“That was now three wins against relegation. We’re talking about nothing other than relegation.” Says Niklas Würzner in a story on sportschau.de. Which may come as a surprise when you are currently second in the table. But of course: the season has just hatched, and after four match days the tableau is of course only partially meaningful. The surprise and play-off team Crailsheim is penultimate, play-off subscriber Oldenburg is 14th, and master Alba Berlin is eleventh. Newcomer MLP Academics Heidelberg, in whose service Würzner is, is second after three wins in the first four games. Sure: a snapshot. But nonetheless a surprising one, because there have already been numerous astonishing results in this young season of the basketball Bundesliga.
“It’s getting crazier and closer,” says Denis Wucherer, head coach of s.Oliver Würzburg, who will compete in Heidelberg on Saturday (8.30pm), only won one of its three games and is one place ahead of the defeated Oldenburgers. Usurer went to court a little more intensely this week with his men after the surprisingly clear 73:95 defeat in Weißenfels last Saturday, because after the 90:88 coup against Oldenburg he was “surprised at what low energy level we were played at MBC. We definitely should have defended ourselves better. “
New game, new chance. So now in Heidelberg. Where the baskets bring two new players. Carvacho replacement Tomasz Gielo will probably take part. Whether Kerron Johnson will also play will not be decided until the day of the match. The club announced the playmaker’s commitment on Friday afternoon. He is to temporarily replace Luciano Parodi and has signed an eight-week contract. The Uruguayan Parodi will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery next week and is expected to be out for six to eight weeks.
An experienced playmaker who knows the league
The 31-year-old American Johnson arrived in Würzburg on Friday, passed the medical checks? and knows the Bundesliga: In 2014/15 and 2017/18 he designed the game in Ludwigsburg, where he played with the long-term injured Baskets-Center Justin Sears, who also recommended him to usurers: Kerron Johnson is an absolute competitor who always wants to win ??, says the coach, who hopes: ?? He will fit in well with us and is the type of player who makes his teammates better, but can also score points himself. ?? The 1.83-meter man averaged 9.4 points and 4.4 assists in 40 games in the 2017/18 season, three years earlier it was an average of 14.2 points in 35 games. Johnson has already made his living in New Zealand, France, Poland, Italy, Israel and Romania. Most recently he was under contract with BC Enisey Krasnoyarsk in Russia. ?? After Nano Parodi was injured, we had to react quickly. With Kerron Johnson we have found an experienced point guard who knows the league very well and will certainly help us out ??, says Kresimir Loncar, Manager Scouting and Sport at s.Oliver Würzburg.
The Heidelberger were not necessarily a big house number in basketball Germany in the last year (tenth)? the original club, USC Heidelberg, was German champions nine times, between 1957 and ’77. Back when basketball was primarily a student sport, the university town’s club had its greatest successes. After the fall into the long-term second class, one thing in particular ensured the upswing: a new arena. “Without the new hall we couldn’t play the Bundesliga,” says Würzner? whose dad certainly helped to make the project a reality. Father Eckart Würzner has been Lord Mayor of the city on the Neckar for 15 years.
Three actors who once worked in Würzburg have now landed there: Max Ugrai, Brekkott Chapman and Robert Lowery. While the affinity of the globetrotter Lowery to the Baskets is likely to be limited, because he was supposed to help out in an emergency last season as a late signing up and then injured himself again and was out for weeks, things are a little different with the other two .
Ugrai, a native of Bad Mergentheim, had been through the entire youth program at the Baskets since he was 13, took part in the low and high again in the mid-2010s, but then never really got the chance under the coaches at the time, Douglas Spradley and his successor Dirk Bauermann to prove yourself. Via Jena, Ugrai ended up in Ulm, where he had the heyday of his career to date, before a protracted knee injury forced him to take a break. After a year with second division Bremerhaven Ugrai probably wants to prove, especially against his favorite club, that he is back in the Bundesliga.
The story of Brekkott Chapman and the Baskets would basically be worth telling more in depth. Maybe before the second leg. In short: Usurer brought him from college in the USA in 2019. Chapman had only made three games for Würzburg when his meniscus tore during training. The 2.06-meter man fought his way back, played briefly before an Achilles tendon tore him out of action. Also because of the season that was canceled due to the corona, Chapman came to just 20 games in two years in Würzburg.
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