How experienced is each Final Four team?

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By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net

How experienced is each of the teams in the Final Four?

They say that the only thing you cannot teach is experience. And in Madrid will compete players and coaches with little, a lot or no experience in winning Euroleague Final Four games. Who are the most experienced and those with the most games and trophies?

Experience in these kinds of games can be important concerning the mental preparation of the players and the coaches, for the management of games or the responses in crucial moments. A lot has been decided because of the know-how. However, there will always be the example of teams (taking under consideration only the last few years) like Olympiacos in 2012 (only Vassilis Spanoulis and the substitute center Lazaros Papadopoulos had won the Euroleague in the past) or Maccabi last year (only David Blu had done it before) that did not have a lot of experience in Final Fours but made the big surprise. We take into account as participation even if a player took part only in one Euroleague game that season.

Let’s take a look then, at what these players and coaches of the four finalists have done in previous Final Fours.

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[lptitle title=”Fenerbahce“]

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It’s the team that has the fewest players with past experience in a Final Four environment. Nikos Zisis celebrated the trophy in 2008 in Madrid once again with CSKA, while the other trophy holder, Ricky Hickman, will watch from the sidelines with an injury. Also, Jan Vesely took part in the Final Four in Paris in 2010 with Partizan.

However, the Turks have the coach with the biggest experience and winning spirit in the history of European basketball. Zeljko Obradovic has the Midas touch in Europe having won the Euroleague eight times with four different teams. Will he do it once more with a fifth?

*He is injured and will not take part in the Final Four

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[lptitle title=”Real Madrid“]

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Seven players have been in a Final Four, not one of them however has ever won the Euroleague! Actually, everyone except for Giannis Bourousis has been in a Final Four but only with Real Madrid. The hosts of the tournament have lost in the final in the last two years, in 2013 to Olympiacos and last year to Maccabi, and this was experienced by the core of the six players (except for Bourousis) that got there in the last two years.

Real’s coach those two years was Pablo Laso who will try for a third time to win the Euroleague.

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[lptitle title=”CSKA Moscow“]

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CSKA’s players have the biggest experience in number of Final Four games played with Viktor Khryapa being the most experienced with eight participations and one Cup (in 2006 he was playing for the Blazers). So, the player with the most wins is Kyle Hines because of the two trophies he won with Olympiacos. A member of CSKA in 2008 was Andrey Vorontsevich, who is the third player who has won the Euroleague. Overall, seven additional players on the Russian team have taken part in a Final Four, but didn’t manage to win the trophy.

Dimitris Itoudis has in his collection (as Zeljko Obradovic’s close assistant in Panathinaikos) more trophies than all of his players. Not bad at all…

*As assistant of Zeljko Obradovic

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[lptitle title=”Olympiacos“]

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The backbone of the five Greek players for Olympiacos (Spanoulis, Printezis, Sloukas, Mantzaris, Katsivelis) that have experienced two European trophies, in 2012 in Istanbul and 2013 in London, automatically creates the team with the most Euroleague trophies among their players. The only player among them that didn’t compete in both Final Four is Vaggelis Mantzaris, who was injured in London.

Aside from these two Final Fours, Spanoulis has won the Euroleague once more wearing Panathinaikos’s jersey, making him the only player with such a large number of games that is undefeated in Final Fours! Also, Sloukas was in the Olympiacos team in 2009 and 2010, while Printezis only in Berlin. In addition, Tremmel Darden took part in last year’s Final Four with Real, while in 2013 he didn’t play against his current team, Olympiacos, because that year he wasn’t eligible to play in the Euroleague.

On the other side, Giannis Sfairopoulos has lived the Final Four experience once before, but at the side of Jonas Kazlauskas at CSKA Moscow in 2012, when they lost the trophy to his current team, Olympiacos.

*As assistant of Jonas Kazlauskas

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