Will Franklin has been playing basketball in Tunisia this season after playing in Germany the past couple years. His Tunisian team, ES Sahel, was beating just about everyone and ran up a first place record of 21-1 when the strife hit in Tunisia and there were protest marches and violence as there was also in much of the Islamic world...
The basketball season was suspended and nearly cancelled, but they finally decided when the unrest died down to finish off the season with a Playoff. In mid-May they began the playoffs with the six teams who had the best records....and once the pool play ended it was Will's ES Sahel team vs. Stade Nebulien for what was termed the SUPER PLAYOFFS -- or the Finals.
Up to that point, Will's team went through the playoffs undefeated and in the 3-game final series, ES Sahel also swept the first two games (82-73 and 81-74) to become the Tunisian Champ with an overall record of 27-1 for the season!
Much of this was due to Will Franklin's excellent play at point guard.
Here is a brief story about the series sweep - LINK
And here is a translation via Google Translate from just before the final game-
"Basketball - Super Play-off - Final (Back) - SN / ESS today at 16:00 Saturday, 28 May 2011 12:39
The protected Predrag compete today from 16.00 at room Nabeul the return leg of the final Super Play-off. In case of victory, the Stars will win the championship 2010/2011 and in case of defeat, the two teams will play a beauty who will be played on Wednesday in Sousse.
Good luck to the basketball star who deserve to win the sacred light of the performance provided since the beginning of the season. It is noteworthy that the meeting will be broadcast live on satellite channel Hannibal TV holds the rights to broadcast the championship basketball."
And here is a brief story after the win -
"Basketball - Super Play-off - Final (Back) - SN / ESS (74-81) - The Sacred Star in Nabeul same Saturday, May 28, 2011 6:04 p.m.
The protected Serbian Predrag have lined up a second victory in the final of Super Play-off championship basketball flying this afternoon at the hall of Nabeul the Capbonnais Nabeulien Stadium with a score of (74-81). A victory documentation for obtaining the title of champion Tunisia 2010/2011 that allows stars to take their revenge at the expense of Nabeulien who have denied the sacred to the final seconds when the season ended.
Congratulations to Ben Romdhane Makram teammates who whipped hard and were the most consistent since the beginning of the season. They will also be able to play seriously for the coronation Cup in Tunisia with a double historical perspective that will be etched in the annals of basketball stars."
As is their custom they rarely mention the players and especially seem to never credit the foreign players...and of course basketball is not anywhere near as popular as football (soccer) and gets little press.
Here's some brief coverage via Eurobasket - LINK
Zach Andrews' Niigata Albirex squad ended up taking 4th place in the Japanese pro league despite a season that was right at .500, 20-20, only the 9th best regular season record -- but Niigata did very well -- advancing all the way to the Semi-Finals before dropping a decisive game and playing for 3rd/4th place....
In 42 games, Zach averaged a double double with 11.1 ppg and 10.8 rpg.
He also hit 65.3% of his FG attempts. Congrats to Zach Andrews!
http://www.albirex.com/roster/zach.html
HERE ARE SOME MORE GREAT PICS OF ZACH ANDREWS...
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/101030_11.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/110508_08.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/101023c.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/101128_03.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/101127_05.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/110423_04.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/100926f.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/101031_03.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/101030_06.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/110522_09.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/110507_08.jpg
http://albirexbb.blog-niigata.net/photo/images/2011/05/30/012.jpg
http://albirexbb.blog-niigata.net/photo/images/2011/05/30/2011052509230000.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/110205_02.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/100116_05.jpg
http://albirexbb.blog-niigata.net/photo/images/2011/05/30/001.jpg
http://albirexbb.blog-niigata.net/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2011/05/16/img5161256340001.jpg
http://albirexbb.blog-niigata.net/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2011/05/03/zach.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/100115_04.jpg
http://www.albirex.com/photo/2010/img/101024h.jpg
There are literally hundreds more great photos but I don't have time to link to all of them --- check it out for yourself!
Eddie Cage's ADT Tarragona squad finished strong ending 15-13 in the regular season (6th place out of 15 teams) -- but cmoing on strong in the post-season - losing out in the Playoff semi's to Mallorca, 3 games to 2....with ex-Brave Eddie Cage playing an important role -- as starter and 2nd leading scorer at 12 ppg, to go with 3.8 rpg, and 55% FG shooting.
Finally -- Osiris Eldridge's season in Turkey came to an abrupt end a couple weeks ago --
His team Karsiyaka finished 21-9 in their Turkish League -- good enough for 5th place in the league standings, but they then lost their first quarter final series 3 games-to-none to Efes Pilsen.
Only one of the games was even close -- as Osiris played poorly in the playoffs having games of only 4 pts/1 reb/1 asst, zero pts/zero reb/1 asst, and 4 pts/2 reb/2 asst.
Thus his playoff averages were -- 2.7 ppg, 1 reb, 1.3 apg.
His final overall season averages were 9 ppg, 3 rpg, 1 apg..and in his final TEN games of the year from March 5th on -- he scored more than 10 pts only once...averaging just 6 ppg....and he even lost his starting spot as a result....so maybe he was injured??
Dinma Odiakosa averaged 11.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg for his UB LaPalma squad in the Spanish LEB Gold League. Their final record was 16-18,
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