By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
According to an old quote: “It’s hard to go somewhere, if you don’t have with you someone who had gone there before’. In the Euroleague qualifying round eight teams will fight for the “precious” last regular season ticket and Unics Kazan has by far the most experienced roster when it comes to Euroleague games.
Eurohoops counted the number of Euroleague games that each player of the eight teams participated in the past and found some interesting things. Unics Kazan has the biggest budget (around 20 mil. euros) but the team is more than prepared for those kind of crucial games because thirteen of its players have appeared at least in one Euroleague and they know very well the top European competition. The most experienced player of the Russians is Nikos Zisis who has played a total of 200 Euroleague games!
But the Greek guard is not the one with the biggest number of games played among those who will be present in Ostende. David Andersen of ASVEL played in total 224 Euroleague games with six different teams!
After Unics, the next team that follows in experience is Hapoel Jerusalem, mainly because of the presence of three ex-Maccabi players (Yotam Halperin, Lior Eliyahu, Yaniv Green)! On the other hand, VEF Riga is the only team that will fight for in the qualifying round without having not even one player with Euroleague experience! Here are the numbers, which in this case speak louder than words.
Unics Kazan
Euroleague experience 646 games
Nikos Zisis 200 games
(AEK 69, Benetton 27, CSKA 46, Siena 58)
Keith Langford 80 games
(Khimki 25, Maccabi 20, Milan 35)
D’or Fischer 79 games
(Maccabi 33, Real M. 23, Bilbao 19, Brose Baskets 4)
Curtis Jerrells 69 games
(Partizan 10, Fenerbahce 14, Besiktas 17, Milan 28)
Kostas Kaimakoglou 56 games
(Maroussi 15, Panathinaikos 41)
Dmitry Sokolov 36 games
(CSKA M. 36)
Sergey Bykov 35 games
(Dynamo M. 20, CSKA 5, Lokomotiv Kuban 10)
Viktor Sanikidze 24 games
(Siena 24)
James White 21 games
(Fenerbahce 21)
Valeriy Likhodey 21 games
(Lokomotiv Kuban 21)
Petr Gubanov 20 games
(Khimki 11, Unics 9)
Vadim Panin 5 games
(Khimki 5)
Hapoel Jerousalem
Euroleague experience 435 games
Yotam Halperin 157 games
(Maccabi 87, Union Olimpija 14, Olympiacos 56)
Lior Eliyahu 135 games
(Maccabi Tel Aviv 120, Caja Laboral 15)
Yaniv Green 98 games
(Maccabi 98)
Bracey Wright 36 games
(Aris 18, Joventut 8, Cedevita 10)
Derwin Kitchen 9 games
(Panathinaikos 9)
Villeurbanne
Euroleague experience 278 games
David Andersen 224 games
(Kinder/Virtus Bologna 52, Siena 21, CSKA 85, Barcelona 23, Siena 20, Fenerbahce 23)
Yohann Sangare 29 games
(Asvel 14, Milan 15)
Amara Sy 13 games
(Asvel 13)
David Lighty 12 games
(Cantu 5, Nanterre 7)
Nymburk
Euroleague experience 199 games
Jiri Welsch 121 games
(Union Olimpija 35, Unicaja 76, Belgacom Spirou 10)
Lubos Barton 69 games
(Skipper Bologna 19, Roma 13, Joventut 13, Barcelona 24)
Darius Washington 25 games
(Aris 9, Roma 16)
Tre Simmons 9 games
(Maccabi 9)
Zielona Gora
Euroleague experience 196 games
Adam Hrycaniuk 74 games
(Prokom 64, Zielona Gora 10)
Przemyslaw Zamojski 45 games
(Prokom 36, Zielona Gora 9)
Lukasz Koszarek 20 games
(Prokom 10, Zielona Gora 10)
Chevon Troutman 20 games
(Bayern 20)
Quinton Hosley 13 games
(Real M. 13)
Aaron Cel 10 games
(Le Mans 2, Zielona Gora 8 )
Kamil Chanas 8 games
(Zielona Gora 8 )
Maciej Kucharek 6 games
(Zielona Gora 6)
Strasbourg
Euroleague experience 172 games
Ali Traore 41 games
(Asvel 11, Roma 15, Alba 6, Nanterre 9)
Antoine Diot 32 games
(Le Mans 23, Strasbourg 9)
Jeremy Leloup 23 games
(Le Mans 13, Strasbourg 10)
Romain Duport 13 games
(Cholet 3, Strasbourg 10)
Paul Lacombe 11 games
(Asvel 1, Strasbourg 10)
Tadija Dragicevic 10 games
(Efes 10)
Axel Toupane 10 games
(Strasbourg 10)
Louis Campbell 10 games
(Strasbourg 10)
Anthony Dobbins 10 games
(Orleanaise 10)
Bangaly Fofana 9 games
(Asvel 9)
Matt Howard 3 games
(Olympiacos 3)
Ostend
Euroleague experience 20 games
Mateusz Ponitka 10 games
(Prokom 10)
Dusan Djordjevic 10 games
(Union Olimpija 10)
Riga
Euroleague experience 0 games