Eurobasket: New Seattle Storm Signing Ewelina Kobryn & The Americans in the Competition

It’s all happening in Poland, as Eurobasket is played.

The competition has started off with surprises, with all the teams giving their best to reach the London 2012 Olympics. One team that won’t be there is the big favorite, Spain. After losing to Croatia in the last game of the second phase, the Spanish side (where Sancho Lyttle has left a lot to be desired…) is living one of the worst basketball moments of  these last years.  But we’ll analyze that in another article.

For now, all the American attention has turned to Ewelina Kobryn, after the Seattle Storm signed her to help out after  the loss of center Lauren Jackson, reportedly out 12 weeks due to injury. Seattle had already shown interest in Kobryn during the preseason, but, as she told to the Polish website pracuj.pl, "they wouldn’t let me play Eurobasket and I couldn’t accept that".

As things turned out, Kobryn was able to play Eurobasket in her own country and will have now a place on the roster of the defending WNBA champions.

A 6’3’’ center, Kobryn was the mainstay of the Polish game in Eurobasket. She led the team in points (14.7 ppg) and rebounds (7.7 rpg), while recording the team's most minutes on court. One of her most prominent assets is her physical power, and her ability to use her body to have an impact on her adversaries. She is a strong defender and could impose an insurmountable front in the paint.

Kobryn has some difficulties attacking the basket, as she lacks the pace and mobility to be a major player in WNBA. However she is effective under the basket, where she gets nearly all her points, as she almost never gets to the line. When she did manage get to the line at Eurobasket, she was 21-of-23 in her attempts. Her effectiveness when fouled could give her another opportunity to add points and prompt the opposition to attempt to avoid giving Kobryn free throw tries.

Born in America

Seven players representing six countries were born in the United States. We check their stats:
PG Laine Selwyn (Israel) – 24 mpg, 3.3 ppg, 1.3 apg, 4 rpg 
SG  Anna De Forge (Montenegro) – 37 mpg, 12.2 ppg, 3.2 apg, 5 rpg
PF Erin Lawless (Slovakia) – 27 mpg, 11.3 ppg, 1 apg, 4 rpg
PF  Kim Butler (Great Britain) – 26 mpg, 9.3 ppg, 1.2 apg, 6.3 rpg
C Nevin Nevlin (Turkey) – 19 mpg, 7.7 ppg, 0.8 apg, 4 rpg
Lisa Karcic (Croatia) and Jennifer Fleischer (Israel) had little minutes in their teams rotations.

http://www.swishappeal.com/2011/6/29/2250675/eurobasket-kobryn-new-seatle-storm-signing-and-the-americans-in-the