PAOK 1997-1998 (ESA)

PAOK 1997-1998

NOTE
This page and its links will be fully updated during the summer of 1998.
Sorry for the delay.

For more detailed information missing from this file, try the provided links to
to the appropriate files (Player Stats, Team Stats, Scoreboard).

SUMMARY
European League: Eliminated in round of 16 by Alba Berlin (10-9 record).
Greek Cup: Eliminated in 1st round by Iraklis (0-1 record).
Regular Season: 3rd (behind PAO, OSFP) (20-6 record).
Play-offs: Lost in the finals to PAO (6-4 record).
Next season: Will play in the EuroLeague in Group D.

ROSTER
Click here for more detailed player stats.

EL = European League
GC = Greek Cup
RS = Regular Season
PO = Play-offs

"Games" are considered all games in which a player was among the 10 available
to play, even if he did not play by coach decision. Decimals in games signify
overtimes. So PPG are actually points scored per 40 minutes of play. A "-"
signifies that the player was not among the 10 in any game. A "+" signifies
that he was among the 10 in some games but he never played.

EL GC RS PO TOT GAM PPG %TOT HIGH

PAOK 000 52 0000 000 0000 00.000 00.00 100.00 00
Opponents 000 61 0000 000 0000 00.000 00.00 00

Addison 50 6 62 - 118 13.000 9.08 - 17
Baloyannis - 5 - - - - - - -
Boudouris - 8 - - - - - - -
Kakiousis - 7 - - - - - - -
Maslarinos - - - - - - - - -
McRae - 13 - - - - - - -
Morales - 0 - - - - - - -
Nikolaithis - 0 - - - - - - -
Peral - + - - - - - - -
Pierri - - - - - - - - -
Rowan - 14 - - - - - - -
Shackleford
Stojakovic - - - - - - - - -
Thespos - - - - - - - - -
Yannoulis - 0 - - - - - - -

PAOK 000 52 0000 000 0000 00.000 00.00 100.00 000
Opponents 000 61 0000 000 0000 00.000 00.00 00

?/ ?/97 Tsekos is released having scored 150 points in 5 years with PAOK.
15/ 6/97 Rentzias signs with Barcelona after 4 years with PAOK.
18/ 6/97 Giorgos Maslarinos signs with PAOK.
25/ 6/97 Ron Rowan and Ricki Peral sign with PAOK.
16/ 7/97 Conrad McRae signs with PAOK.
20/ 7/97 Lefteris Kakiousis signs with PAOK.
20/ 7/97 Mamatziolas signs with Iraklis after 8 years with PAOK.
25/ 7/97 Juan Antonio Morales and Federico Pierri sign with PAOK.
14/ 8/97 Rafael Addison signs with PAOK.
16/ 9/97 Giorgos Baloyannis signs a 3-year contract extension.
17/11/97 Addison is released.

Charles Shackleford

4/12/97 Charles Shackleford signs with PAOK.

CAPTAIN
Nikos Boudouris in his 9th year with PAOK.

COACH
After Scott Skiles decides to become an assistant coach in the NBA, Alexopoulos

Scott Skiles

comes into agreement on 10/ 6/97 with Maccabi Tel-Aviv's coach Svi Sherf. On
12/ 6/97 it is announced that Skiles will join the Phoenix Suns, and on
13/ 6/97 Sherf's agreement with PAOK is announced. On 20/ 6/97 Sherf has his

Svi Sherf

first press-conference with the Greek media.

PRESIDENT
Lakis Alexopoulos in his 3rd year has maintained full control of the team

Svi Sherf and Lakis Alexopoulos

despite continuing opposition from ex-president Lakis Ikonomithis.

TEAM STATS
Click here for team stats.

GAME RESULTS
Click here for more details.

Home Away

European League

18/ 9 Porto 88- 71
25/ 9 Croacia Split 76- 74
1/10 Estudiantes Madrid 72- 76
9/10 Benetton Treviso 65- 62
22/10 PTT Ancara 66- 73
6/11 Porto 84- 50
12/11 Croacia Split 89- 60
19/11 Estudiantes Madrid 60- 78
11/12 Benetton Treviso 57- 65
17/12 PTT Ancara
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greek Cup

9/ 9 Iraklis 52- 61

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Regular Season

27/ 9 Sporting 94- 49
4/10 Iraklis 74- 65
11/10 Apollon 88- 78
19/10 AEK 71- 83
26/10 Aris 63- 69
29/10 Thafni 74- 62
1/11 Panionios 91- 61
8/11 Larisa 68- 55
15/11 Papagou 87- 57
7/12 OSFP 51- 57
14/12 PAO 76- 65
20/12 Iraklio
27/12 Peristeri
3/ 1 Sporting
10/ 1 Iraklis
17/ 1 Apollon
24/ 1 AEK
28/ 1 Aris
7/ 2 Thafni
14/ 2 Panionios
21/ 2 Larisa
7/ 3 Papagou
14/ 3 OSFP
21/ 3 PAO
28/ 3 Iraklio
4/ 4 Peristeri
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Play-offs

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BOXSCORES & GAME PROFILES
Click here for boxscores and game profiles.

GAMES & OTHER IMPORTANT EVENTS

8/ 8/97 In the firts pre-season game, PAOK loses 59-70 to a team of
American players in Italy.

11/ 8/97 PAOK loses to Tuborg 72-74.

13/ 8/97 PAOK beats Ulker 80-62.

15/ 8/97 PAOK beats Cobassan 62-61 with a 2+1 by Boudouris at the end.

16/ 8/97 PAOK beats Stefanel Milano 77-62.

18/ 8/97 PAOK beats Tofas Bursa 75-61.

19/ 8/97 In our last game in Italy, we lose to Galata Saray 71-80.

22/ 8/97 Open practice session for PAOK fans.

27/ 8/97 We lose 77-83 to Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Sherf's ex-team. Aris loses
also for the same tournament and so the tewo teams will face
each-other in a pre-season game, probably for the first time
since 1985.

28/ 8/97 PAOK beats Aris 80-71 and finishes 3rd in the tournament.

29/ 8/97 PAOK loses to Hapoel Galil Elion 79-82.

30/ 8/97 PAOK beats PTT Ancara 77-73.

31/ 8/97 PAOK loses to Hapoel Eilat 68-82.

1/ 9/97 With a few minutes to go and PAOK leading 68-67 against Hapoel
Eilat, Svi Sherf orders the team to leave the court and forfeit
the game in protest to bad officiating. Probably he was too
upset with PAOK players' defensive let-down in the Israel
tourney, in contrast to the good deffensive performance of the
team in the earlier games in Italy.

3/ 9/97 PAOK suffers the worst pre-season defeat in the hands of CSKA
Moscow, losing 75-93.

4/ 9/97 PAOK loses 70-73 to Cibona Zagreb and finishes last in the
tournament for the xyz years since the establishment of Moscow.
PAOK finishes the pre-season with a 6-8 record (counting the
game that we quit as a loss). The team did not perform well
after they came back from Italy. McRae's injury at the hand
may have contributed to that. Stojakovic' absence though is
evident. In the meantime Rowan has been the good surprise as
he was consistently the team's top scorer.

9/ 9/97 After a very disappointing performance, PAOK loses to Iraklis
52-61 on the road and is eliminated from the Greek Cup
(Rowan 14, McRae 13). PAOK was behind in the score throughout

Rafael Addison

the game, and never came closer than 4 points in the 2nd half.
Iraklis will soon meet the same fatein the hands of OSFP, also
on the road, as the home-court advantage proves a decisive
unfair factor.

18/ 9/97 PAOK cruises to an easy 88-71 win in Porto against the local
team (Rowan 22, McRae 15, Addison 13, Morales 11). In the
other two games in our group: Estudiantes-Benetton Treviso
58-73 and Croacia Split-PTT Ancara 72-56 (17/9).

20/ 9/97 President Alexopoulos announces that Stojakovic will return to
action sooner than expected.

25/ 9/97 HE IS BAAAAAACK!
Predrag Stojakovic returns to official game action 203 days

Predrag Stojakovic in an older game

after he broke his leg in the 92-94 loss to Peristeri with a
stunning under the circumstances 23 point performance and leads
PAOK to a very important 76-74 win against Croacia in Split
(Stojakovic 23, Rowan 15, Addison 9, Mc Rae 8). In the other
two games in our group: Benetton Treviso-Porto 76-67 and PTT
Ancara-Estudiantes 80-88 (24/9).

27/ 9/97 PAOK puts in display a very good performance and beats Sporting
94-49 (Stojakovic 21, Baloyannis 15, Rowan 14). In one game
PAOK matches the point differential that we achieved in the 26
regular season games in the previous season. Of course the
strength of our opponent has not been established yet to draw
a better conclusion but, apparently, the team has become

Predrag Stojakovic

stronger with Stojakovic' return.

1/10/97 Many things had to go wrong for PAOK to lose, not unexpectedly
though to Estudiantes in our home. But it was not the players
as much as our fans that had a disappointing "performance".
Despite the 45 win a few days ago and the two wins on the road
in the EuroLeague, just 1,500 fans showed up, while more than
10 times as many were celebrating last night on the streets the
soccer's team advancing to the next UEFA Cup round. Stojakovic
and Rowan were not in their best day, Boudouris got injured in
the fiorst half, leaving Kakiousis, who already had 3 fouls, as

Lefteris Kakiousis

the only available play-maker and PAOK's Achilles heel, the
poor performance of the fornt court, both offensively and
defensively, hurt the team. Especially the multitude of
offensive rebounds by Estudiantes, and especially their
American player, Wisby, helped the Spaniards to overcome their
bad shooting and post a 72-76 win (Stojakovic 21, Rowan 14,
McRay 11). PAOK was leading throughout the first half and into
the first minutes of the second half, but never regained the
lead after Estudiantes opened a 51-58 lead. PAOK tied the game
at 59, then Estudiantes went ahead 61-72, and PAOK cut the lead
again to 72-74, but only with 7 seconds remaining. Azofra sank
both freethrows and the game was history. It is evident that
PAOK needs urgently a better performance by Yannoulis, who is a
shadow of the player that was scoring consistently 12 to 14
points per game last year. In the otehr games for our group,
Benetton Treviso-PTT Ancara 71-66, a surprisingly low
differential, and Porto-Croacia Split 79-83.

4/10/97 PAOK players took care not to let Iraklis repeat their early
season win for the Greek Cup, and beat Iraklis on the road
74-65 (Stojakovic 26, Addison 17, McRay 15). This time

Predrag Stojakovic

Rafael Addison (#14) and Conrad McRae (#13)

PAOK players controlled the boards, and despite the 34 poinst
by Tompson, manages to win the game at the end, partly due to
the good defense that Pierri, Boudouris' replacement, played on
him. The absence of our fans was still evident though, yet
from another very important game.

9/10/97 In a must-win situation, PAOK played with no substitutions in
the second half and pulled off a difficult 65-62 win against
the Italian champion Benetton Treviso (Stojakovic 20, McRae 18,

Conrad McRae (#13) and Rafael Addison (#14)

The 2 Americans celebrating

Addison 10). Addison had a very important offensive rebound
in the closing seconds, and Boudouris, back from his injury,
sank crucial free-throws at the end. On the other hand, this
was the first game that Rowan did not have a significant
offensive contribution, as a result of early foul problems and
the better job that Baloyannis did on the defensive end against
Williams. In the otehr games for our group, Porto-PTT Ancara
61-76 and Estudiantes-Croacia Split 77-73.

11/10 PAOK takes advantage of a double technical foul in mid-second
half to open a close game and finally beat Apollon 88-78

Nikos Boudouris

(Rowan 26, Stojakovic 24). McRae gets injured, an event that
will play a significant role in the next several games.

19/10 Prelevic scores 20 points, Stojakovic is kept to less than 20
points for the first time this season, McRae scores again just
4 points, PAOK's defense allows AEK to achieve exceptional
shooting percentages and thus PAOK loses 71-83 despite
the absence of Coldebella and Stransburry and the good
performances by Rowan and Addison (Rowan 19, Stojakovic 18,
Addison 17). Given the bad condition of AEK's team, this loss
can not be considered an expected and harmless one.

22/10 PAOK has a comfortable lead mid through the second half, but
then Stojakovic got tired, as Sherf has him playing for 40
minutes in all close games, and despite his only recently
returning from a 6-month absence. He stopped scoring, and the
player he was guardin made 3 consecutive 3-pointers that led to
PAOK's losing the game to PTT Ancara by 7 points, 66-73
(Stojakovic 24, Addison 13, Rowan 11). This may very well be a
devastating loss for our hopes to advance and possibly gain the
home-court advantage in the round of 16. The game was played
in fron of a fanatic Turkish crowd that kept throwing coins and
other stuff into the court, injuring 3 members of PAOK's team,
including our captain, Boudouris. In the other games for our
group, Porto-Estudiantes 69-92, Croacia Split-Benetton Treviso
72-77.

25/10 PAOK suffers a 3rd consecutive loss, this time to Aris in the
local derby, by the score of 63-69 (Stojakovic 28, Yannoulis
11, Baloyannis 8, Boudouris 8). McRae scored only 3 points,
Addison 4, and Rowan 1. Aris was ahead throughout the game,
but Stojakovic' heroics closed the lead to just 3 points with a
couple of minuites left in the game but Yannoulis came up short
in several consecutive tries. President Alexopoulos was booed
by PAOK fans and left the carena with several minutes to go,
while Aris was enjoying a comfortable lead and the game seemed
lost.

29/10 PAOK is trailing 29-31 at halftime, and with McRae absent and
Yannoulis with 4 fouls is in danger of dropping yet another game

Yannis Yannoulis and Rafael Addison

as the score is tied later at 51. But Stojakovic is there, the
deffense toughens up, and PAOK beats Dafni 74-62 (Stojakovic 23,
Boudouris 16, Yannoulis 11, Rowan 9, Morales 8).

1/11 At the beginning of the second half PAOK is up 49-45, but we end
up beating Panionios 91-61 (Stojakovic 23, Rowan 21, Yannoulis
13). Our team shows that we can play very well in some easy
games but still have not exhibited the character of a good team
in tough and close games.

6/11 This time PAOK takes care of things in teh first half, leading
Porto by the ridiculous for a Euroleague game score 53-14! In
the second half Sherf uses the bench that does not perform up to
par and we win the game with the meager 84-50 (Stojakovic 23,

Yannis Yannoulis

Yannoulis 20, Rowan 14, Baloyannis 11). Or, perhaps, we wanted
to give an incentive to the inexperienced Portuguese team to
play hard against the other teams in the near future. Addison
sits out the game nursing an injury, while Maslarinos does not
grab the chance to play as he has the flue. However McRae
returns after his two-game absence with a non-impressive
performance. In the other games for our group,
Benetton-Estudiantes 98-58, PTT Ancara-Croacia Split 78-69.

8/11 Larisa puts up a good fight in their home, but Stojakovic takes
care of things in the second half and PAOK cruises to a 68-55
road win against one of the weakest teams in the Greek league

Yannis Yannoulis and Giorgos Baloyannis

Predrag Stojakovic and Ron Rowan

(Stojakovic 25, McRae 18, Baloyannis 11). Addison is absent
again, but McRae shows signs that his injury does not bother him
any more, as, besides scoring 18 points, he grabs 16 rebounds.

12/11 PAOK makes an easy meal of Croacia Split taht played without
their key player, Alanovic. After leading 43-25 at halftime,
PAOK cruised to an easy 89-60 win (Stojakovic 19, Baloyannis 17,

Yannis Yannoulis and Conrad McRae

McRae 16). Addison did not play again, but McRae was impressive
on the boards, and Baloyannis shot 100% both from the field and
from the line for his 17 points. Maslarinos played for the
first time and scored his first points for PAOK. In an other
games for our group, Porto-Benetton 84-91,
Estudiantes-PTT Ancara 71-73. The unexpected win by PTT in
Madrid gives extra weight to the upcoming game between
Estudiantes and PAOK in Madrid. With a win, Estudiantes all but
clinches the 2nd place in the group, while with a loss they are
out of the top-3. PAOK is also in danger of not making the
top-3 with a loss to Estudiantes.

15/11 PAOK continues our winning streak, but against weak opponents,
by beating papagou 85-57 (Stojakovic 25, Boudouris 13, Rowan
13, Yannoulis 11, Morales 9).

17/11 After having missed 4 games due to injury, Rafael Addison is
released. With Stojakovic playing very well at the 3 spot and
McRae not performing up to par against centers, Sherf needed a
player at the center, or, alternatively, at the point position,
where Boudouris has been playing very well but, as usual, has
not been making consistent contributions on offense. Addison,
not having performed particularly well until now, has been the
expendable player in the effort to make the team work better.
Rumors have Charles Shackleford coming to Thessaloniki to
undergo medical evaluation. Shackleford suffered arthritis on
his knee the previous season, while being the best rebounder in
the Greek League palying for Aris. He underwent surgery in May
1997, joined the Washington Wizzards training camp in October,
but he was cut before a week went by, which is an indication
that his knee problem is not yet behind him.

19/11 Depite getting an eary 12-2 lead PAOK puts on a horrible
performance and is humiliated by Estudiantes which led with as
many as 27 pointe in the second half, and finally beat us in
Madrid 60-78 (Rowan 18, Stojakovic 18, McRae 10). On top of

Yannis Yannoulis and Conrad McRae

losing such an important game, PAOK loses also McRae with an
apparanetly serious injury on his knee, but no official word
came out about that in the next couple of days. PAOK's cause to
finish in the top-3 of our group was assited by Benetton's win
in Ancara against PTT by the score of 67-84. Now PAOK needs
only to win PTT in Thessaloniki to finish in the top-3. But if
Mcrae's injury proves serious, even that will be difficult. In
the other game for our group, Croacia Split-Porto 88-82.

22/11 Predrag Stojakovic is named MVP of the Greek All-Star game for
the 2nd year in a row. He scored 30 points, grabbed 5 rebounds

Predrag Stojakovic

and dished 4 assists as the European team beat the Rest of the
World team (as the Egyptian Guda does not qualify as an
American :-) ) 127-108. Yannoulisscored 3 points for the
European team, while McCrae did not play, as expected after his
injury in Madrid. Stojakovic finished 3rd in the 3-point
shooting contest.

4/12 Charles Shackleford signs with PAOK after our medical team
examines him and finds that the surgery he had on his knee to
relieve arthritis problems he incurred last year while playing
for Aris are not a threat for his game.

7/12 PAOK plays OSFP without Shackleford in SEF, and we are way
behind in the 2nd half, when Stojakovic, guarded well until then
my Karnishovas, catches fire and leads PAOK to a 14-0 run.
McRae controls athe boards, and with less than 40'' left in the

Conrad McRae and Ricardo Peral

game we are down 51-54 and we have the ball, but Peral goes for
2 points instead of 3 and misses. We end up losing the game
51-57, finishing the game in a good note, despite the
crucial loss (Stojakovic 22, Rowan 8).

11/12 In a game with many similarities with the loss to OSFP, PAOK
loses to Benetton in Treviso 57-65 (Rowan 19, Stojakovic 18).
Again a late run led my Stojakovic closed Benetton's lead to
54-59 but it was too little too late for PAOK.

14/12 In a must win situation PAOK scores in the twenties in the first
half for the 4th consecutive game, trailing 25-28 to PAO in
Thessaloniki. However an amazing second half brings the team

Charles Shackleford and Giorgos Baloyannis

up 71-50, before PAO trimmed the difference with a 0-11 run for
the final score of 76-65 (Stojakovic 25, Shackleford 14,
Boudouris 12, Rowan 10).

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Author
Stathis Avgoustiniatos / eavgoust@mit.edu / July 1998