Olimpia makes its Italian league debut in a special city for its history, in a sports hall named after one of its founding fathers, the great Cesare Rubini. Olimpia enters this game fresh from the Super Cup triumph, with high morale and the awareness that there is still a lot of work to do while the first regular week includes two treacherous road games. After Trieste there will in fact be a trip to Monte Carlo for the start of the EuroLeague season. Let’s start from Trieste, where Olimpia arrived after a long bus trip to face a newly promoted team that seems equipped to do very well, with some very experienced players such as Jeff Brooks, Colbey Ross, Markel Brown, Michele Ruzzier. The game – tip off at noon on Sunday – will be played in a sold-out sports hall, in front of a competent and passionate audience and against two former players, Brooks and Denzel Valentine. Trieste is also the city where Stefano Tonut was raised: “To me it is a special game, coming here as an opponent, in front of a lot of friends, in a place where my father Alberto used to play and where I played myself, moving up from the youth teams to the first team. I’m happy they are in the top league again, this is where Trieste belongs. I’m rooting for them, of course.” Assistant coach Mario Fioretti pointed out that “we’ll need to control the pace and be patient in order to have also a good transition defense. They are consistently driving and kicking out the ball: containing theier penetration will be crucial to limit the number of open threes their shooters will take.”
TRIESTE OUTLOOK – Colbey Ross has been among the best players in the Italian league for two seasons. Two years ago, he was named MVP in Varese then he moved to Tortona (11.6 points and 5.0 assists on average in 2023/24). Guard Markel Brown played in Varese and Naples where last year he won the Italian Cup (12.2 points scoring average in the league). Denzel Valentine played in Australia last year before coming to Milan. Among the perimeter players there are the Italians Stefano Bossi, Michele Ruzzier and Luca Campogrande. The power forward is Jarrod Uthoff, who spent the last two seasons in Japan, and the center Jayce Johnson who comes from the G-League where he averaged in double figures for both points and rebounds and also boasts appearances with the U.S. national team in the continent’s qualifying tournaments. With them there are Jeff Brooks, Francesco Candussi and Lodovico De Angeli. The Mexican Justin Reyes, formerly in Varese (10.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game two years ago), in Trieste since last season, is a wild card who can play various position but was never available during the pre-season.
GAME NOTES – Shavon Shields is preparing to begin his fifth season in the Italian league wearing the Olimpia number 31 jersey. In the history of the club only one player, Mike D’Antoni, played six seasons registered as a foreigner (plus seven as an Italian). And only Kaleb Tarczewski played five seasons. Shields ties him up now. However, Tarczewski started “only” four seasons from the beginning while the fifth – actually the first – saw him on the only from the month of March for a total of 17 appearances. For seasons played as foreigners, the list therefore sees D’Antoni at the top with 6. He precedes Shavon Shields and Kaleb Tarczewski with 5. In fourth place we have Vlado Micov, Kyle Hines and Bob McAdoo with 4. D’Antoni, who is first in appearances with 455, played 281 of these games as a foreigner; in second place is Bob McAdoo with 146; in third Kaleb Tarczewski with 134. Shavon Shields, with 121, is currently fourth ahead of Joseph Blair’s 114 games played, fifth overall.
