The Italian Cup – held in Turin for the fourth consecutive season – is the most unpredictable competition in Italian basketball due to its very singular nature, its single-elimination format, and the timing of the competition. Over the last ten editions, seven different teams have won it (Torino, Cremona, Venezia, Brescia, Napoli, Trento, and Milano). Olimpia is the only team to have won multiple titles during this span (it has won it four times since 2016), but the last one dates back to the 2022 edition in Pesaro. In the last two years, Olimpia won the most mentally challenging games, but then fell in the championship game. Nothing is a given. Especially since this year’s competition features a team that has undergone significant roster changes in recent weeks (Napoli) and another that has just changed coach (Trieste). Olimpia faces Trieste, riding a streak of nine wins in the last 11 games, since its own coaching change. These wins have helped them climb the standings; five out of five have been obtained on the road. However, Olimpia has suffered several injuries in that span, resulting in many roster and configuration changes. It enters Wednesday’s quarterfinals with four players who just returned from injuries or ailments: Leandro Bolmaro and Stefano Tonut among the perimeter guys, and Josh Nebo and Ousmane Diop among the big men. All of them provided positive feedback during Cremona win, but in Turin the level of intensity, competitiveness, and tension will be significantly higher.

ITALIAN CUP NOTES – EA7 Emporio Armani Milano-Pallacanestro Trieste is going to take place in Inalpi Arena, in Torino, at 20:45 on Wednesday, February 18th. The other quarterfinal game between Brescia and Udine will indicate the next Olimpia’s opponent should Milan advance to the semifinals stage (Saturday, 20th, at 18:00).

THE REFEREES – Guido Giovannetti, Alessandro Perciavalle, Gianluca Capotorto.

COACH PEPPE POETA – “The first game of a knock-out competition is always the most complicated and unpredictable. Trieste – who has beaten us earlier in the season – is a team with a lot of talent and with enough weapons to create problema to anybody in a single-elimination game. We’ll need to set the tone, mentally and physically right from the beginning.”

TRIESTE OUTLOOK – Trieste (10-8 in the Italian league) has just replaced coach Israel Gonzalez with one of his former assistants, Francesco Taccetti. The team, which won its only previous matchup this season against Olimpia, 86-82, in Trieste, is deep, with plenty of talented guard and perimeter players and experience. Colbey Ross (averaging 11.0 points and 4.3 assists per game) is now a veteran of the Italian league, was the league MVP in Varese (but he also spent time in Tortona and is in his second season in Trieste). He is a creative point guard, excellent in one-on-one situations, and less gifted as a shooter (33.3 percent from three). His back-up is Michele Ruzzier (5.4 points and 3.3 assists per game), another experienced player, a symbol of Trieste basketball who plays with great competitiveness, speed, and is also capable of firing up as a shooter (35.4 percent from three). Guard Jahmi’us Ramsey (19.6 points per game, 59.3 percent on twos, 44.0 percent on threes on 6.1 attempts per game) comes from Texas Tech, where he teamed with Davide Moretti, also in Trieste now but injured and unavailable for the Italian Cup. In his first European experience, Ramsey is showing uncommon offensive skills, both as a shooter and as a one-on-one and transition player, so much so that he is currently the leading scorer in the league. Markel Brown, in his second year in Trieste like Ross, has been a very relevant player in Italy for years (Varese, Napoli, where he won an Italian Cup). He is a swingman with physicality, shooting, and intelligence. He is averaging 12.0 points per game on 37.3 percent shooting from three, and he adds 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Lodovico Deangeli (2.6 points per game) is another useful rotation players. Juan Toscano-Anderson is a Mexican forward who in recent years has had NBA experience, with Golden State, the Lakers, Utah, and Sacramento. He’s a multidimensional player, both in terms of position and skills. He’s averaging 10.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Another player who was in Trieste last year is power forward Jarrod Uthoff (who is averaging 8.3 points and 4.5 rebounds), a dangerous shooter (38.0 percent from three on 3.9 attempts, more than the shots he takes from two-point range). Francesco Candussi (who is averaging 5.5 points and 3.0 rebounds) is a center who can shoot from outside. Jeff Brooks is the team’s most experienced player, a veteran of many European leagues who spent time in Italy in Cantù, Milan, and Venezia. This year, he’s averaging 5.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He’s still a leaper, with good timing and great defensive skills. At the center, there is Mady Sissoko, a 2.11 mt tall leaper from Mali, who recently returned from and injury. He’s averaging 10.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game (third overall), shooting 64.9 percent from the field.

THE TRIESTE CONNECTION – Stefano Tonut, although born in Cantù, is from a Trieste family. His father Alberto played in Trieste in the 1980s; Stefano made his debut in the second league in Trieste before moving to Venezia. Jeff Brooks played for Olimpia from 2018 to 2021, won the Super Cup twice, the Italian Cup once, and also played in the 2021 Final Four: now, he is in his second season in Trieste. Davide Moretti, who played for Olimpia in the 2020/21 season, also plays in Trieste.

GAME NOTES – Armoni Brooks is the fourth-best scorer in the Italian league with 17.2 points per game, 27.6 points per 40 minutes on the court, the best figure among the top twenty scorers in the league. His 60 three-pointers made are the best in the league. Josh Nebo, with 6.7 per game, is the eighth-best rebounder in the league but the fourth-best offensive rebounder (3.0 on average). Nebo is also the second-best shot blocker in the league with 1.4 per game behind JT Thor of Reggio Emilia. Nebo also boasts the fourth-best plus/minus in the Italian league, +6.6 per game, +11.4 per 40 minutes on the court. In this category, the best overall is Shavon Shields: +8.2 on average in 25.5 minutes spent on the court, +12.9 per 40 minutes. He is ahed of Jordan Parks of Venezia and Amedeo Della Valle of Brescia.

TEAM NOTES – Olimpia has the best defense in the Italian league, allowing 77.1 points per game. It also allows the lowest team index-rating (80.5), the fewest rebounds (33.4 per game), and the worst shooting percentage from two-point range (49.3 percent). Olimpia is also second for offensive rebounds allowed (10.1, behind Reggio Emilia only), assists allowed (15.4, behind Udine), and it is second in field goal shooting percentage allowed (42.9 percent, behind Udine). Olimpia is also first in shot-blocked (1.9 per game), and has the best plus/minus in the league, at +7.9 per game.

COPPA ITALIA NOTES –Olimpia Milano has won the Italian Cup eight times in its history, like Virtus Bologna and Treviso, the other two teams that lead the list. It has played in 13 championship games (8-5), while its run has been stopped in the semifinals nine times. The first final dates back to the 1969/70 season, in Rome, where Olimpia was defeated 74-66 by Ignis Varese, who that season also secured the league title and the Champions Cup. The first win came in 1972, at the Pala Ruffini in Torino, against the same opponent but with a different outcome. Olimpia won 81-77. That season it also won the Cup Winners’ Cup and the league, where it defeated Varese in one game play-off in Rome. Olimpia then won in 1986 and 1987 on neutral court in Bologna, each time against Vuelle Pesaro. In 1996 Olimpia won the Final Four in Assago, defeating Verona in the final. To get the fifth victory we would have to wait until 2016, again at the Forum, with an 82-76 triumpg against Avellino. Olimpia repeated the feat the following season in Rimini, beating Sassari 84-74 in the final. Another double happened in 2021 and 2022, first in Milan and then in Pesaro, against Pesaro (87-59) and Tortona (78-61) respectively. Overall, Olimpia is 106-47 in Italian Cup games, equal to a 69.3 percent win rate. Rolando Blackman (1996), Rakim Sanders (2016), Ricky Hickman (2017), Gigi Datome (2021), and Malcolm Delaney (2022) are the Olimpia players who have been Italian Cup MVPs.