In this part,I'll show 20 greatest defensive teams of Euroleague history as I promised. Even though concept of a tournament between European teams was built in '50s, the brand name Euroleague Basketball established in 2000-01 season. I limited this analysis between 2000-01 Season and 2011-12 season,because between those years dynamics of tournament are relatively similar. I made the the defensive analysis -which I mentioned in previous post- for every team since 2000-01 Season. Look what I've found.
We have lot's of successful team in the list above. Several champions,finalist anf F4 teams. Also, I want to remind that until Season 2004-05 Season , there were no playoffs. Only group leader of the Top 16 groups had been able to qualify for Final Four. So, some of the Top 16 teams before 2004-05 Season would probably qualify to playoffs if the rules were the same as present.
One of striking names in the list is Ettore Messina. He made the list for 6 times. It was one the reasons why he is one the greatest coaches in the Euroleague history which clear the way for NBA. It's misfortune that they never gave him the chance he deserved in NBA. Yet,it's good to see him as commander of one the European powerhouse again.
Also, Xavier Pascual made the list for 3 times -as I've expected-. No doubt that,he is one of the greatest defensive coach in the Euroleague. His Barcelona has always been a solid defensive team. For example, he lost two of his defensive big men at the end of the last year -Boniface N'dong & Fran Vazquez-, yet they are still great defensive team this year (Note that, one of the replacement for these two big men is Nathan Jawai). Pascual has some deficiencies for sure, but it doesn't change the fact that he is one of the best defensive coaches.
I want to say something about Dusko Ivkovic also. He made the list for 2 times, and also he was leading actor one the greatest underdog story last year. Remember, his Olympiacos was the fourth best defensive team last year and as I showed in the last post, increase in their performance was preciously correlated to increase in their defensive capability.
It's weird that Simone Pianigiani made the list in 2007-08 if you consider the fact that his Fenerbahce allowed 94,3 points in last four games (one of them was a Turkish Basketball League game against Anadolu Efes). It's not weird at all,actually. As I said in one of very early post of the blog, Pianigiani's Siena teams were never bad defensive teams.
One of striking names in the list is Ettore Messina. He made the list for 6 times. It was one the reasons why he is one the greatest coaches in the Euroleague history which clear the way for NBA. It's misfortune that they never gave him the chance he deserved in NBA. Yet,it's good to see him as commander of one the European powerhouse again.
Also, Xavier Pascual made the list for 3 times -as I've expected-. No doubt that,he is one of the greatest defensive coach in the Euroleague. His Barcelona has always been a solid defensive team. For example, he lost two of his defensive big men at the end of the last year -Boniface N'dong & Fran Vazquez-, yet they are still great defensive team this year (Note that, one of the replacement for these two big men is Nathan Jawai). Pascual has some deficiencies for sure, but it doesn't change the fact that he is one of the best defensive coaches.
I want to say something about Dusko Ivkovic also. He made the list for 2 times, and also he was leading actor one the greatest underdog story last year. Remember, his Olympiacos was the fourth best defensive team last year and as I showed in the last post, increase in their performance was preciously correlated to increase in their defensive capability.
It's weird that Simone Pianigiani made the list in 2007-08 if you consider the fact that his Fenerbahce allowed 94,3 points in last four games (one of them was a Turkish Basketball League game against Anadolu Efes). It's not weird at all,actually. As I said in one of very early post of the blog, Pianigiani's Siena teams were never bad defensive teams.
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