Round 11 begins on Tuesday in the Turkish capital where Turk Telekom Ankara (5-5) takes on Partizan NIS Belgrade (8-2) in Group A.

Partizan visits Turk Telekom in Round 11 opener

Turk Telekom has lost its last two games, but is undefeated at home (4-0) this season. Aaron Harrison (16.0 ppg.) has been its top scorer followed by JaJuan Johnson (12.7 ppg.) and Anthony Clemons (10.7 ppg.). Partizan won its two 7DAYS EuroCup games in 2022 by an average margin of 33.5 points. Kevin Punter (17.9 ppg.), Zach LeDay (12.3 ppg., 5.4 rpg.) and Alen Smailagic (9.0 ppg., 5.5 rpg.) are leading the team. When they last met, Partizan thrashed Turk Telekom 85-59 in Round 2 in October. Punter led the way with 19 points.

Errick McCollum, Lokomotiv: 'This is the best that I have played'

On Saturday, Errick McCollum celebrated his 34th birthday and he did it riding high after leading Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar to a road win at MoraBanc Andorra. He scored 20 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting to earn MVP of the Round for the third time in his last five games. More importantly, he led his team to an important victory that kept his team on the heels of the co-leaders in Group A of the 7DAYS EuroCup. In the first half of this two-part interview, McCollum spoke mostly about his current form, his team and teammates and his role as a leader. "I just want to do whatever the team needs to win," he told Eurocupbasetball.com. "As you get more experienced you care less about individual accolades and more about the total picture, the team picture and the team success. That’s kind of how I measure myself - how my team does and how I can help other people."

**Happy birthday, Errick. It seems like you've been celebrating for the whole last month. Is this as hot as you remember playing?**

"I think this is the best that I have played as far as a complete game: creating, scoring, passing, doing what my team needs to win. I’ve had some hot streaks scoring-wise but for sure, this is one of the better streaks I can remember."

**Three weekly EuroCup MVP awards out of the last five say a lot, too. And to get that award, your team must win in each of those rounds. What inspired you over this last month?**

"I just want to do whatever the team needs to win. As you get more experienced you care less about individual accolades and more about the total picture, the team picture and the team success. That’s kind of how I measure myself – how my team does and how I can help other people. Some of the younger players, some of them are starting their careers. I want to see them have great success as well. The best way I can do that is to not just to teach them things about basketball and things off the court. I can also help them win games and put them in the position where they are able to take care of their families and have good futures if we all come together as a team and win."

"I just feel like the uncle on the team or the big brother."

**Loko has had some ups and downs, including a coaching change, but sits just one win away from the leaders in a tough group. Are you where you need to be at this point?**

"I expected the ups and downs, just because we have so many young players. If you look at the roster, we have only one experienced Russian who is a national team guy and playing at that level. We have four 21-year-olds on the roster who never really played significant minutes in the EuroCup or VTB. We have guys who have adjusted well, like Johnathan Motley and Darius Thompson, in their first time at this level. Stanton Kidd is experienced with the EuroCup; he’s won a title. I’m experienced. Greg Whittington has some experience, as well. But any time you have a little bit of experience and a lot of youth and inexperience you’re going to have some instability, some ups and downs. And the coaching change didn’t help it all. But I figured, with our talent, that we would be able to overcome some of those obstacles. I think we showed that last week in Andorra with the short roster of only nine players. We were missing two starters and a backup point guard and we found a way to win. And that shows maturity and growth, but we still have a long way to go."

**What level of responsibility do you feel, as a veteran, for leading this team and making it a success?**

"I feel completely responsible for decisions at the end of the game. I feel like I am a guy who has been there, done that – at the end of the game with big shots and the right play. The right play may be me finding an open teammate. But usually, the ball will be in my hands, trying to put us in a good situation. Also as a veteran, I’m going to try to teach the guys maturity and how to handle themselves as a professional. A lot of basketball isn’t just on the court. It’s how you conduct yourself, get proper rest, taking care of your body, treating your body. So I’m constantly preaching to them to do those things because they wonder how 12 years into the game and 34 years old I still move and play well. I try to share those secrets. I just feel like the uncle on the team or the big brother and I’m just trying to help the younger guys to get where they need to be. And anything that I have learned I try to pass on to them. I don’t want them to learn the hard way. I don’t want them to be in the situation where they said I wish somebody had told me. I try to be that bridge for them. It’s a big responsibility but it’s one that I enjoy and I look forward to the challenge."

"Motley's arguably the best big in Europe. EuroLeague, EuroCup, it doesn’t matter."

**You've got EuroCup newcomers like Jonathan Motley and Darius Thompson on the team. How are you helping them with all your experience and preparing them for what to expect as the season moves ahead?**

"They’re extremely talented. I love Darius Thompson. He’s my roommate on the road. He’s highly intelligent. To me, he’s the best point guard in the EuroCup, hands down. He’s a EuroLeague player and he will be there soon, if he chooses to or not. With him, I just preach him to be aggressive. He’s a guy who can get to the paint at will, he can live there - paint touches all night. He can create, he can get people involved. He’s a triple-double threat and he’s a guy that can really shoot the ball. And a lot of Europe hasn’t seen that because he’s such a pass-first guy and he’s such a good slasher. But he’s actually a really good shooter and I’m trying to get him to the point where he fills that part of his game because we need it, especially now with all the injuries. We need his scoring ability and I think you’ll see that. He’s a guy that if he isn’t already, he’s gonna be on all the big EuroLeague teams’ radars in the summer. He’s a 6'5" true point guard, athletic, can defend but can score and take over a game if necessary.

"And as far as Motley, I think everybody already knows what he’s about. He’s that rare combination of speed, strength, athleticism that you don’t see in Europe at the four and five position. He’s a beast. I really love him on that short roll, how he finishes, how he has really good hands, he can catch everything. And he’s a really good dribbler. He can break the press similar to how you see Milan use Kyle Hines when he dribbles the ball up the court and initiates the offense. I think he has that ability. With him, I’m just trying to get him to see some of the passes. Because he’s such a good player he demands double teams and triple teams that when he can consistently be able to make those reads, it’s gonna be over. But he’s just a dynamite player. To me, he’s arguably the best big in Europe. EuroLeague, EuroCup, it doesn’t matter. There are not many like him on the basketball court. And his market will be the biggest of anyone this summer."

Partizan NIS Belgrade center Balsa Koprivica has plenty of interesting stories, so it’s great that he has agreed to blog on EuroCupbasketball.com this season. Koprivica, 21, not only started playing in the Partizan system, but his father played for the club too. Let’s let him tell the story...

Balsa Koprivica: 'I grew up a Partizan fan'

Hello everybody, I am Balsa Koprivica of Partizan NIS Belgrade. This is my first blog for EuroCupbasketball.com. This is also my first year playing professional basketball and to do so I returned to my hometown of Belgrade after nine years living in the United States, where I moved when I was in sixth grade. I have only been back home twice since then, during the summer of 2015 I came back just to see my family and train a little bit and in 2017 I was with the U18 Serbian national team and also got to see the family.

It is nice to be back in Belgrade full-time. My life is pretty simple wherever I live, because when you play basketball, it is kind of the same routine wherever you go, just in a different environment. But there are a lot of people here who I know and my whole family is here other than my mom, so I have been busy seeing people I have not seen in a while. The first couple of months, that's all I did. I tried to spend as much of my free time with my family and friends who I had not seen for a long time and also to see different things in the city.

Partizan is the club where I played when I was a kid. I started playing basketball when I was 7 with a team called Superfund, and then when I was 9, I joined Partizan. But this is also the club where my father played and won the EuroLeague title in 1992. I grew up a Partizan fan, everyone in my family is a Partizan fan.

"My dad was first a teammate of Zeljko Obradovic in the 1980s with Partizan and then my dad played for Obradovic for two years at the start of his coaching career."

This is my first professional season but I always had in the back of my head that I wanted to play for Partizan one day. I did not know the timeline, when I would have an opportunity or when I wanted to, but I knew I wanted to play for Partizan at some point. The last two years, I played at Florida State University and once I decided I wanted to pursue a professional career, Partizan reached out to me earlier in 2021, which was before they hired a coach. I wanted to wait a little bit, to weigh my options. Then Coach Zeljko Obradovic came to Partizan and I saw the vision that the club had with a team and it was a no-brainer for me to start my professional journey with Partizan.

Some of you might know, but my dad was first a teammate of Zeljko Obradovic in the 1980s with Partizan and then my dad played for Obradovic for two years at the start of his coaching career. So, there is a funny story about me meeting coach Obradovic. The first time, and I guess the only time he ever saw me, was about 20 years ago. Obviously, I don't remember that, but I was told it was at Zlatibor mountain here in Serbia as my mom was waiting for my dad to finish the practice and that's when coach Obradovic saw me as a baby. And now, 20 years later, the first time I met Obradovic as an adult was also on that same Zlatibor mountain, but this time it was at the start of our training camp.

Obviously, I knew everything about Coach Obradovic, what he accomplished and what type of coach he is. And hearing it from my dad is great because dad could give me the real information. Even though it was different, because Obradovic was just beginning to be a coach when he coached my dad, and now he is one of the greatest. But we talk about how great it is that my dad and I played for the same coach 30 years apart. It is just great to have an opportunity to play for this team, and the coach, and I'd say it is a great start for my career.

Our season is going well. We have an 8-2 record in Group A. There are some great teams for sure in the EuroCup. It is a different style than what we face in our domestic ABA League. Every team plays differently in the EuroCup, so you need to adjust from game to game for different types of players, different styles of coaching. Every week it is a great opportunity to see where we are at. We keep trying to win every game because we want to win it all - that's what we all play for, and that's what Partizan is all about. Some teams are younger, some teams are more experienced, but at the end of the day, any team can beat anybody on any given night, a bottom team can beat a top team on any given night, so we just have to be ready to play.

So far, the team that has left an impression on me is Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. That was one of the tougher games we played this season, if not the toughest. We did not play well as a team, but I feel like they are the most impressive team overall and Johnathan Motley is one of the better players I played against this season, if not the best. He did not get to play as much in that game against us because he got a tech, but Lokomotiv has a great team and a bunch of really, really good players. And also Joventut, we played them earlier in the season, they are a well-coached team and play well together.

"We have a special chemistry with the fans. It is just unbelievable. Wherever we go, every game feels like a home game."

I am happy to say that we have great chemistry. Coach keeps telling us just to have fun out there, to keep sharing the ball, keep playing for one another because that is going to make the game easy. We have enough talent that any guy can score 15-20 points on any given night, so it is all about playing basketball and sharing the ball. We also all get along very well off the court, and that's what matters the most.

We also have a special chemistry with the fans. It is just unbelievable. Wherever we go, in the EuroCup or the ABA League – other than when playing against Crvena Zvezda – every game feels like a home game. It is great to have these people behind you. When we went to Paris to play Metropolitans, we felt like we were the home team, our fans went to support us fully. Knowing you have these fans who support you, it is hard not to play for them. You play for yourself, but you play for the fans, for the coaches, play for one another because these guys are die-hard Partizan fans. That's the kind of Partizan culture that we have ever since the club has been created. They also help us during the game, even when you maybe miss a couple of shots, they are there to help. I was in the stands supporting the team as a kid and ever since I was young, I wanted to be a part of the senior team. I am glad I got this opportunity early. I am grateful to be here and that I chose this team.

Balsa Koprivica - Partizan NIS Belgrade - EC21

Diego Flaccadori returned to Dolomiti Energia Trento this season after two years away ready for a bigger role. He spent the previous two seasons as a reserve with FC Bayern Munich and played in 44 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague games, however, he was not getting the minutes he was accustomed to.

Who's Hot: Diego Flaccadori, Trento

Trento had big plans for its former star, who was 18 when he played the first of his five consecutive seasons with the club. However, despite being inserted directly into the starting lineup and getting big minutes from day one, Flaccadori took some time to settle in. He failed to score in double figures in any of his first four games, during which time he struggled with his shooting from all ranges.

Everything changed in Round 5 when Flaccadori went off for a career-high 22 points against Slask Wroclaw to lead Trento to its first win of the season. And with the exception of a quiet Round 7 game against Turk Telekom Ankara, Flaccadori has stood out in every game since.

He tallied 17 points and matched his career-high with 6 assists in a narrow loss at Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in Round 6. Round 8 brought a season-high in PIR with 23 from 19 points – including a personal best 10-for-11 free-throw shooting, 6 assists and 2 steals against Hamburg Towers. The following round saw him match his personal best with 3 steals and tie his season-high with 6 rebounds.

All told, Flaccadori is enjoying the best stretch of his career over his last six games with his numbers improving on – and in many cases soaring past – his averages from the start of the season. He is one of five Trento players to have appeared in all 10 EuroCup games this season and one of only two to start all of them. Flaccadori's total of 282:32 minutes played is the most on the team. For the season, he is averaging career-highs in scoring (10.9 ppg.), rebounding (3.2 rpg.), assists (3.5 apg.) and fouls drawn (3.9 per game).

Trento has been plagued by player absences over the past two months with key players Jordan Caroline, Cameron Reynolds and Wesley Saunders each missing two games. As the team returns to full strength, a confident Flaccadori will be as important as ever to get the team out of the mud and rolling to challenge for a spot in the knockout rounds.

Diego Flaccadori - Dolomiti Energia Trento (photo Trento) - EC21

Three years removed from his first stint in the EuroCup with Gran Canaria, Nicolas Brussino is back with the club with more experience and playing better than ever. 

More-experienced Brussino shining brighter in second stint at Gran Canaria

Nicolas Brussino has lived up to the expectations put upon him when he joined Herbalife Gran Canaria this off-season. And a major reason for that was the great experience he has collected over the years - something he was missing in his first stint with the Spanish club.

The Argentinean forward averaged 13.3 points and an index rating of 10.7 in his first three games in the 7DAYS EuroCup, including a 20-point outburst in the team’s opening game against Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana.

Brussino then fall victim to a COVID-19 infection in early November and he missed a month of action. And he is only slowly getting back to full fitness.

“I have recovered really well - not at 100% - but I'm training and working hard to return to the same level I was competing at before the virus,” said Brussino, who has posted performance index ratings in double figures in each of his last three appearances.

“I always had respect for the virus. I always take the best care of myself, but I knew that someday I'll be infected. That's why when I got infected, I stayed calm.”

But Gran Canaria knows what they have in the 28-year-old Brussino, who is a different player than the one who arrived for the first time during the Top 16 of the 2017-18 season.

“When I arrived at Gran Canaria, it was my first time in Spain and the Spanish League, and my adaptation was more difficult than I and the team expected,” said Brussino, who averaged 4.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.3 steals in seven games in the Top 16 and Quarterfinals. “I was never able to show all of my potential as a player.”

That is different now for the native of Cañada de Gómez in Santa Fe province, Argentina, who left Gran Canaria after that season and spent the 2018-19 campaign at Tenerife CB Canarias and then the last two campaigns with Casademont Zaragoza - all in the Spanish League.

“Now I have a better knowledge of the league and more experience and that really helps to demonstrate all of your potential on the basketball court.”

His experience since leaving Gran Canaria also includes playing for Argentina at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China - where the South Americans took the silver medal - as well as the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

“It meant the world to me,” he said about playing in China, where he averaged 5.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in getting to the final, where Argentina lost to Spain. “For me, to represent my country in a World Cup and be able to play a final on that stage is my highest achievement on or off the court - aside from the result.”

Last summer Brussino played in his second Olympics after having competed at the 2016 Games in Brazil.

“I thought it was going to be similar to Rio 2016, but there always exist some things that might surprise you and allow you to enjoy every moment,” said Brussino, who averaged 6.0 points 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists as Argentina lost to Australia in the quarterfinals in Tokyo. “To be able to share the Athletes Village with athletes from all around the world and be able to hear all of their stories of overcoming was more a personal experience than a sports one.”

After hearing about those experiences, Brussino was excited about returning to Canaria.

“I was also looking to take a step forward in European competitions and Gran Canaria had all of that.”

“My decision to come back was made because of the project the club has to compete in the Spanish League and EuroCup. I was also looking to take a step forward in European competitions and Gran Canaria had all of that,” he said. “Also it was important that I already knew the city.”

Brussino is not the only person who has grown during his time away but also the club, Gran Canaria, itself, he said.

“Gran Canaria is a club that grows a little bit every year. Their structure and future project is even bigger than when I left and it's something you notice as soon as you arrive,” he commented.

Gran Canaria and the team’s fans have noticed that this version of Nicolas Brussino is quite a bit different than the one who arrived three years ago - and someone who is really living up to the expectations.

Nicolas Brussino - Gran Canaria (photo Ales Ferves - Cedevita) - EC21

Several teams will be aiming to reach milestones, including Valencia Basket in a battle of two teams with the most wins in Group B. Let’s examine some storylines to follow in Round 11’s games this week.

This Week's Games: Many milestones to play for

### Valencia looking to re-write history books

When it put together a game-ending 0-10 run to squeeze past Promitheas Patras 68-71 last week, Valencia Basket registered its 161st win in the competition and tied UNICS Kazan for the most all-time. Valencia will have its first chance to become the winningest team in EuroCup history this week when it welcomes Buducnost VOLI Podgorica on Tuesday in a clash of two teams tied for the Group B lead with 7-3 records.

Valencia already has two home losses and the one on the road that came against Buducnost in Round 2. Interestingly, among Valencia's 161 wins, only one has come against the perennial Montenegrin champion, which is a rare opponent that Valencia has a losing record against. The two teams have played three times and Buducnost has won twice, including a thrilling 71-70 decision in Round 2. In that game 25-year-old forward Edin Atic led Buducnost with 17 points. However, Atic has combined to score just 34 points in six appearances since that game and has been held scoreless in the last two games while shooting 0 for 11 from the field. It would be a perfect time for Atic to get back to his early-season form as Buducnost is coming off a 21-point home loss against ratiopharm Ulm.

This game will feature a pair of big men who missed the first clash, All-EuroCup center Willie Reed and his Valencia counterpart Mike Tobey, who shined last week with a career-high 22 points and 9 rebounds. Despite being depleted, Valencia has lost just one of its last seven games and extending this winning run would not only set the EuroCup record for wins, but put Valencia in first place in the group.

### Time to get going

Dolomiti Energia Trento (1-9) and Slask Wroclaw (1-8) are three wins behind eighth place in Group A. And with eight games to go for Trento (and nine for Slask), they need to get some wins and need to get the work started this week. Slask welcomes Boulogne Metropolitans 92 (5-5) on Tuesday and will try to avenge a 3-point loss from Round 2. It will be interesting to pay attention to the battle in the paint. Slask is the second-best rebounding team, pulling down 38.2 per game. But Slask still pulls down fewer rebounds than its opponents, which average 40.2 per game. So, the team that has guards Travis Trice (11.1 ppg., 6.0 apg.), Jakub Karolak (10.3 ppg.) and Kodi Justice (10.7 ppg.) in main roles will need its frontcourt with big men Kerem Kanter (7.8 rpg.) and Cyril Langevine (6.6 rpg.) to help take better control of the glass.

On the other hand, Trento is the EuroCup's only team with 9 losses and, not surprisingly, the worst point difference at -137. This week it faces MoraBanc Andorra (5-4) on Wednesday. Going into this game, Trento has scored a total of 724 points so far this season, which is 10 fewer than Andorra, which has played one game less. Trento relies on the EuroCup’s top rebounder Jordan Caroline (7.9 rpg.), the team's top scorer Cameron Reynolds (14.0 ppg.) and Wesley Saunders (10.1 ppg.) and they will need any help they can get to try to start turning things around and snap a five-game losing streak.

### High stakes with different rosters

Wednesday's Group B clash between Mincidelice Bourg (3-7) and Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (3-5) looks to be one with high stakes. It is crowded at the bottom part of the standings in Group B, with Bourg and Cedevita in the middle of it all. Cedevita won their first clash in Round 2 by 12 points, which is something to watch. Bourg's confidence is sky-high after its road win at Umana Reyer Venice (4-5) on a buzzer-beating triple by C.J. Harris, the team's top scorer with 15.1 points per game on 59.1% three-point shooting. Along with the addition of swingman Jalen Jones, who is has been worth 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in two games since joining the team earlier this month, this is a very different team than the one that faced Cedevita in the Slovenian capital in Round 2.

But no team has changed the shape of its roster since the beginning of the season as much as Cedevita, which added veteran center Alen Omic and playmaker Yogi Ferrell in early December, before signing veteran forward Zoran Dragic earlier this month. Alongside All-EuroCup guard Jaka Blazic, former All-EuroCup playmaker Jacob Pullen, as well as proven EuroCup veterans who have had their share of dominant performances in the competition like Melvin Ejim and Zach Auguste, Cedevita is a dangerous team. However, it is coming off a game in which it scored just 60 points last week at home against Gran Canaria. Coach Jurica Golemac's men will need to do a lot better than that on Wednesday to pull out a road win.

### Reaching for milestones

For Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, this Round 11 game will be the club's 150th in the competition. This is Lokomotiv's ninth EuroCup season, and it has had a winning record in all but one of those campaigns. Lokomotiv is looking to become the eighth team in competition history to reach the milestone and is right behind Buducnost (173 wins), which will tie ALBA Berlin for sixth place with its next victory. Another club with a chance to move up the ranks is ratiopharm Ulm (5-5), which hosts Virtus Segafredo Bologna (6-3) in search of its 119th EuroCup win, which would move it into a tie for 10th all time. Regardless of the outcome, this week's games will be special for two long-time team captains and club legends, Ulm's Per Guenther and Buducnost Suad Sehovic who are each set to make their respective 100th appearance the next time they enter the game. They will join a club of only 17 players who have previously reached the milestone.

Round 10 of the 7DAYS EuroCup was a turning point in that it marked the start of the second half of the regular season. For several teams, it could also prove to be a watershed moment as several players stepped up with fantastic performances that could propel their sides to big things in the future.



Breakout games for Lessort, Williams and Ginat raise their teams' ceilings

A two-time All-EuroCup selection and a winner of the competition last season with AS Monaco, Mathias Lessort’s second game with Partizan NIS Belgrade was his best ever in the EuroCup. The big man set a pair of career-highs in leading his team to a 102-77 rout of Hamburg Towers.

Lessort posted 22 points in 21 minutes. He made 9 of 12 two-point shots and 4 of 5 free throws and also collected 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 5 steals and 1 block in compiling a performance index rating of 33. Both the steals and PIR were personal bests in his 44th game in the EuroCup.

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar big man Alan Williams is no newcomer; he is in his third season with the club. Last season he was clearly in the MVP conversation with incredible averages of 15.7 points, 13.4 rebounds, 1 steal and 1.4 blocks for a PIR of 22.7 through the team’s first seven games in staking Lokomotiv to a 5-2 record. However, he suffered a season-ending knee injury in Round 8.

Williams returned this season after a long rehab, but was used in a backup role behind Johnathan Motley, who took the competition by storm until he was hurt last week. In his first start of the season, Williams ran wild over MoraBanc Andorra for 17 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

Another Group A big man who shined in Round 10 was Tomer Ginat of Boulogne Metropolitans 92. After center Miralem Halilovic had his best game of the season in Round 9, he was out on Tuesday and Coach Collet needed more minutes out of the rest of his frontcourt players. Ginat more than made up for the absence with his best game in a Metropolitans uniform.

In his second season with the club, Ginat set season-highs with 13 points and 4 assists, tied his season-high with 9 rebounds and posted a career-best PIR of 22 to lead his team to a victory over Turk Telekom Ankara.

The excellent play of these three big men raises the ceiling for each of their teams. They all are parts of frontlines with other well-known players. In Partizan’s case, Lessort joins Zach LeDay, Alen Smailagic and Balsa Koprivica to form a dangerous quartet. At Lokomotiv, Williams teams with Motley and Gregg Whittington as major forces in the paint. And Ginat has Vince Hunter and Halilovic as frontcourt mates.

The rest of the Group A big men had better beware. Lessort, Williams and Ginat sent reminders this week of how important frontcourt depth is in the EuroCup and their teams clearly have it.

Round 10 of the 7DAYS EuroCup was a turning point in that it marked the start of the second half of the regular season. For several teams, it could also prove to be a watershed moment as several players stepped up with fantastic performances that could propel their sides to big things in the future.

Alan Williams - Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (photo Martin Imatge - Andorra) - EC21

Partizan NIS Belgrade v Hamburg Towers (2022-01-18T19:45:00.000Z)

MoraBanc Andorra v Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (2022-01-19T19:00:00.000Z)

Boulogne Metropolitans 92 v Turk Telekom Ankara (2022-01-19T19:30:00.000Z)

There's room for one-on-one play in the 7DAYS EuroCup this season, but not for all teams and, for those who choose it, not necessarily working from the same positions on the floor.



Stats Review: One-on-one offense

### One-on-One Play

Just 10.5% of all EuroCup possessions are used in one-on-one situations, which adds a level of intrigue to performances like the one Errick McCollum had in Round 10, when he scored 16 points on isolation plays in Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar's road win over MoraBanc Andorra.

The graph above places every team in the EuroCup by how often and how well they play one-on-one. The intrigue in this graph is not necessarily who is at the top – even the most productive team is generating just 13.6 points per game – it's how few teams are meeting the bar with isolation plays for overall half-court efficiency. The average half-court possession is worth 0.94 points per possession this season. Compare that to the 0.88 points per possession average for isolations and 0.81 per possession average for post-ups and it becomes easy to understand why one-on-one play is simply not a realistic option for most teams.

While many teams will only fall back on one-on-one play when things fall apart late in the shot clock, some teams still find room for it in special cases – and McCollum provided a good example as to why. Finding his rhythm in the first quarter, the talented veteran began waving off screens and simply going at defenders to find the bottom of the net with a half-dozen leaning, contested pull-up shots on his way to 30 total points. While some of the shots he made might earn the average player a trip to the bench, McCollum fits the mold of what still works when it comes to isolation play: elite shot-makers testing their limits.

McCollum currently ranks second in the EuroCup in isolation scoring, but what makes the five players above interesting is not just their productivity making something out of nothing, but the fact that all five are averaging over 1.00 points per isolation possession. That's a testament to how teams are approaching the freedom they give their top scorers to go one-on-one. Part of the reason isolation play is so uncommon is because the bar is exceedingly high.

Those same rules extend to post play to some degree, but they manifest differently. Since only two teams are averaging over 0.87 points per post-up possession, many teams do not try to throw the ball inside frequently, as there is not really much reason for a heat check. Some will do so due to the appeal of playing inside-out since passes out of post-ups create twice as many shots as passes out of isos. But few teams can truly lean on their ability to throw the ball inside.

Joventut is the exception to that rule. No team gets more than 9% of their possessions from post-ups except for Joventut, which uses 17% of their possessions on the block while converting them for a tremendous 0.99 points per possession. Featuring the two most productive post scorers in the EuroCup this season, Joventut is able to play an entirely different style than the rest of the league at this point, pounding the ball inside consistently the way some teams would feed their hot hand in isolation situations.

As keeping up with the efficiency of the league has shifted the priorities of teams in the EuroCup, one-on-one play has grown unappealing for most. Despite that, there are several players and teams still finding a way to make it work at the exceedingly high level they need to fit the modern game.

### Looking ahead to Round 11

The two teams at the top of Group B go head-to-head in Round 11 as Buducnost VOLI Podgorica travels to Spain to take on Valencia Basket. Both teams have had a knack for winning close games so far this season, ranking first and second in clutch scoring efficiency on the year – a point of interest should their matchup go down to the wire.

Errick McCollum - Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (photo Fedor Aebor - Lokomotiv) - EC21

For the first 5 minutes of its pivotal home game with Turk Telekom Ankara on Wednesday, Boulogne Metropolitans 92 looked like the away team, a little lost on its own court.



By sharing and shooting, Metropolitans tied club scoring mark

The visitors zoomed in front 0-8 with the help of 3 turnovers committed by the hosts. Those miscues rose to 5 after the game's first 5 minutes, which was odd because Metropolitans had been making just 11.9 turnovers on average as the 7DAYS EuroCup's second-safest team with the ball before the game.

Patience is one of Metropolitans head coach Vincent Collet's virtues, and he was rewarded on Wednesday as his team regrouped and spent the next 35 minutes putting Turk Telekom in the rearview mirror, getting smaller and smaller until the hosts had a 99-82 victory that could prove a turning point in the Group A standings. Both now have 5-5 records, but Metropolitans also won the tie-break between. They are competing with Lietkabelis Panevezys (5-5) and MoraBanc Andorra (5-4) for fourth place, which comes with an eighthfinals game at home, where Metropolitans is 4-1 so far.

By taking care of the ball better after a shoddy start, keeping its turnovers average low by committing just 6 after the first quarter, Metropolitans started getting its shooters better shots. That process paid off midway through the second quarter with a 5-for-6 shooting streak from downtown sparked by Tony Crocker as the hosts built double-digit leads that lasted all game.

Crocker, a recent roster addition, went on to finish 5-for-8 from the arc, but four of his teammates were close behind: Will Cummings and David Michineau hit 3 each, Ginat Tomer and Keith Hornsby 2 each, and Bandja Sy knocked down his only triple try, from the corner. It added up to a club-record 16 three-pointers made, 10 more than Turk Telekom, and they fell at an impressive 57.1% rate. The 99 points that came of all that fine shooting tied the team's scoring record through 68 games over five EuroCup seasons.

But to focus on those record-setting threes might be putting the cart before the horse. Both Collet and his counterpart, Turk Telekom boss Henrik Rodl, agreed that ball movement was the key to the Metropolitans victory.

"I thought they played almost a perfect game, especially offensively," Rodl said. "They moved the ball extremely well. When they found the guys that were open, they made shots at high percentages – 57% from three-point distance. It's very special; that doesn't happen every night. It was a long night for us defensively. We need to get better for sure. But it also had a lot to do with how ready and present Boulougne was today."

Indeed, Metropolitans had 26 assists by night's end, its second-highest total without overtime. But more impressive than the total was the fact that eight players dished at least 2 assists each, with Michineau's 8 topping them all.

"Our ball movement was much better than in the last few games. We shared the ball several times and found good shots for our shooters, and we made them...," Collet said. "The game is different then. We have very good drivers. We know that Will and David can run through the defense. But it's much easier when the danger is everywhere and we share the ball because for our opponents, we become unpredictable."

Unpredictable, too, is how far Metropolitans can go. But if they play as they did despite a mistake-filled start on Wednesday, Marcel Cerdan arena might well become the scene of a do-or-die playoffs home game in springtime on the outskirts of Paris.

David Michineau 2- Boulogne Metropolitans 92 (photo Olivier dAlmeida - Metropolitans) - EC21