Anton Gavel’s squad has the chance to lay down a marker against last year’s champion.
Youth meets experience when Ulm, Gran Canaria face off
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Two of the best teams in Group B of the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup Regular Season go head-to-head on Tuesday night, as ratiopharm Ulm (7-3) welcomes Dreamland Gran Canaria (10-0) to ratiopharm arena in Round 11.
Since becoming the EuroCup champion last year, Gran Canaria has picked up where it left off and is currently on an 18-game winning streak in the competition. Ulm, meanwhile, has found its groove with a youthful roster, as it continues to impress under second-year head coach Anton Gavel.
Ulm will be a tough test for Gran Canaria
Ulm may not have the depth that Gran Canaria can boast, but it does have many up-and-coming players that can cause the Spanish team some damage. Point guard Juan Nunez has come into his own during this campaign, for example, as the 19-year-old is averaging 10.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.9 steals while conducting the team’s offense.
Fellow youngster Pacome Dadiet, who is just 18, has also shown glimpses of what he is capable of, scoring a career-high 14 points against Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse in Round 9. There is the 19-year-old Tobias Jensen, too, who scored 7 points last week against Dolomiti Energia Trento in his most minutes on the court this season (14:47).
Even the 23-year-old Trevion Williams, who is still on the younger side, has come into the EuroCup as a walking double-double, posting 14.6 points and 11.8 boards in nine games. In fact, he has hit double digits in points in all nine of his appearances, and he’s only not grabbed a double-digit number of rebounds twice. Williams’s average PIR of 22.9 is the best in the entire EuroCup, while he also leads the way for rebounds.
Then, there’s the 25-year-old LJ Figueroa, another EuroCup rookie who has come in and made an immediate impact. He is averaging 11.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 steals, which shows the all-around nature of his game. In a win at Trento last week, Figueroa led Ulm by scoring a season-high 20 points. The 26-year-old Karim Jallow is having another strong season with Ulm, too, having netted 10 points or more in seven of his 10 appearances.
Add in the scoring threats of the 28-year-old Dakota Mathias and the 32-year-old Thomas Klepeisz, the two oldest players on the team, and it makes for quite the squad for Coach Gavel. There is a fearlessness that comes with youth, and that is certainly something that Ulm has been able to tap into during this season.
On paper, it looks like an almost task to defeat Gran Canaria at the moment, while Tuesday night’s visitors arrive knowing that they won comfortably against Ulm, 111-82, back in Round 2. But, in front of what should be a decent-sized crowd inside ratiopharm arena, where the hosts are 4-1, Ulm will be hoping that it can cause an upset and send Gran Canaria home unhappy.
Jaka Lakovic returns ‘home’
After getting his first full-time job as a head coach and staying there for three years, Gran Canaria boss Jaka Lakovic will return to Ulm for the first time since leaving the club in the summer of 2022.
Lakovic’s Ulm failed to make the EuroCup playoffs in his first two seasons at the club, but in his final year in charge, the 2021-22 campaign, it reached the quarterfinals. Notably, Ulm defeated Joventut Badalona, one of the favorites to go all the way, in the eighthfinals before falling to Virtus Segafredo Bologna, the eventual champion, in the next round.
Lakovic is sure to get a fantastic reception back at ratiopharm arena, but once the ball goes up in the air, it will be business as usual. As noted, Gran Canaria is in the midst of an 18-game winning streak bridging last season and the current campaign, and history is in the Spanish team’s sights.
Gran Canaria’s run of 18 games without defeat is the fourth-longest run in competition history, and winning at Ulm would give Coach Lakovic’s squad the chance to tie the all-time record of 20 wins, which has been achieved on three occasions: Lokomotiv Kuban (April 13, 2013, to March 18, 2015), Lokomotiv Kuban again (October 11, 2017, to March 23, 2018), and Virtus (March 5, 2020, to April 6, 2021).
As the outright leader in Group B, Gran Canaria will fancy its chances against Ulm, which is currently fourth but shares its 7-3 record with third-placed U-BT Cluj-Napoca. Nevertheless, Coach Gavel’s Ulm will not feel overawed by taking on Coach Lakovic’s winning machine, so everything is to play for. Make sure to tune in from 19:00 CET to see how it all plays out.