Virtus Segafredo Bologna will look to return to the 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals when it hosts ratiopharm Ulm in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
Breakdown: Virtus Segafredo Bologna vs. ratiopharm Ulm
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Earlier this season
Virtus and Ulm have played each other twice already in Group B this season and split rather comfortable double-digit home wins. In Round 2, Virtus used a strong second half to beat Ulm 87-76. Virtus dished a season-high 29 assists and had five scorers in double figures led by Mam Jaiteh's 20 points, while Marco Belinelli and Jakarr Sampson scored 15 apiece. Milos Teodosic had 7 assists in 16 minutes off the bench, and Belinelli and Alessandro Pajola each had 5 assists, with Pajola also picking up 6 steals. For Ulm, which had 22 assists itself, Semaj Christon collected 14 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds, but Jaron Blossomgame had arguably his worst game of the season with just 2 points in 20 minutes.
Things were very different in Round 11 in late January when Ulm spent a good part of the night with a double-digit lead in an 84-68 win against a depleted Virtus. Ulm dominated the boards (51-34) and had five scorers in double figures, including mid-season signing Sindarius Thornwell, who collected 10 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Blossomgame shined with 19 points plus 11 rebounds, Christon had 14 points and 7 assists and Cristiano Felicio 10 points plus 13 rebounds. Virtus struggled offensively without Teodosic, Kevin Hervey and Nico Mannion and did not yet have Daniel Hackett and Tornike Shengelia, who joined the team in March.
Virtus relies on moving the ball
No team this season, and only a handful of teams in competition history, have possessed the ball movement that Virtus has. The team is averaging a EuroCup-best 22.4 assists, which is the third-best single-season mark of all time. Teodosic leads the way, ranking first this season with 8.6 assists and five more players are averaging more than 2 assists. Shengelia has made great contributions in this segment in five games with the team (4.2 apg.), while Pajola (3.9 apg.), Belinelli (2.7 apg.), Kyle Weems and Hervey (both 2.3 apg.) all play a great part in sharing the basketball.
This season, Virtus dished more than 23 assists in a game seven times and won each of those games, including the first game against Ulm when it had 29 assists. Virtus is 4-7 in all other games. For comparison, Ulm ranks 15th with 17.4 assists per game, and the team had only five games with more than 19 assists, with three of those ending up in defeats, which is more proof that Virtus's success is far more reliant on good ball movement that Ulm's.
Ulm road warriors
No team in the quarterfinals has fewer wins than Ulm's eight this season, but the majority of the team's success has come on the road. Ulm has a 5-5 record away from home and two of those wins came against fellow quarterfinalists. Ulm beat Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 96-101 in double overtime in Round 4 and top-seeded Gran Canaria 81-96 in Round 6. Ulm also triumphed at Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 68-89 in Round 10 and booked its place in the playoffs with a 72-85 victory at Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse in Round 16. That win against Bourg was also Ulm's only win in the last seven regular-season games, between its home win over Virtus and last week's stunner in the eighthfinals against Joventut Badalona.
When playing away from home, Christon ups his averages to 18.4 points and 7.5 assists, and Blossomgame scores 17.0 points per game. Christon and Blossomgame scored 21 points apiece last week. It makes Ulm as dangerous a road as any team in the competition and it will want to prove that once again when it takes on Virtus.
Historic opportunities
The eighthfinals win in Badalona was Ulm's milestone win number 50 in competition history. Ulm has played 127 games since its debut in the 2012-13 season. That season was also the only previous time Ulm made the quarterfinals and the only player still on the team from that season is team captain Per Guenther, who has 107 appearances, is playing the final season of his career and would love to go with a bang.
Virtus, which reached the semifinals last season, is 46-20 all-time in the EuroCup and a win in this quarterfinals clash would have Virtus join the rare company of teams with a winning percentage of 70% or better in EuroCup history. The other three teams are Valencia Basket (74.2%), Khimki Moscow Region (74.1%) and Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (72.2%).