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DJ's Back – Joins Ramla
Safsal
,08/09/2009 |
Elizur Ramla injected some life into our quiet offseason with three new signings. The biggest: Deanna Jackson is back and will probably play along side Ina Gourevitch. Noelle Quinn is another great pickup, joining an unknown Romanian guard.
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Elizur Ramla, the 07/08 champion and cup holder, went title-less last season. Today they showed intentions of making sure 09/10 is a different story. Deanna Jackson will make her comeback following an ACL in early 2008, in Ramla colors, after the too-famous Ina Gourevitch punch incident. Ramla also signed LA's Noelle Quinn, who received her Bulgarian passport last year. The other bosman is Romanian Ancuta Stoenescu, as Ramla followed last year's move of signing an unknown Romanian guard. On the Israeli front, Limor Peleg joined Noa Ricanatti's team, Gourevitch and Ortal Oren are expected to resign with the team.
The big and familiar name is of course Deanna Jackson, one of the best players we've had here in recent years, who's back for her 4th season in Israel. Jackson hasn't played since tearing her ACL in February 2008 while with Ramat Hasharon, ending their championship hopes and her terrific season with 21.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. Jackson, who played five WNBA seasons till 2006, has not played in the league since Chicago suspended her for the 2007 season following an incident in which she punched Gourevitch after the 2007 championship game. The complete lack of proportion of that suspension beacme even clearer recently, as accoring to the WNBA speeding under the influence and endangering people's lives is only worth a 2-game slap on the wrist.
Jackson first arrived in Israel midway through the 05/06 season to Ramat Hen, and led them from a miserable start all the way to the finals, averaging 20.3 points and 7.3 boards per game. The following year she joined Ramat Hasharon and averaged a double-double of 19.8 & 10.0.
On the Bosman front, Ramla will enjoy Noelle Quinn's recent Bulgarianism (yes, not a word). Quinn (24, 6'1) is a scorer from UCLA, where she played with Ortal Oren. Quinn finished her Bruin career averaging 17.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, becoming the 4th pick of the 2007 WNBA draft. Quinn played two quiet seasons in Minnesota, where she also spent time at the point, something she'll probably have to do in Ramla. This summer Quinn went home to LA and joined the Sparks. She's averaging a career best 7.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Recently she's had a chance to play significant minutes and she led the Sparks with 23 points in the win over Seattle.
Quinn is known as a great scorer, she has a good shot and is very aggressive. She finished her UCLA career in the all time top 10 in points, rebounds and assists. She spent most of last winter with Vilna, Lithuania's Euroleague team, averaging 8.8 points (45.5% 3s) and 3.7 points per game. In her only campaign with the Bulgarian national team Quinn impressed with 18.3 points and 3.5 steals per game, which did not help Bulgaria make the European Championships.
Lastly, Ancuta Stoenescu (27, 5'6) from Romania plays the two guard position. She spent last season with Imperial in Cyprus and averaged 7.4 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in the Eurocup. Israel will be the first stop of her career outside of Romania, Greece and Cyprus.
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