The EuroLeague season begins tomorrow, and Olimpia will try to keep its playoffs’ participation streak, started two seasons ago, going. The debut takes place at the Astroballe in Lyon, the historic home turf of Asvel Villeurbanne, the three-time French defending champions and with a roster that, to the traditional athleticism and the impressive size of Youssoupha Fall, added the experience of Nando De Colo and Joffrey Lauvergne. Both will give Coach TJ Parker a more versatile team. Both teams arrive at this game far from being at the top, which was inevitable at this point. Asvel has lost two of its first three games in the French league (however, they won the last one convincingly), Olimpia won against Brescia last Sunday in a game that was decided only very late. In addition, there are still injury problems to overcome: Naz Mitrou-Long, Gigi Datome and Tommaso Baldasso are not with the team. Kevin Pangos returned last Sunday from a stop and with a playing time restrictions. For Olimpia, the month of October will be very hard in the EuroLeague, because four of the five scheduled games will be on the road.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “It’s exciting to start this new and beautiful EuroLeague season. Obviously, we wished to be able to begin with our full roster, but the injuries will prevent us to do it, and it is something that we’ll deal with, like everyone else does during the season. To clarify, we intend to bring Shavon Shields with the team, but since he is coming off an injury the plan is fro him not to play in Lione and reinsert him starting next Sunday. The keys to this game will be our defensive transition against their athleticism and quickness, our dribble drives defense and then it will be essential to control the rebounding battle.”
NICOLO’ MELLI -” We are facing a very athletic team, that was certainly improved compared to last season, thanks to the addition of some experienced players. For us it would be important to start the season on a high note, especially on tough court. We will do whatever it takes to try to win during a time when obviously we cannot be at our best, because we are at the beginning of the season, with many new players, and on top of it some injuries have affected us.”
ASVEL VILLEURBANNE – Last year, after a great start, Asvel dropped down and was eliminated from the playoff race prematurely. However, they were able to close the season with their third consecutive French league championship. Compared to last year’s team, coach TJ Parker has been retained, guards Paul Lacombe and Antoine Diot, forwards Amine Noua and Charles Kahudi, the 2.21 center Youssoupha Fall (he shot 70.5 percent from two), as well as veteran David Lighty are back. Consequently, there are several new additions: the most relevant are represented by Nando De Colo and Joffrey Lauvergne, who returned to France after a long and eventful career abroad. Guard De Colo, the best free shooter in history with 93.5 percent (in this list, considering those who have shot at least 300 free throws only, Gigi Datome is fourth), is the third EuroLeague scorer ever. Lauvergne is a low post player and a great rebounder who last year, due to physical problems, was limited to just 13 appearances for Zalgiris. The other new players are EuroLeague rookies albeit with different levels of experience: Parker Jackson-Cartwright, a point guard, comes from a big college like Arizona and was in Bonn last year; guard Retin Obasohan is a veteran of the European leagues (he played for Avellino in Italy) and a Belgian international, who spent the last season at Hapoel Jerusalem; forward Anthony Polite grew up in Switzerland where his father played professionally, but has been in America for the past five seasons, playing at Florida State; Jonah Mathews is an athletic swingman who has played in Sweden and Poland (Wloclawek); Yves Pons is another French forward, of Haitian origins, coming back from a long American experience at Tennessee after spending come time with the Memphis Grizzlies. Here you’ll find everything you need to know about Olimpia’s story vs Asvel.
THE ASVEL CONNECTION – Kyle Hines and Nando De Colo played together for five years at CSKA Moscow, winning the EuroLeague in 2016 and 2019. DeShaun Thomas played alongside David Lighty in Nanterre during the 2013/14 season. Gigi Datome and Nicolò Melli played together with Joffrey Lauvergne at Fenerbahce. The French center was coached for a season by Ettore Messina at the San Antonio Spurs.
GAME NOTES – Nicolò Melli has grabbed at least five rebounds in 10 consecutive EuroLeague games. He is two offensive rebounds away from 300 for his career (he is 25th all-time). The Olimpia captain has grabbed 888 defensive rebounds in his career, two more than Adrien Moerman (Monaco) and one less than Viktor Khryapa, who is in the eighth place. Shavon Shields has scored at least one three in nine of his last 10 games. He is also 16 points behind Alessandro Gentile as fifth ever in Olimpia history for points scored in the EuroLeague, 809 to 825. Devon Hall has made at least one three in six consecutive games. Billy Baron has scored more than one three in nine of his last 10 EuroLeague appearances. Johannes Voigtmann is 17 rebounds shy of 1,000 for his career. Kevin Pangos has made at least one three in each one of his last 26 EuroLeague games. Pangos is also 10 points shy of 1,500 for his career. All of Kyle Hines relevant statistics are here.
