By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
A fiery week with 16 clashes in four days awaits us in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and among five games to get it started on Tuesday night is a very crucial game is going to take place at Fernando Buesa Arena. Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz, with a 11-7 record despite two defeats in a row, wants to return to winning ways and protect its home court against the “slayer of giants”, Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade!
The latter have a tremendous streak of five consecutive wins that has improved its record to 10-8 after having beaten Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, Zalgiris Kaunas, Fenerbahce Istanbul and Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, in that particular order! We are going to focus on the battle of the benches, where we find young head coaches with talent, with great “portfolios”, and with prospects of being seen in EuroLeague clubs for many years to come!
The Spaniard Sito Alonso, born in 1975, is in his second season in the EuroLeague. His debut as a top-level head coach was in 2008-09 with DKV Joventut, when he also debuted in the EuroLeague. That season’s 4-6 finish combined with his mark this year with Baskonia gives Alonso has an overall record of 15 wins and 13 defeats in Europe’s top competition!
He is a coach who serves modern ideas, pursues fast basketball and intervenes very often during games. It’s worth noting that he has also worked in the Spanish federation as well. In 2014, he was an assistant coach with the men’s national team and that same summer he was the coach of the under-17 national team. In 2013, as head coach of the under-20 national team, he won the bronze medal at the FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship.
On the other side, the Montenegrin coach Dejan Radonjic, born in 1970, is at the highest point of his career so far! This is his fourth season in the EuroLeague, all of them with Zvezda, and his overall record in the top league is 36 wins and 43 defeats.
He’s done a great job at Belgrade’s club, has won all recent domestic titles and has created a very tough and coherent team that no longer gets results only on their “hot” home court, but also away from it. He’s a coach who puts great emphasis on defense and controlling the pace, who creates teams with good chemistry, and who has a lot of well-worked plays for his offense in half-court situations.
As head coach of Buducnost Podgorica, Radonjic has won six championships and six national cups in Montenegro, while since 2013, when he moved to Zvezda, he counts two championships and two cups in Serbia, but also back-to-back titles in the Adriatic league in 2015 and 2016!
Radonjic made his mark on the EuroLeague and made history for Zvezda last season when he got his team to the EuroLeague playoffs for the very first time!
It’s a big game between two teams that are fighting for the qualification for the top eight and an interesting matchup on the benches with two coaches that represent different schools of basketball and have a great future ahead of them!