Olimpia returns to the court after Vigevano’s debut (against Tortona) and the level of difficulty is getting higher. In Cagliari, in a tournament that is becoming a traditional part of the Milano pre-season, Olimpia faces on Saturday (tip-off at 18:00) a EuroLeague team, Asvel Villeurbanne which has two games under its belt (Roanne and Dijon) and is announced almost at full strength. The only missing player will be Nando De Colo, the guard who could soon become the EuroLeague all-time leading scorer. However, all the other players from Coach TJ Parker’s roster should be available. Dinamo Sassari and Red Star Belgrade are the other teams participating to Cagliari tournament. Olimpia will face one of these two on Sunday evening. Sassari wont’ have Eimantas Bendzius; Red Star is without Davidovac, Tobey, Simonovic and Yago Dos Santos. All of them were with the national teams.

Asvel Villeurbanne has already shown during the preseason the offensive talent of Frank Jackson, a guard who played for years in the NBA where he has 214 appearances and in the 2021/22 season, in Detroit, averaged 10.6 points per game. Jackson, who scored 25 points in Villeurbanne’s last outing, was the French club’s “other” big summer addition after power forward Mike Scott, a “stretch 4” with 555 NBA appearances. Paris Lee, who was at Panathinaikos last summer, is the aggressive point-gaurd of the team which will also have Tim Luwawu-Cabarrot, the veteran David Lighty, and the experienced veteran Charles Kahudi among the wingers. Joffrey Lauvergne and the 2.21 Youssapha Fall will split minutes at the center.

Olimpia will have the same team that won in Vigevano and implemented for several minutes a line-up featuring Nikola Mirotic as the nominal 3. Samuele Miccoli, who played in the Under 18 European Championships over the summer, will act as the third point guard in place of the Greek Vassilis Mouratos, who left the group. Vojislav Stojanovic is still on the team as an add-on and with there will be also the Romanian Under 18 international, Denis Badalau. In the first outing, Nikola Mirotic, Shavon Shields, and Alex Poythress scored 65 points combined and immediately looked brilliant, but generally speaking Olimpia had five men in double figures, including the two guards who came off the bench, Diego Flaccadori and Giordano Bortolani.

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