By Dimitris Minaretzis / info@eurohoops.net
Like we said above, not everyone can go to the playoffs. Or, to put it somewhat differently, some places are considered “reserved” by teams like CSKA and Fenerbahce.
When a season gets under way, though, you make some bets about who will make the playoffs and you think that you will see certain teams in the postseason based on their rosters, history and dynamics. Barcelona, Maccabi, Armani Milan and Efes were four of those 16, and they all failed and disappointed…
Barcelona: Second season in misery
Once they were a team that would always make the playoffs no matter what, the most consistent team – along with Olympiacos – for a long time. But now it’s been two seasons since their last qualification.
Not by coincidence, everything started going downhill after Xavi Pascual left. We believe that the Spanish coach had set the foundations, the system and the tactics to take the team as high as they could go and we saw that it was not easy for the team to be weaned off those eight years he was on Barca’s bench. Also, perhaps the fact that Barca relied so heavily on Juan Carlos Navarro, who hasn’t been able to deliver for the last two or three seasons, is also a factor. That was going to happen, inevitably. Shouldn’t they have planned ahead?
Neither Georgios Bartzokas last season, nor Sito Alonso this season, were able to reverse the situation. Barca was once again disappointing as they managed to get only 11 wins (two of them against Olympiacos), were inconsistent and lacked cohesion. One time you’d see them crushing teams like Olympiacos and Panathinaikos and the other losing in silly ways by giving away points left and right.
The bad thing about Barcelona is that they have made a lot of investments, they have been scattering euros left and right, without any results. At least in Europe.