Cup semifinal match in bamberg is a crisis summit
The semifinal in the basketball cup competition mutates into a crisis summit. In the game between brose bamberg and telekom baskets bonn on sunday at 6 p.M. In the brose arena, two teams will face each other that are not doing so well at the moment. On both sides, the modest performances in the past weeks had led to personnel consequences. While the bamberg team parted ways with coach ainars bagatskis, the bonn team even went one better. In addition to coach predrag krunic, the previous top scorer ra'shad james also had to go.
"After another mentally and athletically desolate performance in the champions league match against fribourg, we saw no other way than to suspend predrag krunic", baskets president wolfgang wiedlich welcomed the separation from the coach on thursday. Two days earlier, in their home match against the swiss champions, the bonners had given a similarly anemic performance as the bamberger jungst against vechta, which resulted in the end for bagatskis. The 63:70 defeat by fribourg means that the rheinlanders, who had suffered a heavy 56:103 defeat in nanterre a week earlier, no longer have a chance of reaching the eighth finals of the champions league. In the national league, they are tenth in the table, with seven wins and eight defeats, and are also lagging behind their own expectations.
Co-coach takes over for the time being
In the cup match in bamberg, co-coach chris o'shea will be in charge of the bonn team. The successor of krunic they want to present as soon as possible. Talking to former bamberger center chris ensminger, currently coach in the junior basketball league at BBU allgau/memmingen, and sasa nadjfeij, who was recently dismissed from the second division team tigers tubingen.
After the separation of bagatskis, the bambergers have first put their trust in federico perego. But the debut of the previous co-trainer went wrong. The brose basketball players conceded the next clear defeat with 67:84 at BC lietkabelis in lithuania on wednesday. "We are working very hard at the moment to improve ourselves. My players really give their all", says the italian, who expects "a difficult game" against the bonners expected.
Rubit and heckmann questionable
Both teams want to take a first step out of the crisis and keep their chance of winning the first title of the season by reaching the cup final. However, the bambergers are again threatened by the absence of top scorer augustine rubit (thigh injury) and patrick heckmann (ligament strain). The bonners, on the other hand, do without the services of their best thrower. Ra'shad james, who averaged 14.9 points per game, asked for his contract to be terminated after the loss to olympic fribourg because he was not happy with his role in the team. The same was true for the telekom baskets in view of the wing player's stubborn style of play.
In the 70-77 defeat in the bundesliga match in bamberg just over a month ago, james came up with eleven payers. The brose basketball team decided the game in the third quarter, which they won clearly with 25:11. The recent performances of the two unsettled teams suggest, however, that the cup duel could remain exciting right to the end. Therefore, brose coach perego also hopes for the support of the fans: "especially in the difficult moments, it gives us a lot of energy."
