Olimpia takes the floor in the Italian Cup,Coach Messina: Small details crucial in elimination games

Olimpia will be the first team to take the floor in Turin, on Wednesday, in the Italian Cup tournament that every year at mid-season involves the best eight teams of the Italian league standing after 15 of the 30 rounds scheduled in the regular season. Olimpia, the number 1 seed, will face Brescia, the number 8, as the two-time defending champions. Despite its huge history and tradition, Olimpia has never won the Cup three times in a row. The so-called Final Eight format is very simple: it is a knock-out tournament. You win and advance, you lose and go home. Olimpia is entering the Cup riding a five-game winning streak among the EuroLeague and the Italian league regular season. Last Sunday, it won on the road in Varese with a brilliant collective effort and its usual defensive efficiency. "Fluidity is what I liked the most of that game," Coach Ettore Messina remarked.

Olimpia’s head coach has won an amazing nine Italian Cups, three in Bologna, three in Treviso and two in Milan including obviously the last two. The first round opponent, Brescia, has lost uncharacteristically six straight games in the Italian league, but three of them by small margins while coping with some injuries. At the same time, Brescia has won the last two Eurocup games. The team is built around Amedeo Della Valle (one of the best scorers, 16.1 points per game, in the league), Kenny Gabriel, a stretch 4 who can rebound (7.2 per game, 6.1 of them are defensive rebounds) and the two-way specialist John Petrucelli. The latter was injured for some time but has made a huge return over the last couple of weeks. The rest of the team is very experienced, with veterans like David Moss, Christian Burns, David Cournooh, Nicola Akele, Michael Cobbins plus the super athletic center Tai Odiase and guard CJ Massinburg.

The two teams faced each other during last season’s Italian Cup, in the semifinal game that Olimpia won over the last five minutes. This season, the two teams met in the very first regular season round in Milan. Olimpia won by one single point. Brescia led most of the game, Olimpia took over in the fourth, built a solid lead before throwing it away. Brescia had an opportunity in the last possession, but Nicolò Melli came from nowhere to block the point-black shot attempted by Kenny Gabriel and protected the win. It was more than four months ago and a lot of things have changes since, including some players for both teams. Olimpia won’t have the injured Shavon Shields, Kevin Pangos and Tommaso Baldasso, of course. "I was worried about the team failing to understand our main traits after so many changes and injuries, but the work done during the week paid off on Sunday," Coach Messina said after the big win in Varese.

However, the Italian Cup history is full of unexpected events. "Every team gong to Turin has a chance – Messina said – As of now, we are thinking only about the first game and Brescia. In every elimination game small details are going to be crucial, like limiting turnovers, not allowing offensive rebounds, too many free throws or easy transition points."

The other first round game on Wednesday will feature Varese and Pesaro. On Thursday Bologna-Venezia, Derthona-Trento will complete the quarterfinals stage. The semifinals will be on Saturday and the championship game will take place on Sunday.