Dynamic guard Dylan Ennis is back in the 7DAYS EuroCup with his third team in the competition, Gran Canaria. In his first experience, Ennis led MoraBanc Andorra to the 2019 EuroCup Semifinals and was chosen to the 2018-19 All-EuroCup Second Team. After a brief experience with AS Monaco in the 2019-20 campaign, Ennis has joined Gran Canaria and hopes of leading his new squad all the way to the championship. One of the most extroverted players in European basketball, Ennis is always ready to interact with fans on social media. You can follow him on TikTok (@dylanennis88), Instagram (@dylanennis31) and Twitter (@canadiankidDJE.)
Dylan Ennis, Gran Canaria: 'We want to continue to win'
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7 Mins read
It is good to be back to the EuroCup, this time with Gran Canaria. We are doing good. We are enjoying the competition, trying to stay together right now with everything happening. But I think we are in good spirits. We've got a few players out, but they will be back soon and we will continue to get better. We already beat teams like Valencia, Virtus and Buducnost. I don't know why they didn't consider us as one of the favorites at the start. I did, personally, and I guess our team took that as disrespect. We had such a great roster coming in and Gran Canaria did so amazingly last year, making it to the semifinals, so I don't understand why we would rank so low. But that helped us, it gave us the underdog mentality that we continue to have in the EuroCup. I think we are going to continue to have that underdog mentality. Once you get comfortable at the top, that's when you start losing. And I don't think we are going to get comfortable. We want to continue to win and continue to beat anybody in front of us.
In our last EuroCup game, we beat Virtus by 20 points at home. Obviously, you look at their roster and, even though we are competitors, we see Milos Teodosic and Marco Belinelli. We grew up watching those guys and wanting to emulate things they do. But on the court, we loved that challenge to play against that top team. And you know how it came out, amazing, beating them by 20 at our house. It really gave us a confidence boost. It just allowed us to know that we can beat anybody on any given night. Another important win, as in Valencia. It is such a great team and, especially at home, they are tough to beat. But I think that that win definitely helped us get our confidence in the EuroCup. After that win, it helped us knowing that even if we are on the road, no matter who's in front of us, it's possible to beat these teams if we all stick together.
"Nothing beats playing on your home court."
All these wins are crucial because the home-court advantage is going to be more important than ever. It is so big because, obviously, you have to play away games sometimes, but you know that travel, it takes a little bit out of you, especially if you're playing in two competitions, which most teams are. So getting that home-court advantage, being comfortable at home, especially against these big teams, where they have such a big following and such a big crowd, it's going to be very important. We've been doing good on the road, but nothing beats playing on your home court.
At the same time, we are the only team that still didn't lose on the road. That maybe plays mind tricks on everybody when they play us because, if they play us at our house, they say the travel is tough, so they are going to get a tough game, especially when our crowd gets going. And then they see our record on the road and realize that they can't get comfortable because we have such a good away record when we play at their house. So it's good for us. It puts us in a good position to be playing good, on the road and at home. But as I said, we are not going to get comfortable. All the games that we won are great so far but they are not going to help us going forward. We still have to continue to win games against these big teams. We still have Virtus at their house so we are going to continue to stay focused because the second you get comfortable, you start losing games.
Sometimes we play on the road in the Spanish League, and then again on the road in the EuroCup. In that case, we don't go back home because the travel coming back to Gran Canaria between games would be tough. I think staying on the road it's good for us. It allows us to not be in the airport and not be on the plane, making sure we do recovery. And obviously, we miss being back home with our families and everything like that, but it's a sacrifice you have to make to win these games. And I think our organization does a great job making sure that we are good for each game, traveling where we have to because we know the travel coming back here is tough. So hopefully we can continue having good routes to games.
It is good to be back to the EuroCup. I love it. I think this is an amazing league. I have had success when I first played in it, being in the All-EuroCup second team, and I'm having success now, as well. But it's all credit to my team, my coaches, and both teams. When I was at Andorra and now that I play in Gran Canaria, it's free-flowing basketball, a lot of run and gun, a lot of quick shots in transition. That's my style, so I think both of the EuroCup teams I played with allow me to flourish. And I just hope I can continue to have the success I'm having so far.
It is great to be in Gran Canaria right now, too -- 25 degrees! I wouldn't even call this winter, honestly. I grew up in Canada and lived in New York, Chicago and Andorra. I had cold weather my whole life, but now I'm here and I was on the beach yesterday with my family. It's amazing! The people are amazing, the weather's amazing, I wake up and I look out my window and I see the ocean and palm trees and the sun. So I can't complain about anything right now. I know it's tough times and obviously I'm human and I wish everything would go back to normal but at the same time, I'm so blessed to be here at Gran Canaria. I am healthy, my family's healthy and just being in a good environment, so I'm thankful for that.
Off the court, I spend a lot of time with Chris Kramer. We actually didn't know each other before we came to Gran Canaria. I knew nothing of him before. When we decided to sign him, I asked around and people say, he's a great guy. And then just over time, we got closer. I think a big bond was us having our wives and our daughters here, and they are best friends as well. My wife and his wife are best friends like they've known each other for 30 years. Our daughters are best friends, and I think that definitely helps our chemistry on the court as well.
Gran Canaria fans, I love the support! You guys showed me and my family so much love. You guys are continuing to support the team and I really appreciate that. We are halfway through the season but still have a long way to go. Hopefully, you guys keep supporting us because we love you and everything you guys do for us!