Olimpia returned today from Barcelona and is going to move imediately to Varese for one of the super classics of Italian basketball, two teams that battled for many years including five tie-breaking games to decide the championship before the playoffs were introduced. Going on the court less than 48 hours after the previous EuroLeague game, especially after a road game in general but especially this season, has always been an hard thing to do for Olimpia from a mental standpoint. But after the home defeats against Tortona and Bologna, getting back on track in the Italian league would be very important, facing a team like Varese who will predictably play with a great sense of urgency. From a basketball point of view, Olimpia is certainly healthy, as demonstrated by the six consecutive EuroLeague wins, the great triumph of Barcelona in which they scored 54 points in the second half including the extraordinary 36-point explosion in the third period that turned the game around. So, morale is high, but physical and mental energy will be needed to defeat Varese, a team that plays at a very high pace and has many shooters including the former Olimpia swingman Davide Alviti. Speaking of former players, it will be an emotional day for Nico Mannion who began the season in Varese and for Willie Caruso who spent two years in Varese after returning from his American experience in Santa Clara. “We need to recover fast from the Barcelona game and on the court controlling the tempo and protecting the paint to avoid their kickout passes for open threes will be crucial,” assistant coach Mario Fioretti said.
Tip-off time will be 17:00 in Varese
VARESE OUTLOOK – Varese changed several players during the course of the season compared to the team that Olimpia had faced in a pre-season scrimmage. The point guard is now Keifer Sykes (7.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in his first two games) who Olimpia knows well both for his brief time in red and white and for having faced him as an opponent when he was in Avellino. The guard is Jaylen Hands, the team’s leading scorer with 18.1 points per game. He averages also 5.0 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. Hands takes 7.5 three-pointers per game. The guard rotation is completed by Matteo Librizzi, 10.8 points per game with 44.1 percent from three-point territory, a shooting specialist. The small forward is Justin Gray (8.9 points, 61.9 percent on twos, 3.6 rebounds on average) who shares time with Davide Alviti (12.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game), who is shooting 38.2 percent from three on almost seven attempts per game. Alviti also takes minutes as a power forward, a spot where the starter is Jaron Johnson (11.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game), who attenpts 6.7 shots from beyond the arc, too. The center is Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiougu (8.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game on average), a super athletic player (1.9 blocks per game) in a position where, however, the veteran Alex Tyus has just arrived. He has had three games so far with 3.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Tyus is a tremendous offensive rebounder. Nicolò Virginio, Abdel Fall, and the promising Elisse Assui may also have minutes.
VARESE CONNECTION – Guglielmo Caruso played 49 Italian league games in Varese over two seasons with 349 points scored. Nico Mannion had 21 games in Varese, split across two seasons with 445 points scored and 136 assists dished. Davide Alviti, in his first year in Varese, played 66 games with Olimpia between 2021 and 2023, winning two Italian league championships and one Italian Cup, scoring 176 points in the league. Keifer Sykes played six games for Olimpia in the Italian league, scoring 83 points and 22 assists during the 2019/20 season.
