Elias Harris in Ankara for the Efes Pilsen World Cup

[ZagNative]

I'd rather Elias would have taken the off-ramp to Gonzaga rather than joining the 14-man roster in Turkey, but apparently, that's not the case. From a German language site (google translation here) Elias is reported to be in Ankara, Turkey for the Efes Pilsen World Cup, with Germany playing tomorrow.

The good news is that we may be able to watch the game live on justin.tv.

From English language site, interbasket.net:

The 2009 Efes Pilsen World Cup begins today and will serve as national team preparations for the Eurobasket tournament.

Held in the Ankara Atatürk Sport Hall, six Eurobasket teams, divided into two groups, will be participate in the five-day tournament leading up to the European Basketball Championships to be held in Poland.

The six teams are hosts Turkey (Group A), Croatia (A), F.Y.R of Macedonia (B), Germany (A), Great Britain (B), and Latvia (B). Each team will play the other two opponents in their group.


Efes Pilsen World Cup Schedule:
26 Aug 18:30: Latvia - Great Britain
26 Aug 21:00: Turkey - Croatia
27 Aug 18:30: F.Y.R of Macedonia - Latvia
27 Aug 21:00: Turkey - Germany
28 Aug 18:30: Great Britain - F.Y.R. of Macedonia
28 Aug 21:00: Croatia - Germany
29 Aug 16:00: Classification: A Gr. 3 - B Gr. 3
29 Aug 18:30: Semi Final: A Gr. 1 - B Gr. 2
29 Aug 21:00: Semi Final: B Gr. 1 - A Gr. 2


Discuss the 8th annual Efes Pilsen World Cup in our forum or check out the official site here. You can watch the games via livefeed on http://delicast.com/tv/NTV or on http://www.justin.tv/powerzone. If these links do not work, go to our forum to find the most updated information about how to watch the games.

Looks like stats will be available here: http://www.efesworldcup.com/efesworl...8?OpenDocument

I don't know if there are live stats there.

I was able to use the justin.tv link to watch a bit of the Turkey-Croatia game in progress, so perhaps we'll be able to catch Elias live tomorrow as well.

By my time zone conversion, the game time for tomorrow's game should be at 11:00 am Pacific.

[kitzbuel]

Maybe he can workout with Josh.

[hockeyzag]

Wow, he really seems to be cutting it close to the beginning of the school year. I hope that everything is ok.

[Baldwinzag]

As always, thanks for the update Zagnative.

Hmmm, Gonzaga classes resume on Sept. 1st and Elias Harris is apparently still representing Germany in Int'l Basketball Tournaments. I was under the impression college athletes are required to attend classes to be eligible to play. Maybe Harris is taking classes via online until practice/season begins? Will Elias potentially forego the 1st Semester and arrive for 2nd half of season? At this point, anything seems a possibility, especially as it relates to our Foreign recruits.

Academic Calendar('09-'10)

[ZagNative]

Wow, he really seems to be cutting it close to the beginning of the school year. I hope that everything is ok.

Nerve-racking, eh? I wish I knew where the staff was on all this drama, as if there weren't enough uncertainty surrounding Bol Kong.'s arrival ... or non-arrival.

[Baldwinzag]

This is why Bauermann closely watches Harris upcoming transfer to US-College Gonzaga.

I find it intriguing that every article posted regarding Elias speaks only of his "transfer" to Gonzaga College, not that he'll necessarily play in 2009. I wonder if its just their interpretation or if he still has work to do before arriving in the States. The good news is that its confirmed Elias will be on Campus at some point, we just don't know exactly when that will be. I'm hoping(and praying) we'll see Elias this upcoming season.

[ZagNative]

Regarding the use of the word "transfer," I wouldn't read too much into that, knowing the difficulties of translating a highly nuanced language.

Incidentally, livestats are available here. Not in English, however.

[zagfan07]

I did see in that same article that the coach mentioned how it was great that Elias didn't have to sit out a year because he played on a Speyer team that didn't have any international professional players on it. Hearing that, I would assume Elias will be there this semester. He's just enjoying his last week of summer vacation (I hope).

[BobZag]

A lot of $64,000 questions.

Thanks, ZN. This will be fun to track.

[Baldwinzag]

A lot of $64,000 questions.

Thanks, ZN. This will be fun to track.

True that.

However, when all these questions are finally answered it'll feel like we've won the $1,000,000 prize!

[MBZags]

Maybe Harris is taking classes via online until practice/season begins?

Gonzaga only has online classes during the summer sessions so he will definitely have to be here by September 9th (the last day to add classes).

[zag67]

Question: Is this the last tournament that he would be playing in? If so is he not done August 29th. Therefore could he not be here next week or early the following week. Yes he is cutting it close, but I think the timetable is still OK.

[75Zag]

Hmm

The Eurobasketball tournament is up next but I don't know the dates. ZN??

I also don't know whether Germany is automatically eligible or whether they have to play their way in. If he sticks around for the Euro BB tournament, he is going to be arriving in mid to late Sept.

[ZagNative]

Schedule for Eurobasket 2009, Sept. 7 - 20

Germany is already qualified. France has to play-in to qualify. I believe France's game is tomorrow as well. I believe that if France wins the play-in game, they will be Germany's first opponent at Eurobasket on September 7.

Edited to add: Yes, just confirmed. France plays Belgium tomorrow at 20:00 hrs, which is 11:00 a.m. Pacific time. There will be a second game with Belgium for France on the 30th. I don't know whether France needs to win both, or if they have to win by a certain number of points in one of the two games if they're 1-1. If Elias is destined to be in Poland instead of Spokane for that first game, it would be interesting if he and Ronny played against each other that first game.

Fingers crossed he's in Spokane instead or at least the mystery of his eligibility to play for the Zags this fall is settled so we don't have to worry whether he'll play the full season for us.

[ZagNative]

With any kind of luck, we should be able to see the game v. Turkey in about one minute. In the meantime, there's a preview of the rest of the tournament on BallInEurope.com, which leads off with this pic for the letchers in the crowd (they're talking to you, BZ!):

The Efes Pilsen’s 2009 “World Cup of Basketball” may be a bit of a misnomer for the international friendly tournament that tipped off last night in Turkey, but this show is certainly professionally done – really top marks for the organizers here – and well worth checking out.

The World Cup field is comprised of six teams: always entertaining Croatia, the curiosity of Great Britain, home team and sudden European basketball power Turkey, Latvia, Germany, and Macedonia. They’ll play it out in typical format: two pools of three, round-robin play, then elimination, yadda yadda.

All games will be played in the excellent Ankara Atatürk Sport Hall and the tournament is sponsored by well-known basketball advertiser Efes Pilsen. Best of all, perhaps, is the opportunity to watch the games for free on your computer. Seriously, check out Delicast.com/tv/NTV for live feeds in several languages.


The official page for the 2009 Efes Pilsen World Cup is sweet, but unfortunately in Turkish only. On the other hand, some excellent forum action on the tournament may be had via Interbasket.net.

All in all, this is a sweet little basketball package that’ll certainly whet the appetite for Eurobasket while offering an early glance at a few contenders. And it may be considered a tuneup for Turkey in the leadup to the 2010 FIBA World Championships as well.

In yesterday’s games, Team Croatia overcame the hosts, 82-77, while Latvia eked out a 86-84 shooting fest over Great Britain.

The remaining schedule is as follows:

Thursday, 27 Aug 18.30: F.Y.R of Macedonia v. Latvia
Thursday, 27 Aug 21.00: Turkey v. Germany
Friday, 28 Aug 18.30: Great Britain v. F.Y.R. of Macedonia
Friday, 28 Aug 21.00: Croatia v. Germany
Saturday, 29 Aug 16.00: classification game
Saturday, 29 Aug 18.30, 21.00: semifinal games