Olimpia is licking its wounds before returning to the court in the Varese derby. The situation isn’t much different from last week: the team is playing less than 48 hours after the battle with Monaco and right before embarking on a tour of three more consecutive road games, in Munich, Kaunas, and Sassari. So the first challenge will be finding the resources to play a solid game and boost the collective mood after the frustration coming from three one-possession losses. Varese is coming off a solid win in Sassari and will be playing in front of its home crowd for the first time, fully motivated by the situation and the derby. It will also be a special night for Bryant Dunston, who spent the last season of his pre-EuroLeague career in Masnago before embarking on a legendary journey,. During that season, Varese reached the Italian Cup final and was eliminated in seven games in the semifinal against Siena. “It was a year in which I had the privilege of being coached by an understanding yet demanding coach like Frank Vitucci, alongside selfless players who cared only about the team’s wins,” says Dunston. The following season, he joined Olympiacos in the EuroLeague and has remained there ever since.
COACH ALBERTO SERAVALLI – “We will face a team with a clear identity, built on small line-ups, unconventional bigs and the tendency of using the three-point shot as the 105 points that they scored in Sassari are demonstrating. For us the key will be using our physicality and defensive attention to limit their strengths and produce enough transition points.”
OPENJOBMETIS VARESE OUTLOOK – Varese started the season with a convincing win in Sassari, with key players like Davide Alviti and Oliver Nkamhoua in a prominent role. Alviti, a shooter who has been playing in Serie A for six seasons now, hit five three-pointers in Sassari and finished with 26 points, two fewer than Nkamhoua, a Finnish power forward with excellent shooting ability who played in the last European Championships, finishing in fourth place. Last year, he played in Germany, but previously spent a long time in the U.S., finishing his college career at Michigan. Point guard Stefan Moody is a thirty-two-year-old who has played in many different leagues, most recently in Albania with Sagesse, but before that, he also played in China. Guard Taze Moore, after leaving Houston University, attempted to stay in the NBA, earning a brief stint in Portland. While he appeared in Göttingen early in his career, Varese represents his real first experience abroad. The starting line-up is completed by Elisee Assui, a European Under 20 champion with the Italian national team, a forward with great physical strength, originally from the Ivory Coast but a Varese product as a player. The other guard, Allerik Freeman, came off the bench in Sassari but is the team’s most experienced player, having gained experience in Villeurbanne, Moscow, Turkey, and even Venezia. The fifth foreign player is center Nate Renfro, who played in Sassari last year, another experienced player, who is injured and hasn’t been able to play yet The rotation also includes shooter Matteo Librizzi and center Max Ladurner.
VARESE CONNECTION – Nico Mannion played 21 games with Varese, spanning two seasons, and scored 445 points on top dishing out 136 assists. Bryant Dunston played in Varese the 2012/13 season, had 41 Italian league appearances, 581 points scored e 304 rebounds taken. Davide Alviti, who has been with Varese for two years now, played 66 games with Olimpia between 2021 and 2023, winning two league titles and one Italian Cup. He scored 176 points in Italian league games.
