They are two of the hottest teams in the EuroLeague at present.
Two sides on a roll face off when Baskonia, Virtus meet
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6 Min lectura
Before the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season got underway, not many would have predicted that Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (8-5) and Virtus Segafredo Bologna (9-4) would be in the top four positions after 13 rounds of action.
Well, ahead of their Round 14 clash at Buesa Arena on Thursday night, fourth-placed Baskonia and third-placed Virtus are firmly in the race to make the EuroLeague Playoffs. And both teams have been on fire since making a change at the head coach position.
Baskonia is a team transformed
Having begun the season with a 1-4 record through the first five games, Baskonia decided to part ways with Joan Penarroya. Baskonia had a chance at making the playoffs in the final games of last season, but a disappointing start to the 2023-24 campaign saw the club decide that fresh ideas were needed. Enter: Dusko Ivanovic.
Back at Baskonia for a fourth stint in charge of the club, Ivanovic hit the ground running with a memorable 84-83 win against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in Round 6. Then, one week later, Ivanovic’s squad came out on top by 1 point once again in Round 7, beating Olympiacos Piraeus 74-75. After that came a dominant 94-71 triumph over Spanish rival FC Barcelona. In short, it was the perfect start.
Ever since Ivanovic landed back at Baskonia, the team has gone 7-1 and improved to an 8-5 record overall, which has seen it catapult up the standings. The Montenegrin tactician has managed to get Markus Howard playing at an elite level once again, with the second-year guard having averaged 13.4 points per game under Penarroya in the first five games of the season before posting 21.6 points per night since Ivanovic’s arrival.
Another player who has thoroughly impressed for Baskonia in recent weeks is power forward Chima Moneke, although a look at his numbers makes for curious reading. Coming off his rookie EuroLeague season with AS Monaco, in which his game time was limited after arriving mid-season, the charismatic 27-year-old made an instant impression this season.
Through the first four rounds, having missed Round 5 due to an injury, Moneke averaged 17.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 steals with Penarroya at the helm. In the last eight games, his numbers have dropped to 14.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 steals, but most importantly he has contributed towards winning with crucial plays during Baskonia’s run under Ivanovic.
Howard and Moneke are just two of a number of Baskonia players who have impressed in this 7-1 stretch, but the Spanish side is playing with so much confidence at present that it heads into any game feeling that it can come out on top.
The Banchi revolution at Virtus
The same can be said at Virtus. But first, let’s go back to the start of the season. The Italian team had a superstar head coach in Sergio Scariolo in the 2022-23 campaign, with the experienced play-caller having guided Virtus to BKT EuroCup glory and subsequently a place in the EuroLeague one season prior.
Yet, a 14-20 record and a 14th-placed finish last season in the EuroLeague, despite having a roster filled with talent, was very disappointing. Even more so was the way in which Virtus played, with Scariolo’s group often failing to play the team-orientated basketball that had become a trademark of his time with the Spanish national team.
Coming into this season, Scariolo was not happy with the work done by the club’s leadership in its recruitment of players, while he also made it clear that guard Iffe Lundberg was not a part of his plans. For Virtus owner Massimo Zanetti, this was the final straw as he decided to part ways with Scariolo less than three weeks before the 2023-24 EuroLeague season got underway.
The same day that Virtus dismissed Scariolo, September 15, the club also announced the arrival of Luca Banchi, who had earned many plaudits at the 2023 FIBA World Cup after guiding a Latvia side missing its best player, Kristaps Porzingis, to a fifth-placed finish. Banchi didn’t have much time before Virtus’s EuroLeague campaign got underway, with the club hosting Zalgiris Kaunas on October 5.
It wasn’t the best of starts for Coach Banchi, too, as Virtus threw away a 16-point lead and lost that game to Zalgiris, 79-82. Then came the news that forward Achille Polonara, a new recruit over the summer, had undergone surgery to remove a testicular tumor. Virtus’s season was up in the air just one game in.
However, the entire squad came even closer together and, playing the team basketball that has become a staple of Banchi's Virtus this year, the Italian side ended up thrashing AS Monaco on the road, 59-83, in Round 2. It then won its next four games to improve to a 5-1 record. A humbling defeat at reigning EuroLeague champion Real Madrid came in Round 7, with Los Blancos winning 100-74, and since then Virtus has blown hot and cold.
In short, when Virtus plays at home, it wins. When it plays on the road, it loses. That has been the recurring theme since Round 6, when the Italian side beat Anadolu Efes Istanbul, 93-81. Virtus is on a three-game losing streak on its travels at present but is on a two-game winning run overall, having won both games against Final Four-chasing Barca and Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in Bologna during the double-round week.
Virtus last won on the road at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in Round 5, back on October 27, so Coach Banchi will hope that the likes of Toko Shengelia, who is back to playing at an MVP level, Daniel Hackett and Marco Belinelli can continue to impress at Buesa Arena on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Lundberg and Isaia Cordinier will be looking to get back on track after shining against Barca but seeing their impact limited against Maccabi.
The contest between Baskonia and Virtus should be an incredible game between two teams playing some great basketball, and picking a winner is very, very difficult. But given the impact that both Coach Ivanovic and Coach Banchi have had on their respective teams, a hard-fought game is a guarantee.