Shlomi Says Farewell
After few years of doing this list I have found two bright girls with great knowledge of women's basketball and much better English then mine, that agreed to continue this list instead of me. Orli and Lior Klinger. Some of you might know Orli and Lior from ESPN Women bball Forum and maybe from other places. Here is their first report. I will still be here too. - Shlomi
[NOTE: the season is starting a week later than it was supposed to since there was a dispute over the cost of the TV broadcasting rights, and the teams eventually got the upper hand.]
Channel 5 or channel 1? Who will replace Maccabi Tel Aviv who was shut down? Or Galil Elyon for the same reason? How many teams still haven’t resolved their budget issues? And when will this strike end? Those are just some of the very disturbing questions that bothered Israeli women’s basketball fans during the offseason. Things weren’t looking too hot, but at least the answer to the last question pleases us all.
A week late, another season is set to open on Monday. It will tip with only 8 teams, no big name foreigners, and even without Limor Mizrachi. But we can console ourselves with the fact that the league is yet again expected to be interesting, be on TV, and to provide many thrillers.
As usual, the system has been changed during the offseason, and then changed again after the number of teams decreased from 10 to 8. The regular season will include 3 rounds (21 games total). The top four teams will advance to the playoffs while the last placed team will be relegated. The top seed will play the 4th seed and the 2nd will play the 3rd in a best-of-five semi final series. The winners will meet in the finals for another best-of-five affair.
We’ll start reviewing the teams with the two time defending champions and last year’s Israeli Cup holders. Ramat Hasharon didn’t want to break up their awesome Eastern European offensive team. But Tonja Kostic, who joined the team last January and became the last piece of their championship puzzle, had other plans. Albena Branzova jumped ship as well, in favor of Hungary’s Mizo P’csi VSK. They did manage to hold on to center Lydia Varbanova (13.7 ppg and 5.8 rpg last season), sharp shooter Inna Gourevich (15 ppg on 53% shooting last season), point guards Aluma Goren and Tamar Maoz, and the rest of the Israeli players besides Liad Suez who left to attend Villanova University. They will be joined by American center Danielle McCulley (27, 6’1), who put up nice numbers in Turkey in the last two seasons and was cut by the Seattle Storm in early June, and forward Mirana Paunovic (26, 6’0) who spent last season playing in Spain’s division II.
Due to the difficulty in convincing Americans to sign in Israel, last year Ramat Hasharon settled for unknown players and found itself replacing foreigner after foreigner until the team finally came together. This year instead of settling they decided to wait until the later stages of the season before signing a second American. But even without one, Orna Ostfeld’s Ramat Hasharon squad looks very capable of defending its crown.
The main challenger probably won’t be the team who slugged it out against Ramat Hasharon in last year’s final, since Maccabi Raanana has lost the wonderful Amber Hall, forward Jaclyn Johnson and coach Tal Natan to Elizur Ramla. The new coach is Danny Nachminovich, who coached Galil Elyon, Holon and Tel Aviv. The teams’ main Israeli players; Nili Natcho, Shira Haelyon, Nomi Kolodny and Sharon Ze’evi, stayed from last season. The new foreigners are Tatum Brown (24, 6’3), an Arizona graduate who’s been around a few WNBA camps but no more than that, and forward Nikki Thompkins (30, 5’11) who scored 19.9 points per game for Ramat Hen in the 98’/99’ season. Additionally, coach Nachminovic signed two Bosman players: his wife, forward Olga Milchina who played in Karmiel and Tel Aviv, and Bosnian point guard Snjezana Vasich.
Nobody knew who Amber Hall was before she landed in Raanana, and if Brown doesn’t end up being another diamond in the rough, Raanana’s realistic goal this year should be making the playoffs because repeating last season’s success would be nearly impossible.
Travesa Gant and Dragoslava Jakula are returning to Bnei Yehuda after a great season hoping to finish a place or two higher. Inna Boutenko, Sarit Menashe and Michal Miron also stayed, and PG Goni Tanchelson will take the place of Tali Klien. The team’s new American is Tawona Alhaleem (29, 6’1), an athletic wing who played for the Orlando Miracle in 2001 and scored 25 ppg in Israel for Rishon Lezion in the 97’/98’ season. Alhaleem should be a major upgrade to the 3 spot compared to last season’s starter, Yulia Rozova. Croat forward Blazenka Cipcic (28, 1.93) completes the roster and judging by her performance in pre-season game, will make Bnei Yehuda fans miss Stacy Ford greatly.
The race for the playoffs should be tight and exciting, and Bnei Yehuda will need the defense that became its trademark last year to finish among the top four.
Maccabi Ramat Hen, who was considered by many to be last year’s surprise team, presents one of the best starting lineups in the league. Team captain Simone Edwards, who led the team last season with 21.4 ppg and 10.4 rpg, is back for her 6th season in Israel and will enjoy a whole lot more help in the paint this year from the team’s new forwards. Vicky Hall, a very versatile offensive player and a good rebounder (18.6 ppg and 8.7 rpg in Holon last year), will start at power forward. At the 3 spot we find Marianna Raguz, a good scorer and a physical player who averaged 15.4 ppg and 4.2 rpg for Galil Elyon last year. At the shooting guard position, coach Eli Rabi has two Israeli options. The first one is Tal Zaltz, a talented young player from Galil Elyon who had a good showing in pre-season games, and the second is Rivi Grinboim who scored 8.5 ppg for Ramat Hen last year and can also play the point. The responsibility of running the show will lie in the hands of Monika Kovac, a leader and an aggressive point guard who played in Raanana in 00’/01’. PG Sivan Balalis, who was very good during last season’s playoff run, will come off the bench.
The rotation in Ramat Hen is still short and there are no back ups for the bigs, but the team is better structured this year and should fight for all the titles.
Elizur Holon finished 5th last year after being upset by Ramat Hen in the playoffs, but this year they’ll be missing last season’s troubles. The team that was declared favorite to win it all prior to last season is now the most likely so play in division II next season. They signed American Cozette Balentine in the last minute, but she cancelled her arrival due to pressures from her worried family. Thanks to the strike, they had time to bring in forward Octavia Blue (26, 6’1), who played in Galil Elyon two years ago and played for the LA Sparks in 1998. The team’s other American goes by the name of Margo Graham (32, 6’3), who played in Israel’s DII in 96’ and sat at the end of the bench for the horrific 98’ Washington Mystics. Limor Mizrachi is still signed from last season but won’t play for the Holon and could move to another team only 5 games into the season. The only beneficiaries from the sad situation this past empire has deteriorated to will be their many young Israeli players.
Elizur Ramla opened last season with good intentions and a talented roster, surprised everyone with the mid season signing of Brandy Reed, but the big names disappointed on the court. This year they cleaned house, and decided to bring in a winning team, literally. Early in the summer they signed Tal Natan, the coach who turned Raanana from a nice little team to one of the league’s best. He quickly brought with him the two foreigners who helped him take Raanana all the way to the finals last year: Amber Hall and Jaclyn Johnson. Hall has been the league’s undisputed rebounding queen in the last two years and of the Ronchetti Cup last season, and finally stuck on a WNBA team roster this summer for the first time in her career. Jaclyn Johnson took the reversed rout from the WNBA home, but the numbers she put up last season, 20.1 ppg and 7.9 rpg, speak for themselves. The teams 3rd foreigner is forward Jackie Moore who played last season for Galil Elyon (averaged 16.8 ppg & 9.9 rpg) and spent the summer playing for the Indiana Fever. Tali Noy, who didn’t get much playing time behind Mizrachi in Holon last season, and Liron Cohen, who had a slow year in Ramla last season after breaking out in 00’/01’ playing for Tal Natan’s Raanana team, will fill the point guard position. The team’s only pure shooter is Natalya Branchkova who scored 6.5 ppg for Holon last season. Veteran Luda Rom and Ornit Shwartz, who returns to Ramla after two years in William & Mary College, complete what looks like the deepest roster in the league.
The only question mark regarding the team is hovering over the shooting guard position since Branchkova is inconsistent and has no decent back up. But despite that, the depth and the relatively proven foreigners are reason enough to believe Ramla can definitely go all the way this year.
Now we’ve reached the two newcomers, who actually finished 1st and 2nd in division two last year and didn’t just end up in DI due to the unfortunate shut downs of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Galil Elyon. Both teams are a mystery at the moment, but still look better than Holon and are capable of staying in the league.
The team who finished first is Maccabi Ashdod, who will depend on young foreigners and the players who brought the club to DI. At the age of 38, shooting guard Vika Ruduvski returns to DI after spending last year with Ashdod. Forward Oksana Duvggeliuk also stayed from last season and returns to DI after a three-year absence. The team signed 3 straight-outta-college kids as their foreigners. The point guard and leader will be Kenya Larkin (22, 5’9), a Texas grad who made it into the Phoenix Mercury’s training camp but couldn’t stick. Larkin wasn’t much of a scorer in her college days but is considered a very good playmaker and defender. Long Beach State grad Crystal Givens (21, 5’11), an athletic player who’s considered a good rebounder and shot blocker for her height, will start at the 3. She also was not drafted, went to the Storm’s camp but lost out to Adia Barnes. The 3rd American is forward/center Valerie Mounke (22, 6’2), a Houston grad who averaged 10.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in her senior year.
The runner up was Hapoel Haifa, who went for the 2-americans-2-bosmans concept and presents a more experienced roster than Ashdod. Rinat Zaltz who joined the team last season after Karmiel went belly up is staying, and so is veteran Orly Kestn and bosman Alexandra Mosic. Guard Adi Kindler (6.8 ppg in Ramat Hen last year) and neutralizer Yelena Mostafina (8.4 ppg in Galil last year) joined the team. Haifa also signed three new foreigners: Americans F/C Jackie Higgins & forward Jamie Lewis, and PG Ljiljana Latinovic from Bosnia. Higgins (24,6’1), a North Carolina 2000 grad, is a physical player who spent last season playing in Switzerland, was drafted in the 2nd round by the Sparks and got cut. Jamie Lewis (22, 6’2), a DePaul 2001 grad, played in the NWBL last year for the Chicago Blaze and averaged just 3.1 ppg.
So with all the problems and all the mess, the most interesting pro basketball league in Israel is set to tip off with quite a few championship contenders. Ramla, Ramat Hasharon and Ramat Hen look like the early favorites, but Bnei Yehuda proved last year that they shouldn’t be taken lightly and Raanana doesn’t plan on giving up either. From these eight teams, one will somehow emerge as the best. Which team will that be? We’re gonna have to wait till April to find out.
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Update by Lior Klinger:
Just when we thought things were set to go, the league was pushed back
another week. Three teams (Holon, Bnei Yehuda & Raanana) failed to get their
budgets approved and have received a one-week extension.
The league is now set to tip off on Oct 14th, starting with round 1, as originally planned.
Information reprinted with permission of Lior Klinger and Orli Klinger. Send an e-mail to be put on the mailing list.