By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
Only a few days had gone by since the historic first title win in the Liga Endesa and the latest surprise, not just in Spain but in the whole of Europe, was a fact: Pedro Martinez was no longer Valencia’s coach. At the same time, Baskonia had made a surprise of their own by becoming the first team of Pablo Prigioni’s coaching career. Since then, the only surprise was not so much the results and the acceptance of the latter’s resignation on October 26, but the fact that the “Coach of the Year” in the EuroCup and “Coach of the Year” in Spain for 2017 was still unemployed. Until the next day.
And suddenly, Vitoria’s team started getting better. And they continue to do so, in every way: from the initial 2-3 to the overall 9-6 in the Liga Endesa and from the initial 0-4 to the overall 8-9 in the EuroLeague.
This last 8-5 under his instructions became even more impressive after the already impressive +32 win over Olympiacos (86-54), while under his instructions Baskonia had also beat Panathinaikos (85-84) when he returned on the benches of the EuroLeague (3-1 at the start of the 2005-06 season). In general, impressive results, like the +30 over Real Madrid (105-75) and +20 over Zalgiris Kaunas (77-97), abound in the “Pedro Martinez” era, while disappointing ones, like the -7 to Armani Milan (92-85), do not.
BEFORE PEDRO MARTINEZ vs. AFTER PEDRO MARTINEZ
66,8 OFFENSE 85,5
76,8 DEFENSE 80,8
If the EuroLeague started after Round 4, the Basque team would be one win away from the Top 4 instead of one win away from the Top 8, like they are now.
EUROLEAGUE 2017/18 – STANDINGS
REALITY “PEDRO MARTINEZ” SCALE
CSKA Moscow 13-4 CSKA Moscow 10-3
Panathinaikos 12-5 Panathinaikos 10-3
Olympiacos 12-5 Fenerbahce 9-4
Real Madrid 11-6 Zalgiris Kaunas 9-4
Fenerbahce 11-6 Baskonia 8-5
Zalgiris Kaunas 11-6 Olympiacos 8-5
Maccabi Tel Aviv 9-8 Real Madrid 7-6
Khimki 9-8 Maccabi Tel Aviv 7-6
Baskonia 8-9 Unicaja 6-7
Unicaja 7-10 Khimki 6-7
Crvena Zvezda 7-10 Barcelona 5-8
Barcelona 6-11 Anadolu Efes 5-8
Bamberg 6-11 Crvena Zvezda 5-8
Anadolu Efes 5-12 Armani Milan 3-10
Armani Milan 4-13 Valencia 2-11