Back in the mid-late 80's Aris Salonica was the main team in Greece. This was the time Greece went from mediocre to relevant at the european level, culminating with winning, at home, the European championship in 1987 under the leadership of legendary Greek American Nikos Gallis. Underdogs in the final against the Soviets, the game was one of the most intense games I ever watched, even if it was just on TV.
While the national team kept gettting stronger, they never won an international title again. At the same time the clubs climbed to the top of euro club competition. Olympiacos and Panathinaikos became dominant. Dominique Wilkins ended his career at Panathinaikos I believe.
Anyway, this is a guess, but the opponents of today looked athletic, tall and strong enough to be part of the pro roster of the team. They might be missing key players, but they were strong enough to give the cats a better practice than other teams did. That's good!
Thoughts on a 1/2 of bball:
1) Leach is the best ball handler. Clayton continues to be unreliable and quickly a team that knew nothing about NU decided to press him. Woof
2) Ciaravino did not have superb first half but looks very physically ready to contribute
3) Mullins is just an athletic freak. Lacks control, a lot, but, man, what an athlete
4) Martinelli was poised from day one. Still looks more and more poised every day
5) Windham can be a spark off the bench for Leach/Berry/Barnhizer. Mostly because he looks unintimidated
6) Hunger looked OK
7) Fitzmorris, TBD, looked hella lost
8) Barkley, no clue
I get the feeling we are, once again, being underrated by the "experts". We have a chance of being solid.
