U-Banca Transilvania to defend their home-court vs. Medi Bayreuth
It’s playoffs’ time in Fiba Europe Cup and some of the most interesting duels will take place this round. Between them, the encounter of the Romanian club U-Banca Transilvania and the Germans from Bayreuth. I think it will be a very balanced game, with the host team having a good chance to win the first leg. Let’s see some of the reasons:
- In the Fiba Europe Cup, the majority of the squads have won their home games, losing away. Especially, U-Banca Transilvania which is undefeated in BT Arena. I don’t see the German side better than Enisey Krasnoyarsk or Tsmoki-Minsk, teams that have lost already this season in Cluj-Napoca.
- Medi Bayreuth has lost with a huge margin 2 times this season at Ventspils and Bakken Bears, proving that they can have bad days when they play away.
- U-Banca Transilvania has strengthened their roster last month with L. J. Peak who was coming from the Italian team Varese. With his addition, the Romanian squad has now a much better rotation and defense.
- If you compare the rosters of both teams, Medi Bayreuth is not so impressive, while the hosts have a lot of big names, headlined by Darko Planinic, Donatas Tarolis, Patrick Richard, Karlo Zganec, Kerron Johnson, Artis Ate and the last signing L. J. Peak.
The truth is that Medi Bayreuth had a very oscillating season so far in Germany where they are currently occupying the 11th place. Sometimes they won against better teams, but other times they suffered some blows by 20 points. That’s why I believe that in the first leg they can lose at Cluj-Napoca and then maybe at home, in the second leg to have a better play. It depends a lot on the concentration and the motivation at the game-time of both squads involved.
Photo: Fiba Europe Cup
Gratian Cormos
