This Saturday Rasta Vechta will play in the Basketball Bundesliga against EWE Baskets Oldenburg. What ex-Oldenburg player Kevin Smit, who now plays for Vechta II, says about his club.
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Vechta/Oldenburg – The Rasta Vechta teams are currently experiencing a derby week. On Wednesday evening, the second team, which plays in the 2nd Bundesliga, lost against the Artland Dragons Quakenbrück 88:98 in front of 2,145 spectators in the Rasta Dome. This Saturday the hall will again be the scene of a duel between two neighbors: At 8 p.m. the first Rasta team will welcome the EWE Baskets Oldenburg for a game in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the dome will then be sold out (3140 seats).
Rasta II almost assured
“We are very happy with both teams,” says Kevin Smit about the mood in Vechta: “In the Bundesliga, the team is fighting for direct playoff participation. And the second team is successful in the 2nd league. The team had already been labeled as relegated by many before the season.”
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In the game against Quakenbrück, Rasta II could have secured relegation with a win – but that failed, and even Smit’s twelve points didn’t change anything. Staying in the league should be achieved in the four remaining games.
Smit (33) knows the industry very well. The Oldenburg native started his professional career with the Baskets, where he made 54 Bundesliga appearances by 2014. After a stint with the then second division club Vechta (2014/15), he played in Trier in the second division for six years before returning to the northwest in 2021 – again to Vechta. There he was planned to be the leader, who, as an experienced player, would support the talented players in the second team. As a former first division professional, doesn’t he now want to get involved in the upper house again? “I feel comfortable in my role of leading the young players,” says Smit: “But it’s great to see what our first team is doing in the Bundesliga.”
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Smit also played a part in Rasta I achieving promotion to the upper house at the end of last season. He was involved in several playoff games in which coach Ty Harrelson’s team ultimately managed to return to the first division. Almost at the same time, Rasta II – with Leitwolf Smit – made the jump from the 3rd to the 2nd league. “We don’t see the second team as a competitor to the first team in the professional sector,” says Smit: “In the second league, young players should develop in such a way that they can also play in the first league.”
Grünloh commutes
The most prominent example of this is Johann Grünloh. The 18-year-old center has already made an impressive number of 27 appearances for Rasta I in the BBL this season. At the same time, he also plays regularly in the 2nd league for Rasta II. In the defeat against Quakenbrück he made more than 25 appearances Minutes on the field and scored eight points. He has played a total of twelve times in this second division season so far.
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Grünloh is one of those who mainly trains (and plays) with the BBL team and then – if the schedule allows it – also plays in the second team. Basically, according to Smit, the two teams would operate separately from each other in daily training operations. “Otherwise it would be too crowded in the hall,” says the veteran.
This season, Vechta is accomplishing what Smit once did not experience in Oldenburg. Because when he was a young player swinging between the first and second teams, the Baskets second team, which was then playing in the 3rd league, managed to get promoted to the 2nd league. However, the Baskets did not claim the right to promotion – the financial and organizational burden of having a first and second division team in the same house seemed too great to those responsible. “I could understand the reasons at the time, the effort would have been too great,” says Smit: “So I’m now very impressed that Vechta dared to do it.”
Smit wants to watch the first division derby against Oldenburg on Saturday from the stands in the Rasta Dome. The schedule allows for this, Rasta II will only play against the Karlsruhe Lions on Sunday at 4 p.m. – also in the Dome.
2024-04-11 14:46:38
#Baskets #Oldenburg #travel #derby #Vechta
