Europe to raise spirits in Bilbao
The beginning of the year does not let up, the games take place in a few days and that is good when the first blow arrives, for example, the one suffered by Bilbao Basket in Granada on Saturday. With no time to digest the disappointment, the Ponsarnau team faces the debut of Miribilla’s season in the Champions League, in the venue where the champion of the last edition was, a packed Tenerife. The first visitor is Turkish Bahcesehir (8:30 p.m., Teledeporte) the second win. The ‘men in black’ try to remain undefeated after the good debut against Nymburk in Prague. The idea is to take the lead alone tonight, against the other team that won, against Igokea, at the dawn of the group stage, and not let go until the end.
Radicevic is out and his right foot injury does not look good. At the club they are awaiting the results of the medical tests to which the Serbian base has been subjected. Smith will return to base duty, waiting to see if Ubal is ready to make his debut in official competition with the black jersey. The Ottoman team concentrates the minutes in few players. French center Boutsiele, ex-Unicaja Jamal Smith and ex-bradorist Ozmizrak, which went through the ACB without pain or glory are on everyone’s lips. Brodziansky, another old acquaintance in Spain, Baygul, Savas, Arslan and Candan are also dangerous players.
Ponsarnau highlights a few virtues in the Ottoman formation. “They have very good players, of high quality, with a good mix of Turkish players with a lot of talent, a lot of attacking ability and experience, and other players also with a long experience in Europe at a high level”, analyzed the technician from Tàrrega. Of the foreign players on the Istanbul team, the coach of the ‘men in black’ has highlighted “Smith’s scoring ability, whom we already know from Unicaja”, and inside Brodziansky, who “was growing in Joventut and Obradoiro”.
Although he warned that the “capacity” of tomorrow’s rival “goes through many players” and that his team, to win, will have to play better than on Saturday in Granada, where Serbian point guard Nikola Radicevic was injured, it could be seriously. “We lost because we did things well and Granada did things very well. We have to respect what Granada did well, they found a way to attack our defense that until now had surprised their rivals. Nothing needs to be said about the collective effort, but frustration was evident, that we confused the pressure of wanting to win the game with that of having to win the game”, he summed up the defeat against the Nasrid team.
“We have to be focused on the things we have to do to win and that’s where we failed,” he added, advancing that tomorrow Radicevic’s loss will try to alleviate it with minutes in the direction of Adam Smith’s team, who “can play point guard.” Nevertheless, considers “one last” not being able to count on Radicevic “because the roles were very well squared”. “It’s a shame,” he lamented the injury of a point guard who, already in Granada, was a sensitive loss when injured: “Nikola had found a way to attack, he had acquired feeling with other players and had found a serenity that was good for us and not so well to Granada”. In any case, Ponsarnau is also clear that on Saturday, “with or without Nikola” they “must have done things better” to win.