Mike Lenzly

Mike Lenzly
Player information
Full name	Michael Darnell Lenzly
Nickname	Mike
birthday	May 1, 1981 (39 years and 123 days)
place of birth	Oxford (OXF), UK
size	189 cm
position	Point Guard / Shooting Guard
college	Wofford
Clubs as active
1999–2003 Wofford Terriers ( NCAA ) 2003–2004 TBB Trier 2004–2005 BK Ventspils 2005–2006 Tenerife CB 2006–2007 APOEL Nicosia 2007–2008 Dexia Mons-Hainaut 2008–2009 Scafati Basket 2009–2012 ČEZ Nymburk 2013 see Oliver Baskets 000 0
National team
Since 02006	Great Britain

Michael Darnell Lenzly (born May 1, 1981 in Oxford , Oxfordshire , England ) is a British basketball player . After growing up and studying in the United States , Lenzly turned pro in Europe. He started his career at TBB Trier in the German basketball league , to which he returned in January 2013 wearing the s.Oliver Baskets jersey in Würzburg . In addition to championships and cup victories in the Czech Republic , Lenzly reached the final of the EuroChallenge 2008 with the Belgian club Dexia Mons-Hainaut at international club level . Lenzly participated in the 2012 Olympic Games in the British capital London with the British national team .

Career

Lenzly grew up in Jonesboro (Georgia) and in 1999 moved to study at Wofford College in Spartanburg , whose university teams play Terriers in the Southern Conference of NCAA Division I. The Terriers were only recently able to win championships in basketball in this conference, at the time of Lenzly they did not get any titles or qualifications for the national finals of the NCAA . Internally, Lenzly is one of the most important players in the history of the Terriers. In his senior year 2003, he led the team in four of five major categories: points (455), rebounds (146), assists (119) and steals (39). Lenzly is one of the twelve best terrier players of all time when it comes to assists and wins, as well as shot blocks . For his athletic achievements, Lenzly was inducted into the "Athletics Hall of Fame" ( German  sports hall of fame ) of the university in 2008.

Lenzly started his professional career in 2003 at TBB Trier in the German basketball league. In the 2003/04 BBL season , Lenzly had very solid personal statistics with more than 12 points, 3 assists and just under 4 rebounds on average per game, which he was able to increase slightly in the lost play-off quarter-final series against Telekom Baskets Bonn . For the following season Lenzly moved to Latvia to the basketball club from Ventspils , which in 2005 won its sixth national championship in a row. In the first season of the Baltic Basketball League they were the best non- Lithuanian team in fourth place . In the ULEB Cup 2004/05 , after winning the group in the preliminary round in the round of 16, they beat the German cup winner RheinEnergie Köln and reached the quarter-finals, the furthest advance a Latvian team had ever made in this competition.

For the 2005/06 season Lenzly got a contract with the Spanish first division relegated from Tenerife . However, the club could not place itself in the front field in the LEB . For the season 2006/07 Lenzly was active in Cyprus for APOEL in Nicosia . However, the club lost the play-off final series of the championship against AEL Limassol . Then Lenzly Dexia Mons-Hainaut joined, where the British national coach Chris Finch gathered some of his national players around him. In the FIBA EuroCup 2007/08 the team reached the final, which was lost to the Latvian team BK Barons Rīga by just under one point. In the following season 2008/09 Lenzly played for the Italian first division relegated from the Campanian Scafati . In the LegADue they finished ninth and failed in the promotion play-offs in the semi-finals.

For the 2009/10 season Lenzly moved to the Czech Republic to the series champion ČEZ Basketball from Nymburk . Also in the following seasons they won the national double three times in a row . In the Eurocup 2009/10 under coach Muli Katzurin they surprisingly reached the quarter-finals, where they were only slightly inferior to Bizkaia Bilbao Basket with three points in addition to the return leg. Nymburk could not repeat this hussar piece in the following Eurocup when they remained without a win after winning the group in the preliminary round in the intermediate round of the 16 best teams. In the Eurocup 2011/12, on the other hand, they moved into the knockout games in the quarterfinals, but remained there against the Russian team from BK Spartak Saint Petersburg without a chance.

Like his teammate on the national team Pops Mensah-Bonsu , Lenzly suffered an injury at the 2012 Olympic Games and was initially without a contract in the 2012/13 season. It wasn't until January 2013 that Lenzly got a new engagement with the German first division club s.Oliver Baskets from Würzburg , which had already been eliminated in the 2012/13 Eurocup . After the season, his contract was not renewed.

National team

After the 2012 Olympic Games were awarded, the previously separate national teams of England , Scotland and Wales were merged into a joint British national team under the leadership of Chris Finch in order to have a competitive team for the Games. This national team also took part in the following international competitions of FIBA Europe . Lenzly, who grew up in the States, was also recruited for this national team. First they successfully qualified for Division A of the best European national teams and then qualified for the European Championship finals in 2009 , where they did not win in three games in the preliminary round in Poland. At the following European Championship finals in 2011 in Poland's neighboring country Lithuania also lost the first three preliminary round matches in the increased field of participants. The victories in the two final preliminary round games were no longer sufficient to qualify for the intermediate round.

As the host of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the British team automatically qualified. Lenzly injured himself in the game against Brazil and only had six minutes of play time. The British team only won the final and meaningless group game against China and was eliminated again in the preliminary round of a final tournament.

Web links

• easyCredit BBL - Mike Lenzly - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website
• Lenzly, Mike - Player profile on the website of the ULEB (English)
• Great Britain Basketball - The Players: Mike Lenzly - player profile on the website of the British Association
• Players - Mike Lenzly (ENG). archive.fiba.com - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• Mike Lenzly Stats - Wofford Terriers - College season stats on statsheet.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wofford 2012–13 Men's Basketball Media Guide. Wofford College , November 6, 2012, pp. 78–80 , accessed February 1, 2013 (English, online version, also as a PDF file). 
2. ^ Wofford College Athletics - Hall of Fame: Mike Lenzly / Class of 2003. Wofford College , accessed February 1, 2013 (English). 
3. ↑ Competiciones FEB: LENZLY, MICHAEL DARNELL. Federación Española de Baloncesto , accessed February 1, 2013 (Spanish, player statistics). 
4. ↑ Barons Edge Dexia In Thriller To Win EuroCup Title. FIBA Europa , April 20, 2008, accessed February 1, 2013 . 
5. ↑ Legadue Basket: Michael Lenzly. LegADue , accessed February 1, 2013 (Italian, player profile and statistics). 
6. ↑ Mike Lenzly and Osiris Eldridge stay, Courtney Pigram leaves. (No longer available online.) Basketball Bundesliga , February 1, 2013, formerly in the original ; Retrieved on February 1, 2013 (for media information, see Oliver Baskets).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
7. ↑ London 2012: GB basketball side wait on Mike Lenzly injury news. The Guardian , August 1, 2012, accessed February 1, 2013 .