Today, the UCAM starts the ‘top 16’ of the Champions League visiting the big favourite, a Tenerife that already lost to Sito’s team this year
If you’re the current champion, it’s not the first time you’ve won the league and no one has been in the ‘Final Four’ more than you, then you’re the firm favorite to reclaim the precious trophy . That’s how it is. Especially if the team that was crowned champion in the last edition of the Champions League with eight players and the entire technical staff continues and the reinforcements respond to names of more than proven quality in Europe, in the case of Jaime Fernández, Moussa Diagné , Elgin Cook or Tim Abromaitis, who add more wood to the backbone of a squad that has already become a classic in recent seasons in the Endesa League and the Champions League, from which players like Huertas, Fitipaldo, Salin are recited almost from memory , Doornekamp or Shermadini, among others.
All this and more is Lenovo Tenerife, a team with DNA champions in the Champions League and which has found its tone in the Endesa League, where it remained leader for several days and confirmed its classification as seed for the Copa del Rey last Saturday, tournament in which UCAM will not participate. Sito’s, on the other hand, know what it is like to beat Txus Vidorreta’s team this season. Their last confrontation dates from a little over two weeks ago, when the Murcians defeated the Aurinegros on Epiphany Day in arguably the best game of the season at the Palace (85-64).
Where UCAM does not do so well in the San Cristóbal de La Laguna team is in its pavilion, the Santiago Martín. There, the Murcians have never won in the Endesa League. But yes in LEB and of course in the Champions League. The last confrontation with the Canary Islands is one of the most beautiful memories in UCAM’s recent history, when in March 2018 they came back from the unfavorable difference in the first leg played at the Palace (66-71) to win by eleven points (72- 83) and thus surpassed the round of 16 tie against him, as now, the defending champion.
At that time, the format of the competition was different, but in terms of equivalence, Tenerife and Murcia are at the same point in the European season. Only 16 teams remain, and to gain access to the quarter-finals (now also played differently, in a best-of-three-games tie), they must finish this new group stage in first or second place. UCAM’s is L, and besides Tenerife there are also Bilbao and the Turkish Darüssafaka, the only foreign team.
With the start of the ‘top 16’, the difficulty of combining the national and European competitions returns with the physical strain this entails. Just like the people of Tenerife, the Murcians played last Saturday, albeit in Fuenlabrada and with a trip in between. On what was the final day of the first round, Sito went on without making any changes to the side as he had Jordan Davis and Ryan Luther healthy, leaving youngsters Klavzar and Andronikashvili by far behind.
In the Champions League, however, the circumstances are different and one more locally trained player is needed, a condition met by both the Slovenian and the Georgian, the one who has been chosen to the detriment of Luther so far. The power forward did not play in either of the two play-in matches against Pinar Karsiyaka and as the competition progresses he continues without discretion, creating the gap that separates him from his teammate in the power forward position , a Nemanja Radovic who enjoys his best basketball since returning to Murcia and who is the most appreciated player at UCAM in the Endesa League. Sito Alonso, who has surpassed José María Oleart’s historic record by making 125 games on the bench, wants to “go far” in the Champions League.
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.
