The time has come. This Saturday face the UCAM Murcia CB their first participation in the Endesa Super Cup, which will be played in the city’s renovated Sports Palace. Before training, the coach, Sito Alonso, and the captain, Nemanja Radovic, who have shown enthusiasm and responsibility to face the first title of the Spanish basketball season at home, for which they will also compete Unicaja Malaga, rival in the semifinals, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Sito Alonso has analyzed different aspects of the match and the tournament.
How does the equipment arrive?
The team arrives very well. The mentality is always good for a tournament like this and physically the players are at different levels. Those who finished the World Cup a few days ago are not the same as those who have been here all preseason. There is a gap, but the general level is good to face the semifinal match.
Unicaja, favorite
Unicaja is the favorite, not for this match, but to win the title, but not because of budgetary level, but because what they did very well last year, the club has made a great effort to renew practically the entire staff and the position they have is very large. Although they have problems with the ‘five’, sometimes it is very difficult to defend them because they have a very rich tactical background, but it does not mean that we are not going to have a competitive level and, on top of that, we play in Murcia.
The renovation of the Sports Palace
Seeing the pavilion is a joy and I also want to thank all the effort that has been made. There are people who have not had summer vacations for the Super Cup to be played here. The city and the Region deserve an event of this caliber. We have trained on the auxiliary track during the preseason, but it has been very worth it and it is not a problem.
Many new features in the squad
There are many new ones and I would have to recap one by one, but they will be at different levels. For example, with Kurcs we must take advantage of the moment that after four months at Strasbourg and playing in the World Cup, it comes well. I consider that the squad is above 70% and that Unicaja, due to the knowledge that its players have from last season, will be at 90%, but we are going to compete in a match with enthusiasm and being in Murcia could be that we give a much higher competitive level than we can expect.
The physical condition of Jordan Sakho, who has not played in preseason
Sakho trained with us for 30 minutes yesterday and if he doesn’t feel physically down, I could go. He has knowledge of the systems, but I don’t want him to go one level below the others. First we will check the level you are at to see if you can help us.
Only four preseason games
I would have liked to be in both of Monzón’s games (he was absent due to his mother’s illness, who died a few days later), but I think that playing the Super Cup has an extra motivation. I would have liked to play more preseason games, but I’m not going to miss anything. This circumstance is not any type of excuse and what I want is for the team to compete and also the fans with us.
2023-09-15 13:33:08
#Unicaja #favorite #competitive #level
