Less than 48 hours after the big win in Istanbul, the fourth win in five years on the Fenerbahce homecourt, Olimpia returns to the Italian league where it has won six of the last seven games. It will play against Tortona with a summary preparation as always in these cases. During the current season it happens for the third time: in the previous two, Olimpia defeated Brescia and Napoli. Now, it will have to try to beat a team with three former players, against an extremely dangerous and ambitious team, which since arriving in the Italian League has always occupied the top positions, has always made the playoffs and was Olimpia’s opponent in an Italian Cup final. The roster available to Coach Messina is not changing since last Friday in Istanbul. In addition to the expected absences of Josh Nebo and Leandro Bolmaro, those of Diego Flaccadori (his next appearance will be his number 300 in the top league) and Stefano Tonut are confirmed: neither of them has yet recovered from the problems reported a few days ago. Freddie Gillespie will also be available, after making his debut in Istanbul. For Olimpia, this is the official game number 23, number 11 at the Unipol Forum and starts a week with four games all at home – this is the first, then two consecutive EuroLeague games will follow before the superclassic with Virtus Bologna – as well as a ruthless month with 11 games across the two competitions. “Recovering energy both mental and physical will be our priority tomorrow. They are coming from a tough stretch of games, but Tortona is always competitive. Offensively we need to stay efficient against their strategies; defensively we will have to take special care of their perimeter players,” assistant coach Mario Fioretti said.

Tip off time tomorrow will be 16:30

TORTONA OUTLOOK – Tommy Kuhse, a point guard who attended St. Mary’s college and last season was in Germany, is currently the leading scorer but also the leading passer and the best three-point shooter of his Tortona team. A starter in every single game, he is averaging 12.6 points and 3.6 assists per game, while shooting 42.9 percent from three-point range. The starting shooting guard is normally Christian Vital, a New Yorker who played at UConn and last year won the Fiba Europe Cup scoring crown playing for Legia Warsaw. Vital averages 12.1 points and 3.1 assists per game. The guard department is however very deep, with Leonardo Candi, Tommaso Baldasso (10.3 points per game, an astonishing 72.2 percent on twos) and Davide Denegri (4.1 points per game). At the small forward spot, there is plenty of room for Arturs Strautins, who perhaps is having the best season of his career, averaging 12.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, on 62.5 percent shooting on twos, 41.2 percent on threes. Veteran Kyle Weems is coming off the bench and brings to the table 7.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Power forward Luca Severini (3.9 points and 2.4 rebounds per game) is normally in the starting lineup but Justin Gorham (5.9 points and 5.0 rebounds on average) ends up playing more than him. Gorham, during the last season, was in Vilnius and won the Lithuanian championship. The centers are Ismael Kamagate (8.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, of which 3.1 are offensive, 1.1 blocks per game and is shooting 75.0 percent on twos) and Paul Biligha (5.3 points with 67.9 percent shooting from two, 2.1 rebounds per night). Finally, the experienced Andrea Zerini is rounding up the big men rotation.