Oldie but goldie: Ludwigburg’s Tremmell Darden (middle) last season against BGer Deishuan Booker (right). Left Harper Kamp and Ludwigsburg’s Jordan Hulls.
© Hubert Jelinek / gsd
The BG Göttingen against the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg – this is on Saturday (6 p.m., S-Arena) for the first time a completely normal game in the basketball Bundesliga.
Göttingen – For the umpteenth time, ex-violet coach John Patrick is making a flying visit with the Swabians in his former sporting home. And yet the game is at least a little bit special for BG trainer Roel Moors.
For him, memories of his own active time are awakened with Ludwigsburg’s veteran Tremmell Darden (now 39). “I used to play with him myself and later coached him,” Moors digs into the past.
That goes back to the 2007/08 season, when Moors and Darden (Ludwigsburg is the 16th club he plays for) played together at Charleroi in Belgium and even became national champions at the time. “He was 26 then, I was 29,” says Moors. They later parted ways, Darden sustained a serious injury with a ruptured Achilles tendon – but came back despite his age of 35 at the time. And Moors signed Darden as a player when he coached Antwerp. On Saturday, Moors and Darden will see each other again – on different sides. Friendship has a 40-minute break.
The Swabians also won their second game in the Champions League. At SC Prometey there was an undisputed 86:64 (41:33) victory on Wednesday evening, Tremmell Darden contributed five points and three rebounds. The trip may have been the most arduous, because the Ukrainian game was finally played in Kiev after several venues were relocated. The “giants” won the rebound duel with 44:29 and had a very good three-way quota of 48 percent.
Not unusual for Patrick teams: Jaylen Hands was no longer there in Kiev, after three weeks his contract with the Ludwigsburg team was canceled – he switched to the Antwerp Giants, against whom the BG tested in the preparatory phase.
At BG there was “a normal week,” reports Moors. Completely normal but not entirely, because with Zack Bryant one of the “BG-B-Trio” (Baldwin-Brown-Bryant) threatens to drop out again. “He was back in training, again not on Thursday – he must have caught a virus,” suspects the BG coach. “If he doesn’t train on Friday, he can hardly play.”
It looks better with Haris Hujic: The ex-Leverkusen player, who has just been honored as the “best second division player of the past season”, is back after his thigh problems. “But not quite at 100 percent yet,” says Moors.
Of course, he saw Ludwigsburg’s victories in the Champions League against Sassari (Italy) and in Kiev. In addition to Darden, Moors especially had Jordan Hulls, Jonah Radebaugh and newcomer Justin Simon (currently top scorer / 18 in Kiev) in view. “I’m curious to see how we deal with the aggressive Ludwigsburg defense.” But after the first win against Bonn, the self-confidence of the BGers has definitely increased. Moors: “We must have faith in what we can.”Helmut Anschütz / gsd)
