by Semih Altinbas / [email protected]
In the Basketball Champions League, the regular season and Play-In tours were left behind as the scene of fierce struggles…
5 teams started the season representing Turkey as Galatasaray NEF, Beşiktaş Icrypex, Pınar Karşıyaka, TOFAŞ and Darüşşafaka.
Playing in Group B, Pınar Karşıyaka, with 3 wins and 3 losses, got into the Play-In Tour from the 3rd place and matched with Lenovo Tenerife, the runner-up in Group A. Karşıyaka lost the chance to continue on the road when they won a match in İzmir and lost 2 times on the road.
Galatasaray NEF in Group E, on the other hand, won 5 wins in 6 matches and completed their group as the leader and went directly to the Round of 16.
Competing in Group F, TOFAŞ won 4 wins and moved directly to the Last 16 from its group in the leadership seat.
Darüşşafaka in Group G, on the other hand, won the Play-In Tour with 2 wins in 6 games and became the opponent of San Pablo Burgos, the champion of the last 2 seasons. Despite losing the first match, Daçka defeated Burgos 2 times in 3 days and advanced to the next round with an epic performance.
Beşiktaş Icrypex in Group H, on the other hand, finished 3rd in their group with 3 wins and 3 losses and became the opponent of Hapoel Holon. While Holon defeated Black Eagles in 2 matches, Black-Whites closed their European book.
Now, the agenda is BSL teams in the Last 16 in BCL…
Eurohoops Fırın is evaluating groups including Galatasaray, TOFAŞ and Darüşşafaka.
Group I
Galatasaray NEF
MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg
JDA Dijon
Hapoel U-NET Holon
Galatasaray NEF doesn’t look like it will have a big challenge in the group it has stepped into as a clear championship favourite. Dee Bost – Melo Trimble – DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, who have built a solid structure around the trio, are the first candidates for leadership, even though their rivals are dangerous.
Bundesliga team was the first among Cim-Bom’s rivals. LudwigsburgYou should start with. Ludwigsburg will be one of the most dangerous opponents Galatasaray will face this season. It is possible to guarantee this already. As a guard duo, they have valuable profiles such as Jonah Radebaugh and Justin Simon. Radebaugh is the team’s quarterback, while Simon is both the team’s top scorer and the best defender with his two-way contribution. It should not be forgotten that Tremmell Darden, 40, averaged 11.4 points in 5 games in total. Ludwigsburg is in the 6th place of the BCL in this context, scoring 82.3 points per game. They are also in 5th place with an average of 38.3 rebounds. The burden placed on the shorts causes assist rates to drop and score higher. However, they don’t make a lot of turnovers.
JDA Dijon another team included in the group. Competing in the French League, Dijon is not having a bad season under the management of former Gaziantep coach Nenad Markovic. Staff structuring is also not at a point where it can handle very negative criticism. Dijon, played by Rashard Kelly, who is also a former Gaziantep citizen, stands out as a team that defends well while being effective with players such as David Holston, Gavin Ware and Kelly. Just like Ludwigsburg, it is quite possible to put Dijon forward as a team that is likely to cause problems for Galatasaray. The role played by ex-Basconian Khadeen Carrington should not be overlooked. They beat Riga hard, but it is safe to say that they were not a team to be underestimated in the Round of 16. Coming from a competitive league like France, Dijon does not have a magnificent squad, but under the leadership of Markovic, it is a team that can have a future.
Another rival of Galatasaray Hapoel Holon On the other hand, we are in front of us as one of the ambitious teams of the Israeli League for a long time. They do not have a very healthy structuring and it was a bit of luck for them to encounter an incomplete team like Beşiktaş. It’s not that they don’t have valuable players, but they have never been an adequate team as a whole. It is true that they have become a serious team with the atmosphere they have created at home. Apart from Rafael Menco, whom they hired as outside shooters, there are some critical subjects like Chris Johnson’s role in the 3-4 number rotation and Steve Zack’s role in the rebounds. Considering that there are decision makers such as Joe Ragland and Adam Smith who may have problems in terms of stability, it would not be wrong to see Holon as the weak link of the group. But it is not clear what they will do. With 19.1 assists per game in the Champions League, they came up to 10th place in the standings at this point. The team’s top scorer is Chris Johnson, who scored 14.9 points in 9 games.
