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By: Slam / @euro_adventures

As reported just yesterday by Euroleague.net Montepaschi Siena point guard Bo McCalebb has had toe surgery and will miss the beginning of the Euroleague Top 16 at the very least.  McCalebb has been one of the most productive players in the league this season and is 5th in scoring with 15.5 points a game.  He has formed a devastating offensive combo with Siena big man Ksistof Lavrinovic so far and has set the pace for team that finished first in Group C.  This injury has the potential to be devastating to a Siena team that has been selected to play in the toughest Top 16 group with Real Madrid, Efes Pilsen, and Partizan Belgrade.

Losng  McCalebb is one of the worst injuries any Euroleague team could of sustained.  While McCalebb hasn’t been dishing out the ball a ton this season (2.7 assists a game) he is by far the team’s primary ball handler.  Behind him on the depth chart there are really no true point guards and his lose will have to be made up by a committee of guys.  The threesome that is really going to have to step up in his absence are Nikos Zisis, Ramantas Kaukenas, and David Moss.  All 3 of these guys, even though not really point men, average over 2 assists a game.  They will be expected to facilitate the offense and run the top of the defense while McCalebb is out.  The most pressure will be on the shoulders of Zisis.  He is the closest of the 3 to a real point guard and the guy whose minutes will drastically go out with McCalebb sitting.  Not only will Zisis be in charge of bringing the ball up court and setting up Siena into their offense, but he will have to try and anchor the defense the way McCalebb did.  McCalebb is 2nd in the Euroleague in steals with 2.4 a game for a Siena team that leads the Euroleague in steals and has only allowed 80 points once this year (Fenerbahce Ulker).  Offensively Siena will be using multiple players to facilitate and more offense will flow through Lavrinovic.  For Siena to survive the extremely tough Group G Zisis will have to keep turnovers down, shoot well from deep, and most importantly keep opposing point guards locked down.

Depending upon how long McCalebb is out will be key for Siena chances of advancing to the next round.  All 3 teams in the group are capable of knocking them off and even the weakest team Partizan has the strongest home court advantage.  Luckily for the Italian club the Top 16 is dragged out and will go on til mid March.  This gives McCalebb time to rest his bad toe.

Their schedule starts off alarmingly tough with a road game in Turkey against Efes then a home match against Madrid and then a meeting in Serbia against Partizan before the Top 16 break.  Siena has been a good road team so far winning 3 of their 5 contests, but none of those teams were to the caliber of Efes or Partizan.  To beat Efes, Siena will have to control Kerem Tunceri and Andrew Wisniewski penetration and long range shooting, as they start up one of Europe’s most dangerous offenses.  The next week against Madrid will be maybe Siena’s toughest task without McCalebb.  Normally you would have put Bo on Pablo Prigioni, Sergio Rodriquez, or Sergio Llull in the hopes that he would be able to shut down one of them.  All 3 have the ability to dish, bomb from distance, and control the tempo of the game.  If Siena lets them do this it could be a long night for the men in green.  Lastly a game a Partizan is nothing to look forward to.  Players can easily be rattled be the unnerving crowd crowd at Pionir Arena who will do anything they can to throw Siena off their game.  With McCalebb healthy Siena would have had a huge advantage as he ran the point for Partizan last season. Bo would have been very adept at handling the pressure of the Serbian fans.

Siena will not play its 4th Top 16 game til Febuary 16th at home against Partizan.  By then McCalebb will have hopefully recovered from his injury but, who’s to say if he will be playing at the breakneck pace he was during the regular season.  Obviously Siena would love to come out of this 1st 3 game stretch 3-0 or 2-1, but I believe even if they finish just 1-2 they will still have a chance to advance.  A healthy McCalebb back for the next 3 games, which include 2 home matches, could mean 3 straight wins and a respectable 4-2 mark.  With McCalebb healthy I would say Siena would be the heavy favorite to win Group G, but with the toe surgery now I believe they will advance just by a whisker.

Besides McCalebb missing time with the surgery, it will be interesting to see how he plays once back on the court with his toe.  Toe injuries can sometimes turn into a very nagging problem and it might hamper him for the rest of the season.  Depending on how Siena does with him on the sidelines will determine how fast they have to rush him back.  This is a team that has greater goals then just making the playoffs and if they have championship like aspirations then it will be best to bring back McCalebb only when he is fully healthy and ready to go.  This is a crushing injury to Siena but they are good enough to weather the storm for a few games, let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into anything more than that.

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13 Responses

  1. bossman2

    This is terrible news for Siena but great news for the rest of the Top 16, as McCaleb has truly been one of the most dynamic players in Europe this season. I agree that if he returns for their 4th game they would still have a great chance but I could see this injury lingering and either forcing a later return date for the Privateer All-Time great or at the very minimum limiting his movement and game on the court. Toe injuries seem like a minor injury but can be very painful and tough to come back from, see Kyrie Irving at Duke. Great Read, big fan of you guys ,like the Americans feature which helps me track some of my favorite college players like Marcus Hatten, Torrell Martin or say Ricky Paulding, just to mention a few

  2. Duncan

    Terrible injury and crushing to Mens Sana hopes. Hopefully they can weather the storm and hold out until Bo returns.

    BTW, when is the next podcast?

  3. Slam

    Thanks for the love guys, always appreciated. Freaknick and I will be serving up some Top 16 Group Preview Podcasts this weekend and leading up until the games next week. Plus we’ll be sure to have some other guests on in the near future. Thanks for asking Duncan.

  4. Apollo

    I find it very odd that you claim Nikos Zisis is not a “real point guard”. He is actually a real and pure point guard that can also play as a shooting guard because of his size. Nikos Zisis is about the purest point guard in all of Europe. Very strange that you would call the purest point guard on the continent “not a real point guard”.

    I can’t think of another point guard on the continent that is as pure a point as Zisis is…………it seems that your basketball analysis is 100% purely based on stats and absolutely zero based on watching games. You practically have to beg Zisis to even take a shot during a game, he is such a pure passer and ball distributor. And he very rarely ever turns the ball over. Yep, he is definitely the purest point guard in all of Europe. Ettore Messina and David Blatt have both said that he is the steadiest and purest point guard they have ever coached……….so I’m not really feeling this whole “McCalebb is the only real point guard on Siena” thing.

    Actually, if anything, McCalebb is much closer to being a shooting guard than he is to being what you call a “real point guard”.

  5. Slam

    Very valid points Apollo and thanks for the comment. The past couple years I have considered Zisis more of a combo guard cause he usually has some like McCalebb or McIntyre next to him who dominates the ball. I agree Zisis is more of a passer but McCalebb was such an offensive threat that Zisis is going to have to score and distribute while he is out. This is why I singled out Zisis in the article because I believe he is the one who is going to have to run the point and pick up the most slack. As for Zisis being the purest point guard in Europe that’s a different debate but I think Theo Papaloukas would like to throw his hat in the ring.

    I do watch Siena play and I realize you must be an avid fan yourself, so thanks for engaging in some Montepaschi talk.

  6. Apollo

    Zisis does not even want to shoot the ball and he never looks to score. The coaches have to specifically instruct him to do so or he won’t. Papaloukas very often goes one on one and very often looks for his own shot.

    If anything, Zisis is much too timid on offense. He plays the floor general game almost to the point of it being detrimental to his team. The strange thing about it is that he actually has very excellent scoring and one on one abilities, but he never uses them. Anyway, Siena signed Jaric, so that should help them with some scoring, and then Zisis can just make up the ball handling. They should have no problem getting to the playoffs.

  7. Duncan

    Always liked Marko Jaric, but I still think Siena need Bo back to advance. Doesn’t Jaric have a hot wife as well?

  8. Antonio

    Siena does not need McCalebb to advance. You make it sound like a one man team. That is hardly the case. They are loaded with some of the best players in Europe like K. Lavrinovic, Kaukenas, and Zisis. All 3 of those players are among the best in Europe and Zisis has carried teams by himself before. They won’t have any problem advancing with such players to lead them, a very good coach, and solid role players like Rakovic and Cararretto and so forth.

  9. Duncan

    They are in a tough group, but like you said, they do have plenty of firepower and a good coaching staff.

    Slam- when are the new podcasts going up?

  10. Slam

    Should be a new cast up momentarily with a review of yesterdays action and look into todays.