Perhaps this summer will be one of the busiest on the benches of the LEB Oro, with several “mythical” names without a seat at the present time. This situation encourages us to analyze what has happened in the last three seasons, since 19/20, looking for a pattern from which to analyze what has happened in this summer of 2022 that already focuses on the 22/23 season.
Season 19/20
Most of its coaches were still on the same bench, with just four exceptions in the eighteen teams that played it. As a curious fact, in a course that ended abruptly due to COVID, three of these four teams that had a new coach were placed in the top three positions (Valladolid, GBC and Coruña). In A Coruña they bet on Sergio García, who came from his position as ACB assistant at GBC and who had a promotion to the ACB with Palencia behind him. In GBC, after being relegated to LEB Oro, they were betting on a newcomer like Marcelo Nicola. And in Valladolid, after the departure of Paco García to the ACB, they found a luxury substitute in the figure of Hugo López. They were joined by Diego Epifanio, Epiwho took the reins of Breogán after not being renewed by Burgos after two years in the top flight.
Throughout the course there were three changes of coach: in Marín, Javi Llorente left the position for personal reasons to Diego Gómez; the poor season of Javi Rodríguez in charge of the OCB caused the first dismissal of the Asturian team since it is in LEB Oro, being replaced by Natxo Lezkano; while in Lleida, a bad start cost Jorge Serna his position, who was replaced by Gustavo Aranzana.
Season 20/21
After the break due to COVID, there were no relegations to LEB Plata, so there were 19 teams that made up the competition. In the summer there were five changes on the bench: José Rey took over the reins of Real Canoe, going from assistant to head coach after many years of Miguel Ángel Aranzábal in charge; at Peñas they decided that Guillermo Arenas’ cycle was over and they gave the opportunity to a young prepared coach like David Gómez (currently assistant coach in Japan); Bàsquet Girona achieved promotion and relied for the new challenge on a coach with LEB pedigree like Carles Marco, who came from Palencia; Marco’s departure implied the arrival of another coach with experience in the category such as Arturo Álvarez; finally, in Palma, with a change of direction in terms of objectives, they opted for a local duo made up of Pau Tomàs and Álex Pérez.
During the season there were only two dismissals: Tizona did not have a good season on his return to LEB Oro and Jorge Elorduy was relieved by Lluís Riera; in Peñas Huesca the start with David Gómez was not satisfactory, but finally Óscar Lata managed to stay.
Season 21/22
Although there were 19 teams that had the right to play it, 18 finally played it, many of them having changes on the bench during the preseason. Specifically, up to 8 teams, almost half, made changes for different reasons. In Peñas, after the agreement with Zaragoza, Sergio Lamúa arrived on the bench. After the rise of Prat, Dani Miret went to Penya’s ACB structure, entrusting the bench to a world coach like Josep Maria Berrocal. In Melilla Alcoba left the bench after many years, being the chosen one for the change of cycle Arturo Álvarez. The departure of Pedro Rivero to the bench in Palencia, who was betting heavily on him, left the Lucentum Foundation without its franchise coach, although his replacement was none other than Gonzalo García de Vitoria, who left Galicia after the descent of the COB. In GBC they bet on local talent, also on the bench, with the arrival from ACB (Bilbao) of Lolo Encinas, who had been acting as Mumbrú’s assistant coach. In Real Valladolid, Hugo López finished his cycle and another coach from the city such as Roberto González, who returned to the spotlight after many years in the EBA League, was the chosen one. In Força Lleida, relegation with Aranzana meant a complete facelift and they bet on local talent in the figure of the young Gerard Encontr after several good years at Pardinyes.
The changes continued during the season, as no less than five others occurred. The poor results meant that Lamúa was replaced in Peñas by a man of the house like Carlos Lanau. It was a complex season in Melilla, orphan of Alcoba, and finally there was relief with the course underway, Rafa Monclova arriving to replace Arturo Álvarez. Girona’s initial bad run cost Carles Marco his job, being a man of the house like Jordi Sargatal who took the job of a team where the arrival of star Marc Gasol changed everything, finally achieving promotion to the ACB . Something similar happened at Real Valladolid; Roberto González’s team could not fuel up, Paco García arrived and with an unstoppable winning streak they reached the playoffs when no one expected it. In Students, the results weigh a lot and that league defeat against Granada did a lot of damage, taking Jota Cuspinera ahead when they were second in the table, being replaced by Epi, who with two promotions in his record was a good option, but a Girona intractable in F4 deprived them of the long-awaited return to the ACB.
Season 22/23
Assuming that Roberto Blanco will continue in Cáceres, although it has not been made official, we can now review the changes that have taken place on the bench. Andorra wants to play it safe and takes a coach like Natxo Lezkano, who knows the LEB Oro like few others. Very striking has been the end of the cycle of coaches with many years in their teams. On the one hand, Toni Ten left TAU Castelló after a lifetime on the bench, being replaced by former national coach Juan Antonio Orenga; on the other, in Almansa Rubén Perelló left after leading the team from the First National to staying in Gold for three seasons, his replacement being his second, Tino Ugidos. In the FLBA, after a season in which the objectives were not achieved, Luis Arbalejo has opted for Rafa Monclova to return to the playoffs, and his place in Melilla has been filled by Óscar Lata, who comes from ACB’s UCAM, where he was an assistant. In Coruña, the non-arrival in F4 meant the end of the cycle, but they have played it safe by betting on Epi. In Iraurgi, Iñaki Jiménez left basketball at these demanding levels and his substitute was at home, Mikel Odriozola, who was his assistant. The unexpected return has occurred on the bench of the OCB, where the great gap left by Lezkano has been covered by the return to the front page of the experienced Trifón Poch. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the decision of Estudiantes, due to the pressure that this bench entails and the internal situations: it has been rumored that there were several refusals among the candidates and the one finally chosen was Javi Rodríguez, with two years of experience as head coach the OCB and who arrives after being an assistant coach at ACB (Bilbao); in the student team he will not have Iñaki Martín as an assistant.
Conclusions
The data does not lie. This summer has been very busy in the LEB Oro head coach game, as 50% of the teams (9 out of 18) have made changes. The trend seems to come from last season (8 changes) and is opposed to the conservative attitude of previous years.
In these last four seasons there have been a total of 26 manager changes before the season started. The origin of the new coaches is varied. It looks at other LEB Oro teams (7 coaches came from rival teams), also at coaches who come from abroad or are inactive (another 7 cases) and has an eye on the ACB (5 coaches left their position as assistant at the highest level to be the first coach in Gold and Epi went from the Burgos bench to that of Breogán). Another way is trust in the coach who is already in the dynamics of the club (4 cases). What seems more complicated is that LEB Plata or EBA League coaches are trusted to make the leap to Gold if they do not do so through promotion with their teams. In these last four seasons only two, Roberto González and Gerard Encontr, have had this opportunity.
How will the season unfold? The data indicates that when there has been a conservative summer, it seems that this attitude has been maintained when persevering with the initial bet on the bench. What it seems from the data is that, after a summer of movement, and with many desirable names free, those who lead may soon lose patience, but it is something that we will not know until the end of the season.
And it is that if last season he missed not seeing coaches like Rafa Monclova or Epi on the bench, both had their chance as the days went by. This summer it is more accentuated, with many high-end coaches and with “without team” quality. If we want to mention some names, there are those of:
- Gonzalo García de Vitoria, 18 seasons in Gold, with different achievements and extensive knowledge of the category.
- Tony Ten. It is hard to see his name dissociated from that of TAU Castelló. He decided to leave the club and it still seems that he will not have that opportunity outside the comfort zone after having played a lot this summer for the OCB.
- Rubén Perelló obtained his first promotion to ACB very young, went through different structures until marking in Almansa a difficult time to forget.
- Sergio Garcia. He trained for many years in Palencia as a second, stood out as the first coach in Palencia, went through the ACB as an assistant and has three years in A Coruña knowing what the pressure of obtaining good results is.
- Carlos Marco. He won a Princess Cup with Oviedo and has experience in the competition with Palencia and Girona; another coach eager to return.
The list could be much longer, since we have dropped names with experience in Gold in recent seasons, such as Alejandro Alcoba who spent eight years at the helm of Melilla and who, for example, for work reasons, prevented him from joining the project last summer of the Enrique Soler (Silver). Another free coach with experience is Félix Alonso, who after his last experience as an assistant in Burgos at ACB, announced his departure a few days ago. Also a few weeks ago we read that the Estonian Rapla finalized the contract of Lluís Riera. Nor should we forget José Rey, who left the Real Canoe structure a year ago.
