Nanterre will be the only French team on the Eurocup bridge this week. While Boulogne-Levallois, Monaco and Bourg-en-Bresse are at rest due to positive cases of the virus in the ranks of their opponents, the Hauts-de-Seine club, 5th in its pool, receives the Spaniards from Gran Canaria (2nd), with French international Andrew Albicy, on Matchday 7.
Return of the confined, Donnadieu still absent
Last week, Nanterre had to go to Ljubljana (75-63 defeat) with a staff cut of 5 professional players who tested positive for Covid-19. For the arrival of the Spaniards, the Ile-de-France residents will find a face more in line with that constructed in the off-season with the return of the “confined”. But if the team is full, the staff on the other hand will still be significantly overhauled.
Absent in Slovenia, Philippe Da Silva, assistant, returns to business and will even be propelled as the main coach for the duration of the match. Coach Pascal Donnadieu, who suffers from lung problems, is indeed still positive and must stay at home. His right arm Franck Le Goff and physical trainer Vincent Dziagwa, who had acted in the interim last week, are in turn positive.
Stop the black series
Since his home victory (80-76) at the opening of the European campaign against Ljubljana at the end of September, Nanterre has not moved forward. Isaïa Cordinier and his partners remain on four consecutive losses. A black series that places them in 5th and penultimate place in their group.
To hope to scratch a place in the standings and qualify for the Top 16 of the competition, the Nanterriens must achieve a clear cut during their last outings. And it begins this Wednesday evening with the reception of the Spaniards from Gran Canaria, 2nd in the pool with the reverse record of four wins for a setback.
Nanterre and Buycks, it’s already over
He arrived at the end of preparation this summer to compensate for the surprise departure of Dallas Moore, with a good reputation. MVP of the French Championship in 2013, Dwight Buycks, 31, was to be the gentleman over Nanterre. It won’t. The American leader, who has never managed to find his place in the collective (9.5 pts, 3.3 assists on average in four Jeep Elite games), and the club announced Monday evening that they were separating ” by mutual agreement ”as the formula demands. The club should strengthen soon.
Albicy, a special adversary
He was trained a few kilometers from Nanterre. Born in Sèvres before spending his childhood in Seine-et-Marne, Andrew Albicy, 30, made his first professional dribbles under the colors of Paris Basket Racing and then of Paris-Levallois. The pocket leader (1.78 m) has since become an important player on the European scene. The international tricolor (62 capes), bronze medalist at the World Cup in 2019 with… Pascal Donnadieu and Nicolas Barth (physiotherapist from Nanterre and the French team), will be keen to shine with his team on French soil.
