When a new guy is the best man

If you wanted to paraphrase this event in a rather benevolent way, you could do it like Denis Wucherer: “Intensive” he called the game which, in his eyes, was the “expected tough fight”. And that doesn’t say the least thing about the goodness. “Our boys weren’t intense enough. Heidelberg plays very uncomfortably with a tough defense. There are no beauty prizes to be won here,” said the head coach of Bundesliga basketball team s.Oliver Würzburg on Saturday evening in the belly of the pretty SNP, which only opened in March Domes at the gates of the city.

If you wanted to be ruthlessly honest, then you would have to describe this encounter of the baskets at the climber as a terrible basketball game, in which both teams fought at least in phases in a remarkably intense competition about who could cause more unforced errors and conjure up the bizarre slapstick insert on the floor can. The really amazing thing about this game unsuitable for the Bundesliga was that it remained tight until almost the very end and therefore even exciting. Because neither of the two weak teams managed to secure a comfortable lead: the Baskets were already leading with ten points (17: 7) after just over six minutes, the home side at least nine (43:34) just before half-time. In the end, the Heidelberg team won by five, the 76:71 (43:36) was their fourth win of the season in their fifth game, and for the Baskets it was their third defeat in their fourth game.

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“Maybe Heidelberg could become the new Crailsheim or the new Vechta from a few years ago, so the league’s surprise team,” Wucherer had speculated before the game – certainly also in the secret hope of being able to slip into this role himself. At the moment, the baskets are actually good for surprises – just probably not necessarily in the way you wanted them to be. The opening clap in Crailsheim was followed by two very decent appearances and victories against the MBC in the cup and against Oldenburg, before the Würzburg team gave their best performances at the MBC and now in Heidelberg.

“In principle, it is not a good sign when the newcomer is the best man on the floor,” analyzed Wucherer. Because: “Then something is wrong with the idea of ​​some established players.” Wucherer meant the Polish national player Tomasz Gielo, who was only signed on Tuesday, who was the top scorer of the game with 19 points on his debut in Germany and who did the little trick of sinking six of his seven three-way attempts. Even if the Baskets coach says: “We knew beforehand that he could throw. But the opponents will scout it and prepare for it.” Such a rate, with which he kept the baskets in the game, will hardly be granted to the 28-year-old on a regular basis.

The Baskets also brought their latest post-contract to the Neckar. Kerron Johnson arrived in Würzburg on Friday, trained once with the team and still stood on the floor for a good 16 minutes (in which he even scored eleven points). The fact that the 30-year-old US playmaker, who was hired for eight weeks for Luciano Parodi, who was injured at the knee, still has a huge need for coordination with his colleagues, was often obvious and is in the nature of things.

Wucherer hopes to get his newcomers better integrated in the coming week. And with his established forces he will talk a few bars, “because some were far too soft to help us.” Especially Cameron Hunt, who was deeply submerged in the course of the game, and William Buford should have rang their ears. Whereby Buford has been appearing to be battered for two games, as cautiously as he sneaks across the floor.

Be that as it may: “We have to be more tough,” demands usurers. The tasks and the timing are not getting any easier: On Halloween (3 p.m.) Gießen am Main is a guest, which has just poured 100 points into the MBC and wiped it off with a difference of 19. “We didn’t manage that last week,” says Wucherer. In Weißenfels the Baskets lost with 22 points difference (73:95). And two days later, on November 2nd (8:30 p.m.), the game against Bayern that was postponed because of a Euroleague appearance by the Munich team will be rescheduled. Here, too, the baskets are not necessarily favorites.