Limoges has a good chance to win at Tofas in the Eurocup opener
Limoges has a good chance to win at Tofas in the Eurocup opener
Tomorrow, Limoges CSP Elite, one of the most constant participants in the Eurocup will meet Tofas Bursa in Turkey. Normally, the home team has an important advantage, but in this case, I dare to see the French side as a winner. Especially, because the odds for this encounter are far from being real: Tofas has 1,29 to win, while Limoges has 3,70 on bet365.com.
My reasons for picking Limoges CSP Elite as a potential winner of this game are:
- Tofas had a very bad start in the Turkish league this weekend. They have lost to the newly promoted Bursaspor, their city neighbours from Bursa (80-76). Tofas was the big favourite in that game, but the opponents led from the beginning and stole an important victory.
- Watching that game, I realized that the veteran Sammy Mejia, the most emblematic player of Tofas in the last years was missing the game, probably with an injury. Berk Ugurlu, who saw many minutes in the last season was benched the whole game, too. The consequence was that the rotation of Tofas was very poor with only 7 players on the scoring list from a total of 8 who entered the court. Actually they rely almost only on the 5 starters, who had a lot of experience: Matt Lojieski, Devin Williams, Baris Ermis, Trik Phillip and D. J. White. If Sammy Mejia and Berk Ugurlu won’t be back at the game time, then there will be very difficult for Tofas to stop the French offense.
- Limoges is an experienced team, with a larger bench and I don’t see them ceasing so easily in front of a team with short rotation. In the last game in France, won against Le Portel (66-65), Limoges used 10 players who saw at least 10 minutes on the court, resting the Lithuanian guard Ovidius Varanauskas.
Photo credit: tofasspor.com
Gratian Cormos
