By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
It was a quick turnaround from the 2022 EuroBasket to the Qualifiers of the Basketball Champions League. From Berlin to Malaga and from international to club level in a matter of five days. But it started a productive stretch for Dario Brizuela.
Brizuela, 27, poured 27 points powering Unicaja to the home win against PAOK mateco Wednesday night. Fittingly, the most points by a Spanish player in a single BCL game.
During the 2018 offseason, he debuted at the senior level with the Spain national team. A regular in junior national teams of his country, he jumped right back in a few years later with international fixtures resurfacing in the winter schedule and extending the opportunity for caps across a larger base of players.
Promoted from representing Spain in Qualifiers of the 2019 and 2023 World Cup and 2022 EuroBasket, to playing in the 2022 EuroBasket. A new-look Spain with limited connections to the golden generation dominating international competitions of the previous decades, but as successful. Brizuela was part of the gold-winning squad and appearing in all nine games between Tbilisi and Berlin, he averaged 7.9 points and 1.6 assists per contest. And has been called up by Sergio Scariolo for the next batch of 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers in the approaching window.
Packing a rich history in European club continental competitions, Unicaja moved to the Champions League and made it to the Quarterfinals in the debut season. Running it back in 2022-23, the team coached by Ibon Navarro hosted Qualification Group B making short work of Heroes Den Bosch and Patrioti Levice to clinch a berth in the Regular Season. International players Brizuela and Alberto Diaz switched from La Roja to BCL and assisted in the early-season challenge.
Between those wins and the 3-0 start in Group G of the Regular Season, the San Sebastian-born guard averaged 13.0 points, 1.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 0.4 steals per contest with an upward trend of production reaching the 27-point showing in the game versus PAOK dubbed as the Game of Week. In the fifth week of the Regular Season, he played just 19 minutes coming off the bench.
“It was a tough game for sure. They played very well. I think we did many good things, but not a good job in rebounds in the first half. In the second half, our defense was better, they made some tough shots. At the end of the game, we had the right approach,” he described his side pulling away late in the Gameday 3 fixture.
Following a lengthy stint at his first professional team Asefa/Movistar Estudiantes, Brizuela moved to Unicaja in 2019. Already a veteran of 20 games played in the BCL, he since added 18 more appearances as a member of the Malaga outfit.
A promising start to the 2022-23 European campaign plus a very deep squad combining experience with explosive youth. Besides Brizuela and Diaz coming in as EuroBasket champions, Kendrick Perry runs the show, Tyson Carter, Nihad Djedovic, Will Thomas, Melvin Ejim, and more are on board as well. It looks like an extended run is on the cards.
Still a long season with plenty of hurdles to overcome, the Final Four will eventually crown the champion and Unicaja aims to participate in the season-ending stage. The first step would be claiming the first seed in Group G, thus a direct ticket to the Round of 16, bypassing the Play-In best-of-three series reserved for the second and third seeds of all eight regular-season groups. Aiming for the top, Unicaja will visit JDA Dijon and PAOK, before hosting Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari to wrap up the six-game schedule.
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League