Published30. September 2023, 2:15 p.m.
Basketball: Friborg Olympic, a less sovereign champion?
The Swiss Basketball League championship resumes this Saturday. This is why the defense of the title does not look easy for the Friborg champion.
par
Jeremy Santallo
Will Arnaud Cotture win a sixth consecutive Swiss championship title at the end of the season?
Claudio De Capitani/freshfocus
Because Olympic is starting a new cycle
With the departures of its president (Philippe de Gottrau), its coach (Petar Aleksic) and its captain (Boris Mbala), three emblems of the club, Friborg begins a new cycle on the side of Saint-Léonard. Roberto Kovac, Arnaud Cotture and Natan Jurkovitz are still there, but maestro Jonathan Kazadi and the promising Dylan Ducommun are already injured. A fourth foreign player (Ross Williams) has just arrived to compensate and if we add the Swiss international and former Union executive Killian Martin, the team of Belgian technician Thibaut Petit is really counting on eight elements to launch its season – how many minutes for young Aloïs Leyrolles? Not sure that this will be enough in the long term. But Olympic can already congratulate itself on having recovered Eric Nottage from Massagno and not his ghost who played for the Geneva Lions.
Because Massagno seems better armed
Winner last season of the League Cup, the first title in its history, and beaten in the final of the Swiss Cup and the championship by Olympic, Spinelli Massagno once again seems cut out to be the champion’s main opponent. Exit Shannon Bogues, Jonathan Galloway, Laurent Zoccoletti and Juwann James. The muscular American veteran has still not signed a contract. To compensate for these departures, the Ticino leaders have relied on players who know the SBL with Thomas Dunan (ex-Monthey), Florian Steinmann (Boncourt), Kevin Langford (Monthey), Yuri Solca (Fribourg) and Keith Clanton (Geneva). Difficult to do better, on paper. What if we had to find a downside to the squad? The new captain, Marko Mladjan, has no real rotation on position 4. Note that coach Robbi Gubitosa, expelled during the play-off final, benefits from a suspensive appeal. While waiting to be retried, he can therefore sit on the bench.
Because the Lions have more experience
The experience of what? A first year of presidency, for Oggie Kapetanovic, and of building a group, for sports director Robert Margot. Compared to last season, the Geneva Lions have lost the points and leadership of Bryan Colon, still convalescing after his serious knee injury and who is now a free agent. But if we look at the summer recruitment on the Pommier side, it’s very clean: we have the Swiss international passer Robert Zinn, a Paul Gravet who must finally blossom after years in the shadows at Olympic, Mike Williams, brilliant with Vevey last year, the all-risk insurance company Markel Humphrey (ex-Monthey) and two foreign pivots with Mladen Armus (Serbia) and Matthew Dentlinger (USA). Is this enough to intervene as referee in the remote duel between Friborg and Massagno? Highly possible.
Because Neuchâtel is coming of age
Generally, when a foreign player joins a Swiss team, it is mainly to launch his career and make statistics to land a contract in a more competitive championship. This summer, Union Neuchâtel achieved the feat of bringing back to the Riveraine Nate West, Dalan Ancrum and Arkim Robertson, three crucial American players from last season. To support them, the rising coach, Mitar Trivunovic, has recruited cleverly with Thomas Salman (Monthey) and Dylan Schommer (Swiss Central). The technician even saw a fourth foreign reinforcement arrive, in the person of Darious Moten, and that devil Juan Esteban de la Fuente is still there. Finalist in the play-offs two years ago, semi-finalist last season, Union, despite the loss of its captain Killian Martin, remains THE itch in the league.
Jérémy Santallo’s prediction
End of season: 1 Massagno, 2 Fribourg, 3 Geneva, 4 Neuchâtel, 5 Monthey, 6 Vevey, 7 Lugano, 8 Nyon, 9 Basel, 10 Lausanne.
Christian Maillard’s prediction
End of season: 1 Fribourg, 2 Geneva, 3 Massagno, 4 Monthey, 5 Neuchâtel, 6 Nyon, 7 Lausanne, 8 Vevey, 9 Lugano, 10 Basel.
Champion: Lions of Geneva.
2023-09-30 13:09:47
#Basketball #Friborg #Olympic #sovereign #champion
