Montenegrin Point guard Ivan Koljevic (187-PG-84) had a great game in the last round for Kashan, receiving a Asia-basket.com Player of the Week award for round 14. The 32-year old player was the main contributor (23 points, seven rebounds and nine assists) to his team's victory, helping them to beat Army (#8, 4-9) 85-74. Kashan maintains the 7th position in Iranian Superleague. Kashan is a typical solid league team placed somewhere in the middle or a little bit lower in the standings. They need more victories to improve their 6-7 record. Koljevic turned to be Kashan's top player in his first season with the team. Ivan Koljevic has solid league stats. He is in league's top in points (2nd best: 23.0ppg), assists (2nd best: 5.0apg) and averages impressive 59.2% FGP.
The second best player in last round's games was 29-year old American J.P. Prince (203-G/F-87) of Azad. Prince had a very good evening with 24 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Bad luck as Azad lost that game 66-73 to the higher-ranked Petrochimi (#1, 12-1). It was definitely game of the week between two contenders to the title. Azad still maintains its place in the top 4 of the standings, even despite this loss. His team's 8-5 record is not bad at all. Prince is a newcomer at Azad, but is already one of team's top players. He belongs to the best scorers in the league with 18.7ppg (#6). His other stats are also decent: 4.2rpg and 3.7apg.
Third on the list of top players last round was American guard Daequan Cook (195-G-87) of Chemidor (#6). Cook got into 30-points club by scoring 31 points in the last round. He went also for five rebounds . He was a key player of Chemidor, leading his team to a 85-79 win against the higher-ranked Arak (#3, 8-5). Chemidor needs these victories very badly if they think about getting closer to top teams. Their record at this point is 7 victories and 6 lost games. Cook has a great season in Iran. After only 7 games, he made it on the list of the league's leaders in points with 25.3ppg (best scorer).
Other top performing players last week: 4. Gerald Robinson (185-PG-89) of Petrochimi - 22 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists 5. Povilas Cukinas (210-C/F-83) of Chemidor - 16 points and 13 rebounds 6. Masoud Soleimani (207-C) of Kashan - 23 points and 9 rebounds 7. Doron Perkins (189-G-83) of Naft Abadan - 11 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists 8. Hamzeh Aghajari (185-F-87) of Shiraz a.s Pipe - 26 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists 9. Sean Williams (208-F-86) of Tabriz - 16 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists 10. Zvonko Buljan (206-C-87) of Kashan - 24 points and 9 rebounds
The Player of the week is chosen based on efficiency calculation, but also including game result, importance of the game, if played recorded double-double/triple-double, etc. The efficiency formula is a combination of various formulas used by different basketball organizations/leagues. We got involved many basketball scouts and journalists to assure it's accuracy. The formula: 1.5*PTS + 3* (REB+AST+ST+BL-TO) - 2*BSAG - 4*PF + 3*PFRV + 4* (2FGPM+3FGPM) + 1.5*FTM - 3* (2FGPA-2FGPM) - 3* (3FGPA-3FGPM) - (FTA-FTM)
TEHRAN (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers) - Iran forward Mohammad Jamshidi(199-SF-91) considers the opportunity to play at home as a tremendous honor that he will not trade for anything else. "It's always an honor to play for your country in front of your family and your people," he said. "There is nothing better than representing and having a good performance for your country." Jamshidi, among the All-Star Five at the FIBA Asia Cup 2017, where Iran finished second to Aus... [read more]
TEHRAN (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers) - Iran forward Mohammad Jamshidi (199-SF-91) considers the opportunity to play at home as a tremendous honor that he will not trade for anything else.
"It's always an honor to play for your country in front of your family and your people," he said. "There is nothing better than representing and having a good performance for your country."
Jamshidi, among the All-Star Five at the FIBA Asia Cup 2017, where Iran finished second to Australia, believes his national team has enough talent to beat any team in the region.
"No one is safe from us" Jamshidi recently said. "We can beat anyone no matter who the opponent is."
Iran, of course, still remember how the Boomers dropped the boom on them in the Asia Cup 2017 Final, but Jamshidi knows that Team Melli were missing a couple of key players in that game.
"Losing to Australia was so sad for us," he recalled. "We were mostly young players there and played pretty well in the tournament but still I can say if we had more time to recover after that hard Semi-Final against Korea, we could have beaten Australia in the Final." The 26-year-old guard-forward believes that with a more complete roster, especially one that includes Samad Nikkhah Bahrami and Behnam Yakhchali, Iran can certainly pull the rug from under Australia.
"The team really missed Samad Nikkhah Bahrami," he said. "With him, we play better basketball, and with me, Behnam and Samad all on the court, we definitely can beat Australia."
Jamshidi certainly cannot be faulted for feeling very confident. Iran, armed with a more complete pool of talent in the second window, romped through their Asian Qualifiers assignments last month. They manhandled erstwhile unbeaten Kazakhstan, 75-54, and then trampled all over Iraq, 83-53, to bump their win-loss record up to 3-1. Those results propelled Iran into the second round, where they will be grouped with the Philippines, either Japan or Chinese Taipei and, you guessed it, old nemesis Australia. What will make their future encounter with the Boomers quite different is that Iran will have a chance to play Australia at home, and Jamshidi knows Team Melli will put up a much stronger front as their hometown fans cheer them on. Playing at home is actually one of the things that Jamshidi loves about the New Competition System. For the 6ft 7in (1.99m) wingman, it's a meaningful privilege to play in front of his fellow Iranians.
"We have this chance to play in our country, and so we have this home court advantage that we didn't have before," he said. "This is a really big chance for us to beat all of our opponents here in Iran. It's an amazing experience for me playing in front of our fans." One other quality of the New Competition System that Jamshidi likes is how the windows are spread throughout the calendar year, which enables teams to change players up, especially those who may have been injured and therefore, missed some earlier fixtures.
"There's a big difference now," he explained. "In past Asian tournaments, we had 8 games in almost 10-11 days, and that was so hard to play. Additionally, if you have an injured player, he will miss all the games. If he is the key player, then its over."
Moving forward, Jamshidi, who counts legendary basketball player Michael Jordan as his main playing influence, knows that for Iran to, indeed, reach their potential they must all work hard. Jamshidi himself is proud of how he really puts in a lot of time into preparation, and this leads to oftentimes having good performances for the national team. "Michael Jordan was really inspiring for me, and I was watching his highlights almost everyday," Jamshidi remembered fondly. "Whoever knows me knows how hard I work just like MJ. I watch basketball games almost everyday, and I try to practice whatever I learn. I believe everything comes from hard work and dedication."
Iran next travel to Qatar to play Al Annabi on 29 June and then host Kazakhstan on 2 July to close out their Asian Qualifiers first round campaign.
MIKE HARRIS Defending champion Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut (LBL) landed experienced 34-year old American small forward Mike Harris (198-107kg-83, college: Rice). He played recently at Petrochimi in Iranian Superleague. Harris also played for Sturgeons in Chinese CBA earlier that season where in 38 Superleague games he averaged impressive 20.2ppg, 11.7rpg, 2.7apg and 1.5spg this season. He has tried to make it to the NBA and played in the NBA Pro Summer League in 2012. Among other achievem... [read more]
MIKE HARRIS
Defending champion Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut (LBL) landed experienced 34-year old American small forward Mike Harris (198-107kg-83, college: Rice). He played recently at Petrochimi in Iranian Superleague. Harris also played for Sturgeons in Chinese CBA earlier that season where in 38 Superleague games he averaged impressive 20.2ppg, 11.7rpg, 2.7apg and 1.5spg this season. He has tried to make it to the NBA and played in the NBA Pro Summer League in 2012. Among other achievements Harris won Chinese CBA championship title in 2016. He received also Asia-Basket.com All-Chinese CBA Player of the Year award and Asia-Basket.com All-Chinese CBA Import Player of the Year award in 2016. Harris is a very experienced player. He has quite traveled the world as his pro career brought him to five different countries on three different continents (Asia, Latin America and of course North America). Harris has played previously professionally in Kuwait (Al Qadsia), Puerto Rico (Leones), Ukraine, NBA (Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards and Minnesota Timberwolves) and China (Golden Bulls, Jiangsu Dragons, Blue Whales, Leopards and Eagles). Harris attended Rice University until 2005 and it is his 13th (hopefully lucky) (!!!) season in pro basketball.
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