By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
It’s still too early, but eight teams will give some of the most important games of their season, starting this Tuesday. Varese vs Oldenburg, host of the special qualifying round Lietuvos Ritas vs VEF Riga and on Wednesday Khimki vs Ostend and Nymburk vs Banvit will face each other in a series of knock out games with the last team remaining standing on Friday getting the last spot on Euroleague, while all others will take part in Saturday’s Eurocup draw for the upcoming season.
According to the bracket it seems more than possible that the couple which will get to the final on Friday will be hosts Lietuvos Rytas against Khimki. The Lithuanian league finalists have a well balanced roster, a Euroleague veteran in point guard Omar Cook, a reliable coach in German Dirk Bauermann, three Euroleague champions, Martynas Gecevicius, Andreas Glyniadakis – despite their minimal roles in Olympiacos – and former Panathinaikos player Milenko Tepic and last but not least Eurobasket silver medalist Ronny Seibutis.
Russian club Khimki, despite its financial issues, kept part of his Euroleague core in coach Rimas Kurtinaitis, Kresimir Loncar, Petteri Koponen, Sergey Monya and Paul Davis and also added veteran Marko Popovic, Eurobasket gold medalist Mickael Gelabale and American point guard Mike Green who had a very good last season in Varese.
That been said, the fact that the qualifying round is held essentially during the preseason, means that anything can happen. Last year Unics Kazan was the heavy favorite, but in the end Cantu prevailed after some really close games. Can an other Italian team keep the tradition? Varese, the third team in last season’s Legabasket, lost Green and replaced him with explosive scorer Keydren “Kiki” Clark from Venezia, however its weak front line makes thing complicated.
Oldenburg, the German finalists, is the team of Julius Jenkins and the addition of 26 years old Nemanja Aleksandrov, the biggest Serbian talent of his generation before a series of injuries, doesn’t change much. VEF Riga is an interesting contender, as the Latvian champions signed Gani Lawal who spend last season in Roma and was the best center of Legabasket. They are facing Lietuvos in their first game, so if there is an upset, we will know it from day one.
Telenet Ostend lost the MVP of the Belgian league to Euroleague champions Olympiacos and without Matt Lojeski they are a different team and probably not a match for Khimki. Then there is the Czech champions, Nymburk with their respectable trio of 30something years olds Jiri Welsh, Dylan Page and Tre Simmons. Not a bad team, but its first opponent, Banvit seems to be a lot better.
The Turkish club is the dark horse of the qualifying round with former Zeljko Obradovic assistant Dimitris Itoudis as the head coach and a complete roster with former VEF Riga leader Earl Rowland in the point, former CSKA player Sammy Mejia as the designated scorer, Partizan alumni Drew Gordon in the front line and Slovenian guard Klemen Prepelic from Olimpija Ljubljana coming from the bench. Can they surprise Khimki and then the hosts? We will know in four days.