Quadruple defending champion, Friborg Olympic is once again the favorite in the SBL championship which begins on Saturday. Massagno and the Geneva Lions should be his main rivals.
Keystone
Olympic does in continuity. Author of the Championship / Cup / SBL Cup treble in 2022, the club of president Philippe De Gottrau had, it is true, no reason to change anything. Especially since he needs bench depth to hope to shine in the Europe Cup.
Coach Petar Aleksic can always count on Natan Jurkovitz, Arnaud Cotture, Boris Mbala, Davonta Jordan and Milos Jankovic. And he benefits from the reinforcement of two major players: Bernese full-back Jonathan Kazadi (admittedly injured in a thigh) and Serbian interior Uros Nikolic, who was in Massagno’s heyday in 2021/22.
Massagno for a revenge
The Friborg workforce is solid. Weakened by the departure of Nikolic to Olympic, Massagno nevertheless seems equipped to play the spoilsport. Coach Robbi Gubitosa’s side are also eager for revenge after a 2021/22 season ended with an unexpected failure in the play-off semi-finals against Union Neuchâtel.
Massagno, who had to settle for a final (lost in the SBL Cup), also retained much of his backbone with Roberto Kovac, the Mladjan brothers as well as Isaiah Williams and Juwann James. It remains to be seen whether Jonathan Galloway (2m09 / ex-Monthey) will advantageously replace Uros Nikolic in the racket.
A new era in Geneva
The Geneva Lions also have a lot to be forgiven for after a failed season, marked by a failure against Swiss Central in the round of 16 of the Cup. It is even the beginning of a new era on the Pommier side, where the emblematic president Imad Fattal left his post after restoring his luster to Geneva basketball.
Released by Olympic in the semi-finals of the last play-offs, the Lions have a new boss, Oggie Kapetanovic, and a new coach, Alain Attallah, who replaces Andrej Stimac. The Egyptian technician has the means of his ambitions: Bryan Colon, Noè Anabir, Slobodan Miljanic and the Canadian-Czech James Karnik (2m06) have notably been enlisted to support Thomas Jurkovitz or Clayton Le Sann.
The fight for the play-offs, the other challenge
The remaining eight teams will, unless surprised, content themselves with fighting for the other five places which will be available for the play-offs at the end of a long regular season (30 days). Brilliant finalist of the last play-offs, Union Neuchâtel should thus return to the ranks.
Coach Mitar Trivunovic has to deal with a weakened squad. The nugget Selim Fofana is gone, trying the adventure in Montenegro with KK Podgorica, just like Bryan Colon, Noé Anabir (both left for Geneva) and Yoan Granvorka who plays in French ProA (Le Portel).
Times are, it is true, tough for the vast majority of clubs financially. Like every year, everyone hopes above all to have found the rare bird(s) among the foreign reinforcements. A sine qua non condition not to see his season come to an end after 30 matches.
ATS
