The Georgian, a new UCAM player, makes his debut in the Endesa League and the Champions League to do the dirty work on the outside line
If the option to get a quota up the sleeve could respond to a name, it would be that of Rati Andronikashvili (Tbilisi, 2001). Georgian, with an American college education in the first division of the NCAA, with professional experience in Greece and in his country, for whom he is international … but with a player license trained locally in Spain. At just 21 years old, Andronikashvili has had time for all of this, plus quickly traversing Baskonia as a cadet and a fleeting loan that barely paid off with Burgos’ EBA subsidiary.
With a height of 1.93 meters, the Georgian who has just signed the UCAM is a true wonder of nature in the point guard and escort positions, owning a physique hardly seen in Europe and more on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where he left after a short stint with Greek Ionikos Nikeas (club where Fotis Katsikaris, former UCAM coach, was trained as a player) and Rustavi from his country was already making some money as a professional. In the NCAA, where players cannot be paid for their basketball services, he enrolled at Creighton University, a private, Catholic institution.
Andronikashvili moved to cold Omaha, Nebraska state and the same city where Saul Goodman escaped justice under the alias Gene Takovic, a character from one of the most successful television series of the past year, ‘Better Call Saul’. the spring of 2020 to experience American college basketball in a late entry into what would have been a natural formative cycle. However, a few days before the start of the 2020-21 season, he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee which saw him out for the whole court and only playing for the Creighton Bluejays in 2021-22, finishing with a scoring average of only 1.8 points per game with a pyrrhic shooting rate of 22.4%.
But they are not points that UCAM is looking for in Andronikashvili. It is precisely to give more freedom to those who have to send them abroad, to take charge of all those tasks that require the extra energy that this Georgian with a powerful lower body has too much, who will have assigned as the main mission by I place Alonso to embitter the existence of the most talented external rival. And that, so, Trice is fresher in attack, Bellas can take a few more breaths and, McFadden, three quarters of the same.
However, he can also have his scoring moments in games with more finishing moves in the open field, and this is how he played his most notable game on the professional circuit to date. It was in the first round of the 2023 World Cup qualifying tournament, Spain’s only defeat to date, when Sergio Scariolo’s team lost to Georgia 82-76 in extra time. Last July 4, Andronikashvili went to 17 points in 33 minutes of play, with the best +/- on target for Georgia. But the next two, without going further, he was left without scoring.
Right-handed, he uses both hands and his body really well to finish against bigger men, but the points couldn’t be asked for more than Davis, more than established as Sito’s main man in his third season and who will arrive as a Christmas present.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
