Seasoned in a thousand battles in national basketball, coach Diego Ocampo carved out a niche for himself in the history of the LEB Oro League in a 2017/18 season in which he needed just 42 days to promote a Baxi Manresa from the Endesa League. who had taken his reins just a few hours before the start of the Playoffs for promotion. A formula that he will try to repeat now in the LEB Plata League with a Tizona Burgos willing to emulate what happened back then in Catalan lands.
It was last Monday morning when the Tizona University of Burgos made the hiring official Diego Ocampo as his new coach for the final stretch of the season. A new destination for one of the most experienced coaches in the category and that, however, was going to be a personal challenge as he had only 5 days of training before being able to direct his first meeting on the afternoon of this coming Sunday.
Because if it is already difficult in itself to have to take charge of a squad midway through the season, the challenge seems to become even more difficult when the team’s debut arrives on the same night that the Playoffs for promotion. Quite a risk taken bravely by the coach from Ourense and, especially by a club whose hand has not wavered when making the decision.
And it is that the directive headed by Miguel Angel Benavente has not hesitated when trying to emulate the story of his new coach, an Ocampo who came to Baxi Manresa in identical circumstances at the end of the 2017/18 season to achieve the ambitious goal of returning to the Endesa League. A story that has a good number of similarities with that of a Tizona Burgos who assumed the change of coach with the conclusion of the Regular League and with the sole objective of being able to seek a return to a higher category a year after his relegation.
But in order to repeat what happened back then, Diego Ocampo you will even have a few hours less work than in a 2018 in which it was enough 42 days to complete the challenge, those elapsed between his signing on the morning of April 20 and the fifth match of the final against Melilla on the night of June 2. And it is that, in this 2022, there will be a total of 40 days that separate the signing of him on the afternoon of April 11 from the second meeting of a hypothetical final on May 21.
A whole “Burgal quarantine” for which Ocampo knows perfectly the formula to follow having to act as the motivating agent of a staff full of quality and experience. This is how it happened back then and that should therefore be the starting point so that Diego can feel a whole Manresan “Déjà vú” on the banks of his new destination next to the Alarzón River.
But will he succeed in repeating such a complicated and demanding history? The answer, starting this Sunday…
