Olimpia’s EuroLeague journey begins in Istanbul with a tough road game: Fenerbahce is among the most ambitious teams and has just debuted in the Turkish league with a reassuring big win. Dimitris Itoudis’ team is one of the deepest and the Greek coach is in his second season in Istanbul. After Zeljko Obradovic’s departure, no one coached Fenerbahce for two consecutive years. Two of the coaches with the most impressive CVs face each other, here. Itoudis is fifth all time for games won in the EuroLeague, Ettore Messina is second. During the summer, Fenerbahce tried to increase the physicality of the team in the paint by signing two pure centers, the intimidating Georgios Papagiannis, second-best in blocks last year, and Sertac Sanli, coming from Barcelona, who vice versa is fearsome as a stretch shooter, without depriving themselves of Johnathan Motley, one of the great newcomers of last season, who can double up and play both as a power forward and as a center. The guards are second to none in terms of quality, with Scottie Wilbekin, Tony Dorsey, Marko Guduric, as well as forwards Dyshawn Pierre and Nigel Hayes-Davis. Olimpia, which will reach Naples directly from Istanbul, unfortunately does not get to this game at its best. Added to the expected absence of Billy Baron was that of Maodo Lo. So, it will be Kevin Pangos, Diego Flaccadori and Devon Hall who will take the necessary minutes at the point. However, two of the team’s best three-point shooters are missing. Baron averaged 5.1 three-pointers last year, with 40.3 percent of accuracy. Maodo Lo also attempted five threes per game while in Berlin. Tip-offi time, on Friday 6 October, is 7.45pm Italian time at the Ulker Arena.
THE REFEREES – Sasa Pukl (Slovenia), Carlos Peruga (Spain), Uros Nikolic (Serbia)
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “The start of the EuroLeague is always difficult for everybody and in our case we’ll face one of the most competitive team, on the road. Obviously, playing a very high level game will be crucial. Controlling the boards and communicating effectively, both on offense and defense, will be the key to earn the chance to win the game.”
NICOLO’ MELLI – “For me personally, every game against Fenerbahce especially in Istanbul, is a special one. On top of it, it is the first Euroleague game, so we are extremely motivated to do well. Obviously, we’ll face a very strong team benefitting enormously from the home court advantage impact. It will be a very challenging game. We’ll do whatever it takes to compete for 40 straight minutes and try to enter in the competition the right way.”
FENERBAHCE OUTLOOK – Compared to last season, it has changed its skin especially among the centers. The point-guard was supposed to be the Brazilian Raul Neto, but he got injured during the World Cup and will be out for a long time, so Fenerbahce called back Nick Calathes, the competition’s all-time leader in assists. The Israeli Yam Madar, taken from Partizan (24 games as a starter), should grant depth and one more option in combination with returning star Scottie Wilbekin (200 appearances in the EuroLeague, 13.2 points on average). Among the guards, Marko Guduric (12.3 points per game off the bench last year) and Melih Mahmutoglu are also capable of bringing the ball up. Tyler Dorsey (37.9 percent from three in his career) was signed late last season and remained like the explosive Sehmus Hazer. The centers are both newcomers, Georgios Papagiannis (63.7 percent on twos for his career), coming from Panathinaikos, and Sertac Sanli, at Barcelona over the last couple of seasons but previously at Efes where he won a EuroLeague title. Johnathan Motley (14.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season) is also returning. The forwards are the Canadian Dyshawn Pierre (four years in Istanbul) and Nigel Hayes-Davis (in his fifth consecutive season in the EuroLeague), supported by Tarik Biberovic and Metecan Birsen. At the power forward position there is Nate Sestina, who after playing a year at Kentucky came to Europe and last year shone in Ankara.
SERIES HISTORY – The two teams faced each other for the first time during the 1995/96 Korac Cup with Olimpia winning both times; in 1996/97, they faced each other in the first round of the EuroLeague with two more wins for Olimpia. In 2011/12 they faced again, in the Top 16, and Fenerbahce won in Istanbul 65-63 but lost in Milan 85-72 (27 points were scored by Malik Hairston). In 2013/14, Olimpia won in Milan 90-85 (17 points by Daniel Hackett) and then repeated in Istanbul 82-73 with 16 points scored by David Moss and 13 more coming from Alessandro Gentile. Fenerbahce then won ten consecutive games between the two teams, before losing the first leg of the 2019/20 season in Milan 87-74. In that game there were 22 points by Sergio Rodriguez. Over the following three seasons the clash had unusual results: Fenerbahce won the last three games played in Milan, but Olimpia won the last three games played in Istanbul. Overall, the record is 11-15, 6-7 in Istanbul and 5-8 in Milan; 9-15 counting only the top competition and 7-15 counting only the EuroLeague era.
THE FENERBAHCE CONNECTION – Nicolò Melli played two years at Fenerbahce between 2017 and 2019 playing 72 games including the EuroLeague final game in 2018 and the Final Four in 2019. Melli scored 583 points for Fenerbahce in the EuroLeague with 325 rebounds captured. He also won a Turkish title and a Turkish Cup.
KYLE HINES NOTES – Kyle Hines’ next game will be number 392 of his EuroLeague career and will move him to the first place in the All-Time list tied with Paulius Jankunas. Hines has played 110 EuroLeague games so far for Olimpia, fourth overall behind Kaleb Tarczewski, Nicolò Melli and Vlado Micov. Finally, he is 11 defensive rebounds away from 1,000 for his career, a milestone surpassed by only six players so far, the latest of which is Nicolò Melli.
NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – The countdown can start: Nicolò Melli is 10 appearances away from reaching Kaleb Tarczewski’s 156 as the All-Time leader for games played in the EuroLeague for Olimpia. He is the all-time club leading rebounder. The Captain is nine defensive rebounds away from Ante Tomic’s 1,025 and a place in the Top 5 of all time.
NIKOLA MIROTIC NOTES – Nikola Mirotic is two starts away from 200 for his career. Only 13 players have started at least 200 games for their EuroLeague career, one of the mis Nicolò Melli with 204. Mirotic has started 88 percent of his games so far.
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