Fiba Europe Cup champions Sassari eliminated Euroleague powerhouse Olimpia Milano
Fiba Europe Cup champions Sassari eliminated Euroleague powerhouse Olimpia Milano
As we wrote in a previous article, Dinamo Sassari had a big chance to advance to the Legabasket Finals. I wasn’t easy at all because Olimpia Milano has the deepest roster in Italy but in the end, the motivation and the energy of Sassari was bigger.
Dinamo Sassari had an excellent season, first in Fiba Europe Cup where they won the title, then, in the domestic league reaching now the finals. Apparently, nobody gave a chance to them in front of much powerful Olimpia Milano. But the Euroleague team of Italy it is not what it supposed to be: a great team where everything will go just fine. The inner problems start to appear when they fail to qualify the Euroleague playoff in spite of their huge possibilities.
Mike James was great, but Milano failed as an organization this season. At the end of the season, the players lost their motivation and they looked mentally tired. Imagine that Italian national team players like Simone Fontecchio and Amedeo Della Valle saw fewer minutes on the court the whole season. Della Valle who scored 29 points for Italy against Romania this season in the World Cup qualifiers was ignored in many games by his club team, Olimpia Milano. The same with Fontecchio, the so praised hope of the Italian national team.
That’s why when we compare the statistics of the Italian players from both squads in the last game that bring Olimpia Milano holidays for the rest of the season, we will see a huge gap: the Italians from Dinamo Sassari combined for 20 efficiency value, while Milano’s Italians had only 2 index rate! Including the “Italians” Jeff Brooks and Christian Burns of Milano!
With this stats, it’s not such a big surprise that Fiba Europe Cup Champions eliminated Euroleague powerhouse Olimpia Milano with 3-0 in the semifinals of Legabasket!
photo credit: fiba europe cup
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
