By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
The Basketball Champions League regular season is reaching its end with three Gamedays remaining and teams making a final push for the playoff ticket.
MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg was a Final Four participant last season but right now, they are struggling at the bottom of Group A with a 3-8 record. However, they can still catch up to the fourth-placed Nizhny Novgorod (5-6) and the signing of Marcos Knight has raised their hopes even further, especially after the American guard’s MVP performance with 27 points, six assists, five rebounds, four steals and a total of 39 efficiency rating in his BCL debut.
Ludwigsburg wouldn’t be the first team Knight propelled to new heights as he has done it three times in the past as well…
After his college days, Knight worked out with the Charlotte Bobcats and Brooklyn Nets but wasn’t selected in the 2013 NBA Draft. He decided to go to Europe and his first destination was Germany where he signed with the then third-tier team FC Baunach. Knight quickly fit in posting 17.5 points, six rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, and pushing Baunach to the second-tier German League (ProA).
He spent one more year with Baunach before joining USC Heidelberg for a short while and moving on to Science City Jena. The move was tainted with a bit of controversy as Heidelberg accused Knight of forcing the transfer by intentionally not practicing with the team. Nonetheless, an agreement was reached and Knight justified all the effort put into acquiring him by leading Jena to the first-tier of German basketball, being named the ProA player of the Year by eurobasket.com in the process.
Knight was also the squad’s leading scorer in the following season with 18.1 points in 25 games and nailed 16 points, six rebounds and three assists in the All-Star game but finished the season in Spain, playing six games with Zaragoza. However, he didn’t stick around for long and chose Turkey as his next destination, signing with Afyon Belediye. For the third time in his career, Knight led a team to promotion as Afyon Belediye joined the first-tier Turkish League.
He re-signed with Afyon for the 2018-19 season but in January decided to return to Germany on a call from Ludwigsburg. And he put on a hell of a start. In his first German League match with the new club, the 29-year-old banked 22 points, nine rebounds, two assists and steals against another BCL team in medi Bayreuth. Then he went on to his actual BCL debut against Anwil and trumped it with an MVP performance.
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League