Ludwigsburg deserves to be in the Bundesliga’s Final
Last night MHP Ludwigsburg passed over Ratiopharm Ulm to reach to German Finals where they will face the favourite Alba Berlin. Even if – with a bit of help from the referees -, Ulm controlled the first half of the game, Ludwigsburg bounced back to destroy the opponents after the break. Not even the small injuries of Marcos Knight and Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann occurred in the first quarter couldn’t stop the Ludwigsburg’s rally. Knight came back in the game and had amazing numbers: 26 points (7/8 inside the arc) and 13 rebounds – which is unbelievable for a guard.
With this win, Ludwigsburg certified their value, showing they are the strong team that eliminated Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals. Let’s see now some reasons why Ludwigsburg deserved to be in the final more than Ulm:
- When the season stopped due to the Coronavirus outbreak, Ludwigsburg occupied the second place in the German league, after Bayern, with only 4 losses. They beat till that moment Alba Berlin and Bayern.
- They destroyed Ulm in both of the encounters with 31 points margin in Ludwigsburg and with 18 points away.
- Ratiopharm Ulm occupied the 10th place in the regular season and with discipline and lucky circumstances they advanced to the semifinals in this new format, which I doubt it could happen if a real playoff would have been played. They are a very organized team, with a great coach in Jaka Lakovic, with a good ball movement, but they don’t have the necessary value of the roster to reach the Bundesliga’s Finals. If they would have won this semifinals series against Ludwigsburg, would have been only with huge luck. It could happen only if Ludwigsburg would have some serious injuries that would be affected their quality rotation.
A final between Alba Berlin and Ludwigsburg will be more attractive to watch, even if Alba is the big favourite than a final with Ulm, which would have been completely boring.
Image: Basketball Champions League
Gratian Cormos
