MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Ireland has some pretty weak basketball.

[Gregory Sager]

Ireland has some pretty weak basketball.

Tell me about it. Dan Dyra, a former North Park basketball player who now teaches and coaches at U of C Lab School, played in that Irish pro league as well. He told me once that the first indication he had that the natives didn't take the game too seriously was when he walked into his first team meeting and everyone was smoking like a chimney. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Bates played two Irish Superleague teams this summer, beating Limerick easily (81-55 and emptying the bench) and lost to Killester (which is the team of which Josh Hinz is now a member) 80-66.

That may give some indication of the abilities there, but certainly few people in Ireland take basketball seriously to any degree.

[dansand]

Does anybody have an idea of how much money these guys actually make overseas? Does it vary greatly from country to country?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I really don't know about the leagues that d3 guys seem to get into.  The top Euro leagues pay pretty well.  The d3 guys would be lucky to make enough money to afford their own apartment; I'm guessing most of them have to share with at least one other guy to make ends meet.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I just did some quick checking.

Top tier teams (like the Spanish first division) pay an average of about $250,000 USD a year, often there are perks that go along with the salary (transportation, housing, tax breaks, depending on how good the player is).  Other leagues at this level would be Turkey, Greece, Italy, and France.

The UK and Belguim are examples of second tier leagues. 

The Dutch league is a third tier league.  Their players average between 1,000 and 4,000 per month with similar perks if they are merited.


I couldn't find much other firm information.  I'm not sure where the Irish Superleague ranks, but I doubt it's any higher than the Netherlands.

[Titan Q]

Here is a blog started by Keelan Amelianovich to keep friends and family updated on things in Spain...

http://basketballinspain.blogspot.com/

[Mr. Ypsi]

Thanks for that link, Q - I see you now have it on your own site as well, but I don't go there much in the off-season.

I've obviously mis-remembered - I thought Keelan and Adam had signed with the same team.  What's Adam up to?

[diehardfan]

Someone needs to send Keelan some Jif peanut butter... I've sent stranger things to Iraq.

[mr_b]

Someone needs to send Keelan some Jif peanut butter...

Peanut butter is very hard to come by in Spain.  I stumbled across some British brand in Barcelona (at the supermarket chain "Caprabo") that was pretty good, far superior to the local brand (suspected ingredients: peanuts and wallpaper paste).  There are probably lots of places that carry British imports (chutney, Worcestershire sauce, etc.) around Barcelona.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Really tragic news over on the WIAC board - I don't have any details, but from the sound of the discussion there it appears a UW-L player got drunk and drowned in the Mississippi.  Some of you may be interested.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I've obviously mis-remembered - I thought Keelan and Adam had signed with the same team.  What's Adam up to?

They did sign with the same team.  Has something changed?

[Gregory Sager]

Top tier teams (like the Spanish first division) pay an average of about $250,000 USD a year, often there are perks that go along with the salary (transportation, housing, tax breaks, depending on how good the player is).  Other leagues at this level would be Turkey, Greece, Italy, and France.

When he played for one of the more rurally-located pro teams in Greece following his graduation from North Park, former Vikings off-guard Bill Karavites was given a donkey to serve as his transportation.

No, I am not making that up.

(Karavites is now a teacher and assistant basketball coach at Proviso West, where he coached current NPU guard Devin Burnett. To the best of my knowledge, nobody on the Proviso West coaching staff currently owns a donkey.)

[Titan Q]

Thanks for that link, Q - I see you now have it on your own site as well, but I don't go there much in the off-season.

I've obviously mis-remembered - I thought Keelan and Adam had signed with the same team.  What's Adam up to?

Adam had a change of heart and decided to come home and get on with his post-graduate studies.  Probably a prudent decision -- realistically, Adam just doesn't have the ceiling Keelan does in terms of professional basketball.  Adam could have been a good player in that league...Keelan has a chance to do some big things professionally if things fall into place for him.  He shoots it as well as any small college player I've ever seen, and he has the big 6-6 frame.

Here is a pic of Amelianovich as a senior in high school...

http://www.highschoolelite.com/news/1+29.html

And a photo from this year...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/keespain.jpg


Amazing what 4 years in the weight room can do...maybe I need to get back in there.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

He shoots it as well as any small college player I've ever seen, and he has the big 6-6 frame.

So now it comes out?  Where were you in April when I was using those same points to say it wouldn't be far-fetched for an NBA team to take a flyer on the guy?  I got absolutely destroyed in here on that.