By Stelios Toromanidis/ info@eurohoops.net
A boogeyman inside the paint; that’s what Fenerbahce’s center, Ekpe Udoh, is for opponents, as he hands out blocks… by the bucketful, on the way to achieving an impressive and very rare record in the history of the EuroLeague (2000-today).
The 29-year-old former player of the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, is in his second consecutive season in Europe. As time passes he gets better and better and after 17 rounds of this year’s renewed competition he’s in third place of the highest ranked players (PIR) with a ranking of 20,1 on average.
Aside from his virtues in offense (12,2 points and 7,5 rebounds this season), he also stands out for his defensive skills as well, his trademark being intercepting his opponents’ attempts.
The dynamic center is the best blocker in the league for the second year in a row and if he remains the best until the end of the season he will become only the third player in nearly 17 years of the competition’s modern history to achieve this. The other two are the veteran Ukrainian center, Grigorij Khizhnyak, who had managed this specific feat in the two years from 2000 to 2002, in the colours of Zalgiris Kaunas, and the American-Israeli, D’or Fischer, playing in Maccabi Tel Aviv and Real Madrid in the period 2009-2011.
The three players with two consecutive seasons at the top of the table of best blockers
Grigorij Khizhnyak
(Ukrainian)
2000-2001, Zalgiris Kaunas 38 blocks (3,2 bpg)
2001-2002, Zalgiris Kaunas 45 blocks (3,2 bpg)
D’or Fischer
(American-Israeli)
2009-2010, Maccabi Tel Aviv, 36 blocks (1,8 bpg)
2010-2011, Real Madrid, 33 blocks (1,4 bpg)
Ekpe Udoh
(American)
2015-2016 Fenerbahce, 61 blocks (2,3 bpg)
2016-2017 Fenerbahce, 35 blocks (2,1 bpg)
In addition, having finished a season with more than two blocks per game on average, Fener’s center is in a very exclusive category of six players (only the players with 10 or more games are taken into account). In fact, if he finishes this season with more than two blocks (2,1 so far), he will enter this specific table for the second time. His record last year (2,3 blocks on average) takes on greater weight if we take into account the fact that he’s the only one that did it in such a large number of games (27).
The eight performances of six players with an average of more than two blocks in one season in the modern history of the EuroLeague (2000-today)
- Grigorij Khizhnyak, 2001-2002, Zalgiris Kaunas, 3,2 blocks per game
- Grigorij Khizhnyak, 2000-2001, Zalgiris Kaunas, 3,2 blocks per game
- Stojan Vrankovic, 2000-2001, Bologna, 2,6 blocks per game
- Davor Pejcinovic, 2000-2001, Zadar, 2,5 blocks per game
- Ekpe Udoh, 2015-2016, Fenerbahce, 2,3 blocks per game
- Darjus Lavrinovic, 2005-2006, Zalgiris Kaunas, 2,1 blocks per game
- Omer Asik, 2007-2008, Fenerbahce, 2,1 blocks per game
- Ekpe Udoh, 2016-2017,Fenerbahce, 2,1 blocks per game
Finally, he also has the best performance in overall blocks in one season (61), while he’s in 28th place of the players with the most blocks in the EuroLeague, and he needs another four to become the 26th to reach 100. In fact, with the averages he has, if he continues at this rate for another three years in the competition, he’s going to surpass the one who is currently at the top, Fran Vazquez (249).