Teams to watch in BasketballCL: UCAM Murcia
Every season the teams coming from the Spanish ACB League are a dominating force in every continental competition in Europe, be it the EuroLeague, EuroCup or Basketball Champions League.
One of the interesting teams to watch next season from Spain is UCAM Murcia, who will be competing in the Basketball Champions League. The team coached by Sito Alonso will compete in Group A against French side SIG Strasbourg, Hungarian champions Falco Szombathely and the winner of one of the four BCL Qualification Tournaments.
In order to improve the roster, the Spanish side signed a few experienced players, but also a young star in the making. James Anderson is probably the biggest new signing. The 33-year-old American guard arrives from Anadolu Efes where he won the EuroLeague back to back in the last two seasons. He also played previously for teams like Khimki Moscow, Darussafaka Istanbul, and Zalgiris Kaunas and also has 257 games played in the NBA for San Antonio, Houston, Philadelphia and Sacramento.
Another new American guard is Travis Trice, who played in the last 3 years in Poland, Turkey, Italy and France. Last season Trice won the Polish league with Slask Wroclaw and he was named MVP of the Polish league. Czech small forward David Jelinek comes to Murcia after six years at Morabanc Andorra, so he knows the Spanish league very well. Two new players arrived from Gran Canaria for the center position: Ukrainian Artem Pustovyi (former Barcelona player) and Senegalese Ilimane Diop.
Another new player for Murcia that has big experience in the Spanish league is center Jordan Sakho. He previously played 4 years at Baxi Manresa and one season for Burgos and Rio Breogan. Finally, Murcia also signed 18-year-old Urban Klavzar, a very talented Slovenian point guard, who arrives from Real Madrid.
These new signings, together with the players that stayed from last season (Tomas Bellas, Jordan Davis, Thad McFadden, Nemanja Radovic, Sadiel Rojas), make Murcia one of the teams to watch in next season’s BCL and an early candidate for a Final Four spot.
Image: Ucam Murcia
Imre Halasz
