A pool, 10 teams and a single direct climb to Pro B: the second phase of National 1 men (NM1) begins this Friday. The winner of Group A will win the NM1 title and will also climb higher. Each Group A team will play 5 home matches and 5 away matches. The clubs do not keep their balance sheet from the first phase, only the direct confrontations between teams qualified for the same group as them are counted.
3 favorites for the direct climb
With this classification system, three formations are positioned as the top of the upper hen and are thus the best placed to aim for the direct rise in Pro B. Angers, Poitiers and Chartres start this championship with a balance sheet of 6 victories for 2 defeats. The three teams have 2 successes ahead of their closest competitors in the standings.
Poitiers will try to go back to Pro B, after a descent last season. The Poitevins arrive launched with 13 victories in a row. They will have the opportunity during this new phase to play their last home game in their new venue, the Futuroscope Arena. Marcus Relphorde (1.98m, 33 years old) is having a very good season (17.9 points per game, third best scorer in NM1) and is positioning himself as a potential MVP.
Angers achieved the best record of the two groups in the first phase (22 wins, 4 losses) and also remains on a good series of victories (9 in a row). Sylvain Delorme’s players have a defense well in place, which causes many stray balls to the opponent. Karim Gouari (2.02 m, 33 years old) is one of the executives of this workforce, he who averages 13.3 points and 7.1 rebounds.
Chartres, despite a less good blow at the end of the first phase (3 losses in the last 5 matches, defeat in particular against Pôle France), secured its place in the upper pool. They have won most of their matches against direct competitors, and count on Yann Siegwarth (1.85m, 28 years old) to help them access the direct climb: he is the team’s best scorer and passer ( 16.5 points and 4.5 assists).
Your traders are all behind the @pb86officiel for phase 2 of the NM1 championship!
10 games, 5 games at home: don’t miss this series of clashes.
The best of NM1 is yet to come!
Buy your tickets > https://t.co/QzgeinNiCg pic.twitter.com/eK3geUwfn7– PoitiersleCentre (@PoitiersCentre) March 9, 2022
Big names among the underdogs
Although behind, the teams that follow in the standings can make their way to the direct rise to Pro B. LyonSO, Mulhouse and Lorient have a record of 4 wins and 4 losses on the starting line of the second phase. LyonSO has in its ranks the best passer in NM1, the former All-Star Marc-Antoine Pellin (1.71 m, 34 years old). The club promoted in the division and supported by ASVEL, which places some of the members of its academy there in an incubator, must nevertheless face the absence of one of its strong men, Michael Craion, until April. British international Benjamin Mockford arrives as reinforcements instead. “The first goes directly to Pro B but it will be complicated because I do not see the three teams cracking, believes the coach Moatassim Rhennam in Progress. The goal is to continue to progress on this 2nd phase, to keep the same cohesion, the same dynamic of work to attack the play-offs in 1/8th with the objective of going up. »
Three other clubs have a record of 3 wins and 5 losses: these are Caen, Le Havre and Rueil. Despite this record in this second half of the season, Le Havre and Caen finished first and second in Pool B respectively. beginning of the season, the objective will be to rise as much as possible in the standings in order to have home advantage in the playoffs. For this, Le Havre brought in a top-level player, shooter Valentin Bigote.
TICKETS OPEN
NM1 Championship
@stblehavre
Sports Center – Kervaric (Lorient)
Saturday March 12 – 8:00 p.m.
12 euros (placed), 8 euros (free), 5 euros (-18 years old, job seeker, students…) FREE for children under 6 years old
https://t.co/kdDJEd0hTF pic.twitter.com/tdzhJUxDMa– CEP LORIENT BREIZH BASKET (@CepBasket) March 9, 2022
Finally, the tenth and last group team, La Rochelle, has a record of 1 win and 7 losses. Stade Rochelais can hope to glean a few victories to secure a place in the playoffs, but the direct climb is already inaccessible. Its good dynamics, with a snatch qualification, and the less pressure on the shoulders of François Sence’s players, are assets for a club which aims to rise to Pro B in the medium term and above all wants to increase in power year after year. .
By finishing 5th in pool A, our players snatched their ticket for the high pool of the final phase of #NM1 !
Discover the schedule for the next 10 matches! Objective, win as many matches as possible before the play-offs!
more info https://t.co/CRSB3elzWn pic.twitter.com/xONQJPqL5j
– Stade Rochelais Basket (@SR_Rupella) March 2, 2022
As a reminder, behind the NM1 champion, the nine other teams from group A will play in the playoffs along with the seven best teams from group B, in a best-of-three series. From favorites to outsiders, all the ingredients are there to see a show in NM1, from this Friday.
Day one posters:
- Angers vs Mulhouse (Saturday March 12)
- Poitiers vs Chartres (Friday March 11)
- Lorient vs Le Havre (Saturday March 12)
- Rueil vs Caen (Friday March 11)
- Stade Rochelais vs LyonSO (Friday March 11)
