Yours truly had a privilege to work as a TV analyst for the Eurochallenge play-offs game Joensuun Kataja-Gravelines. It was a great experience, liked it a lot. Liked the game even more, great atmosphere, intensity and DOUBLE OVERTIME! As a fan can U ask for more? Ok, a win for Kataja would have been nice, but I guess U cannot have it all
So no more Eurogames this year in Finland, sad, just got used to it. Have to congratulate Kataja for the great season in Europe, Finnish basketball needed this (publicity, pride) and the city of Joensuu and all the people at Katajas organization deserved it.
My club team, Tapiolan Honka, then.lost an OT game at ToPo. Unbelievable game also there. Over 1100 spectators,this is HUGE in Helsinki, especially in the second league. Experienced Hanno Mottola (NBA, Euroleague) was too much for us at the end. We played a good game and despite the loss we felt confident after the game. We have one more regular season game left: Porvoon Tarmo at home and then the play-offs start. Our semifinal opponent will most likely be Porvoon Tarmo It will best of five, the winner going to finals. In the finals it will be best of five again and the winner will get a spot in the league.
Exciting times ahead, trying to enjoy it! Anyway, gotta go, plane to Helsinki leaving soon.
Have a nice weekend
P
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INTERNATIONAL: Four Finnish teams want abroad - Jun 18, 2013
Record many Finnish Basketball teams are looking forward to play international games coming 2013-14 season. Finnish Champion Bisons (Loimaa) and Head Coach Greg Gibson are interested to play Eurocup games, which is the second highest level in Europe. Kataja (Joensuu) and KTP (Kotka) have informed about their willingness to participate the EuroChallenge series. Kataja started on that third highest level already last season and made it among the top-8 teams [read more]
Record many Finnish Basketball teams are looking forward to play international games coming 2013-14 season. Finnish Champion Bisons (Loimaa) and Head Coach Greg Gibson are interested to play Eurocup games, which is the second highest level in Europe. Kataja (Joensuu) and KTP (Kotka) have informed about their willingness to participate the EuroChallenge series. Kataja started on that third highest level already last season and made it among the top-8 teams. Pyrinto (Tampere) wants to play in the Baltic League plus the 44 regular season games in Finnish Top League.
One of the tallest Finnish basketball players, PF-C Samuli Vanttaja (210-F/C-91) joins KTP (Kotka) roster with a 1-year-contract. The last two seasons Vanttaja was playing on Kouvot (Kouvola) roster averaging 2012-13 in 39 contests 7,7 ppg (1 - 63,2%, 2 - 45,4%, 3 - 32,6%) - 6,6 rpg in 28:07 mpg. Vanttaja has played also on Finnish NT (U16, U18, U20). KTP Head Coach Sami Toiviainen has now six Finnish players signed for 2013-14 season. [read more]
One of the tallest Finnish basketball players, PF-C Samuli Vanttaja (210-F/C-91) joins KTP (Kotka) roster with a 1-year-contract. The last two seasons Vanttaja was playing on Kouvot (Kouvola) roster averaging 2012-13 in 39 contests 7,7 ppg (1 - 63,2%, 2 - 45,4%, 3 - 32,6%) - 6,6 rpg in 28:07 mpg. Vanttaja has played also on Finnish NT (U16, U18, U20). KTP Head Coach Sami Toiviainen has now six Finnish players signed for 2013-14 season.
The U20 squad has been camping for 10 days now, it has been good, we have been practicing well and we will be ready to play when the Nordic games start.
This traditional tournament will be played at my home town, Vantaa Tuesday-Thursday with Estonia, Denmark and Sweden as our opponents. Good competition , great games for us at this point.
Week after that we will have visitors from Great Britain, will play them twice at Helsinki [read more]
The U20 squad has been camping for 10 days now, it has been good, we have been practicing well and we will be ready to play when the Nordic games start.
This traditional tournament will be played at my home town, Vantaa Tuesday-Thursday with Estonia, Denmark and Sweden as our opponents. Good competition , great games for us at this point.
Week after that we will have visitors from Great Britain, will play them twice at Helsinki.
The last preparation tournament before the championships will take place July 3rd-5th at the beautiful city of Rakvere and again against good competition Estonia, Ukraine and Lithuania. A real test for the young men, especially Lithuania.
Our championships (Group B) will take place July 12th-21st at Romania. There will also be some really good teams: Poland, Belgium.... Tough competition and a great challenge for my team. Our main goal is to produce players for the senior national team, but winning the tournament would be nice also..
After the U20 program I will have one week off before joining the senior national team. Extremely excited about that as well, life is good.
Kataja: took 2nd place (3-3) in Group B of the Regular Season, took 2nd
place (3-3) in Group I of the Top16, lost to Gravelines (FRA) 0-2 in the
Quarterfinals !!!
Pyrinto: took 4th (last) place (2-4) in Group C of the Regular Season
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