Michele Vitali will be a prophet ‘in his homeland’. The captain of Pallacanestro Reggiana has in fact been called up by coach Gianmarco Pozzecco for the two matches that the national team will play against Iceland (22 and 25 November) valid for qualification for Eurobasket, the second of which, as is known, will be held at the ‘PalaBigi’. This is obviously a nice gratification for the Bolognese wing guard who had already participated in the Tokyo 2021 Olympics with the expedition led by Meo Sacchetti, but who then ended up on the sidelines after a few not too lucky years. Now he will once again have the opportunity to return as a protagonist with the Italy jersey, in front of the Reggio Emilia public who have never failed to support him in recent years and will be proud to see one of their standard bearers wearing the blue.
The same feeling that many will also feel for Nicolò Melli, the favorite son of our land, from Reggio Emilia, who has given his availability for the second match. The ‘golden boy’ was also the protagonist of the ‘promo’ in which he invited the public to participate in what will be a real event for the whole city. In fact, the national basketball team had not arrived at the ‘PalaBigi’ since 26 February 2000, when they defeated Antoine ‘Le Roi’ Rigaudeau’s France 69 to 65 thanks to the unreachable Carlton Myers, who scored 20 points. These are the Azzurri players called up: Marco Spissu, Davide Moretti, Diego Flaccadori, Amedeo Tessitori, Saliou Niang, Grant Basile, Giordano Bortolani, Davide Casarin, Michele Vitali, Riccardo Rossato, Federico Poser, Luca Severini, Davide Alviti, Nicola Akele, John Petrucelli. Available and therefore possible for inclusion in view of the second match, Dame Sarr, Stefano Tonut, Nicolò Melli, Giampaolo Ricci, Guglielmo Caruso, Achille Polonara, Mouhamet Diouf and Alessandro Pajola.
However, there is no good news regarding Sasha Grant’s condition. The red and white winger, already in the pits in the last Basketball Champions League match against Slask, will most likely also have to miss Sunday’s away match against Reyer Venezia. The class of 2002 is in fact struggling with a problem with a toe on his right foot which is also preventing him from training. It is very likely that he will do some sort of ‘trial’ close to the match, but the chances of his use are currently limited.
