berthoop

Several NCAA basketball games, watched in streaming or on YouTube , were already on my list in late 2017:   Michigan State Spartans vs. Ferris State Bulldogs : 80-72 (played on 2017-10-26) Score at the half: 35-38.   This exhibition game held at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan started with a great dunk by Spartan player Miles Bridges (6'7", guard/forward, age 19) right after the jump ball... Nevertheless, Ferris State played quickly in the first minutes of the game and the Bulldogs were quite efficient on both ends of the court. The scoreboard suddenly showed 2-12, forcing MSU 's legendary coach Tom Izzo (23rd year at the head of the Spartans ) to take a first timeout with just 4 minutes played in the first half. Jaren Jackson Jr. (6'11", forward, age 18) played tough in defense and had two impressive blocks to keep the Spartans in the race. Miles Bridges and Cassius Winston (6'0", guard, age 20) also put some great e...

Nice crowd at the mons.arena on Day 5 of the FIBA Europe Cup Group G regular season... A basketball game with a band playing during 40 minutes and with enthusiastic fans is truly enjoyable. After having enjoyed a delicious Belgian waffle, I could sit just a few rows behind the Demir Insaat bench and get ready for the tip-off! The game started at a rather slow pace and with many ups and downs. In the first quarter, the large attendance present at the mons.arena actually saw many more ups from the Turkish side, led by a very athletic and mobile Evaldas Kairys (6'10", 2.07 m, forward/center, born in 1990). The strong Lithuanian international player scored in the paint and convincingly intercepted the ball to offer Demir Insaat a nice advantage from the very beginning of the game. The Turkish team of Head Coach Ozhan Civgin traveled to Mons, Belgium without US point guard Erving Walker (5'8", 1.73 m, point guard, born in 1990, Florida '12). We were told tha...

In the late seventies and early eighties, a CEP Fleurus vs. SFX Verviers game would have been highlighted in the sport section of all newspapers in Belgium. SFX Verviers even won the Belgian Basketball Cup in 1980 (73-72 against Sunair Oostende ). CEP Fleurus vs. SFX Saint Michel Verviers is now a top game in Regional Division 1 in Southern Belgium. Played in front of a sparse attendance, this game started at high pace for CEP Fleurus . Boosted by their coach Fabien Muylaert , the CEPmen quickly digged a large gap. After 10 minutes, the scoreboard showed 32-12. SFX Saint Michel Verviers led by Nicolas Tsasa , a former CEP player, could not find any real solution. On the contrary, CEP Fleurus with Burkina Faso's former national team captain Moussa Ouattara as well as reality show celebrity and former player at Benetton Fribourg Olympic in the Swiss LNA Senna Hounhanou performed very well and played very quickly. Despite some nice SFX efforts in defense, CEP...

AEK Athens (GRE) vs. medi Bayreuth (GER): 90-85 What a surprise to see so few basketball fans at the Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium on Sep. 9th! Entrance was free but, despite a group of six enthusiastic members of the AEK  Athens ' fan club from London sitting and cheering in one corner of the arena and a small group of five to ten supporters of medi Bayreuth behind the bench of the Basketball Bundesliga team, not many people had showed up around noon on the second day of the BSCA Take-Off Trophy competition. Too bad for the hoops fans and observers who have missed some exceptional basketball action! The first game of the day was underway when I entered the Spiroudome . I could follow this game very closely since my son and I were able to sit right behind the bench of medi Bayreuth and could listen to the pep talks and excellent analyses of Head Coach Raoul Korner . Korner 's squad finished the first quarter on top by the closest margin. Led by Germany's i...

The 2016-17 NCAA basketball season is now over. The 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament ended with a nice win of Head Coach Roy Williams '  North Carolina Tar Heels who defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs 71-65 in the championship game played at the University of Phoenix Stadium , Glendale, AZ on 2017-04-03. Just like every year, Bert was asked by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association ( USBWA ) to select up to 10 All-America players (regardless of position). Here is therefore the 2016-17 berthoop.net Men's All-America Team (vote sent by Bert Larsimont to USBWA in early March 2017): Men's All-America 1  Luke Kennard , Duke - guard, 1.96 m, born in 1996, USA Men's All-America 2  Frank Mason III , Kansas - point guard, 1.80 m, born in 1994, USA Men's All-America 3  Jayson Tatum , Duke - forward, 2.03 m, born in 1998, USA Men's All-America 4  Josh Jackson , Kansas - guard, 2.03 m, born in 1997, USA Men's All-America 5  ...

Florida Gators vs. Duke Blue Devils : 74-84 (played on 2016-12-06) Score at the half: 31-41 The Jimmy V Classic was held at the Madison Square Garden in New York in early December 2016. Although they were still playing without young talent Harry Giles (knee surgery, 6'10", forward, age 18), the Duke Blue Devils moved to 9-1 season record and already had quality wins over Michigan State and Rhode Island to pair with the Florida victory. Duke 's freshman Jayson Tatum (6'8", forward, age 18) also dealt with injury issues earlier in the season and played in just his second career collegiate game in the Jimmy V Classic final against the Gators on that day. With 22 points, 8 rebounds and a number of nice moves in transition, in the paint or on the high post, Tatum looked fit for the NBA.  The Gators could not have an answer for the Luke Kennard (6'5", guard/forward, age 20) and Amile Jefferson (6'9", forward, age 23) combi...