By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Following a season where he was pretty much the backbone, the “Alpha and Omega” and the most dominant element of the Fenerbahce defense, many considered Ekpe Udoh as the favorite to win the “EuroLeague Best Defender”award.
The head coaches didn’t share that opinion and their vote gave the honor to Adam Hanga of Baskonia, also an acclaimed, versatile elite defender.
When Eurohoops asked the Fenerbahce big guy how he feels that he didn’t win DPOY, his reaction was rather explanatory.
“Two years in a row…that’s all I’m going to say,” Udoh told us also reminiscing on last season when Kyle Hines of CSKA Moscow received the award instead of him.
Nevertheless, the 29-year-old player was one of the members of the All-EuroLeague First team, together with teammate Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nando De Colo of CSKA Moscow, Sergio Llull of Real Madrid and Giorgos Printezis of Olympiacos.
“It’s quite cool that I made All-Euroleague First Team”, he said to Eurohoops. “I’m grateful and appreciative. It’s a result of all the hard work I’ve gone through this season. And it led to this moment too.”
Invidiual accomplishments are fine and dandy of course, but nothing comes close to team success. Fenerbahce aims to winning the EuroLeague following the overtime loss in last season’s Final against CSKA Moscow.
Actually, the Turkish squad was one… rebound away from winning the title in the regular time but Viktor Khryapa forced the extra period after a put-back jumper.
Was it a bit cruel to lose the trophy like this? “I don’t think it was cruel,” said Udoh. “We were down by 20+ points and it went to overtime. We didn’t finish what it started and it is what it is. We generally got to be more prepared to finish our games.”
Fenerbahce is facing Real Madrid in the semifinal. A familiar opponent, since they clashed in last season’s playoffs (Fener swept 3 – 0) and twice this season with each team winning at home.
“It’s always a battle. We know them and I hope we have the best game possible. And we’ll see what happens then.”
This season Ekpe Udoh saw his playtime getting increased (27:46 minutes per game to 31:38) while the workload he puts on the floor got expanded. “My coach trusts me. He believes in me and you got to be ready when this happens. It’s tough but hey… that’s what I got these broad shoulders for.”