By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
It has become a habit of ours to search for things that are not so common, prior to a big tournament. Keep reading if you want to know all the little details of this year’s Final Four!
- Four continents will have representatives in London, with Europe (Greece, Serbia, Russia, Spain, Lithuania, Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia, FYROM and Georgia), Africa (Senegal), Australia and America (USA and Brazil) being a part of the Final Four. The only exception is Asia -but we will always have next year
- Spain will have 15 representatives, the USA will have 10, next is Greece with 9, Russia with 8, Serbia with 4, Lithuania with 3, Slovenia, Croatia and Australia will have 2 (each one) and Brazil, Montenegro, Senegal, FYROM and Georgia will have from one player.
- FC Barcelona Regal is the Tower of Babel, of this Final Four. They have players from 9 different countries (Spain, Brazil, Lithuania, Montenegro, USA, Australia, Croatia, Slovenia, Senegal). Olympiacos follows with 5 (USA, FYROM, Greece, Georgia, Lithuania) and CSKA Moscow (Serbia, Russia, USA, Greece) with Real Madrid (USA, Spain, Lithuania, Slovenia) have players from 4 countries.
- There are going to be 22 guards, 25 forwards and 14 centers
- The tallest center is Ante Tomic (2.17), the shorter player is Dontay Draper (1.81), the older is Sarunas Jasikevicius (37) and the youngest is Mario Hezonja (18).
- Real Madrid is the youngest team of this year’s Final Four. They are 26.2 years old, Olympiacos is second with 26.7, FC Barcelona Regal is third with 26.73 and CSKA Moscow is fourth with 27.9.
- As they say in Russia, revenge is the sweetest of the sins. CSKA Moscow might be the oldest team of all, but they have the tallest one (2.02). FC Barcelona Regal is second with 2.008, Olympiacos is third with 2.001 and Real Madrid is the last one, with 1.98.
Surprise? Not really!
- CSKA Moscow is the most valuable team with 2630 as a total Index. FC Barcelona Regal is second (2613), Olympiacos is third (2427) and Real Madrid is fourth (2374). By the way, they were the top teams of this season!
- CSKA Moscow is the one with the best offense in this year’s Euroleague, with 79.3 points per game (or 2223 points in 28 games). Real Madrid is second with 79.2 points per game (2140 points in 27 games), FC Barcelona Regal is third with 77.8 points per game (2259 points in 29 games) and Olympiacos is fourth with 76.5 points per game (2221 points in 29 games).
- Now it’s about time to disclose the name of the team which is more prone to turnovers. Υeap, it’s CSKA Moscow with 13.2 per game. FC Barcelona Regal has an average of 12.7 TOs, Olympiacos has 12.1 and Real Madrid 11.4.
- Olympiacos is the team which drawned the most fouls, among the four finalists: they got 21.3 per game, with Vasilis Spanoulis being the leader of the list with “players with the most fouls drawn” (5.41 per game). CSKA Moscow follows with 20.5 per game (and Nenad Krstic is at No3 of the players’ list with 4.63 per game), FC Barcelona Regal had 19.4 and Real Madrid 19.2.
- Olympiacos has scored the most free throws of all the finalists (405 -in 559 attemps) and they were at the first place of all the teams which played at this year’s Euroleague. Real Madrid was second with 394 (in 524), CSKA was at the 4th place (in total) with 380 (in 515) and FC Barcelona Regal was at the No8 with 344 (in 453). The best percentage belonds to Barca (75.9%).
- Olympiacos has also scored the most threepointers (of the teams which you are going to see in London and they were the second best in total). There were 230 of them (in 652 tries). CSKA Moscow was at the 5th place (with 219 in 554), Real Madrid was 6th (218 in 659) and FC Barcelona Regal was 7th (201 in 556). CSKA has the best percentage (39.5%).
Size doesn’t matter -that much
- Real Madrid got the most offensive rebounds of all Euroleague’s teams (12.48 per game). Olympiacos was at the 4th place (10.34) and now we have to remind you that they are shorter than CSKA Moscow (8.1) or FC Barcelona Regal (9.07).
- While CSKA is the tallest team of the finalists, is also the one (in total) with the most assist at each game (17.9). FC Barcelona Regal is second (16.06), Olympiacos is fourth with 15.6 and Real Madrid is 9th with 15.07.