By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Basketball Champions League outfits UCAM Murcia and Filou Oostende announced a couple of moves Monday.
Murcia parted ways with Niels Giffey with his new team buying out the short-term contract signed about one month ago. In the brief stint, the two-time NCAA champion with Connecticut and two-time German league champion with Alba Berlin made his debut in the Champions League and made his way to four games in Spain’s Liga Endesa. He averaged 6.0 points and 3.2 rebounds per contest.
Giffey, 31, is heading to FC Bayern Munich. Eurohoops previously reported advanced talks with the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague club noting the possibility of paying the buyout to immediately complete the transfer. Previous EuroLeague experience between the lengthy run at Alba and the 2021-22 spell at Zalgiris amounts to 104 games played packed with 6.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per contest.
Entering the international break with a 2-1 W-L tally, the team coached by Sito Alonso shares the top of the Group A standings with SIG Strasbourg.
As for the Belgium champions, Oostende picked up Alex Barcello. The former point guard of Arizona and BYU in the NCAA, recently launched his professional career in Greece playing for Kolossos H Hotels. After posting 4.0 points and 1.8 rebounds per game over four appearances in Greece’s Basket League, he parted ways upon mutual agreement with the team based in Rhodes earlier Monday.
The lasting BCL original coached by Dario Gjergja finished the first half of the double-legged round-robin schedule in Group C of the Regular Season with a 1-2 record.
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