Sito Alonso’s renewed team starts the pre-season today with medical tests and many absentees
It was (again) the first team in the Endesa League to close the roster this summer, but that doesn’t mean it has been a quiet summer for UCAM. The perspective given by the passage of time means that the first historic classification for a Copa del Rey for sporting merits (in the current final stage format) outweighs a season ending that left much to be desired, but that left the return to Europe for a 2022-23 about to begin. And despite being one of the best seasons ever, it has revolutionized it. Some by club decision, some by the player (and others because the puzzle didn’t allow to pass), the fact is that up to seven casualties have been recorded. And as a result, eight have been added to a squad that, for this upcoming campaign, and as happened in the two in which UCAM entered the Champions League, stretches to thirteen chips.
Last season’s three most highly regarded players (Lima, Webb III and Taylor) will not be playing as locals at the Palacio de los Deportes next year and yet there is more excitement than uncertainty, which is typical of any end of August. The UCAM is currently exceeding subscriber numbers in the past two seasons and is optimistic about the wave that usually comes in September. The reasons, some acquisitions that inspire optimism, especially those of proven quality players at the highest European level such as Artem Pustovyi or James Anderson, winner of the last two Euroleague titles, the first against the Ukrainian in 2021, when he was still a Barcelona player.
Also of course that of a Trice who meets the scoring profile that Sito loves so much, or the one with quotas such as Diop, Jelínek and Sakho. Klavzar, just graduated to become Bellas’ star student, and Luther, the most unknown, the bets.
That the chemistry is having its effect and making up for the illusion will start to work from today, when the preseason begins with the first medical tests. At 9.30 am the players meet at the Mesa del Castillo hospital and in the afternoon at 6 pm and in the sports center Helpia it is time for assessments, podiatry and check-ups.
Of course, like every year he plays a continental tournament, absence is a common evil for all teams in the Endesa League. Immersed in the ‘FIBA windows’ of the coming days and the Eurobasket (starting September 1) are Radovic (Montenegro), McFadden (Georgia), Pustovyi (Ukraine) and Jelínek (Czech Republic); the same, but with the AmeriCup, Rojas (Dominican Republic); and, only with the qualifiers for the next World Cup, Sakho (Congo).
To replace the absent players, who will join UCAM when their commitments end, Sito will be assisted by homegrown players Hamza Mestoglu, Fabián Flores, Daniel Arjol, Wilhelm Falk, Villiam García and José Tomás Martínez, who may also will be called up in the friendly preseasons, of which five have been announced so far (none in the region yet) and will start on September 2.
Source: La Verdad
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