UCAM plays tonight in the Hungarian city of Szombathely, but they still can’t count on Niels Giffey, signed yesterday
If there was one barrier to playing doubles league for UCAM, it was the journey. Competing in Europe is always one of the goals for a team that wants to continue to grow and belong to the nobility of the Endesa League, the team that crosses borders season in and season out of Europe, but the toll can be the highest. expensive. Just 48 hours after the defeat to Granada, one that is still hard to accept due to the team’s ill-feelings, UCAM began its journey to Szombathely, the provincial capital of Vas, in the country of Hungary.
Until the UCAM first set foot on Hungarian soil, the UCAM traveled by bus to the neighboring city of Alicante. But to catch a plane to Barcelona. From there another to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. And, from the city where the Petrovic brothers in the eighties with their Cibona sowed terror on the Old Continent, by bus to Szombathely, final destination in Hungary. There they will start their match at 6pm today against Falco, a theoretical expert in group A candy, who dropped three points last week (the same difference UCAM beat Tofas with) during their visit to French Strasbourg (81-78).
When the game is over, and without losing a minute, Sito Alonso’s players rush to the dressing room for a quick shower, as it’s not time to rest yet. There will be one last trip to stay overnight before the return journey begins. There is a bus waiting for you to visit a new country because tonight is in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Tomorrow the university students have two flights and another bus ride. From the city where the virtuosity of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived, by plane to Zurich. And from the Alpine country to Valencia, to go on the last road trip to Murcia. And of course training again on Friday, because Valencia Basket awaits on Sunday.
Today, in Hungary, the UCAM will try to capture sensations. It’s what you need most to make your job easier. Chain a few minutes with the systems working, a player who didn’t start the season on the right foot, chain a few positive moves and go home with another win in his pocket.
But it can’t go on like this any longer, because winning games by throwing under 30% accuracy is one of those things that only happens once in a while, and it already happened last Tuesday against the Tofas.
In contrast, a team that has nothing to lose and that comes from almost the surprise in Strasbourg, with a great performance by the Croat Boris Barac (17 points and 6 rebounds), who arrived at Falco in 2020 after playing in the LEB with Palma from Mallorca, and the Hungarian internationals Zoltán Perl and Akos Keller.
After just one game since James Anderson’s injury, who could be out for more than a month, UCAM yesterday announced the surprise arrival of Niels Giffey (Berlin, 1991). Surprising for the player’s entity, who, after taking the bronze in the last Eurobasket with the German national team, and having played his entire career in the EuroCup and Euroleague, is currently without a team.
With a contract until the end of the season and the possibility of being cut by either side, the signing of this 2-foot-tall player who can play as ‘3’ and ‘4’ should not be interpreted as a simple patch for Anderson’s time dismissal. And it’s that one of the positions that raises the most doubts for Alejandro Gómez’s management is the ‘4’, where Luther’s shyness and scarce resources on offense raise doubts in a position where the other player is Radovic, leaving Sito without a complement that threatens from outside.
The UCAM made official yesterday the signing of Niels Giffey, 31, who will have his first experience in the Endesa League in Murcia, but also the first without participating in the EuroCup or the Euroleague since turning pro. However, his career has been brilliant ever since he completed his education at the University of Connecticut, one of the most prestigious in the United States, where he spent four years and won two national college championships.
On his return to Europe, Giffey returned to ALBA in Berlin, where he had started as a youngster, and there he spent seven years moving from the EuroCup to the Euroleague, also winning two German competitions. Last year he left for the first time to the Lithuanian Zalgiris. He was currently without a team and in a similar situation to the one Giannoulis Larentzakis arrived in Murcia in 2018. He played the international tournament on duty (China World Cup in 2019) waiting for a Euroleague offer that was not completed. . In Berlin, where Marcus Eriksson was injured, they will watch his evolution in Murcia with suspicion.
Source: La Verdad
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