Following the victory achieved against AS Monaco in the EuroLeague and right before another big European clash against Fenerbahce, Olimpia is asked to play another edition of the Italian league classic against Virtus Bologna in a schedule with big games coming up fast and furious. This is the fourth game this season between the teams that competed in the last four Italian league championship series. Olimpia is 3-1 so far, but lost the league game in Milan and therefore approaches this clash one win shy of the rival team. Clearly, it is a game which, despite being only the fifth of the second half, will have a big influence on the playoff race: to try to overtake the “black and whites” in the standings, Milan will have to win in Bologna, otherwise the chances of doing so will be drastically reduced. Olimpia has won seven of the last eight games in Serie A, losing only to Venice, and in general in Italy, counting the Italian Cup, it has won nine of the last 11. But Bologna has won six of the last seven in the league and has only lost once at home, against Trieste. Compared to the Turin Italian Cup game, Ante Zizic will be available inside and Justin Holiday has had more time to adapt to European basketball. However, having eight foreigners, Bologna will have to leave one of them out in addition to the sidelined Will Clyburn. Olimpia won’t have the injured Josh Nebo and Leandro Bolmaro. “We face a team that we know well and they know us well too, because this is the fifth time we meet them. As a team, Virtus has more offensive options than everybody else in the Italian league and is also very aggressive defensively. Intensity, concentration and attention to details will be probably the key factors of the game,” assistant coach Mario Fioretti said after the last practice in Milan.

Tip off time on Sunday, March 2, 2025, is scheduled to be played at 18:15 in Bologna

BOLOGNA OUTLOOK – With no Will Clyburn, obviously, Virtus’ main player is Tornike Shengelia, a Georgian power forward with enormous experience who is averaging 13.8 points per game in the Italian league but over just 24.3 minutes of playing time. He also grabs 5.8 rebounds per game and is shooting 64.0 percent from two over six attempts on average. In the league he is shooting only 15.4 percent from three-point distance, but this is a false statistic because in the EuroLeague this season he is converting 39.0 percent of his attempts, so his original flaw is no longer such. The other player who averages in double figures in the league is Marco Belinelli, 39 years old, 12.3 points per game on 64.4 percent shooting on twos and 42.6 percent on threes in 20.4 minutes on the court, often coming off the bench. After Shengelia, the most used player in the Italian league is Isaia Cordinier, a silver medalist at the 2024 Olympics with France: he averages 9.3 points, 3.6 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game, shooting 60.8 percent from two. Virtus is obviously a deep team, with many options available on the perimeter: Matt Morgan (9.2 points per game with 40.9 percent from three) is a quick point guard and a shooter; Alessandro Pajola is one of the most highly rated defenders in Europe and he shoots 64.7 percent from two and adds to his 6.0 points per game average, 5.6 assists per game in 21.1 minutes on the court; the veteran Daniel Hackett (5.1 points and 2.1 assists per game) guarantees presence and physicality as a point man; Rayjon Tucker, last year in Venice, is a perimeter player with great athleticism and power (5.9 points per game) and finally there is Justin Holiday, a great shooter from outside. Shengelia is used both as a power forward and as a center. In the latter case, he can be joined by both Achille Polonara (6.7 points and 3.9 rebounds on average, 46.2 percent on threes) and Andrej Grazulis (6.1 points, 41.7 percent from three-point distance). The centers are Ante Zizic, who was sidelined for the Italian Cup game but is back now (he averages 8.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game), who is a lethal inside scorer (65.2 percent on twos) and offensive rebounder (2.2 on average), and Momo Diouf (6.9 points and 3.2 rebounds per game on 65.3 percent two-point shooting). The roster is completed by Riccardo Visconti and, among the big men, by Nicola Akele, who can play both forward positions.

THE BOLOGNA CONNECTION – Giampaolo Ricci played for Virtus Bologna for two seasons, winning the 2021 Italian championship as Captain. Nico Mannion played for Virtus for two seasons from 2021 to 2023 with 71 league appearances and 475 points scored. Daniel Hackett played in Milan for two years, winning the 2014 championship. Ettore Messina has coached in the Virtus youth team since the 1983/84 season when he was also Alberto Bucci’s assistant. He became head coach in the 1989/90 season and remained there up to and including the 1992/93 season, only to return in 1997 and remain there until 2002. In these two periods he won the Euroleague twice (1998 and 2001), the Cup Winners’ Cup once (1990), the Italian league three times (1993, 1998 and 2001), and three times the Italian Cup.