[VikingsFan]

Hi Bears-fans

I’m a big fan of Aalborg Vikings and also a big fan of Sami Eleraky. I would like this thread to become the Big Sami Eleraky thread and I will try to answer all questions you have regarding Sami Eleraky in the hope that when Sami moves to USA you will answer all of my questions.
I have already seen some threads about Sami containing some questions so I will start by answering them here:

How good is he and how good is the Danish league?
Well obviously that is a very difficult question to answer. From what I have been told Sami started playing basketball at the age of 14-15 and now he is 18/19 so obviously he is still a prospect and a bit inexperienced.
That being said the last two years Sami has played in the top basketball league in Denmark. It is a semi-pro league and probably one of the lowest ranked top-leagues in all of Europe. Each team is allowed to have two non-European players on their team (usually Americans). This year Aalborg Vikings players where Ryan White and Tony Bishop from Texas State. Ryan White led the league in scoring and Tony Bishop in rebounding and that probably says something about the league.

The best player to ever come out of Denmark (which by the way is a small country with 5 mil. inhabitants - the main sport is soccer and actually we only have 10.000 players in total) is Christian Drejer who played for Florida and also got drafted in the 2nd round by the Nets. Also playing in the Danish league this year is the top 2 ranked 1994’er of all of Europe Rasmus Glarbjerg Larsen (source: eurohopes.com). Glarbjerg is a 7footer like Sami but is a Nowitzki/Bargnani kind of player and most Danes are sure he will soon be headed to either a big team in Europe or one of the top schools in USA and then head for the NBA draft. Another dane playing in the NCAA is 6'7 Jonathan Gilling from 1991 playing Arizona State - he averaged 15ppg, 4.5 rpg and 3 apg in the 10/11 season and playing 24 minuttes he is averaging 7.1 ppg, 1.8 rpg and 1,7apg.

I would say Sami is a legit 6’11 – closer to 7’0 than 6'10 weighing 240/250 with a pretty good wingspan (can’t find any official measurements of his wingspan). As you can see on the highlights below he runs the floor very well for his size. He mostly gets his points on open dunks and lay-ups. But he also has a couple of moves down low including a nice little baby hook and he is already developing a pretty solid jumpshot (though it can’t be seen in any of the highlights). He is shooting 60 % from the free throw line.

He averaged 5.8 rebounds per game, including 2.4 offensive boards (17th in league). He also had 0.9 blocks per game which was actually the 10th best in the league. Despite playing 25 minutes per game and being one of the youngest players in the league he only averaged 2.6 fouls per game and only 1.1 turnovers per game.
Most of the year Sami has been matched up against lower division1 American import players (all being players who have played at least 4 years of college basketball) so he knows how to play physical and how to compete on a higher level but also he is definitely not a player who is used to the offense being revolved about him.
So what he can give your team in his first year would probably mainly be size, athleticism, rebounding and post defence.

Can he speak English?
Almost everybody in Denmark speaks English fluently. Sami also speaks Arabic.


This is footage from what is considered the best nationally televised game in Denmark this year. Do yourself a favor and watch the full footage:
http://www.dk4sport.dk/video/index.php?play=true&id=365

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecvh6Vf1H5E
00:22 block
00:59 block
01:58 block

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj5Sy1oL6go
0:38 hookshot
01:15 turnaround jumpshot (slowmotion 01:19)
02:04 postmove (slowmotion)

Footage from same game (nationally televised): http://www.dk4sport.dk/video/index.php?play=true&id=286
00:57 assist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2grq5cRz5a0
01:15 block
01:25 lay-up
01:46 tip-in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFH33emnbw
01:05 lay-up


Stats from 11/12 season in Denmark:
http://www.canaldigitalligaen.dk/ind...FpbiZwPTE4MzU=
Finished 2nd in the Youn Player of the Year category and was also selected as All Star but couldn’t play due to minor injury.

Stats from U18 division B – Denmark finished 2nd
http://u18men.fibaeurope.com/enDivB/...rID_84753.html

Post game videointerview: (you probably don't understand a word he says)
http://kanalsport.dk/indslag/vikings...sejr-over-sisu

[KoreAmBear]

Awesome! Thanks for coming here and posting. We all have high hopes for Sami.

[LongTimeBearFan]

His last name and the fact he speaks Arabic made me wonder...

[VikingsFan]

Originally Posted by LongTimeBearFan

His last name and the fact he speaks Arabic made me wonder...

Parents are originally from Egypt

[Big C_Cal]

Thanks for posting here!

The Cal team was in Scandinavia late last summer. Were they in Denmark and was that perhaps the genesis of his recruitment?

[LongTimeBearFan]

Thanks!

[HoopDreams]

Cal played the Danish National Team in the summer of 2011. Cal beat the Danish National Team 81-73, and our backup center Robert Thurman had a huge game going 21 points.

Robert Thurman never approached this type of scoring during our Pac12 conference schedule.

How strong is the Danish National Team compared to the teams that Aalborg Vikings play against?

Here is a link to the Cal story about that game:

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-bas...082011aaa.html

Cal played them again and beat them 95-78.
Robert Thurman scored 17 points
Our freshman forward David Kravish scored 14 points and seven rebounds. This was before David Kravish had played any D1 college basketball games.

So is the Danish National Team better, equal, or below the teams that Aalborg Vikings play against?

[calumnus]

Originally Posted by HoopDreams

Cal played the Danish National Team in the summer of 2011. Cal beat the Danish National Team 81-73, and our backup center Robert Thurman had a huge game going 21 points.

Robert Thurman never approached this type of scoring during our Pac12 conference schedule.

How strong is the Danish National Team compared to the teams that Aalborg Vikings play against?

Here is a link to the Cal story about that game:

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-bas...082011aaa.html

Cal played them again and beat them 95-78.
Robert Thurman scored 17 points
Our freshman forward David Kravish scored 14 points and seven rebounds. This was before David Kravish had played any D1 college basketball games.

So is the Danish National Team better, equal, or below the teams that Aalborg Vikings play against?

Sometime before the season began Thurman sustained a hip injury, right? He did score 16 at UW. Perhaps both Thurman and Eleraky have some upside?

[HoopDreams]

yes, what I understand is Thurman did not play in the non-conference schedule due to a hip injury that we found out after the fact. That's why I said "during the Pac12 conference".

I did think about adding that Thurman scored a lot of points vs USC in my post. I do agree that he 'approached' 21 points in that one game. Without Thurman, I think we would have lost that game.

However, what I am trying to do is provide some type of reference point to compare the Pac12 conference level of play, vs the level of play that Sami played against, and I thought that Thurman was the best one.

Originally Posted by calumnus

Sometime before the season began Thurman sustained a hip injury, right? He did score 16 at UW. Perhaps both Thurman and Eleraky have some upside?

[VikingsFan]

Originally Posted by HoopDreams

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-bas...082011aaa.html

So is the Danish National Team better, equal, or below the teams that Aalborg Vikings play against?

The national teams in Europe are divided in Group A, B and C. A contains teams like Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Lithuania and Germany and other countries who have NBA players and/or great basketball tradition. When Christian Drejer played Denmark also played in the A division (though we hardly ever won a game).
The last couple of years players haven't really been willing to play on the national team because you don't get paid so the team got moved down to the C-division which they won last year.
Our national team right now is pretty bad (compared to how good it could be if it actually had the best players on the team) and there are hardly any danish top-10 players on the team.

To answer your question more specifically I would say the Danish national Team is probably a little bit below the teams that Aalborg Vikings play against. As mentioned earlier the top Danish league is dominated by American players. In the top10 scoring list we find only one danish player and on the top rebounding list we also only find one Dane (the rest being americans).

[puget sound cal fan]

Another question, VikingFan, about Sami's recruitment. It's been reported that Elaraky's under-18-Danish-National-Coach initially had contact with Cal a couple of years ago, which preceeded Sami's recruitment. Do you know anything about that contact, and how it might have led to Cal recruiting Sami?

[HoopDreams]

This gives us some perspective. I think Sami can help us this year, and then develop and improve in future years. His length and athleticism will help immediately, and hopefully improvement in his skills will make him a big contributor soon.

Please visit anytime and we'll give you the inside scouting report on how he's doing.

Originally Posted by VikingsFan

The national teams in Europe are divided in Group A, B and C. A contains teams like Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Lithuania and Germany and other countries who have NBA players and/or great basketball tradition. When Christian Drejer played Denmark also played in the A division (though we hardly ever won a game).
The last couple of years players haven't really been willing to play on the national team because you don't get paid so the team got moved down to the C-division which they won last year.
Our national team right now is pretty bad (compared to how good it could be if it actually had the best players on the team) and there are hardly any danish top-10 players on the team.

To answer your question more specifically I would say the Danish national Team is probably a little bit below the teams that Aalborg Vikings play against. As mentioned earlier the top Danish league is dominated by American players. In the top10 scoring list we find only one danish player and on the top rebounding list we also only find one Dane (the rest being americans).

[VikingsFan]

Originally Posted by puget sound cal fan

Another question, VikingFan, about Sami's recruitment. It's been reported that Elaraky's under-18-Danish-National-Coach initially had contact with Cal a couple of years ago, which preceeded Sami's recruitment. Do you know anything about that contact, and how it might have led to Cal recruiting Sami?

I honestly don't know. But I know people in the club have been talking about Cal for a pretty long time (1,5 years) and I'm also quite sure Montgomery visited Denmark this year and made Sami an offer.

By the way Sami is 213 cm making him almost a legit 7 footer (6 feet 11 55⁄64 inches).

[south bender]

Originally Posted by VikingsFan

I honestly don't know. But I know people in the club have been talking about Cal for a pretty long time (1,5 years) and I'm also quite sure Montgomery visited Denmark this year and made Sami an offer.

By the way Sami is 213 cm making him almost a legit 7 footer (6 feet 11 55⁄64 inches).

Would you guess that Sami is still growing?

[bluesaxe]

I would love size, athleticism, rebounding and post defense. I would very much love that.

Thank you for the information. It was really helpful.