Presidential Approval Edition
Below is the latest update on Petteri Koponen from the World Famous H.T. The emphasis is my doing and is meant to help our American readers with short attention spans.
A really, REALLY late Petteri Koponen playoff update
Petteri Koponen's first professional season in Europe with Italian Serie A team Virtus Bologna ended after the first round of the playoffs. After celebrating the FIBA EuroChallenge Cup championship in late April, Virtus Bologna lost their last five regular season games and dropped down to #5 spot in the Serie A standings. In the first round, Virtus was able to beat Benetton Treviso twice in their home court, but nothing could give them the much-needed away victory to proceed to the semifinal stage.
What made the first round loss even more painful for Virtus was the fact that because Brandon Jennings' team, Lottomatica Roma, also lost their first-round matchup, Virtus would've received a three-year Euroleague license if they would've gone to semifinals. Next year, Virtus will play in the FIBA EuroCup, the second-highest international club competition in Europe, but being seven points away from the cream of the crop was pretty much painful enough for the club.
Petteri Koponen didn't get much playing time in the playoffs. In four games of action, Koponen played 28 minutes and finished with 7 points. Koponen suffered a very minor ankle injury right before the playoffs tipped off, and coach Matteo Bonicinolli seemed to use that as an excuse to not give him any minutes. After game 3 of the playoffs, team president Claudio Sabatini took and had this to say (according to Italian sports newspaper Gazzette Dello Sport):
"Earl Boykins is the reason we couldn't get the home court advantage for the playoffs. I have no more patience left with him. Koponen is our future, I hope coach Bonicinolli will play him more."
To put it mildly, Bonicinolli and Sabatini thought pretty differently of these two players. Right after the playoff loss, Sabatini fired both Bonicinolli and general manager Andrea Luchi. Out of all rotation players in the team, it seems that only Koponen, Alex Righetti and possibly Keith Langford have a future with Virtus Bologna. After playing majority of his minutes out of his natural position (point guard), it's unclear whether he'll be able to start as PG next year. Pretty much all the transaction rumors I have read are saying that Virtus will acquire an American point guard. Right now it's early to see how things will go, but here's what we know for certain:
-Virtus Bologna will play in Serie A and FIBA EuroCup in 2009/2010
-Petteri Koponen will play with Virtus in 2009/2010 (unless Portland wishes to bring him in or trade him to a team willing to give him a chance)
-Whole Virtus Bologna team will undergo a massive makeover
Finnish national team begins training for Eurobasket Qualifications next week and Petteri is right now in Finland, preparing for the upcoming summer. When asked about 2009 Las Vegas Summer League, Koponen said that "he's not sure yet" whether he'll participate. He hasn't said it out loud, but pretty much everybody is assuming that the Blazers have to make the first move if they want Koponen to run the point in Vegas. If not, he'll be able to concentrate 100% on the qualifications. Finland will play tough games against Italy (Bargnani, Belinelli) and France (Parker, Diaw, Pietrus, Noah etc...) in mid-August. Koponen vs. Tony Parker will be interesting to watch.
P.S. I forgot to say that Brandon Jennings wasn't even included in Lottomatica Roma's playoff roster. Even though Koponen's numbers were mediocre, Jennings' ones weren't that much better - and everybody knows Jennings will be a lottery pick. (Just to put things in perspective..)
-H.T.
A really, REALLY late Petteri Koponen playoff update
Petteri Koponen's first professional season in Europe with Italian Serie A team Virtus Bologna ended after the first round of the playoffs. After celebrating the FIBA EuroChallenge Cup championship in late April, Virtus Bologna lost their last five regular season games and dropped down to #5 spot in the Serie A standings. In the first round, Virtus was able to beat Benetton Treviso twice in their home court, but nothing could give them the much-needed away victory to proceed to the semifinal stage.
What made the first round loss even more painful for Virtus was the fact that because Brandon Jennings' team, Lottomatica Roma, also lost their first-round matchup, Virtus would've received a three-year Euroleague license if they would've gone to semifinals. Next year, Virtus will play in the FIBA EuroCup, the second-highest international club competition in Europe, but being seven points away from the cream of the crop was pretty much painful enough for the club.
Petteri Koponen didn't get much playing time in the playoffs. In four games of action, Koponen played 28 minutes and finished with 7 points. Koponen suffered a very minor ankle injury right before the playoffs tipped off, and coach Matteo Bonicinolli seemed to use that as an excuse to not give him any minutes. After game 3 of the playoffs, team president Claudio Sabatini took and had this to say (according to Italian sports newspaper Gazzette Dello Sport):
"Earl Boykins is the reason we couldn't get the home court advantage for the playoffs. I have no more patience left with him. Koponen is our future, I hope coach Bonicinolli will play him more."
To put it mildly, Bonicinolli and Sabatini thought pretty differently of these two players. Right after the playoff loss, Sabatini fired both Bonicinolli and general manager Andrea Luchi. Out of all rotation players in the team, it seems that only Koponen, Alex Righetti and possibly Keith Langford have a future with Virtus Bologna. After playing majority of his minutes out of his natural position (point guard), it's unclear whether he'll be able to start as PG next year. Pretty much all the transaction rumors I have read are saying that Virtus will acquire an American point guard. Right now it's early to see how things will go, but here's what we know for certain:
-Virtus Bologna will play in Serie A and FIBA EuroCup in 2009/2010
-Petteri Koponen will play with Virtus in 2009/2010 (unless Portland wishes to bring him in or trade him to a team willing to give him a chance)
-Whole Virtus Bologna team will undergo a massive makeover
Finnish national team begins training for Eurobasket Qualifications next week and Petteri is right now in Finland, preparing for the upcoming summer. When asked about 2009 Las Vegas Summer League, Koponen said that "he's not sure yet" whether he'll participate. He hasn't said it out loud, but pretty much everybody is assuming that the Blazers have to make the first move if they want Koponen to run the point in Vegas. If not, he'll be able to concentrate 100% on the qualifications. Finland will play tough games against Italy (Bargnani, Belinelli) and France (Parker, Diaw, Pietrus, Noah etc...) in mid-August. Koponen vs. Tony Parker will be interesting to watch.
P.S. I forgot to say that Brandon Jennings wasn't even included in Lottomatica Roma's playoff roster. Even though Koponen's numbers were mediocre, Jennings' ones weren't that much better - and everybody knows Jennings will be a lottery pick. (Just to put things in perspective..)
-H.T.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Championship edition
The man wearing number six next to the trophy would be Blazer's draftee Petteri Koponen. If you are wondering why our man is smiling and throwing up what I like to call Finnish gang-signs know that it is because his team just won the stinkin' FIBA Eurochallenge.
If Koponen's ups and downs with Virtus Bologna this season have weakened your excitement over the guy consider this: He is just 21 years old and was a factor on a very solid professional team in Europe. As always, H.T. has the rest.
Koponen bounces back, Virtus wins FIBA EuroChallengeExciting news to be sure. Now let's hope the Blazers take care of business as well.
The Final Four weekend of FIBA EuroChallenge Cup didn't begin very well for Petteri Koponen. Virtus Bologna rolled to a fairly easy 84-69 (39-34) victory over Cypriot team Proteas EKA AEL late Friday night, but Virtus coach Matteo Bonicinolli handed Koponen his first DNP-CD during his tenure as coach of the team.
Two nights later, Koponen was once again removed from his starting shooting guard position in the EuroChallenge final between Virtus Bologna and Cholet Basket of France. Koponen entered the game in the middle of second quarter and played total of 16 minutes, finishing with 4 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 turnover in Bologna's 77-75 (45-39) victory.
Koponen's influence on the court goes far beyond those numbers, though. Cholet Basket's shooting guard Nando de Colo was the leading scorer of the game with 24 and Virtus had major difficulties containing him. While Koponen was guarding de Colo, he could only score five points in 14 minutes. Koponen left the game for good with Virtus leading 74-63, but with Koponen sitting on the bench, de Colo answered with eight quick points which pulled Cholet within one, 76-75. De Colo had a chance to win the game with under eight seconds remaining, but his three point shot missed and Virtus celebrated the EuroChallenge Cup championship in front of home crowd of 7,750.
Koponen played 15 games in FIBA EuroChallenge Cup, starting 11 of them and averaging 5,8 points, 1,9 rebounds, 1 assist, 0,7 steals, 0,9 turnovers and 1,7 personal fouls in 18,1 minutes a game. Koponen drained 87,5% of his free throws, 58,6% of his 2pt field goals and 39,4% of his 3pt field goals.
FIBA EuroChallenge Cup campaign is now over and Virtus Bologna has three more regular season games to play in Italian Serie A. The next game will be played Thursday 30th of April against Banca Tercas Teramo, currently 5th in the league.
And, as usual, a statistical recap of Virtus' last two games:
Semifinal: Virtus Bologna - Proteas EKA AEL 84-69 (19-16, 39-34, 68-48)
Virtus: Sharrod Ford 18/13, Earl Boykins 15/1/3as, Keith Langford 13/5, Guilherme Giovannoni 10/15.
Proteas: Goran Nikolic 15/8, Quincy Taylor 13/3, Haris Mujezinovic 13/1.
Petteri Koponen: DNP-CD.
Final: Cholet Basket - Virtus Bologna 75-77 (19-21, 39-45, 57-64)
Cholet: Nando de Colo 24/4, Claude Marquis 17/10, Randal Falker 13/11 (Unfortunately Steeve Ho You Fat did not get off the bench).
Virtus: Keith Langford 21/4, Earl Boykins 18/5, Sharrod Ford 12/12.
Petteri Koponen: Min 16 3pt 1/2 Ft 1/2 Pts 4 Reb 3 As 1 To 1 Pf 2
-H.T.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: I'll never eat pasta again, Italy wins edition
You know how this works. H.T. with the latest:
Tuesday's Eurobasket Qualification game between Italy and Finland was a do-or-die type of game for both teams, since loser of the game would practically be eliminated from the competition.
Finland struggled from early on, missing their first nine 3pt attempts and basically letting Italian big guys Angelo Gigli and Andrea Bargnani walk to the paint for open dunks. Italy was leading 4-15 before Finland began to maintain their defensive form.
Even though Finland came within two points in a couple of occasions, Italy extended their lead back to 9-12 points with Marco Belinelli shooting with high percentage early on, Andrea Bargnani schooling Finnish post defenders with old school spin moves and experienced players Giuseppe Poeta, Marco Mordente and Valerio Amoroso sinking their 3pt shots.
Six minutes before the end of the game Italy took a 60-73-lead behind Andrea Bargnani's three-pointer. Finland refused to go away, though. Petteri Koponen responded with a 3pt shot of his own and just a moment later, Italian point guard Matteo Soragna got heated in the midst of Finnish defense and was given a technical foul. Teemu Rannikko sank both of his free throws and after Finland regained the ball possession, Koponen opened Kimmo Muurinen for a dunk and one, narrowing Italian lead to 68-73 with five minutes to go.
After Belinelli's heavily contested jumper, both teams missed their a couple of next shots, but Hanno Möttölä ended the drought, sinking a jumper and bringing Finland back to competition. In the other end, Belinelli had an offensive foul and Shawn Huff netted a trey to bring Finland within two, 73-75. Italy's Luca Vitali missed a three-pointer in Italy's next possession and Petteri Koponen drove from coast to coast, drew a foul from Andrea Bargnani (fouled out) and tied the game with two free throws, 75-75, with 1:42 remaining.
Marco Belinelli hit another contested jumper to put Italy up by two, 75-77, with 1:24 to go. Finland had the chance to try three relatively open three point shots in the last minute, but Petteri Koponen missed once and Teemu Rannikko twice in the end. Marco Mordente caught the decisive rebound and Italy got to head to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport with a victory.
For Petteri Koponen, the night was clearly not one of his best. Petteri opened the game with two quick fouls, two missed shots and three turnovers in the first four minutes and couldn't get the offense going. Finland got back on track with Teemu Rannikko playing PG and Petteri sitting on the bench, but in the fourth quarter, Petteri played some inspired basketball, slowing down hot-shooting Belinelli and responding with five quick points, two assists and two steals in final six minutes. He took the loss and 7-point, 6-turnover night very heavily and was clearly upset when talking to the media after the game.
Hanno Möttölä scored 16 points for Finland in a steady performance while Teemu Rannikko had 11 points and 6 assists and Shawn Huff scored 12. Top scorer of the game was Marco Belinelli with 23 (fg 10/18). Andrea Bargnani finished with 21 and 8 despite playing only 24 minutes.
Italy and France meet each other in Pau, France this Friday in a must-win game for the Italians. Finland hosts France in Vantaa next Monday.
Highlights (from the coaches game tape) here
Finland - Italy 75-77 (10-17, 34-38, 55-63)
Finland: Hanno Möttölä 16/4, Shawn Huff 12/3, Teemu Rannikko 11/3/6 assists, Tuukka Kotti 9/4, Gerald Lee 8/3, Petteri Koponen 7/3/3 assists, Antti Nikkilä 6/2, Kimmo Muurinen 3/1, Petri Virtanen 3/0, Mikko Koivisto 0/1, Samuel Haanpää 0/0, Vesa Mäkäläinen.
Italy: Marco Belinelli 23/2, Andrea Bargnani 21/8, Angelo Gigli 10/6, Matteo Soragna 8/0, Marco Mordente 6/3, Giuseppe Poeta 5/1, Valerio Amoroso 3/2, Marco Cusin 1/3, Luca Vitali 0/3/5 assists, Jacopo Giachetti 0/3, Luigi da Tome 0/0.
-H.T.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: H.T. playing hardball
You may have been wondering why the Petteri Koponen updates have been slowing down. I'm sad to report that our long-time embedded Finnish operative H.T. has been holding out due to tense contract negotiations with DeceptivelyQuick. I knew it was a bad sign when he signed with Finnish power-agent Jukka Rosenhaus. (Ba-dum Ch!)
This from a man recently seen hanging out with the likes of Ron Jeremy and soaking up other perks of the Finnish-Celebrity scene. Luckily we have agreed to a deal in principal with the help of mutual friend Stig Dogg and H.T., as a good faith gesture, has provided us with another Petteri Koponen Update. Make sure to check out the latest picture of Koponen, that big frame is looking more and more NBA ready by the day.
To keep the vast DeceptivelyQuick readership (Ba-dum Ch!) abreast of the situation I figured I would share a recent message sent to me by the beloved H.T. :
Yeah, I've been pretty slow with the Italy updates but you know, I think we should re-negotiate my salary because of economic crisis. I mean, the trouts you've been sending me over last three months aren't enough to feed me and all the 28 kids I have in my igloo with me.
Yeah, I've been pretty slow with the Italy updates but you know, I think we should re-negotiate my salary because of economic crisis. I mean, the trouts you've been sending me over last three months aren't enough to feed me and all the 28 kids I have in my igloo with me.
This from a man recently seen hanging out with the likes of Ron Jeremy and soaking up other perks of the Finnish-Celebrity scene. Luckily we have agreed to a deal in principal with the help of mutual friend Stig Dogg and H.T., as a good faith gesture, has provided us with another Petteri Koponen Update. Make sure to check out the latest picture of Koponen, that big frame is looking more and more NBA ready by the day.
Petteri Koponen update: Virtus wins their 6th and 7th in a row
Just a month ago, Petteri Koponen's Virtus Bologna suffered their absolutely worst loss of the season in a road game against Solsonica Rieti, a team currently 14th in the 16-team Italian Serie A standings. Right now it seems that the terrible, 25-point loss was a wake-up call for Virtus, which has been supposed to be one of the top three teams in the league with Montepaschi Siena and Lottomatica Roma.
Ever since that hard-to-forget March 7th game, Virtus has been dominating its opponents in both Serie A and FIBA EuroChallenge Cup. Both leagues included, Virtus has extended its win streak to seven games these last two weeks.
March 29th, Virtus Bologna met their cross-city rival, GMAC Bologna, in much-anticipated derby between two top teams of basketball-crazy Bologna. GMAC Bologna's season hasn't been that much of a success this year, but they managed to make things extraordinarily tough for Virtus. Virtus Bologna forward Dusan Vukcevic became the hero of this hard-fought battle by sinking the deciding jump shot at the buzzer and giving Virtus a 75-74 (34-30) victory. Petteri Koponen started the game and played 19 minutes, collecting 7 points (fg 2-2 ft 3-3), 3 rebounds and 2 steals, making most of his damage in the opening five minutes.
Here you can see a picture of Petteri schooling some opponents in the Bologna derby.
A week later, Virtus hosted once again one of the weaker teams in Serie A when Eldo Caserta came to town. Caserta has been slowly making progress these last weeks trying to make a late playoff run, and Virtus trailed for 36 minutes before their starting punch finally pulled things together and were able to snatch a 86-81 (46-47) victory. Petteri started the game, but played only five minutes, ending up with one rebound and two turnovers (g 0-1).
Here's a brief statistical recap of these two games:
GMAC Bologna - Virtus Bologna 74-75 (7-13, 30-34, 49-55)
GMAC: Marcelo Huertas 24/3/5as, Lazaros Papadopoulos 17/14, DJ Strawberry 13/5/3as.
Virtus: Dusan Vukcevic 14/1/4as, Earl Boykins 12/1, Sharrod Ford 9/7.
Virtus Bologna - Eldo Caserta 86-81 (20-20, 46-47, 65-68)
Virtus: Earl Boykins 19/3, Sharrod Ford 16/15/3bl, Keith Langford 12/5/4as.
Caserta: Guillermo Diaz 17/6/6as, David Brkic 14/6, Fabio di Bella 11/6/3as.
Italian basketball homepage www.legabasket.it is showing that Serie A game between Solsonica Rieti and Virtus Bologna has been postponed. I'm not sure whether it has something to do between these easter week Italy earthquakes.
-H.T.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Covertly blogging from work edition
H.T. checks in with the latest on Petteri Koponen. Now shhhhhh my coworkers are getting suspicious...
Four games in eight days? Sounds like a normal schedule for NBA team. From Sunday the 15th to Sunday the 22nd, it was gruelling reality for Petteri Koponen and Virtus Bologna. Predicting a 3 win - 1 loss or 2 win - 2 loss week would've been quite in order, but instead, Bologna went 4-0 in dominating fashion despite barely being able to catch a breather.
Bologna tipped things off Sunday the 15th playing a home game against NGC Cantù, currently 7th in Serie A. Cantù was able to make things difficult for Virtus for 25 minutes until Earl Boykins finally broke loose and took Virtus from four points down to 12 points up. Boykins finished with 17 points, 6 assists and 5 steals in Virtus' 83-72 (32-36) victory while Petteri Koponen had 3 points (fg 1-3), 2 rebounds and 2 assists in 15 minutes as a starter.
Next Tuesday (Mar 17th) Bologna flew to Germany to meet Telekom Baskets Bonn in the opening round of EuroChallenge quarterfinals. Virtus dominated the game from early on and headed home with a 76-86 (33-47) victory despite Bonn's fourth quarter run. Sharrod Ford (17/7), Reyshawn Terry (16/7) and Keith Langford (14/3ast) were Virtus' main weapons in victory over Bonn while Petteri Koponen started the game, played 14 minutes (all in the first half) and had 4 points (fg 2-2), 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 turnover.
Two days later, Telekom Baskets came to Italy to meet Virtus again in the "do-or-die" Game 2 of the playoffs. Virtus started things off slowly but didn't really have much trouble finishing Bonn 106-91 (56-44) and heading to the EuroChallenge Final Four which will be played at the end of the April. Sharrod Ford (28/6/3as/3bl), Keith Langford (17/0), Guilherme Giovannoni (16/5) and Earl Boykins (12/9as) were simply too much for Bonn to handle. Petteri, once again, started the game but played only 15 minutes, ending up with 2 points (fg 1-1), 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 turnover.
Finally, Virtus met Brandon Jennings's Lottomatica Roma in much anticipated Sunday matchup at Bologna's FuturShow Station. Virtus pulled away from Lottomatica from the beginning of second quarter and never looked back, finishing with a 89-74 (46-34) victory and climbing back to the no. 2 spot in Serie A. Keith Langford (23) and Earl Boykins (20/3/4as) were Virtus' main gunners while Ibrahim Jaaber (24) was the only Lottomatica player who was able to give Virtus some trouble.
Round 3 of Petteri Koponen-Brandon Jennings match-up ended pretty much with a tie. Petteri started the game, finishing with 6 points (fg 2-5), 3 rebounds and 1 assist in 19 minutes, while Brandon Jennings played 17 minutes off the bench and went for 5 points (fg 2-4), 1 rebound, 3 assists and 1 turnover.
This week will be much easier one for Virtus; they won't play their next game before Sunday 29th in "Derby" against local rival GMAC Bologna, currently 15th in Serie A. GMAC's top players include 2007 NBA draftee D.J. Strawberry, Greek national team behemoth Lazaros Papadopolous and everybody's favorite player, Gregor Fucka:
http://195.56.77.208/player/?id=FUC-GRE-71&year=2008&team=1160
-H.T.
Four games in eight days? Sounds like a normal schedule for NBA team. From Sunday the 15th to Sunday the 22nd, it was gruelling reality for Petteri Koponen and Virtus Bologna. Predicting a 3 win - 1 loss or 2 win - 2 loss week would've been quite in order, but instead, Bologna went 4-0 in dominating fashion despite barely being able to catch a breather.
Bologna tipped things off Sunday the 15th playing a home game against NGC Cantù, currently 7th in Serie A. Cantù was able to make things difficult for Virtus for 25 minutes until Earl Boykins finally broke loose and took Virtus from four points down to 12 points up. Boykins finished with 17 points, 6 assists and 5 steals in Virtus' 83-72 (32-36) victory while Petteri Koponen had 3 points (fg 1-3), 2 rebounds and 2 assists in 15 minutes as a starter.
Next Tuesday (Mar 17th) Bologna flew to Germany to meet Telekom Baskets Bonn in the opening round of EuroChallenge quarterfinals. Virtus dominated the game from early on and headed home with a 76-86 (33-47) victory despite Bonn's fourth quarter run. Sharrod Ford (17/7), Reyshawn Terry (16/7) and Keith Langford (14/3ast) were Virtus' main weapons in victory over Bonn while Petteri Koponen started the game, played 14 minutes (all in the first half) and had 4 points (fg 2-2), 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 turnover.
Two days later, Telekom Baskets came to Italy to meet Virtus again in the "do-or-die" Game 2 of the playoffs. Virtus started things off slowly but didn't really have much trouble finishing Bonn 106-91 (56-44) and heading to the EuroChallenge Final Four which will be played at the end of the April. Sharrod Ford (28/6/3as/3bl), Keith Langford (17/0), Guilherme Giovannoni (16/5) and Earl Boykins (12/9as) were simply too much for Bonn to handle. Petteri, once again, started the game but played only 15 minutes, ending up with 2 points (fg 1-1), 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 turnover.
Finally, Virtus met Brandon Jennings's Lottomatica Roma in much anticipated Sunday matchup at Bologna's FuturShow Station. Virtus pulled away from Lottomatica from the beginning of second quarter and never looked back, finishing with a 89-74 (46-34) victory and climbing back to the no. 2 spot in Serie A. Keith Langford (23) and Earl Boykins (20/3/4as) were Virtus' main gunners while Ibrahim Jaaber (24) was the only Lottomatica player who was able to give Virtus some trouble.
Round 3 of Petteri Koponen-Brandon Jennings match-up ended pretty much with a tie. Petteri started the game, finishing with 6 points (fg 2-5), 3 rebounds and 1 assist in 19 minutes, while Brandon Jennings played 17 minutes off the bench and went for 5 points (fg 2-4), 1 rebound, 3 assists and 1 turnover.
This week will be much easier one for Virtus; they won't play their next game before Sunday 29th in "Derby" against local rival GMAC Bologna, currently 15th in Serie A. GMAC's top players include 2007 NBA draftee D.J. Strawberry, Greek national team behemoth Lazaros Papadopolous and everybody's favorite player, Gregor Fucka:
http://195.56.77.208/player/?id=FUC-GRE-71&year=2008&team=1160
-H.T.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Petteri Koponen's Italian Experience: Update
H.T. sends in an update on how things are going in Italy for Petteri Koponen, the man I refuse to stop calling The Finnagler.
Italian Serie A tipped off this Monday and Petteri Koponen played the
first game of his professional career when Virtus Bologna defeated
Angelico Biella 83-72 (49-36) in the home opener. As expected, Koponen
came off the bench behind Virtus starting point guard Earl Boykins,
who played a grand total of 32 minutes. Koponen managed to score five
points (FG 2/3), steal the ball two times and dish out one assist
(with one turnover) in his 12 minutes off the bench. While these stat
numbers are modest, the official website of Virtus Bologna called this
an "optimal debut" and the writers at fan forums have already began
wanting more playing time for Petteri.
Anyway, it is certain that even though Petteri Koponen has lead Honka
Playboys to consecutive Finnish championships and Finnish national
team to Eurobasket 2009 additional qualifying round, this will be his
first full season playing against top class opponents. It is possible
that season 2008/2009 will develop Petteri quite enough for him to
become an NBA substitute point guard, but most likely he won't blossom
before he has spent at least one full season in his new team.
Virtus Bologna - Angelico Biella 83-72 (49-36)
Virtus: Sharrod Ford 18/11/4 blocks, Earl Boykins 14/1/5 assists,
Jamie Arnold 13/2.
Biella: Reece Gaines 18/1, Joe Smith 15/3/4 assists, James Gist 14/3.
Petteri Koponen: MIN 14 FG 2/3 (3p 1/1) PTS 5 AST 1 ST 2 TO 1 PF 2
Italian Serie A tipped off this Monday and Petteri Koponen played the
first game of his professional career when Virtus Bologna defeated
Angelico Biella 83-72 (49-36) in the home opener. As expected, Koponen
came off the bench behind Virtus starting point guard Earl Boykins,
who played a grand total of 32 minutes. Koponen managed to score five
points (FG 2/3), steal the ball two times and dish out one assist
(with one turnover) in his 12 minutes off the bench. While these stat
numbers are modest, the official website of Virtus Bologna called this
an "optimal debut" and the writers at fan forums have already began
wanting more playing time for Petteri.
Anyway, it is certain that even though Petteri Koponen has lead Honka
Playboys to consecutive Finnish championships and Finnish national
team to Eurobasket 2009 additional qualifying round, this will be his
first full season playing against top class opponents. It is possible
that season 2008/2009 will develop Petteri quite enough for him to
become an NBA substitute point guard, but most likely he won't blossom
before he has spent at least one full season in his new team.
Virtus Bologna - Angelico Biella 83-72 (49-36)
Virtus: Sharrod Ford 18/11/4 blocks, Earl Boykins 14/1/5 assists,
Jamie Arnold 13/2.
Biella: Reece Gaines 18/1, Joe Smith 15/3/4 assists, James Gist 14/3.
Petteri Koponen: MIN 14 FG 2/3 (3p 1/1) PTS 5 AST 1 ST 2 TO 1 PF 2
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Beating Belinelli (for protocol only) edition
You know how this works, H.T. with his take on Petteri Koponen's latest outing...
It might be that the final Eurobasket qualification game between Italy and Finland was "for protocol only" since France had already secured their spot in the Eurobasket competition, but it sure as hell wasn't a yawner for either teams. After being butchered and gutted by the Italian sports media, the last home game against Finland was a chance for Italian team to end the summer campaign with some pride. Meanwhile, Finland's hunger just grew after that 4-point win over France and the team was absolutely drooling over their first win over Italy after 1965.
Finland took care of business, end of story. Finland won the game 89-95 (48-50)(BOX SCORE), but in the fourth quarter, it wasn't even that close. Petteri Koponen lead the balanced Finland attack with a superb 26-point performance. Even though Koponen (officially) only had one assist, it must be a question of interpretation only, because he excelled in both guard position and was simply unstoppable when it mattered the most.
Examples? Italy opened the beginning of 3rd quarter with a 14-2 run, but Koponen answered with five quick points to open a 15-2 Finland run. In the second quarter, Marco Belinelli got the crowd going with consecutive triples, but Koponen answered with two long range daggers of his own right in the face of Belinelli.
Even though Koponen took a couple of ill-adviced shots and had two awkward turnovers in 2nd and 3rd quarters, he had a heck of a game and it's safe to say he won this duel against Belinelli. While Belinelli's defense looked mediocre at best, Koponen smothered Italian guards and while Italian offense was built around Belinelli's 1-on-1 decisions, Koponen shared the ball and got everyone involved. Unfortunately the two guys didn't defend each other: Finland's starting small forward Shawn Huff covered Belinelli andItalian point guard Jacopo Giachetti covered Koponen.
Once again, team Finland relied on good, steady team play. Hanno Möttölä (16/5) opened the game with two triples and kept it going throughout the game. Teemu Rannikko (15/5 assists/3 steals) maintained his normal level of play, outplaying more athletic Italian guards. Samuel Haanpää (14/5) had a good shooting day after two 0-point performances and Tuukka Kotti (11/3) had a hot streak in the end of the game. Belinelli had 26 points and Valerio Amoroso 21 for the Italians. The biggest disappointment of the game wasAndrea Bargnani, who ended up with 7 points (field goals 3/8), 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and one technical foul in 35 minutes.
While Italy has dropped down a long way after that 1999 European championship trophy, Finland's future seems bright. Koponen had his share of growing pains and struggles a year ago when he had to accept the national team's starting pg spot, but right now it seems he is comfortable with the role alongside veteran pg Rannikko. There is always room for more improvement, but Koponen seems to be developing into an NBA style guard, being able to challenge his defender one and one in every occasion and not lacking any size and strenght compared to other young guards in the big league. 2009/2010 will definitely be an important year for Koponen; he has to fight for that starting guard position in Virtus Bologna, but if he can turn his rookie year struggles into success, landing a spot with the Blazers can't be that far away.
Finland took care of business, end of story. Finland won the game 89-95 (48-50)(BOX SCORE), but in the fourth quarter, it wasn't even that close. Petteri Koponen lead the balanced Finland attack with a superb 26-point performance. Even though Koponen (officially) only had one assist, it must be a question of interpretation only, because he excelled in both guard position and was simply unstoppable when it mattered the most.
Examples? Italy opened the beginning of 3rd quarter with a 14-2 run, but Koponen answered with five quick points to open a 15-2 Finland run. In the second quarter, Marco Belinelli got the crowd going with consecutive triples, but Koponen answered with two long range daggers of his own right in the face of Belinelli.
Even though Koponen took a couple of ill-adviced shots and had two awkward turnovers in 2nd and 3rd quarters, he had a heck of a game and it's safe to say he won this duel against Belinelli. While Belinelli's defense looked mediocre at best, Koponen smothered Italian guards and while Italian offense was built around Belinelli's 1-on-1 decisions, Koponen shared the ball and got everyone involved. Unfortunately the two guys didn't defend each other: Finland's starting small forward Shawn Huff covered Belinelli andItalian point guard Jacopo Giachetti covered Koponen.
Once again, team Finland relied on good, steady team play. Hanno Möttölä (16/5) opened the game with two triples and kept it going throughout the game. Teemu Rannikko (15/5 assists/3 steals) maintained his normal level of play, outplaying more athletic Italian guards. Samuel Haanpää (14/5) had a good shooting day after two 0-point performances and Tuukka Kotti (11/3) had a hot streak in the end of the game. Belinelli had 26 points and Valerio Amoroso 21 for the Italians. The biggest disappointment of the game wasAndrea Bargnani, who ended up with 7 points (field goals 3/8), 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and one technical foul in 35 minutes.
While Italy has dropped down a long way after that 1999 European championship trophy, Finland's future seems bright. Koponen had his share of growing pains and struggles a year ago when he had to accept the national team's starting pg spot, but right now it seems he is comfortable with the role alongside veteran pg Rannikko. There is always room for more improvement, but Koponen seems to be developing into an NBA style guard, being able to challenge his defender one and one in every occasion and not lacking any size and strenght compared to other young guards in the big league. 2009/2010 will definitely be an important year for Koponen; he has to fight for that starting guard position in Virtus Bologna, but if he can turn his rookie year struggles into success, landing a spot with the Blazers can't be that far away.
-H.T.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Finnagler aka Petteri Koponen UPDATE
Just when you think Finland has cast you aside forever, they come back all smiles like an absentee father. And as much as I was hurting from them leaving, I can't help but let them back into the DeceptivelyQuick family. Especially when its H.T., our Invisible Finnish Hand embedded informant, long feared to be lost forever.
H.T. brings not only news of being alive, but some Petteri Koponen updates as well. I've been curious how Koponen's military service would effect his play, to which H.T. brings some insights (bolded stats are my doing):
Apparently the Blazers have sent their own eyes to see how The Finnagler is doing, and he is doing quite well. H.T. is on it:
Excellent news indeed (except for the certain impending salmon overdose of Steve Gordon). To top it all off, H.T. also included another amazing Finnish music video, which is as good a way as any to end this post.
H.T. brings not only news of being alive, but some Petteri Koponen updates as well. I've been curious how Koponen's military service would effect his play, to which H.T. brings some insights (bolded stats are my doing):
Koponen began his military service just two days after the 2007/2008 campaign tipped off. Koponen started the season slowly, battling against fatigue and struggling with turnovers while going through intensive army recruit training. In November, Koponen has performed stronger than everbefore, averaging 19,7 points, 4,2 assists, 4,0 rebounds and 2,3 steals agame while shooting .549 at 2pt, .464 at 3pt and .818 from the charitystripe. He still averages three turnoves a game, but his assist-to-turnover ratio is still among the best in the league. Blazers fans might be pleased to hear that Koponen has improved quite a lot in the defensive end. Maybe that is the reason he went to the Finnish defence forces? Anyway, Koponen's possibilities to crack Trailblazers' rotation in 2008/2009 are looking good at the moment.
Apparently the Blazers have sent their own eyes to see how The Finnagler is doing, and he is doing quite well. H.T. is on it:
Portland Trailblazers' representative Steve Gordon arrived to Finland just a couple of days ago to witness how Blazer point guard prospect Petteri Koponen is progressing. Koponen didn't disappoint, playing full 40 minutes in a 76-60 victory over Joensuun Kataja. Even though Honka Playboys is struggling with injuries (three of their starters and their sixth man are out for more than a month), Koponen managed to general Honka to victory with 27 points (2p 4-6 3p 4-9 Ft 7-7), six rebounds, seven assists and four steals while allowing Kataja's point guard Louis Hinnant only 14 points.Gordon will stay in Finland for a few days and will probably suffer through a salmon overdose.
Excellent news indeed (except for the certain impending salmon overdose of Steve Gordon). To top it all off, H.T. also included another amazing Finnish music video, which is as good a way as any to end this post.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Koponen vs Honka
H.T. checks in with an update on our man The Finnagler, featuring an impressive upset for his old team...
The Finnish national team ended their Eurobasket qualification games with
a 88-73 victory over Hungary last Saturday. The national team players
returned to their clubs in the beginning of the week. Finland's
starting point guard Petteri Koponen didn't have to go far away,
because his newest team, Virtus Bologna, had arrived to Finland to
play a preseason game against Koponen's former team and last spring's
Finnish champion, Honka Playboys.
Koponen played a grand total of 10:57 minutes in his debut with Virtus
Bologna, finishing with four rebounds, one assist and one turnover.
Koponen missed both of his field goal attempts and admitted that it's
wasn't the easiest possible game for him.
"I've been practicing with my new team for just a couple of times
now. It's hard to call a play when I can only memorize a few of the
games in my new team's playbook", said Koponen.
"In the final quarter I finally realized my four years with Honka are
over. I've spent some great seasons with these fine players here and
now it's all over."
Virtus Bologna apparently expected to cruise to an easy victory and
was shocked when point guard Akeem Scott led Honka to a 20-9 start.
Virtus got back into the game with Jamie Arnold netting consecutive
treys, but it was Honka that took control of the game.
Honka maintained a 1-5 point lead for the first fifteen minutes of
second half with Kimmo Muurinen dominating in the low post and Jukka
Matinen draining his shots effectively and clinched the game with a
11-0 run in the middle of fourth quarter, opened by Monte Cummings
dunk and ended by Ben Perkins' consecutive jumpers.
- Honka outplayed us, simply and clearly. They came in ready to play,
we didn't. Luckily this is just a preseason game. We will have to be
ready once Serie A begins, stated Virtus coach Renato Pasquali.
Honka coach Mihailo Pavicevic demanded respect for the job well done
and said Finnish basketball has reached higher level than any Finnish
basketball viewer would admit.
- It's time to start respecting Finnish basketball and Finnish
players. Our starting five is on a good European level and the
subtitute players will have the whole regular season to develop.
Virtus Bologna and Petteri Koponen will return to Italy this Friday.
Season 2008/2009 will be 20-year old Koponen's first as a
professional. Koponen won the Finnish MVP award last season after
averaging 19 points, 3,9 assists, 3,4 rebounds and 1,8 steals a game
while draining 56,4 % of his 2pt attempts and 42,6 % of his 3pt
attempts.
In eight Eurobasket qualification games this summer, Koponen averaged
12,8 points, 2,9 assists and 2,5 rebounds a game while making 84,4 %
of his free throw attempts.
Honka Playboys - Virtus Bologna 86-74 (43-40)
Honka: Kimmo Muurinen 11/10/4ast, Akeem Scott 17/2/3 stl, Ben Perkins
11/3/3 stl, Sasu Salin 5/0, Monte Cummings 18/5, Petri Heinonen 6/2,
Jukka Matinen 18/2, Eldar Skamo 0/0.
Virtus: Sharrod Ford 2/2, Petteri Koponen 0/4, Bret Blizzard 9/1,
Jamie Arnold 20/3, Alex Righetti 3/1, Earl Boykins 12/4/4 ast,
Guilherme Giovanni 2/5, Roberto Chiracig 4/3, Andre Langford 14/2,
Dusan Vukcevic 8/3.
The Finnish national team ended their Eurobasket qualification games with
a 88-73 victory over Hungary last Saturday. The national team players
returned to their clubs in the beginning of the week. Finland's
starting point guard Petteri Koponen didn't have to go far away,
because his newest team, Virtus Bologna, had arrived to Finland to
play a preseason game against Koponen's former team and last spring's
Finnish champion, Honka Playboys.
Koponen played a grand total of 10:57 minutes in his debut with Virtus
Bologna, finishing with four rebounds, one assist and one turnover.
Koponen missed both of his field goal attempts and admitted that it's
wasn't the easiest possible game for him.
"I've been practicing with my new team for just a couple of times
now. It's hard to call a play when I can only memorize a few of the
games in my new team's playbook", said Koponen.
"In the final quarter I finally realized my four years with Honka are
over. I've spent some great seasons with these fine players here and
now it's all over."
Virtus Bologna apparently expected to cruise to an easy victory and
was shocked when point guard Akeem Scott led Honka to a 20-9 start.
Virtus got back into the game with Jamie Arnold netting consecutive
treys, but it was Honka that took control of the game.
Honka maintained a 1-5 point lead for the first fifteen minutes of
second half with Kimmo Muurinen dominating in the low post and Jukka
Matinen draining his shots effectively and clinched the game with a
11-0 run in the middle of fourth quarter, opened by Monte Cummings
dunk and ended by Ben Perkins' consecutive jumpers.
- Honka outplayed us, simply and clearly. They came in ready to play,
we didn't. Luckily this is just a preseason game. We will have to be
ready once Serie A begins, stated Virtus coach Renato Pasquali.
Honka coach Mihailo Pavicevic demanded respect for the job well done
and said Finnish basketball has reached higher level than any Finnish
basketball viewer would admit.
- It's time to start respecting Finnish basketball and Finnish
players. Our starting five is on a good European level and the
subtitute players will have the whole regular season to develop.
Virtus Bologna and Petteri Koponen will return to Italy this Friday.
Season 2008/2009 will be 20-year old Koponen's first as a
professional. Koponen won the Finnish MVP award last season after
averaging 19 points, 3,9 assists, 3,4 rebounds and 1,8 steals a game
while draining 56,4 % of his 2pt attempts and 42,6 % of his 3pt
attempts.
In eight Eurobasket qualification games this summer, Koponen averaged
12,8 points, 2,9 assists and 2,5 rebounds a game while making 84,4 %
of his free throw attempts.
Honka Playboys - Virtus Bologna 86-74 (43-40)
Honka: Kimmo Muurinen 11/10/4ast, Akeem Scott 17/2/3 stl, Ben Perkins
11/3/3 stl, Sasu Salin 5/0, Monte Cummings 18/5, Petri Heinonen 6/2,
Jukka Matinen 18/2, Eldar Skamo 0/0.
Virtus: Sharrod Ford 2/2, Petteri Koponen 0/4, Bret Blizzard 9/1,
Jamie Arnold 20/3, Alex Righetti 3/1, Earl Boykins 12/4/4 ast,
Guilherme Giovanni 2/5, Roberto Chiracig 4/3, Andre Langford 14/2,
Dusan Vukcevic 8/3.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Nicolas Batum Edition
What happens when two of DeceptivelyQuick's favorite players in the Blazers Universe collide? H.T. checks in with an update of Petteri Koponen (and team Finland) versus Nicolas Batum (and team France). Boxscore Hotness here.
In unrelated news, I really, really have been wanting to use the below video for a while. It does not make sense in this post. Don't worry about it. Still awesome.
Batum leads "Les Bleus" over Koponen and Finland
Determined French national team won their second consecutive game in the additional qualifications for European Championship Games 2009 in Poland. This time they didn't need an overtime to do so like in their first game against Italy; they managed to beat Finland rather easily in front of loud and rowdy group of 7,500 spectators in Pau, France.
The name of the game was French interior dominance. While Finland did very well against French guards, just the strength and athleticism of French forwards and centers was way too much for Finns. France powered their way to the low post with superb pass and slash offense and finished with a 2pt field goal percentage of 67,5 % (27/40). Nicolas Batum (14/1), Florent Pietrus (12/6/3 assist), Ronny Turiaf (9/6/3 steals) and Johan Petro (8/4) did pretty much what they wanted against thin Finnish front line.
Finland didn't give up despite trailing throughout the game. Finns sank their 3pt shots with very good percentage (52,2 %) lead by 22-year old, 6-8" small forward Samuel Haanpää (21/0), who drained all six of his field goals, including five long range bombs. Point guards Petteri Koponen (16/5) and Teemu Rannikko (14/2/5 assists) also relied heavy on their outside shots. Finns basically had no weapons inside the paint; they finished with only two fast break points and ten 2pt field goals in the game. Another weak point for the Finns was their turnovers caused by lack of mobility: French help defense did excellent job in covering the passing lanes and forcing Finnish big men to stop dribbling in the middle of two- or three-man defense.
Here's a quick look at how the game did proceed. As you can see, it was pretty much a "catch me if you can" type of game, with French team extending the lead with fast breaks and Finland catching up with outside shots: 8-5, 21-9, 30-28, 48-35, 52-45, 63-47, 69-60, 75-60, 77-70, 82-72.
Tony Parker, recovering from a minor ankle injury, played only four minutes in the game, finishing with 3 points, one rebound and one assist. Boris Diaw was in foul trouble from the beginning and despite draining all four of his field goal attempts, his 10-point, 4-assist performance in 26 minutes was rather disappointing. Leaders of the young French team were forwards Batum and Pietrus, who caused problems for Finns all over the court, and 20-year old point guard Antoine Diot (16/3/4 assists).
And how did Koponen do? Good and bad. Everybody could clearly see he has turned out to be a very Americanized point guard. He managed to beat his man off the dribble every single time and cause some minor trouble for French interior defense momentarily, but because Finnish big men weren't really a threat, French big men Turiaf, Petro and Diaw could let their men almost open and roughen up with some very physical defense. Defensively, he did good job covering Parker and Spurs draftee Nando de Colo (8/1/5 assists/3 steals).
Finland has a couple of days off before hosting Italy in Vantaa this Tuesday. The game is a must win for both teams, so it will be interesting. French team travels to Italy next Friday and it's pretty safe to say that if they manage to win, they clinch their spot in last qualification round.
France - Finland 82-72 (28-21, 46-35, 63-47)
France: Antoine Diot 16/3/4 assists, Nicolas Batum 14/1, Florent Pietrus 12/6/3 assists, Boris Diaw 10/0/4 assists, Ronny Turiaf 9/6/3 steals, Johan Petro 8/4, Nando de Colo 8/1/5 assists/3 steals, Tony Parker 3/1, Alain Koffi 2/0, Aymeric Jeanneau 0/1, Yannick Bokolo, Ali Traore.
Finland: Samuel Haanpää 21/0, Petteri Koponen 16/5, Teemu Rannikko 14/2/5 assists, Hanno Möttölä 7/4, Tuukka Kotti 5/5, Gerald Lee 4/3, Mikko Koivisto 3/0, Antti Nikkilä 2/2, Kimmo Muurinen 0/3, Shawn Huff 0/1, Petri Virtanen 0/0, Vesa Mäkäläinen.
Petteri Koponen: 34 minutes, 2pt field goals 1/5, 3pt field goals 3/7, free throws 5/6, points 16, rebounds 5, assists 1, steals 1, blocks 1, turnovers 2, personal fouls 1.
-H.mr.T.
In unrelated news, I really, really have been wanting to use the below video for a while. It does not make sense in this post. Don't worry about it. Still awesome.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Designer Jeans edition
Finnish consultant H.T. continues to improve the common good of Blazer fans by providing us with another update on Petteri Koponen's Italian journey with Virtus Bologna...
After a couple of underachieving performances, Virtus Bologna got right back on track defeating Armani Jeans Milano 70-60 (36-23) in Serie A regular season play. Determined Bologna defence absolutely smothered Milano and it could be said that the game was already over after the first half.
When you look at Petteri Koponen's stat line in the Milano game – 14 minutes, 2 points, 2 assists – you might not be impressed, but Italian newspapers picked Koponen as the best player of his team in the game. Koponen was all over Milano's leading scorer David Hawkins, who shot dreadful 5-14 from the field and was terribly out of rhythm in the first half. Coach Matteo Bonicinolli kept Koponen on the bench for the whole second half while Bologna cruised to victory.
Sharrod Ford had 16 points, 12 rebounds and 4 steals for Bologna and Earl Boykins finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals. Milano's best player was Lithuanian Mindaugas Katelynas with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Virtus Bologna is currently fourth in Serie A with a 10-7 record.
This Tuesday, Bologna played yet another FIBA EuroChallenge Cup game, this time against German Bundesleague leading EWE Baskets Oldenburg. Bologna dominated the game early on but couldn't pull away because of poor rebounding – Oldenburg stayed in the game mostly because of second chance shots. In the final two minutes, Oldenburg grabbed five offensive rebounds and finally won the game 81-82 with Je'Kel Foster's last second three pointer. Bologna also shot terribly from the free throw line, netting only 13 of their 22 attempts.
Petteri Koponen played 29 minutes and finished with 7 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Petteri's wrist was rusty this time, he only drained one out of his five three point shots. Keith Langford had 20 and 5 for Bologna, Sharrod Ford finished with 18, 7 and 5 blocks and Earl Boykins scored 13 and dished out 8 assists. Oldenburg was lead by Jasmin Perkovic (19/8), Je'Kel Foster (18/4 assists), Rickey Paulding (16/5) and Ruben Boumtje Boumtje (13/12, field goals 6/6).
Virtus Bologna plays its next Serie A game on the road against the bottom team of the league, Snaidero Udine. Udine has recently acquired former Boston Celtic Joseph Forte into their roster. Udine also has two other former NBA players in the roster, ex-Houston Rocket Oscar Torres and NBA journeyman Jermaine ”Motown” Jackson.
In FIBA EuroChallenge Cup, Virtus Bologna will fly to Ukraine to play against the yet unbeaten BC Kyiv next Wednesday. Kyiv's key players include Clay Tucker, Scoonie Penn and Manuchar Markoishvili.
-The Lovable H.T.
After a couple of underachieving performances, Virtus Bologna got right back on track defeating Armani Jeans Milano 70-60 (36-23) in Serie A regular season play. Determined Bologna defence absolutely smothered Milano and it could be said that the game was already over after the first half.
When you look at Petteri Koponen's stat line in the Milano game – 14 minutes, 2 points, 2 assists – you might not be impressed, but Italian newspapers picked Koponen as the best player of his team in the game. Koponen was all over Milano's leading scorer David Hawkins, who shot dreadful 5-14 from the field and was terribly out of rhythm in the first half. Coach Matteo Bonicinolli kept Koponen on the bench for the whole second half while Bologna cruised to victory.
Sharrod Ford had 16 points, 12 rebounds and 4 steals for Bologna and Earl Boykins finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals. Milano's best player was Lithuanian Mindaugas Katelynas with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Virtus Bologna is currently fourth in Serie A with a 10-7 record.
This Tuesday, Bologna played yet another FIBA EuroChallenge Cup game, this time against German Bundesleague leading EWE Baskets Oldenburg. Bologna dominated the game early on but couldn't pull away because of poor rebounding – Oldenburg stayed in the game mostly because of second chance shots. In the final two minutes, Oldenburg grabbed five offensive rebounds and finally won the game 81-82 with Je'Kel Foster's last second three pointer. Bologna also shot terribly from the free throw line, netting only 13 of their 22 attempts.
Petteri Koponen played 29 minutes and finished with 7 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Petteri's wrist was rusty this time, he only drained one out of his five three point shots. Keith Langford had 20 and 5 for Bologna, Sharrod Ford finished with 18, 7 and 5 blocks and Earl Boykins scored 13 and dished out 8 assists. Oldenburg was lead by Jasmin Perkovic (19/8), Je'Kel Foster (18/4 assists), Rickey Paulding (16/5) and Ruben Boumtje Boumtje (13/12, field goals 6/6).
Virtus Bologna plays its next Serie A game on the road against the bottom team of the league, Snaidero Udine. Udine has recently acquired former Boston Celtic Joseph Forte into their roster. Udine also has two other former NBA players in the roster, ex-Houston Rocket Oscar Torres and NBA journeyman Jermaine ”Motown” Jackson.
In FIBA EuroChallenge Cup, Virtus Bologna will fly to Ukraine to play against the yet unbeaten BC Kyiv next Wednesday. Kyiv's key players include Clay Tucker, Scoonie Penn and Manuchar Markoishvili.
-The Lovable H.T.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Petteri Koponen in Italy Update: I just died a little inside
Do I really need to bother coming up with a semi-clever introduction for H.T. anymore? He's from Finland. It is a lot like the United States except that they eat more fish, have a better educational system, and live longer. Oh and its cold. Here he gives us a depressing update on how our hopefully Blazer-to-be Petteri Koponen (The FINNAGLER!) is doing on his pro tour of Italy. (Previous installment here.)
In Italy, Petteri Koponen has turned from MVP to DNP. Road from semi-professional Finnish League to fully professional Italian League has been long. Koponen is one of the youngest pro players in Italy and being in the rotation behind 3 million euro man Earl Boykins is a hard task. After a stable opening game (5 pts, 2 steals, 1 assist in 12 mins), Petteri hasn't got much playing time. After five rounds of Italian League, Petteri is averaging 2,5 points, 0,8 rebounds and 0,8 assists in 11,3 minutes a game while shooting only 27,3 % from the field.
Virtus opened their league campaign with three straight victories, but after two ugly losses (65-99 defeat against Scavolini Pesaro and 71-78 against Air Avellino), head coach Renato Pasquali got fired and replaced by Matteo Boniciolli, who was named Italy's coach of the year earlier this year. Koponen was reached by Finnish news agency YLE this Tuesday and in a nutshell, Koponen stated that first two practice sessions with the new coach have been pleasant and that the whole team seems to have a new approach for the season. Koponen also wishes to see some more minutes under his new coach and the hoopheads in Finland are pretty sure that his PT increases after opening difficulties.
While we look forward to see how Koponen will perform under his new coach, here's just a brief reminder that some other Italian league newcomers have had difficulties finding their rhythm:
http://195.56.77.208/player/?id=JEN-BRA-89&year=2008&team=1161 (Oh that is cold-Ed.)
And sorry, no Finnish hip hop this time. The two-minute clip linked below is from very well known Finnish crime series "Pimeyden tyyny". No need for subtitles, all the main characters speak English:
(The Finns have mastered the art of using randomness as entertainment-Ed.)
H.T.
In Italy, Petteri Koponen has turned from MVP to DNP. Road from semi-professional Finnish League to fully professional Italian League has been long. Koponen is one of the youngest pro players in Italy and being in the rotation behind 3 million euro man Earl Boykins is a hard task. After a stable opening game (5 pts, 2 steals, 1 assist in 12 mins), Petteri hasn't got much playing time. After five rounds of Italian League, Petteri is averaging 2,5 points, 0,8 rebounds and 0,8 assists in 11,3 minutes a game while shooting only 27,3 % from the field.
Virtus opened their league campaign with three straight victories, but after two ugly losses (65-99 defeat against Scavolini Pesaro and 71-78 against Air Avellino), head coach Renato Pasquali got fired and replaced by Matteo Boniciolli, who was named Italy's coach of the year earlier this year. Koponen was reached by Finnish news agency YLE this Tuesday and in a nutshell, Koponen stated that first two practice sessions with the new coach have been pleasant and that the whole team seems to have a new approach for the season. Koponen also wishes to see some more minutes under his new coach and the hoopheads in Finland are pretty sure that his PT increases after opening difficulties.
While we look forward to see how Koponen will perform under his new coach, here's just a brief reminder that some other Italian league newcomers have had difficulties finding their rhythm:
http://195.56.77.208/player/?id=JEN-BRA-89&year=2008&team=1161 (Oh that is cold-Ed.)
And sorry, no Finnish hip hop this time. The two-minute clip linked below is from very well known Finnish crime series "Pimeyden tyyny". No need for subtitles, all the main characters speak English:
(The Finns have mastered the art of using randomness as entertainment-Ed.)
H.T.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Don't Watch Edition
Thanks to Finnish Superstar H.T. we have been able to keep up on Petteri Koponen's Italian experiences. There have been highs and lows for the second youngest player in Lega Serie A. The roller coaster continues...
Two weeks have passed by and things aren't looking too good for Petteri Koponen and his Italian Serie A team Virtus Bologna. A week ago, Benetton Treviso made mincemeat of their Bolognese rivals, jumping to a quick 23-11 start after first quarter and maintaining the lead until end numbers of 81-65.
Petteri Koponen played the second-highest minute amount of his team (31), but registered only 4 points (fg 1/2) to go with 2 steals and 4 turnovers. Keith Langford had 17 points and 7 rebounds, but the rest of Virtus was somewhere between mediocre and miserable, with Earl Boykins scoring 5 points (fg 1/6) and turning the ball over six times. Team shot only 26,7 % from behind the arc and 48,1 % from the free throw line while turning the ball over 21 times and losing the rebounding battle 42-33. In Petteri Koponen's defence, it has to be said that during his time on the court, Bologna only lost by five points. Gary Neal lead Treviso with 21/7 and Bobby Dixon responded with 18 points, 5 assists and 6 steals.
Last night was even worse for Bologna. Angelico Biella, one of the below average teams in Serie A, steamrolled in the second quarter and never gave up the lead, defeating Bologna in their home court 93-84 (53-41). Petteri came off the bench and played only eight minutes, finishing with 3 points (fg 1/3), one rebound and one turnover and not playing a single minute in the whole second half. Boykins was back to his normal form, scoring 18 (fg 7/11) and Guilherme Giovannoni tuned in for 16, but something is definitely going wrong for Virtus Bologna at the moment. They have dropped down to 6th spot of Serie A with nine wins in 16 games.
Reece Gaines lead Biella with 17 points. Swedish national team forward Jonas Jerebko had 16 points and 10 rebounds and James Gist finished with 16 points as well.
This Sunday, Bologna tries to snap the losing streak at home against league-eighth Armani Jeans Milano and their elite players Pape Sow, David Hawkins and newest acquisition Hollis Price.
And after a two week break, Bologna heads back to FIBA EuroChallenge Cup. The team travels to Turkey's Galatasaray to play the opening game of qualification to Elite Eight this Tuesday. Galatasaray sports a very intriguing roster, with American guards Rashid Atkins and Antonio Graves carrying most of the scoring load alongside Serbian power forward Milan Gurovic, who was voted the MVP of Polish finals last year. Another player worth mentioning is Turkish 7-1" behemoth Hüseyin Besok.
-The Notorious H.T.
Two weeks have passed by and things aren't looking too good for Petteri Koponen and his Italian Serie A team Virtus Bologna. A week ago, Benetton Treviso made mincemeat of their Bolognese rivals, jumping to a quick 23-11 start after first quarter and maintaining the lead until end numbers of 81-65.
Petteri Koponen played the second-highest minute amount of his team (31), but registered only 4 points (fg 1/2) to go with 2 steals and 4 turnovers. Keith Langford had 17 points and 7 rebounds, but the rest of Virtus was somewhere between mediocre and miserable, with Earl Boykins scoring 5 points (fg 1/6) and turning the ball over six times. Team shot only 26,7 % from behind the arc and 48,1 % from the free throw line while turning the ball over 21 times and losing the rebounding battle 42-33. In Petteri Koponen's defence, it has to be said that during his time on the court, Bologna only lost by five points. Gary Neal lead Treviso with 21/7 and Bobby Dixon responded with 18 points, 5 assists and 6 steals.
Last night was even worse for Bologna. Angelico Biella, one of the below average teams in Serie A, steamrolled in the second quarter and never gave up the lead, defeating Bologna in their home court 93-84 (53-41). Petteri came off the bench and played only eight minutes, finishing with 3 points (fg 1/3), one rebound and one turnover and not playing a single minute in the whole second half. Boykins was back to his normal form, scoring 18 (fg 7/11) and Guilherme Giovannoni tuned in for 16, but something is definitely going wrong for Virtus Bologna at the moment. They have dropped down to 6th spot of Serie A with nine wins in 16 games.
Reece Gaines lead Biella with 17 points. Swedish national team forward Jonas Jerebko had 16 points and 10 rebounds and James Gist finished with 16 points as well.
This Sunday, Bologna tries to snap the losing streak at home against league-eighth Armani Jeans Milano and their elite players Pape Sow, David Hawkins and newest acquisition Hollis Price.
And after a two week break, Bologna heads back to FIBA EuroChallenge Cup. The team travels to Turkey's Galatasaray to play the opening game of qualification to Elite Eight this Tuesday. Galatasaray sports a very intriguing roster, with American guards Rashid Atkins and Antonio Graves carrying most of the scoring load alongside Serbian power forward Milan Gurovic, who was voted the MVP of Polish finals last year. Another player worth mentioning is Turkish 7-1" behemoth Hüseyin Besok.
-The Notorious H.T.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Travis Best still playing edition
H.T. keeps us informed on the Italian experiences of Blazer's draftee Petteri Koponen...
Virtus Bologna was basically a minute away from Italian Cup title. Unfortunately, in basketball, one minute is half an eternity. There was just enough time in the shot clock for Montepaschi Siena's Henry Domercant to score the winning basket and for Virtus Bologna to turn the ball over once. Montepaschi Siena's dominance of Italian basketball leagues continued with 70-69 Cup final victory.
Less than two months ago, Montepaschi had smacked Bologna in Italian regular season game more than 20 points. This time it wasn't the case. Even though Montepaschi Siena maintained the lead for 38 minutes, they couldn't really pull away during the game. Siena was leading 42-28 briefly in the third quarter, but Bologna just refused to go away.
Petteri Koponen started the Cup final but was benched after just four minutes of play. Petteri looked kind of lost in the court in the opening minutes and didn't get to play before the end of third quarter, when he stepped in for Earl Boykins. Petteri answered with a three-pointer just before the third quarter buzzer and opened the fourth quarter with a defensive rebound and a jumper from the free throw line, drawing roars from the hometown crowd. With five minutes remaining in the game, Petteri was pulled to the bench for good.
Petteri ended up with 5 pts-1 reb-1 as statline in 13 minutes (fg 2/3). Keith Langford had 20 points and 5 steals and Earl Boykins 16 pts-5 reb-5 as for Virtus Bologna. The game MVP was Montepaschi Siena's Shaun Stonerook, who had 10 points, 14 rebounds and 5 steals. Henry Domercant scored 12, Benjamin Eze and Ksistof Lavrinovic 11.
In the semi-final game, Bologna ran away from Banca Tercas Teramo 98-90 with Sharrod Ford having a monster night with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Earl Boykins had 18 points and 10 assists. Petteri Koponen played only 9 minutes in the game, ending up with one missed field goal and one personal foul.
The schedule will leave Virtus Bologna no time to feel sorry for the bitter cup finals loss. Turkish team Galatasaray Cafe Crown will travel to Bologna this Wednesday for the FIBA EuroChallenge Game. This Sunday, Bologna meets Air Avellino in road game. Avellino is lead by US players Travis Best (!), Chris Warren and Drake Diener and experienced Italian power forward Nikola Radulovic.
-H.T.
UPDATE: More Koponen, including season stats, over at BlazersEdge. You know, no one has ever seen the "friendly Finnish Sportswriter" that contributes to BlazersEdge and H.T. at the same time in the same place. Finland, I'm watching you.
Virtus Bologna was basically a minute away from Italian Cup title. Unfortunately, in basketball, one minute is half an eternity. There was just enough time in the shot clock for Montepaschi Siena's Henry Domercant to score the winning basket and for Virtus Bologna to turn the ball over once. Montepaschi Siena's dominance of Italian basketball leagues continued with 70-69 Cup final victory.
Less than two months ago, Montepaschi had smacked Bologna in Italian regular season game more than 20 points. This time it wasn't the case. Even though Montepaschi Siena maintained the lead for 38 minutes, they couldn't really pull away during the game. Siena was leading 42-28 briefly in the third quarter, but Bologna just refused to go away.
Petteri Koponen started the Cup final but was benched after just four minutes of play. Petteri looked kind of lost in the court in the opening minutes and didn't get to play before the end of third quarter, when he stepped in for Earl Boykins. Petteri answered with a three-pointer just before the third quarter buzzer and opened the fourth quarter with a defensive rebound and a jumper from the free throw line, drawing roars from the hometown crowd. With five minutes remaining in the game, Petteri was pulled to the bench for good.
Petteri ended up with 5 pts-1 reb-1 as statline in 13 minutes (fg 2/3). Keith Langford had 20 points and 5 steals and Earl Boykins 16 pts-5 reb-5 as for Virtus Bologna. The game MVP was Montepaschi Siena's Shaun Stonerook, who had 10 points, 14 rebounds and 5 steals. Henry Domercant scored 12, Benjamin Eze and Ksistof Lavrinovic 11.
In the semi-final game, Bologna ran away from Banca Tercas Teramo 98-90 with Sharrod Ford having a monster night with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Earl Boykins had 18 points and 10 assists. Petteri Koponen played only 9 minutes in the game, ending up with one missed field goal and one personal foul.
The schedule will leave Virtus Bologna no time to feel sorry for the bitter cup finals loss. Turkish team Galatasaray Cafe Crown will travel to Bologna this Wednesday for the FIBA EuroChallenge Game. This Sunday, Bologna meets Air Avellino in road game. Avellino is lead by US players Travis Best (!), Chris Warren and Drake Diener and experienced Italian power forward Nikola Radulovic.
-H.T.
UPDATE: More Koponen, including season stats, over at BlazersEdge. You know, no one has ever seen the "friendly Finnish Sportswriter" that contributes to BlazersEdge and H.T. at the same time in the same place. Finland, I'm watching you.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Plus/Minus edition
Blazers draftee Petteri Koponen has been toiling away in Italy all year. For you. H.T. checks in with the latest...
In Virtus Bologna's final game in Serie A before the Italy Cup Final Eight tournament, Scavolini Spar Pesaro didn't provide much challenge for the Bolognans. Virtus used determined team defence to smother Pesaro in the 2nd quarter of the game. Bologna was leading 50-30 at the halftime and even though Pesaro was able to make a run in the fourth quarter, Bologna's victory was never threatened again. Bologna won the game 95-88 and is currently in 3rd place in Serie A.
Sharrod Ford had a monster game for Bologna with 27 points and 12 rebounds. Earl Boykins had 15 points, 6 assists and 4 steals. For Pesaro, Michael Hicks had 23 and 9 and Ramel Curry had 19 points.
Petteri Koponen once again started the game and played total of 20 minutes, sitting most of the second half. Petteri's +/- ratio was once again the highest of the team, with +10. Petteri scored three points (field goals 1-4), grabbed two rebounds, dished out two assists and stole the ball once. Even though Petteri struggled on offence, his work on defence was stabile once again; Pesaro's starting point guard Maximiliano Stanic ended up with 0 points (fg 0-3).
Next up, we will have a two week break from Serie A competition and FIBA EuroChallenge Cup. Virtus Bologna and seven other elite teams in Serie A will prepare for the Italian Cup Final Eight at FuturShow Station of Bologna. While this midseason showcase gives a perspective of the marching order of best basketball clubs in Italy, it also gives teams a chance to boost their stocks for next season's Euroleague, FIBA EuroCup and FIBA EuroChallenge Cup draw.
The quarterfinal match-up for Virtus Bologna is extremely interesting, with Lottomatica Roma - Euroleague team and current no. 2 team in Italian Serie A standings - coming to town. The teams have met once this season, with Virtus pulling away with 80-86 victory in Rome November 30th. The first round of Brandon Jennings-Petteri Koponen match-up was pretty lame, with Jennings ending up with DNP-CD and Petteri scoring 4 points in 11 minutes, but both guys are more familiar with their team's systems right now and should get decent minutes. The winner of Lottomatica-Virtus-game will play in the Italian Cup Semifinal against the winner of BancaTercas Teramo-Air Avellino quarterfinal game.
Yeah, Koponen vs. Jennings! Are you pumped? I am!!
-The Haphazard H.T.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Ho You Fat edition
Confused by the extended silence of the Petteri Koponen Watch? Me too! Luckily H.T. has recently gotten back to doing what made him the international blogebrity that he is. The latest on The Finnagler!
Yeah, I know it has been quiet in the Petteri Koponen frontier these past two weeks, but I have been in a rather uncomfortable situation lately. Instead of spending my days sniffing glue, playing Backgammon and writing basketball stories for underground sports blogs (that sounds a lot better than "obscure"-Ed), I have actually been WORKING. I swear that unfortunate events such as this won't keep you from getting your weekly does of Petteri and I try to minimize the side effects with this update.
After losing the Italian Cup final against Montepaschi Siena, Virtus Bologna smacked Turkish League leading Galatasaray 93-77 (46-41) in their home court and managed to snatch a 65-64 away victory against Air Avellino. It was a bit alarming to see Koponen out of the starting line-up for the first time since early December. Petteri had five points and two rebounds in 15 minutes against Galatasaray and one rebound and one assist in only five minutes against Air Avellino.
The first week of March was a sad one for Virtus. Although Virtus took a 24-14 first quarter lead in FIBA EuroChallenge game against German team EWE Baskets Oldenburg, those pesky Germans dominated the final quarter and cruised to 73-64 win, dropping Virtus to second place of EuroChallenge Cup's Group J. Petteri kept collecting bench splinters and played only six minutes (two rebounds, on foul) against Oldenburg.
In the next game Bologna travelled to play against Solsonica Rieti, currently the dead last team in Serie A. Petteri was entered back to the starting line-up, but the game was by far the worst Virtus has played this season. Rieti smacked the Bolognese right out of town, winning 80-55 (37-30) and dropping Virtus to fourth spot in Serie A. Petteri played 19 points, but only finished with six points (3pt shots 1/6), one steal and two turnovers.
This Tuesday, Bologna seemed to overcome their difficulties as they traveled to Ukraine to play against Ukrainian Superleague leading BC Kyiv in the final game of FIBA EuroChallenge Cup regular season. Virtus played impressive defence and smothered Kyiv 69-57 (34-26), earning a home court advantage for the upcoming EuroChallenge Cup quarterfinals. Petteri played 23 minutes against Kyiv and finished with 15 points (3pt 4-8), one rebound and one steal. Virtus coach Matteo Boniciolli praised Petteri in basketcentral.it, stating: "With Petteri playing in this level, it's hard for anyone to beat us."
Virtus will meet German Bundesleague team Telekom Baskets Bonn in the best-of-three playoff series tipping off next week. Bonn is a pretty typical German team, with seven players getting most minutes are born in the U.S. (Ken Johnson, E.J. Rowland, Winsome Frazier and Brandon Bowman), to name a few. Here are the four quarterfinal match-ups in EuroChallenge Cup:
BC Triumph (Russia) - Ural Great (Russia)
Telekom Baskets Bonn (Germany) - Virtus Bologna (Italy)
Proteas EKA AEL (Cyprus) - EclipseJet MyGuide (Netherlands)
Cholet Basket (France) - BC Kyiv (Ukraine)
I'm waiting for Virtus to meet Cholet Basket in the upcoming rounds, because it would be kind of a dream come true to see Petteri play against this fellow.
More to come!
-H.T
After losing the Italian Cup final against Montepaschi Siena, Virtus Bologna smacked Turkish League leading Galatasaray 93-77 (46-41) in their home court and managed to snatch a 65-64 away victory against Air Avellino. It was a bit alarming to see Koponen out of the starting line-up for the first time since early December. Petteri had five points and two rebounds in 15 minutes against Galatasaray and one rebound and one assist in only five minutes against Air Avellino.
The first week of March was a sad one for Virtus. Although Virtus took a 24-14 first quarter lead in FIBA EuroChallenge game against German team EWE Baskets Oldenburg, those pesky Germans dominated the final quarter and cruised to 73-64 win, dropping Virtus to second place of EuroChallenge Cup's Group J. Petteri kept collecting bench splinters and played only six minutes (two rebounds, on foul) against Oldenburg.
In the next game Bologna travelled to play against Solsonica Rieti, currently the dead last team in Serie A. Petteri was entered back to the starting line-up, but the game was by far the worst Virtus has played this season. Rieti smacked the Bolognese right out of town, winning 80-55 (37-30) and dropping Virtus to fourth spot in Serie A. Petteri played 19 points, but only finished with six points (3pt shots 1/6), one steal and two turnovers.
This Tuesday, Bologna seemed to overcome their difficulties as they traveled to Ukraine to play against Ukrainian Superleague leading BC Kyiv in the final game of FIBA EuroChallenge Cup regular season. Virtus played impressive defence and smothered Kyiv 69-57 (34-26), earning a home court advantage for the upcoming EuroChallenge Cup quarterfinals. Petteri played 23 minutes against Kyiv and finished with 15 points (3pt 4-8), one rebound and one steal. Virtus coach Matteo Boniciolli praised Petteri in basketcentral.it, stating: "With Petteri playing in this level, it's hard for anyone to beat us."
Virtus will meet German Bundesleague team Telekom Baskets Bonn in the best-of-three playoff series tipping off next week. Bonn is a pretty typical German team, with seven players getting most minutes are born in the U.S. (Ken Johnson, E.J. Rowland, Winsome Frazier and Brandon Bowman), to name a few. Here are the four quarterfinal match-ups in EuroChallenge Cup:
BC Triumph (Russia) - Ural Great (Russia)
Telekom Baskets Bonn (Germany) - Virtus Bologna (Italy)
Proteas EKA AEL (Cyprus) - EclipseJet MyGuide (Netherlands)
Cholet Basket (France) - BC Kyiv (Ukraine)
I'm waiting for Virtus to meet Cholet Basket in the upcoming rounds, because it would be kind of a dream come true to see Petteri play against this fellow.
More to come!
-H.T
Monday, August 3, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Freeeeedooooom! Expanded. Edition
H.T., in an effort to make me look bad, waited for me to post this flimsy Petteri Koponen update before sending me a feast for all Finnaglerphiles. Enjoy.
Now this post is rather long, but don't act like you got anything better to do...
Like you already noticed, team Finland has only a couple of days to go before the additional qualifications for Eurobasket 2009 tip off.
Finland is facing France and Italy in their qualification group and it's needless to say that nobody is really expecting Finland to get proceed to the next qualification round. Italy is trying to earn a spot in the Eurobasket competition with a deep roster full of veterans and lead by Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli and Daniel Hackett.
The French team is even more impressing, with nine current NBA players in the roster: Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Ronny Turiaf, Alexis Ajinca (Bobcats), Nando De Colo (Spurs), Rodrigue Beaubois (Mavs), Johan Petro (Nuggets) and Yakhouba Diawara (Heat). Joakim Noah and Mickael Pietrus have also been named to the "Les Bleus" squad, but Pietrus' post-season surgery keeps him out of the games and right now it seems unlikely that Chicago Bulls let Noah play.
Finland played their first game in European Division A in several years last summer and managed to win three of their eight games, including a shocker over 2002 World Champion Serbia. Even though there were good moments, it must be said that the overall team play could've been a lot better; two ugly, lop-sided losses to Bulgaria and two last-minute losses to team Italy (who were missing all their best players) told that team Finland was yet to achieve its premium level.
The biggest story of this summer for team Finland is the backcourt tandem of 21-year old Blazers draftee Petteri Koponen and 28-year old veteran PG Teemu Rannikko, who has nursed injuries these last two seasons after being named one of the top point guards in Euroleague while playing for Slovenia's Olimpija Ljubljana. The two guards have been giving nightmares to their opponents in the national team games so far this season, being able to find an open man or beat their defender 1-on-1 in every single offense.
Petteri Koponen struggled at times last summer as the starting PG of team Finland, but even though he has been forced to play a lot without the ball and accept a defending role in Italy's Virtus Bologna, he has certainly improved a lot on both ends of the court. These last a couple of games Koponen has been straightly dominant in the offensive end, sinking impossible-looking jumpers and drawing fouls with the best of them with his drives to the lane.
Finland has won four out of eight national team games this summer while Koponen has averaged 17,0 points, 2,9 rebounds and 2,3 assists a game (21/3/3 vs. New Zealand, 20/6/6 vs. The Netherlands, 20/3/3 and 8/8 fg's vs. Estonia and 26/4 steals vs. Hungary). Even though Finland has lost a couple of games they shouldn't have lost (Hungary & Sweden), they have looked sharp in their last two games, victories over Estonia and New Zealand.
(Estonian TV's clip of Estonia-Finland game in Estonian capital Tallinn, Koponen blue #11.)
French team has been murdering opponents in their preparing games, with 98-57 victory over Austria, 82-44 rout over Belgium and 84-66 win over Czech Republic. They also managed to beat Hungary 70-69 in dramatic fashion without Tony Parker, who injured his ankle in the game against Austria. Here's latest on Parker's injury: http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/coid_9mipySPFI--JhV,ctnX7N1.articleMode_on.html
Team Italy has gone up and down in their preparing games; they've lost to Czech Republic, but beaten Canada and New Zealand in their latest friendlies. Italy's lastest "friendly" game against Canada was nothing but friendly, with Stefano Mancinelli ronartesting his way out of the game, as you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWsC_XdG7NA
Here's the schedule of the additional qualifying round. Only the winner of the Group B will proceed to the final qualification games against the winner of Group A (Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium).
Aug 5th Italy - France (Cagliari, Italy)
Aug 8th France - Finland (Pau, France)
Aug 11th Finland - Italy (Vantaa, Finland)
Aug 14th France - Italy (Pau, France)
Aug 17th Finland - France (Vantaa, Finland)
Aug 20th Italy - Finland (Porto San Giorgio, Italy)
-H.T.
Now this post is rather long, but don't act like you got anything better to do...
Like you already noticed, team Finland has only a couple of days to go before the additional qualifications for Eurobasket 2009 tip off.
Finland is facing France and Italy in their qualification group and it's needless to say that nobody is really expecting Finland to get proceed to the next qualification round. Italy is trying to earn a spot in the Eurobasket competition with a deep roster full of veterans and lead by Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli and Daniel Hackett.
The French team is even more impressing, with nine current NBA players in the roster: Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Ronny Turiaf, Alexis Ajinca (Bobcats), Nando De Colo (Spurs), Rodrigue Beaubois (Mavs), Johan Petro (Nuggets) and Yakhouba Diawara (Heat). Joakim Noah and Mickael Pietrus have also been named to the "Les Bleus" squad, but Pietrus' post-season surgery keeps him out of the games and right now it seems unlikely that Chicago Bulls let Noah play.
Finland played their first game in European Division A in several years last summer and managed to win three of their eight games, including a shocker over 2002 World Champion Serbia. Even though there were good moments, it must be said that the overall team play could've been a lot better; two ugly, lop-sided losses to Bulgaria and two last-minute losses to team Italy (who were missing all their best players) told that team Finland was yet to achieve its premium level.
The biggest story of this summer for team Finland is the backcourt tandem of 21-year old Blazers draftee Petteri Koponen and 28-year old veteran PG Teemu Rannikko, who has nursed injuries these last two seasons after being named one of the top point guards in Euroleague while playing for Slovenia's Olimpija Ljubljana. The two guards have been giving nightmares to their opponents in the national team games so far this season, being able to find an open man or beat their defender 1-on-1 in every single offense.
Petteri Koponen struggled at times last summer as the starting PG of team Finland, but even though he has been forced to play a lot without the ball and accept a defending role in Italy's Virtus Bologna, he has certainly improved a lot on both ends of the court. These last a couple of games Koponen has been straightly dominant in the offensive end, sinking impossible-looking jumpers and drawing fouls with the best of them with his drives to the lane.
Finland has won four out of eight national team games this summer while Koponen has averaged 17,0 points, 2,9 rebounds and 2,3 assists a game (21/3/3 vs. New Zealand, 20/6/6 vs. The Netherlands, 20/3/3 and 8/8 fg's vs. Estonia and 26/4 steals vs. Hungary). Even though Finland has lost a couple of games they shouldn't have lost (Hungary & Sweden), they have looked sharp in their last two games, victories over Estonia and New Zealand.
(Estonian TV's clip of Estonia-Finland game in Estonian capital Tallinn, Koponen blue #11.)
French team has been murdering opponents in their preparing games, with 98-57 victory over Austria, 82-44 rout over Belgium and 84-66 win over Czech Republic. They also managed to beat Hungary 70-69 in dramatic fashion without Tony Parker, who injured his ankle in the game against Austria. Here's latest on Parker's injury: http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/coid_9mipySPFI--JhV,ctnX7N1.articleMode_on.html
Team Italy has gone up and down in their preparing games; they've lost to Czech Republic, but beaten Canada and New Zealand in their latest friendlies. Italy's lastest "friendly" game against Canada was nothing but friendly, with Stefano Mancinelli ronartesting his way out of the game, as you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWsC_XdG7NA
Here's the schedule of the additional qualifying round. Only the winner of the Group B will proceed to the final qualification games against the winner of Group A (Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium).
Aug 5th Italy - France (Cagliari, Italy)
Aug 8th France - Finland (Pau, France)
Aug 11th Finland - Italy (Vantaa, Finland)
Aug 14th France - Italy (Pau, France)
Aug 17th Finland - France (Vantaa, Finland)
Aug 20th Italy - Finland (Porto San Giorgio, Italy)
-H.T.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Brandon Jennings can't wait for the NBA edition
In an effort to improve the human condition, H.T. has selflessly provided us with updates on the development of Blazer's draftee Petteri Koponen in Italy. Here is the latest...
Italian Cup quarter-finals tipped off Thursday night at FuturShow Station of Bologna. Petteri Koponen's team, La Fortezza Bologna, faced Brandon Jennings and Lottomatica Roma in front of sold-out home crowd and the outcome was definitely crowd-pleasing, with Bologna dominating from opening tip until the final buzzer.
Lottomatica started the game pretty well with point guard Ibrahim Jaaber pressuring Earl Boykins from early on. Bologna coach Matteo Bonicinolli placed Koponen on Jaaber, trying to make playmaking as miserable as possible for the Brooklyn-born point guard. After an even first quarter, Bologna outscored Lottomatica Roma 11-2 in the first four minutes of second quarter and managed to pull an 48-32 overtime lead.
It wasn't enough, though. Lottomatica's Ruben Douglas was fantastic from behind the arc in the third quarter and Bologna couldn't get the ball moving while Lottomatica came within six points, 65-59. In fourth quarter, Bologna's Dusan Vukcevic caught fire and Bologna's strong on-ball defence frustrated Lottomatica. Virtus Bologna won the game 85-76 and proceeded to cup semifinals against Banca Tercas Teramo.
Petteri Koponen started the game for Bologna and played 18 minutes. Even though his defence was once again pretty good (Ibrahim Jaaber's field goals: 3/9), he struggled a bit on offence, ending up with 3 points (field goals 1/4), one rebound and two personal fouls.
Brandon Jennings didn't have too much to do with the game's outcome, either. In 12 minutes of play, Jennings had 5 points (fg 2/3), one rebound, one assist, one steal and two fouls. Jennings and Koponen guarded each other for a while at the end of third quarter.
For Bologna, Earl Boykins had 21 points and 9 assists. Sharrod Ford had 16 points and 7 rebounds while Dusan Vukcevic scored 15. Andre Hutson had 16 and Ruben Douglas had 15 for Lottomatica Roma.
Virtus Bologna will meet Banca Tercas Teramo this Saturday. The winner of the game will advance to the Italian Cup Final. Teramo's most notable players are Brandon Brown, David Moss, Jaycee Carroll, Giuseppe Poeta and Valerio Amoroso.
-H.T.
Italian Cup quarter-finals tipped off Thursday night at FuturShow Station of Bologna. Petteri Koponen's team, La Fortezza Bologna, faced Brandon Jennings and Lottomatica Roma in front of sold-out home crowd and the outcome was definitely crowd-pleasing, with Bologna dominating from opening tip until the final buzzer.
Lottomatica started the game pretty well with point guard Ibrahim Jaaber pressuring Earl Boykins from early on. Bologna coach Matteo Bonicinolli placed Koponen on Jaaber, trying to make playmaking as miserable as possible for the Brooklyn-born point guard. After an even first quarter, Bologna outscored Lottomatica Roma 11-2 in the first four minutes of second quarter and managed to pull an 48-32 overtime lead.
It wasn't enough, though. Lottomatica's Ruben Douglas was fantastic from behind the arc in the third quarter and Bologna couldn't get the ball moving while Lottomatica came within six points, 65-59. In fourth quarter, Bologna's Dusan Vukcevic caught fire and Bologna's strong on-ball defence frustrated Lottomatica. Virtus Bologna won the game 85-76 and proceeded to cup semifinals against Banca Tercas Teramo.
Petteri Koponen started the game for Bologna and played 18 minutes. Even though his defence was once again pretty good (Ibrahim Jaaber's field goals: 3/9), he struggled a bit on offence, ending up with 3 points (field goals 1/4), one rebound and two personal fouls.
Brandon Jennings didn't have too much to do with the game's outcome, either. In 12 minutes of play, Jennings had 5 points (fg 2/3), one rebound, one assist, one steal and two fouls. Jennings and Koponen guarded each other for a while at the end of third quarter.
For Bologna, Earl Boykins had 21 points and 9 assists. Sharrod Ford had 16 points and 7 rebounds while Dusan Vukcevic scored 15. Andre Hutson had 16 and Ruben Douglas had 15 for Lottomatica Roma.
Virtus Bologna will meet Banca Tercas Teramo this Saturday. The winner of the game will advance to the Italian Cup Final. Teramo's most notable players are Brandon Brown, David Moss, Jaycee Carroll, Giuseppe Poeta and Valerio Amoroso.
-H.T.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Petteri Koponen Watch: Nothing to add edition
Where would we be without H.T.? In the dark on the progression of one Petteri Koponen. Here is the latest...
Right now it seems that Virtus Bologna has overcome the post-Christmas difficulties and once again transformed into a true basketball team. Last Saturday, Bologna stole its second consecutive Serie A victory, defeating Snaidero Udine 93-86 (39-36) in an away game.
Even though Snaidero Udine is dead last in Serie A, the team has a lot of potential. Ex-Boston Celtic Joseph Forte (23/3/4as) and Rashad Anderson (22/1) had a permission to shoot whenever they caught the ball and Udine made sure that Bologna didn't run away from them. The second half belonged to Earl Boykins (32/3/5as/4st), who put on an amazing show and sparked Virtus offence in a spectacular fashion. Sharrod Ford had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Bologna.
Against Udine, Petteri Koponen scored seven points, took two rebounds and stole the ball twice in 23 minutes. As usually, Petteri started the game as Virtus' point guard and he scored six of his points in the first five minutes of the game. In second half, Koponen primarily guarded Forte, who netted 8/18 of his field goal attempts.
This Wednesday, Virtus snatched an impressive victory over undefeated BC Kyiv in their FIBA EuroChallenge Cup additional round game. Bologna's defence in the first quarter was spectacular and after ten minutes, Bologna was leading the game 18-10. In third quarter it seemed that Kyiv would be able to frustrate Virtus with some spectacular defence of their own, but in the beginning of 4th, Earl Boykins and Keith Langford sparked Virtus to 60-52 lead.
Virtus won the game 68-64 (34-30) behind stabile performances by Langford (19/5), Boykins (15/4/6as/4st) and Reyshawn Terry (14/9). Brindley Wright and Kenan Bajmarovic had 13 points apiece for Kyiv. It's also worth noticing that Kyiv netted only 10 out of their 22 free throw attempts, practically giving away the victory.
Petteri Koponen struggled early on against Kyiv. He started the game, but played only 14 minutes, missing his only field goal attempt, turning the ball over once and having two personal fouls.
Virtus Bologna will play their next Serie A game this Saturday at home against Scavolini Pesaro, currently 10th in the League. Pesaro's prime weapons are US-Italian veteran guard Carlton Myers, point guard Ramel Curry and Panaman small forward Michael Hicks.
-The Sweet H.T.
Right now it seems that Virtus Bologna has overcome the post-Christmas difficulties and once again transformed into a true basketball team. Last Saturday, Bologna stole its second consecutive Serie A victory, defeating Snaidero Udine 93-86 (39-36) in an away game.
Even though Snaidero Udine is dead last in Serie A, the team has a lot of potential. Ex-Boston Celtic Joseph Forte (23/3/4as) and Rashad Anderson (22/1) had a permission to shoot whenever they caught the ball and Udine made sure that Bologna didn't run away from them. The second half belonged to Earl Boykins (32/3/5as/4st), who put on an amazing show and sparked Virtus offence in a spectacular fashion. Sharrod Ford had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Bologna.
Against Udine, Petteri Koponen scored seven points, took two rebounds and stole the ball twice in 23 minutes. As usually, Petteri started the game as Virtus' point guard and he scored six of his points in the first five minutes of the game. In second half, Koponen primarily guarded Forte, who netted 8/18 of his field goal attempts.
This Wednesday, Virtus snatched an impressive victory over undefeated BC Kyiv in their FIBA EuroChallenge Cup additional round game. Bologna's defence in the first quarter was spectacular and after ten minutes, Bologna was leading the game 18-10. In third quarter it seemed that Kyiv would be able to frustrate Virtus with some spectacular defence of their own, but in the beginning of 4th, Earl Boykins and Keith Langford sparked Virtus to 60-52 lead.
Virtus won the game 68-64 (34-30) behind stabile performances by Langford (19/5), Boykins (15/4/6as/4st) and Reyshawn Terry (14/9). Brindley Wright and Kenan Bajmarovic had 13 points apiece for Kyiv. It's also worth noticing that Kyiv netted only 10 out of their 22 free throw attempts, practically giving away the victory.
Petteri Koponen struggled early on against Kyiv. He started the game, but played only 14 minutes, missing his only field goal attempt, turning the ball over once and having two personal fouls.
Virtus Bologna will play their next Serie A game this Saturday at home against Scavolini Pesaro, currently 10th in the League. Pesaro's prime weapons are US-Italian veteran guard Carlton Myers, point guard Ramel Curry and Panaman small forward Michael Hicks.
-The Sweet H.T.
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