EuroLeague Women Preview: BK IMOS Brno

Posted by: Jānis Kacēns 2012-09-30 20:33 in EuroLeague Women, Featured

Brno last season was this nice team that didn’t win much, but allowed young players to get major minutes in EuroLeague Women.

That season resulted in a one win season in EuroLeague (the lone win surprisingly came against Wisla Can-Pack) and a hard fought second place in Czech Republic.

Offseason apparently came with increased budget as the team was able to sign several experienced players for this season, including, Hana Horakova, Nicole Ohlde, Anna Jurcenkova, Edita Sujanova and Veronika Vlkova. Of their top five leading scorers last season, only Jasmine Thomas has left the team, which means they were able to secure the services of their top young players from last season.

How much the youngsters will get to play this season will depend on them and how much they have improved from last season. Of the leading Brno players in 2011/12 only Tereza Peckova shot over 40% from the field. The rest of the team were shooting in the thirties which you can expect from a young inexperienced team. In the whole ELW Brno was in fact the worst shooting team with 36% from the field. Expect that to change this season as coach Bobrovsky will have veteran, more consistent options.

Return of Hana Horakova will undoubtedly be a boost for Brno. She showed briefly last season with Kosice that she has more in her tank than she had displayed on the loaded Fenerbahce and UMMC. With not much options at the guard position newcomer Veronika Vlkova will get a decent amount of minutes how she will fare at this level is anyone’s guess. After a promising start to the last season, Farhiya Abdi played more terribly with each game, ending up with sub-30% shooting from inside, sub-20% shooting from outside and nearly 3 times as many turnovers as assists. Her shot selection will be a fascinating subject to follow this season. If she continues where she left off last season, we might not see her in ELW (not to even mention the WNBA) much more. Much more promising at the forward positions last season was Tereza Peckova who was the team’s best scorer from inside and outside, shooting percentage wise. With more depth inside she will likely split more minutes with Abdi rather then both of them will play together.

One of the biggest reasons not named Abdi for a very low shooting percentage is a weak play by the posts. That was a point of emphasis this offseason as the team signed three new posts – Nicole Ohlde, Anna Jurcenkova and Edita Sujanova. Ohlde is coming of her worst season in years as she was averaging 6.8 points and 5 rebounds per game in Italian A1 league. Whether that was an anomaly or a sign of things to come in her career, we’ll see during this season. Jercenkova, Sujanova and the returning Hanusova are nice backup players to have, unfortunately one of them will have to start. If you compare that to last season, it’s still a vast improvement over what was then. It appears that only two of those four post players will start the season with the team. Edita Sujanova still appears to be recovering from her torn ACL while Alena Hanusova sustained a meniscus injury and is not expected back until mid to late November.

The group for Brno is favorable to think about advancing to the playoffs. Neither Gyor, nor Tarsus have compiled spectacular rosters so fight for the fifth place in the group now is pretty open between those three.

Be smart

Do you know anything about basketball may I ask? Seems like you don’t know anything. You just write a lot bullshit right here. It’s not good at all. She is the best rising star , being 19 years old in Euroleague is not easy. So you think 31 points at the game yesterday was bad? and 11 rebounds AND 5 assists..
- karel
  
  these stats were against Pardubice, clearly the worst team of the league, it doesn´t seem anything. Abdi used to be maybe rising star I´m afraid as a fan of Brno I have to say that I´m not sure about this fact anymore. Last season one match 30 poinst, other 2 matches 5 points, relatively often horibble stats. She has to manage it against good teams not only against such tragic teams as Pardubice are.
  - karafasan
    
    the true is that she’s very talented, but the biggest question is about her moral, ask the coach staff in brno how lazy she’s and you can’t criticise her because next time she will tell you that she has an injury and can’t play :-)(
    - Pepe
      
      The fact is that she is very promising player. The fact is that there is just a few of the players in her age who can have consistancy in ther game. Also, the fact is that she is wild and you must have a crystial ball to see if she will have good or bad game.
      On the other hand, when you bring such a young player to the team, you have to educate her to be professional and you must live with that inconsistancy which is normal for 19/20 years old girl. How many 20 years old girls that have some big impact in their team you know? Since you are from Czech republic, do you remember when Elhotova started to play serious basketball? Age 20 if I remember good…and she is still not the player who can make 15pts in Euroleague every night. So be easy on Abdi. Give her time and we will see how she will develop.
      And with all the respect to Blazek and Bobrovski, what player they “made” in last 5-6 years? I dont remember any(maybe Elhotova and thats it).
      - JanisK
        
        Checked the shooting consistency of Torrens, Elhotova, Petrovic, Eldebrink at the ages of 19-20. Most of them were shooting in the 30-40% range. Worst shooting was in the 20-30% range from beyond the arc from one of those four. Still that’s nowhere near sub 30% from inside and sub 20% outside like Abdi.
        
        karel
        
        yeah, I absolutely agree. About Elhotová – she is wild and crazy still now but it was really worse. But the main thing is that Elhotová has much better hand than Abdi will ever have. Elhotová is other position player of course, both of them are bad defenders but Abdi horrible. But after all, I´m sure that Abdi could be great player but she will have to stop thinking that she is the best all over the world and untouched, about her moral I have heard really a lot. But maybe it will be better with Hanka Horáková back in a team because she will be a right hand of a coach Bobrovský and maybe Abdi will accept more a player with her results.
        
        Pepe
        
        Janis,
        I never said that her shooting % is good…on the opposite. Its horrible. You took some good examples but look Eldebrink: she shooting was great when in Tarbes-not so good when she went to Brno.
        What Im trying to say: did you saw maybe under 20 in Debrecen? Not by the stats but live? The fact is that we have less and less talents in women basketball every year. So what I just say is that we have to give them a chance(and Abdi is one of those talents).
      - karafasan
        
        about the coaches Blazek never-ever made a player and he’s for me not a coach for an EL/NT and Bobrovsky is too old,tired and drunk to do something special in the last years…
        I liked Abdi a lot when she came to Brno in first months but not at all now, her shooting from outside is terrible and you must se how lazy she is, unbelievable
        this year i watched u16 in miskolc, wch u 17 in amsterdam, last year u19 wch in puerto montt and i can say you that from that point i’m a big fan of japan basketball and especially pg machida the girl was absolutely amazing!
        
        karafasan
        
        yeah elhotova started to play around 20 but blazek as head coach you can’t wait from him to give younger girls more playing time…he’s still using the same 5-6 older players as much as possible
        and i’m not from czech
        
        Pepe
        
        Coach Blazek (if i can call him a coach) is a joke. any many other things that are conected to Prague are jokes but thats not the point here. We speak About Abdi and if she is lazy, why someone from the club is not pushing her to work more? I dont know Bobrovsky but if you say he old tired and drinks, how do we expect that he will improve her?So before we judge the player, lets judge some other things that are conected to her…it must be something about her attitude as well but dont forget-she is young girl, probably someone “pump her brain” that she is too good and she needs someone (the coach) to put her on the ground and explain her what she needs to do in order to improve. As I saw the “mechanic” of her shooting is not bad so maybe there is some reason that is not real basketball reason why she is not making the shoots? Or maybe she is taking some wild shots that are hard to make. But than again, its the job of the coach to work on that.
        
        karafasan
        
        ok but in Brno you have Veverka too who as you known has the connection with swedish basket and he’s there on the trainings(Bobrovsky speaks only czech maybe russian too), but last season he said you can’t say something wrong to Abdi or criticize her etc because she’s able to stop the practice and matches for nothing and she’ll say you only that has some injury problems and can’t play…
        I don’t know her personally but if the rumours? are true about her than it’s a big problem for a young player as she is and therefore I don’t believe in her the talent is not enough this time
        last season Brno needed her very much because of law budget and not enough quality players, we will see this year if she changed her attitude or not…
- karel
  
  sorry but you are the one who is writing nonsenses. Can I ask you where are you from? Aren´t you from Abdi´s family? Other question have you ever seen her in action live. She is absolutely inconstistent, better player who is able to score 10 points each game that player who scores 30 one game and other games 3 or 5 games with 25% percentage etc. and this is Farhiya´s case.
Coach

She’s one of the biggest talent, no doubt so please stop discussing this. I don’t think you are educated in basketball or coaching so please stop talking about this young girl. Let her be alone, I don’t think you are doing a good job since you are a site editor , you suck. She will make it to the top just wait and see…
K

I think she has a big potential, of course Torres is good but Elhotova and Eldebrink are not stars they can not be big leaders in a team besides the national team but thats it. Abdi can develop to good leader like Taurasi. It will come, she’s young still so I don’t why you are talking about her like it’s the end of her career.
Please

I totally disagree with some stupid comments. I think she has a big talent after the U20 this summer, she has matured a lot. It will come. She did not get drafted for no reason right? I guess LA Sparks saw her as a big talent and she IS. Comparing her to Eldebrink and Elhotova? They don’t even have the same position she is 190 and they are 180 so that is wrong. I’m not saying she is the perfect player but she has the potential to become something big give her time. So tell me this how much did Elhotova and Eldebrink average in Euroleague as a 24 year old? And how much did Abdi as a 19 year old? EXACTLY. So don’t write if you don’t know the fact, thank you.
- Pepe
  
  If I remember good-Elhotova is still 22 years old. in the age of Abdi, she was making similar stats with better shooting %. I just dont think she can ever become a leader in Prague just because they dont appriciate domestic players enough. Chosing Skerovic over Viteckova to be the captain, for me was a shock. We can see if Elhotova can be a leader ONLY if she will go somewhere abroad.
  Back to Abdi-if she wants to become a leader, beside her shooting, she needs to improve her communication with the players because its obvious as many people already said, that she have problem in that as well. So I wish her all the best and I hope that she will become super player cause she have potential do to so.
To Kara

Hi there, she is good and can be the a really good player/leader. That’s all I have to say