This is a top-seeded matchup, although it is relatively unimportant on the sixth round of the regular season; perhaps it will be more meaningful later in the season when the standings become more defined. In Brescia, Olimpia is playing against a team legitimately in contention for the championship: Germani has retained the same roster that reached the championship series, with the core players unchanged and the team made overall better by the addition of CJ Massinburg. For years now, Germani has been part of the elite of Italian basketball (one Italian Cup triumph, one championship series, and two other playoff semifinals, both against Olimpia), a status that was confirmed by winning the first four games of the season right after playing the Super Cup final in Milan. Olimpia has a strong history against Brescia: it beat them three times last year, and again in the Super Cup final. But this game is more challenging, as it can only be played while managing the load on the eve of the team’s departure for Istanbul and another tough EuroLeague battle against Anadolu Efes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to move it up 24 hours to separate the game from the trip to Turkey. This is Olimpia’s fourth road game out of six, with all three of them won so far. The team played well last Sunday in Reggio Emilia, despite missing two of its most effective players so far, Leandro Bolmaro and Devin Booker, for load management reasons. However, Zach LeDay and Josh Nebo were recovered. In fact, the only player unavailable at this time is Lorenzo Brown. But the coaching staff’s decisions in terms of roster will be affected by the two games ahead, plus next Sunday’s game against Treviso, with no rest in between. Naturally, it will be a special night for Peppe Poeta, who will meet his Brescia team, along with the fans who have supported him in his first season as head coach.
Tip-off time in Brescia will be 18:30 on Wednesday, 5th of November.
COACH ALBERTO SERAVALLI – “Brescia has retained nine of the ten players that made the championship series last season and can rely on experienced and high IQ guys like Della Valle, Ivanovic and Bilan, along with physical players like Rivers, Massinburg, Ndour and Burnell. Defensively, we need to pay attention to their pick and roll and low post game. Offensively we intend to keep the tempo high, as we have been doing lately, making quick decisions and moving the ball fast.”
BRESCIA OUTLOOK – Germani is the team that has made the least changes in the Italian league, retaining nine players from last season’s second-place team and then simply replacing Chris Dowe with CJ Massinburg, who was a Brescia player the previous season. The other change, of course, was the replacement of Coach Peppe Poeta with his former assistant Matteo Cotelli. The team is built around an untouchable starting five: Nikola Ivanovic and Amedeo Della Valle at the guards; Demetre Rivers at small forward; Maurice Ndour at power forward; and Miro Bilan at center. Ivanovic is a point guard with personality, who is averaging 15.8 points and 3.8 assists per game and shooting three-pointers with great accuracy (48.5 percent). Della Valle is the team’s charismatic leader and has been one of the league’s most effective scorers for years. He is averaging 16.3 points per game and is shooting 41.0 percent from three-point range on 6.5 attempts. Not only is he virtually automatic from the free throw line (96.3 percent) but he also manages to earn 4.5 trips per game. Finally, he’s also dishing out 3.8 assists per game. Rivers is the starting small forward, but of the five starters, he’s the one with the least amount of playing time per game (under 24 minutes). He’s averaging 6.0 points per game. Ndour is an outstanding mid-range shooter, even from the low post. He averages 11.0 points, attempting 8.5 two-pointers per game, while adding 5.3 rebounds per game. Bilan is one of the greatest low-post players of the last few seasons. He’s 36 years old, but he’s still averaging 27.5 minutes per night on the court, scoring 12.7 points per game, with 2.2 offensive rebounds, 7.3 total rebounds per game, on top of making 62.0 percent of his twos. CJ Massinburg and Jason Burnell are the two key players coming off the bench. Massinburg is a physically powerful combo guard who averages 12.7 points per game on 66.7 percent shooting from two and 40.0 percent from three, although he doesn’t shoot much from beyond the arc. Burnell is a crucial player, having huge experience in the Italian league and is a strong low-post player at both small forward and power forward positions. He averages 14.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. He’s shooting 57.4 percent on twos (7.8 attempts) and earning 4.3 free throws per game. The rotation is completed by David Cournooh (3.5 points per game) and Joseph Mobio among the big men.
BRESCIA CONNECTION – Olimpia assistant coach Peppe Poeta is fresh from a stint as head coach at Brescia, where he reached the championship series, losing to Virtus Bologna. The Brescia team includes Amedeo Della Valle, who played 48 Italian league games in two seasons with Olimpia Milano. Leonardo Totè played for Brescia during the 2015/16 season.
