By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Last season, Cedevita Olimpija finished last in its EuroCup regular season group with a 3-15 record, registering the paradox of having the top-rated player in the competition, Yogi Ferrell, although the standings did not reflect that at all.
Nobody expected that things could get worse than that, but they did, creating an even bigger paradox this season.
Cedevita finally got its first win in the 2023-24 EuroCup last week on the road by 31 points against Veolia Hamburg Towers, establishing a club record with 114 points scored. Alas, that came long after its season was already lost. Combined with its five defeats to finish last season, Cedevita reached the second-worst losing streak in competition history, 20 games.
Despite having only one win this season, Cedevita has not exactly been a punching bag for the rest of the competition. Out of its 15 losses to open the season, 10 came by seven or fewer points, and four of those by margins of three or less.
A comparison to the team’s solid run in the pan-Balkans domestic ABA League leads to a very straight conclusion.
Winning in EuroCup is not easy
Cedevita is a different team in the ABA League. While not destroying the domestic competition, Cedevita has a solid 12-6 record and has managed to register big wins, including beating Partizan (95-91) and Crvena Zvezda (96-86), the region’s two representatives in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
So why this kind of success has not translated to the BKT EuroCup?
There’s no easy answer. Sports are not an exact science. What’s certain beyond any doubt, however, is that the EuroCup level is not comparable at this point with pretty much any domestic competition.
There are no weak teams, with maybe one or two exceptions. Having a successful season in any domestic league will not necessarily translate to success in the EuroCup.
And there’s a lesson to be learned here. Considering that the EuroCup is the proving ground to get to the EuroLeague, there’s no way that things will become easier any time soon. The competition between the clubs that have higher ambitions will only get bigger and more vicious, so being good at your national league might not be enough to avoid getting embarrassed on the continental level.
With new powers emerging from countries like the UK and Romania that are not basketball hotbeds, a big name, tradition, and even good results on the domestic level are a good start, but much more is needed.
Photo Credit: EuroleagueBasketball.net