After a promising week—a win over Venezia; a last-shot defeat in Barcelona without three starters; and a win over Paris Basketball, after leading for the entire game—Olimpia heads to the road for three consecutive games. The first is in Reggio Emilia—followed by a virtual back-to-back in Brescia and Istanbul—against an experienced team, historically dangerous on its home court, coming off a European defeat to Cibona and presumably very determined to bounce back. Olimpia is playing its third road league game out of five, after winning the first two, in Varese and Sassari. It’s a traditionally tough game, on one of the bets home court advantage in the Italian league, reminiscent of the 2016 championship game won on the same floor. Reggiana, coached by the veteran Dimitris Priftis for the third consecutive year, can count on an experienced Italian core (Michele Vitali, Luca Severini, Lorenzo Uglietti, and Tomas Woldetensae) and experienced foreign players like Jamar Smith, Troy Caupain, and Jaylen Bradford, although the shooter Kwam Cheatham is expected to be out. Olimpia will meet in the gym on Sunday morning before traveling to Reggio Emilia, and only then Coach Ettore Messina will make a decision on how to rotate his players.
COACH ALBERTO SERAVALLI – “Reggio Emilia is a team with a clear identity, based on an aggressive defense and defined offensive hierarchies. It will be important for us to space correctly and make the right decisions against their aggressiveness. Defensively, we’ll have to focus on both their go-to guys on the perimeter and the experience of the Italian veterans and the physicality of their big men, as well.”
REGGIO EMILIA OUTLOOK – Point guard Troy Caupain, who also played for Brescia, has been Reggiana’s most consistent player so far, averaging 13.5 points and 7.8 assists per game, as well as 3.5 rebounds and an extraordinary 43.5 percent shooting on nearly six attempts from beyond the arc per game. Alongside him, Coach Priftis—in his third year in Reggio Emilia—is using Jaylen Barford, another veteran of the Italian league (Pesaro, Roma, Cremona), who spent last year in Kuban, and who is currently the team’s leading scorer with 15.3 points per game (he is also averaging 4.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game). Tomas Woldetensae, who played at Virginia in the U.S.and has made some national team appearances, is in his first year at Reggio Emilia after a stint in Napoli (alongside Leonardo Totè) and three seasons in Varese. As a small forward, he is producing 4.5 points (shooting 44.4 percent on threes) and 5.5 rebounds per game. The power forward is the experienced Kwan Cheatham, who was in Reggio Emilia last year too and is a outside shooting specialist, although he is supposed to be out because of a late injury. He’s averaging 14.8 points per game, shooting 58.8 percent from two and 44.4 percent from three on 6.8 attempts per game. Center Jaime Echenique, a Colombian who played in the United States and in recent seasons in Lithuania, Greece, and Poland, is in his first Italian season. He’s averaging 10.8 points per game and grabbing 4.0 rebounds, but 2.8 of those are offensive. The sixth man is the experienced Jamar Smith, also retained from last year, who is averaging 5.5 points and 2.3 assists per game. Coming off the bench are three experienced Italians: point guard Lorenzo Uglietti, a tough defender (averaging 4.0 points), guard Michele Vitali (4.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game), and Luca Severini (4.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game). Finally, Bryson Williams, a forward from Texas Tech who spent last year in Poland, is averaging 8.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
