The first title of the season will be handed starting from tomorrow in Bologna. At the final stage of the Italian Super Cup, Olimpia comes as the defending champion of a trophy won four times in history, but only after two official games, those sustained last weekend in Paris. On top of that, Troy Daniels won’t be available because of a last-minute injury. The opponent in the quarterfinals is Nutribullet Treviso, who have won its group as undefeated, after beating Napoli and Brescia twice each. Olimpia will play in the third of the four games scheduled at the Unipol Arena, with tip-off time at 18:00.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “It is an event that everyone cares very much about, we are still a little behind in terms of developent, because we have chosen, given the length of the season, to start a little later and some players are still settling down. Our goal therefore is to grow over the course of the competition, day after day, of course if we’ll be good enough to start with a win. Treviso played very well in the qualifying round, played well in the BCL preliminary round and indeed we wish them to win the last game tonight as well. It is an organized team, all individuals always know what to do, and consequently we are aware that we will have to play a high-level game to win it.”
TREVISO – Treviso is also involved in the preliminary rounds of BCL, so it is the Italian team that has played the biggest number of official games. Compared to the team that reached the playoffs last season, the returning players are point guard Dewayne Russell, guard Michal Sokolowski, center Matteo Chillo, the other point guard Matteo Imbrò and forward Nicola Akele. Russell last year scored 12.2 points per game and averaged 5.2 assists per game, Sokolowski was 44.4 percent shooter from three, and was also able to add 4.3 rebounds per game, Imbrò had 8.4 points with 3.1 assists in 19 minutes on the court, Chillo averaged 6.2 points and 3.2 rebounds in 19 minutes per game. Finally, Akele – who has appeared on the National team, too – last season had 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Among the newcomers, the center Henry Sims stands out, along Giordano Bortolani. He is playing for the fourth Italian team of his career, after Cremona, Fortitudo and Reggio Emilia. In Italy, he’s averaging 12.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. The Lithuanian swingman Tomas Dimsa and the center Aaron Jones, who boasts a long European career, most recently in Cholet, are new to the league.
HISTORY VS. TREVISO – Technically, today’s Treviso team is not an emanation of the old Benetton so this would be only the fifth game between the two teams. However, there have been 75 more games between Olimpia and the team from Treviso. Olimpia is leading the all-time series 41-34, 27-8 in Milan, 14-26 in Treviso. The same teams also met in four playoff series. In 1988/89 the first time was in the quarterfinals, 2-0 Olimpia; in 1998/99, Treviso won 3-0 again in the quarterfinals stage; in 2004/05, semifinal, Olimpia won 3-2; the following year in the quarterfinals the result was reversed, 3-2 for Treviso. In the last two years the record is 4-0 for Milan.
THE TREVISO CONNECTION – Ettore Messina coached in Treviso for three years, during the Benetton era, winning a championship and reaching a EuroLeague championship game in 2003, a game lost to Barcelona. The current team is representing Treviso basketball despite being a completely new club. Davide Alviti played in Treviso for two years, during the first he contributed to the promotion to Serie A, in the second he averaged 5.4 points per game with 47.9 percent from three. Max Menetti, the Treviso coach, coached Reggio Emilia against Olimpia in the 2016 Italian league finals and in the 2015 Supercup final. Olimpia won the series in six games, Reggio Emilia won the Supercup. Giordano Bortolani, 21, a shooting guard, grew up in the Olimpia youth academy and plays for Treviso on loan. Bortolani averaged 12.1 points during the Supercup qualifying round shooting 78.6 percent from two (11/14), 46.7 percent from three (7/15), 80.0 percent from the line (8/10) over 21.5 minutes per game.
