It will never be a game like any other in Sassari. Since Dinamo was promoted to the top Italian league in 2010, the paths of these two teams have crossed countless times, often with high stakes: six times in the playoffs, twice in an Italian Cup final, once in a Supercup final. Much of the recent history of Olimpia and Dinamo automatically involves the other team, ever since Travis Diener led his team to Sassari’s first playoff win ever in 2011, right here in Milan. Olimpia, coached by Dan Peterson, responded by winning the next three games, but it was still a battle. In 2014, on the road to the first championship of the Armani era, Olimpia needed six games and three road wins to eliminate Meo Sacchetti’s team. A year later, it was Sassari who wrested the “Scudetto” from Olimpia’s jerseys by winning a controversial Game 7 in Milan, ending a series in which Olimpia had come back from a 1-3 deficit to tie it up 3-3 with the match-point at home. That season, Sassari won everything in Italy and did so by practically beating Olimpia every time. That was the moment when the rivalry—always with mutual respect—reached its peak. But there have been other chapters, such as Olimpia’s win in the Italian Cup championship game in Rimini, Sassari’s win in the 2019 semifinal series, and then Olimpia’s revenge in two more semifinals, each won 3-0 in 2022 and 2023. This time, Olimpia landed in Sassari after a week spent entirely on the road, with an enormous use of physical and mental energy on top of multiple players missing. The team reached Sardinia on Friday evening and practiced in Alghero today before departing by bus for Sassari. Dinamo is a wounded team – it lost a very close game in Lisbon during the week – but with a clear identity; they will play an emotional game, following the speed of Desure Buie and the leadership coming from the bench of “our” Massimo Bulleri. It will be a special game for the former Sassari player Ousmane Diop who is coming off a productive week in the EuroLeague, he didn’t play much but was useful as a nominal power forward. It will a special game for Leonardo Totè, too. After nursing some injuries, he is healed and will be able to finally make his debut with Olimpia. Totè spent the week working individually in Milan and reached the team directly in Sardinia.
Tip-off on Sunday, October 19th, will be at noon.
COACH ALBERTO SERAVALLI – “Sassari has a good offensive potential, Buie and Thomas are their main go-to guys. We anticipate an aggressive on their traditionally tough court. We need to be ready to match their intensity and establish our physicality in order to stay consistent with the type of collective cohesion we showed in Kaunas.”
BANCO DI SARDEGNA SASSARI OUTLOOK – Sassari lost its first two games, at home to Varese and then in Cremona, after leading for most of the time. Stats show it’s sixth for points scored and third for assists dished, so it is not a team without quality. It plays at a high tempo and is even more dangerous on its own court and against a team coming off a week spent on the road. Coach Massimo Bulleri used four players in his starting line-up for both games: Desure Buie, Nick McGwynn, Carlos Marshall, and Rashawn Thomas. Buie, a 6-foot-1 point guard from New York who played at Hofstra, had excellent European stints in Slovakia in Lubenec and last year in Klaipeda, Lithuania. He’s a great scorer, averaging 17.5 points on 38.5 percent shooting from three in his first two games, and over six three-point attempts per game. Finally, at a high pace, he’s also a great passer, already averaging 8.5 assists per night. Also from Klaipeda is the big guard Nate Johnson (he averages 13.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game), who can also play at the small forward spot as an alternative to Carlos Marshall Jr., who came out of Santa Clara in 2024 and spent his rookie year in Israel in Netanya. In his first two games, he’s averaged 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds. Nick McGwynn, a big man who played for Rhodes, Greece, last year, has averaged 16.0 points in his first two games with Sassari. Thomas, retained from last year, is an experienced power forward (currently averaging 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game), possessing great physicality. Lithuanian Laurynas Beliauskas could be a replacement for Nate Johnson in the starting five: he’s a traditional two-guard who played in several European leagues, in Spain with Obradoiro, in Germany with Frankfurt, in Greece with PAOK Thessaloniki, and in Poland with Warsaw before briefly returning to his homeland, with Utena last season. In his first two games, he’s scored 22 points overall, showcasing his key skill: his outside shooting. Shooting specialist Alessandro Zanelli, now a veteran of the league, completes Sassari’s lineup of perimeter players. Among the big men, they have Andrea Mezzanotte, a stretch center, and Luca Vincini, who’s off to a strong start (9.5 points, 4.5 rebounds per game). Finally, there’s also Marco Ceron, an experienced swingman.
THE SASSARI CONNECTION – Ousmane Diop made his Serie A debut with Sassari in 2018 and remained there until 2024, albeit with two seasons on loan in between. In 2024, he left Sassari to move to Milan. Sassari’s head coach, Massimo Bulleri spent part of five seasons playing for Olimpia during his playing days.
