ABA League Supercup is stronger than ever. Crvena Zvezda already eliminated
Two quarterfinals of ABA League Supercup will take place today. Yesterday, Partizan smashed Mega Bemax 86-73 and Primorska managed to get an unbelievable victory over Crvena Zvezda 88-82, so the first two teams in the semifinals are already known. The duels for the other two places are very interesting and the teams participating are Buducnost, Cedevita Olimpija, FMP and Cibona. Let`s see how the quarterfinals look like and who are the favourites to win the matches.
In the first quarterfinal, we have Cedevita Olimpija and FMP Belgrad. Like we all know, there is a new era in Ljubljana basketball life, as Cedevita and Olimpija unite their forces to form a new and a stronger team. They brought in many new players and the most important are: Codi Miller-McIntyre, who participated in NBA Summer League, Marko Simonovic from Zenit, Ryan Boatright from Unicaja and Jaka Blazic from Barcelona Lassa. On the other hand, FMP kept their core of the team from the last season. Only four players left and six were added, all of them under24 years old. From the newcomers, we can name Okben Ulubay from Darussafaka, Aleksa Radanov from Crvena Zvezda and Duop Reath, who played for Brooklyn Nets in NBA Summer League.
In the second quarterfinal, we have Buducnost vs Cibona. Here I will start with Cibona because this year compared with the last one, they brought in two Americans players, alongside a player from Switzerland and a Lithuanian one. They added those foreigners but the strength of the team is represented by its Croatian core. Buducnost came after a Euroleague season and many changes were made, especially on the foreigners’ level. They added Justin Cobbs, Hassan Martin, Scott Wood and Scott Bamforth as the American players. Martin Meiers and Suad Sehovic are other two European players coming to help the team. The team looks very solid with those additions alongside their strong bench.
The first quarterfinal should be a one-sided game, because Cedevita`s roster is by far more stronger and experienced, while FMP will continue to grow young players, especially Serbian players to allow them to develop and play for big teams in the future. In the second match, Buducnost will win the encounter but I expect to have some problems against Cibona.
Photo: instawidget.net
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
