By Jürgen Berger
Ludwigsburg. At the beginning of the year, events at the MLP Academics come thick and fast. After the 73:89 (37:49) at the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg on Saturday evening – the fifth Bundesliga defeat in a row – the bottom team from Heidelberg announced the return of Ryan Mikesell on Sunday morning. The former captain, who moved to the London Lions in the summer, is scheduled to take part in training for the first time this Monday.
It is still unclear whether the winger will wear the Academics jersey again on Tuesday (6 p.m.) in the first play-in duel for a place in the top 16 of the Champions League with the Czech club ERA Nymburk in Mannheim’s GBG Halle. “We are working on ensuring that he is eligible to play for the Champions League game on Tuesday,” said sports director Alex Vogel. “In our current situation, he is a perfect fit as a leader. Hopefully his signing will give us a boost.”
Major staffing problems
In Ludwigsburg the academics problems became clear once again. Coach Danny Jansson’s team had nothing to blame in terms of attitude and fighting spirit, but due to personnel problems they ultimately lacked the means to stand up to the physically strong Baroque townspeople. “It’s not easy with an eight-man rotation. Half of the guys who played were injured or sick,” explained winger Mateo Seric. Michael Weathers (hamstring), Kevin McClain (illness), Sam Williamson (knee) and Noah Koch (ankle) were missing. Dusan Neskovic was back in the squad for the first time in six weeks after his knee injury, but was not able to play yet.
While the injured Williamson and Koch were at the MHP Arena supporting their teammates from the sidelines, Michael Weathers did not make the hour-long drive a week after separating from his twin brother Marcus. “It’s still a difficult situation for Mike. We talk to him a lot. Hopefully he’ll be back soon,” explained Vogel.
The Academics need the crowd favorite to get the team back on track together with Mikesell. Against the “giants”, top scorer DJ Horne (20 points) had to take on the brunt of the attack in addition to building up the game. That robbed him of his strength. The Academics also lost too many balls. After 40 minutes there were 14, while Ludwigsburg only had six. “We threw the ball away too often,” complained Seric. Jansson said: “I felt like we did a good job in a lot of moments. What hurt us were the two periods where we lost the ball in the first half, which really hurt us.” In the 14th minute it was Heidelberg’s turn to turn the game around at 25:26.
What was extraordinary was the support of the 150 Academics fans who traveled with us, who held up a banner with the inscription ‘One Team’ before and after the game – and thus showed their support during the crisis. “This is very important for us,” emphasized Jansson on Saturday, before adding to the sporting situation: “We need new forces to create a sustainable turnaround.”
Now Mikesell is here. However, the 29-year-old, who came third in the vote for the best BBL player last season, did not have an easy time in London. A back injury kept the 2.01 meter man out of action at the start of the round before he returned to the field in November. Since then, the American has averaged 8.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in five games in an average of 22 minutes. “Ryan is 100 percent fit and feels very good. His back problems have been resolved,” explained Vogel. “We are very happy that we were able to respond to our tense personnel situation by signing Ryan. In addition to a lot of sporting quality, he brings us something that we have been extremely lacking so far this year: leadership.”
Last year’s top scorer for the Academics is happy about his return and wants to do his part to stabilize the bottom of the table: “My wife and I felt very comfortable here last season, so the decision to return was easy for us. I know there is still a lot to do, but I am ready to take on this challenge.”
Ludwigsburg: Sane 21 (3), Hughes 15 (3), Smith 15, Kellman 9, Buchanan 8 (2), Wohlfahrt-Bottermann 7, Polas Bartolo 6, Skuja 6 (1), Tischler 2, Bäumer.
Heidelberg: Horne 20 (3), Keßen 14, Reed 13 (2), Osunniyi 11 (1), Ersek 6 (2), Würzner 6, Seric 2, Zipser 1.
Stenogramm: 7:0 (2nd), 9:5 (4th), 12:8 (6th), 20:10 (1st quarter), 22:18 (13th), 26:25 (14th), 37:28 (16th), 49:37 (halftime), 53:43 (23rd), 60:43 (25th), 69:53 (3rd quarter), 72:59 (34th), 77:65 (36th), 89:73 (final score).
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