From Soccer Professor to Basketball Doctorate: The Rise of Anton Gavel in Ulm

Ulm had the soccer professor. And has a basketball doctorate 25 years later.

Unforgotten how Ralf Rangnick (65/then coach of SSV Ulm) explained the back four in the ZDF sports studio in 1998. In 2023, Anton Gavel explains a master move in BamS.

Gavel led Ratiopharm Ulm to the first championship in the club’s history in the basketball Bundesliga in mid-June. And that even without a coaching license. The German-Slovak sat on the bench with a special permit and is currently cramming for the necessary license.

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Gavel receives the BamS reporter in his trainer room. In his hand – the tactics board without which basketball coaches cannot explain moves.

The ex-national player (twelve appearances for Germany): “Rangnick put Ulm on the tableau at the time. It is impressive how calmly he can explain everything. But basketball tactics are not rocket science, I always try to explain it simply and, above all, quickly. I’m not a professor, I didn’t reinvent basketball either.”

He doesn’t want to be a basketball professor. But at least he’s a basketball doctor!

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Gavel explains, “Block and roll. A standard play. We’ve always tried to showcase our Yago (dos Santos, was named MVP of the play-offs; ed.). We didn’t have one very special tactic this season. There is also no gavel move.”

What the back four is in football, defense is in basketball. “In the final against Bonn, their best man, TJ Shorts, had to be stopped. How do we make his life difficult for him? He’s left-handed, do we want to push towards the right hand? But in the end it’s not a player’s job, it’s simply the whole team’s job, because of course he also sees his team-mates. That was the most difficult task. And we mastered them relatively well.”

During his time in Munich (2014 – 2018) he met star coach Pep Guardiola (52), but Gavel is certain: “I would like to exchange ideas with Jürgen Klopp.”

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Klopp (Coach in Liverpool since 2015) is a role model for Gavel: “I want to know how he deals with the players, with these stars, how he copes with pressure, how he motivates, how he deals with setbacks – I have a lot of questions for him. “

Ulm’s coming season also raises many questions. Can the master keep his top performers? “We will see. My goal is to put my stamp on the team even more.”

To maybe become a basketball professor after all.

2023-07-01 15:43:35
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