[by Kris Santiago] - The national leagues in Europe started a few weeks ago and the continental competitions (Euroleague, ULEB-Cup and Fiba Euro Cup) finished the first game-day or are just around the corner, that's why we be taking a quick look at the African stars on the old continent.

A bunch of players with NBA experience are currently providing their respective teams with fire-power or blessing them with their rebounding skills as well representing African hoops in Europe.

Among them is former-Raptor Pape Sow who recovered from a tough neck-injury last year and is currently recording double-doubles in almost every game as the go-to-guy for Rieti in Italy.

The Senegalese national-player should be following in Boniface N'dong foot steps, who made a name for himself by playing in the NBA and now having a career in the second best league of the world, the ACB in Spain.

Boniface, who I remember from his days when he was playing in a streetball tournament in Frankfurt with some of his team-mates of German minor league-team Breitenguessbach or when he was hanging out at Olumide Oyedeji's apartment in Wuerzburg, is now in Spain, playing for Unicaja Malaga in the Euroleague.

The once skinny forward bulked up in the recent years and is now a center. He overcame injuries after playing in Russia and in the NBA for the Clippers and is now back to full shape after skipping the African Championships in Angola.

By far one of the friendliest and smartest ballers that I have met, he is now scoring around seven points per game in twenty minutes playing time for the Andalucians who are currently struggling in the strong ACB.

I am hoping for him, that he can help to turn things around for Malaga.

Even if it's hard to predict where teams are going to be in a few weeks with all the transactions currently being made by the teams after the recent developments on the market thanks to the last cuts of players in the NBA.

Another Euroleague-contender got two of its main weapons in Ben "Helicopter" Eze from Nigeria (holds also an Italian passport) and Romain Sato from the Central African Republic. Sato, who is a former-Spur, is collecting more minutes on the court and is averaging currently 11 points a game for the undefeated club from Southern Tuscany.

Eze who gets a bit less playing time then Sato this year, is scoring about seven points a game in the "Lega" but both are the cornerstones of the
champions from last season.

Ansu Sesay and Pops Mensah-Bonsu are also in Italy and both have a NBA-past but their teams are currently on the bottom of the league although both players looking good on the stat sheets.

Sesay, whose parents are from Sierra Leone, moved to Milan from Naples to play in the Euroleague and is contributing by scoring ten points per game.

Armani Jeans lost all but one game, fired the head coach and needs already to win in the next games to climb up the ladder in the standings.

Treviso is having similar problems and are ranked 16th, just one place above Milan. Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who opted to play for Great Britain, is originally from Ghana. His older brother Kojo was also a pro-baller but Pops made it all the way to the NBA last year as an undrafted rookie to play for the Mavericks.

He moved to Benetton although Dallas liked him, but had to make a tough decision and didn't re-sign the forward to another contract.

Now in Treviso, the young gun is averaging 14 points and 9 rebounds a game but the Venetians, who are competing in this year's ULEB-Cup had a bad start into the season so far.

Knowing that the ULEB-Cup is the continent's second strongest competition , Treviso needs to get back on track, the coaching change (well-respected head coach David Blatt left for Turkey after winning the 2005-2006 championship with Benetton) may have something to do with the recent problems in north-eastern Italy.

Speaking of the ULEB-Cup, we will be enjoying the likes of Sitapha Savane (Senegal & Gran Canaria), Victor Samnick (Cameroon & Nancy), Mamadou N'diaye (Senegal & Panellinios), Thomas Kelati (Eritrea & Turow) and shot-blocker Deng Gai (Sudan & Wroclaw).

All the mentioned above are key-players with their respective teams and should be appearing in most of the games, so there are plenty of African players to follow this year.

Top scoring guys in some of the European countries include forward Stephane Pelle, who had a stellar college basketball-career in the States and is now netting more then 19 points per game for Liege in Belgium while Michael Umeh, who was this summer with the Nigerian national-team and signed for Giessen, is in the top ten in scoring in Germany's BBL and in France, Wenbos Mukubu from the Democratic Republic of Congo is probably leading Le Havre into the Pro A play-offs by pouring in 16 points on average for the city in the Normandy.

And this are only a few players that I mentioned, that are currently successful in the premier basketball leagues in Europe, there are much more out there who fill in perfectly in their roles on their respective team.

This should give young African kids another motivation to continue playing basketball although often the infrastructure to play the sport is missing and much needed help of capable coaching is not available due to the lack of money and adequate organization within most countries.

From what I heard, FIBA is currently helping out local federations and coaches by sending basketballs, but it’s still a rocky way for most young men in Africa to keep up playing with so many elementary problems in their lives hampering them from picking up the orange ball.

With so many role models who are now appearing even on TV more often thanks to the rising status of basketball in Europe, Africans may not only focus on a football career but also in a career in the sports we love so much.

And besides Europe, college basketball in the United States is a hot-bed for talents from Africa, where education gives them a chance to educate themselves and a future career in many fields.

So in my next blog I will be taking a look on the upcoming season in the NCAA as well. We need to talk about Luc Richard Mbah A Moute and UCLA and we also be introducing some of the lesser known but equally talented players in the massive and sometimes inscrutable collegiate system in America.

I wish you guys lot's of excitement in this year's European basketball season, keep loving the orange.