The mental approach will have to be the same as a week ago. Olimpia returns to play in the Italian league, in a must-win game in Treviso, coming off a painful one-point defeat in the EuroLeague, perhaps even more painful than the previous one against Bayern due to the circumstances. But there is no time, in fact, to think too much about what happened, because in Villorba’s Palaverde another win is needed in order to take Olimpia closer to the Final Eight of the Italian Cup. It is a crucial game, because in the standings Treviso follows Olimpia by just one win, even if Milan has the same wins as Tortona and Trieste in a very close battle. Olimpia will obviously be without Josh Nebo. Treviso, after five consecutive defeats, had five wins in a row turning the season around before losing to Sassari last week but without one of its most relevant players, Osvaldas Olisevicius, a veteran of the Italian league who could return against Olimpia. “They have been playing well for six, seven games, they are in good shape with talented perimeter players and a physical center like Pauly Paulicap who has a lot of energy. We need to stay solid defensively and move the ball offensively limiting the number of turnovers, otherwise they will run out on the floor,” assistant coach Mario Fioretti said.
Tip-off time on Sunday 29, in Treviso, will be 17:00.
TREVISO OUTLOOK – Frank Vitucci, one of the most experienced coaches in the league, rotates four players out on the perimeter, namely Bruno Mascolo, Ky Bowman, D’Angelo Harrison and JP Macura, with the latter normally coming off the bench. Mascolo is averaging 11.7 points per game with 4.4 assists; Bowman is averaging 15.6 points, 4.0 assists on 47.0 percent three-point shooting on 5.5 attempts per game; D’Angelo Harrison adds 13.2 points per game with 41.5 percent on threes. He also has 3.6 assists and among these three players he is the most adapt, physically, to slide into the role of small forward. The fourth winger is JP Macura, 8.6 points per game, who is recovering after a one-year hiatus due to injuries. David Torresani can complete the rotation. The forwards are Osvaldas Olisevicius, a Lithuanian with great size and now a very experienced player, who did not play in Sassari in the last round due to injury but so far he has been the most consistent player (18.1 points per game, 48.2 percent from three on 5.1 attempts, 3.8 rebounds per game); and Justin Alston, 8.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. The center, returning from last year’s squad, is Pauly Paulicap (7.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game), a remarkable offensive rebounder. Andrea Mezzanotte completes the rotation of the big men (14.7 minutes of use, 5.1 points per game) together with the veteran Valerio Mazzola who, however, due to injury, has only played five games so far. Francesco Pellegrino was signed precisely to fill this gap.
TREVISO CONNECTION – Ettore Messina coached in Treviso for three years, during his time at Benetton, winning a championship and reaching a EuroLeague championship game in 2003, a road loss to Barcelona. In those three years he won the Italian Cup three times. The current team inherited the role of Pallacanestro Treviso despite being a completely new club. Giordano Bortolani played in Treviso on loan two seasons ago, winning among other things the Fiba BCL Best Young player award. Bortolani scored 11.8 points per game in the Italian league, 354 total points over 30 appearances with Treviso. David Torresani, 19 years old, started playing minibasketball at Olimpia before his family moved abroad and then returned to Treviso.
