NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide) - The new EuroLeague and EuroCup Women seasons got underway last week and here are few things that caught my eye from Week 1.

Thumbs up for Ogunbowale at Orman Genclik

Having written a list of both EuroLeague and EuroCup Women debutantes before the season started, I actually though that the first outing of Arike Ogunbowale went a little under the radar. If you recall, the Dallas Wings player missed out on the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award, with many having tipped her to take it. Well, if you can shoot the ball in relatively ordinary fashion for Orman Genclik in your first EuroCup Women outing and score 28 points - imagine  what will happen when she is firing on all cylinders. That is a tough team right there and Arike continued her positive impact last weekend in the Turkish League too!

The class and longevity of Kartaltepe 

As hugely talented as she is, if Ogunbowale wants to learn from a quality act at Orman Genclik, then she can do so from Turkish and veteran European performer Nilay Kartaltepe. A super playmaker who has never truly got the deserved attention for her skills and amazing longevity, the 40-year-old caught my attention for two reasons. I was looking at what the record was for assists in a EuroCup Women game last week because Brianna Kiesel was already into double-digits in rather quick time. It was at that point a colleague pointed out that Kartaltepe has handed out 17 assists way back in 2005. Considering this was before changes to how assists were recorded, that was astonishing. Then, to bring it back to the current day, Kartaltepe handed out 13 assists for Orman as Ogumbowale scored those 28 points. Hats off to Nilay!

Good signs for Fenerbahce

Continuing the Turkish theme a little further, but switching to EuroLeague Women, I am sure you all saw that Alina Iagupova and Cecilia Zandalasini made the Team of the Week after they inspired their team to victory against Girona. However, rather than looking at their points tally, my first glance was at how many times they had both shot the ball. If you read the Power Rankings, you will be aware it was posed as a puzzle for new Fener head coach Victor Lapena to solve. On the (limited) evidence of last week's first game, the signs are good that maybe these two top level players can share the team's shots better than I had feared. 8 shots and 12 shots respectively was a good balance even when both players are shooting well.

Sopron post best club performance of the week

Since I am no longer doing my previous weekly wrap of EuroLeague Women as in previous seasons and because the focus these days is often on player production (via things like the Top Performer and Team of the Week) I must take this chance to applaud Sopron. I thought their win at BLMA was the most impressive performance by any club in EuroLeague Women last week as they won comfortably at BLMA. I had feared for them ahead of the tip-off having lost Yvonne Turner, Amanda Zahui and play-caller Roberto Iniguez but props to David Gaspar and his team. Having Jelena Brooks back from maternity leave was probably one of the biggest signings of the summer (and I should have had it on my previous list - my bad). With Sopron something like 5-0 in the Hungarian League and with that sold start in EuroLeague Women, maybe I had worried too much. Of course we will know a lot more after this next home game against Fenerbahce.

Did complacency creep in for UMMC?

I have to admit that I was surprised at the way UMMC performed in the second-half against Castors Braine. They were coasting after a strong first-half but then seemed to allow Castors Braine back into things. I think I am being harsh on both clubs. Maybe expecting UMMC to always push hard on the gas might be unrealistic. Plus, perhaps the credit is all due to Castors Braine showing a lot of heart and resilience with the way they came out for the second-half. But if I have to make an honest judgement, I have to ask whether UMMC became complacent? I have huge respect for Coach Miguel Mendez. So, I am sure if it was the case, he will be all over it. That's because EuroLeague Women is brutal and it doesn't matter how much talent you have, you have to be mentally strong at all times - even as the champions.

Paul Nilsen

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