By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
On Wednesday, Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul (4-2) host defending champions CSKA Moscow (6-0), the only team that is still undefeated in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague after six games!
The new power in Turkish basketball is pinning its aspirations on a very successful coach, David Blatt! He is going to face a “chessboard of tactics” from the active EuroLeague champion, Dimitris Itoudis!
These are two coaches who represent modern basketball, have a lot of idea and like to mastermind the game. Their teams clearly carry their own personal coaching stamp. The result of the battle between the coaches, their own matchup, is definitely going to define the evolution and style of the game – and why not? – the outcome itself.
Blatt, at 57 years old, is in his 10th EuroLeague season as a head coach. He has won numerous domestic titles in Israel as Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv’s coach; he’s done it in Italy, too, with Benetton Treviso. But at an international level, his greatest distinctions have come with Maccabi and the national team of Russia!
He won the EuroLeague in 2014 at the Final Four in Milan and also the Alexander Gomelskiy EuroLeague Coach of the Year award. As the Russian national coach, he won the gold medal in the 2007 FIBA European Championship, bronze in the same competition in 2011, and the bronze medal again in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In addition, he was the head coach of the eventual NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers last season.
Itoudis, at 46 years of age, has entered his third season as CSKA‘s head coach and has an impressive 56-9 record to his credit. CSKA is 25-1 in the regular season under Itoudis. However, his biggest decoration so far is winning the title at the Final Four in Berlin last spring. He also won the competition’s best coach award in 2016.
Itoudis presents a team that plays a high standard of basketball, either in individual play or with impressive collaborations. It’s worth noting that he was Zeljko Obradovic‘s close associate in Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens for 12 years, a period in which the Greens conquered five EuroLeague titles!
Blatt or Itoudis? Darussafaka or CSKA? The answers on Wednesday night! #GameOn!