Finally, there are certificates in the World Champion League!
SPORT BILD has closely followed the 2023/24 season in the Easycredit Basketball Bundesliga, observing, researching and analyzing on match days and between games. Now the basketball reporters are awarding the BBL final certificate.
Final certificate BBL, part 2: Veolia Towers Hamburg
“Basically, a lot of things were good.” That was the conclusion of Benka Barloschky (36) after his first full season as head coach in the BBL. The rather sober words also showed the trend after a year with many fluctuations.
The fifth season in the first league was okay for the Veolia Towers Hamburg in terms of results. Average! 10th place after the main round. A surprising victory in the first play-in game against the EWE Baskets Oldenburg (93:81), followed by a disappointing, because unnecessary, defeat two days later against the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg (78:91). In addition, early in the season there was a defeat in the round of 16 in the BBL Cup against the Bamberg Baskets (65:80) and a disappointing performance in the EuroCup…
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In the absence of results, Barloschky’s greatest achievement was something else: “The working culture that we created as a group. That we had players who, from the first to the last day, were in the hall two hours before training began and worked with a smile on their faces. That there was an atmosphere in the hall where everyone was inspired and wanted to improve.”
Before the season, he and sports director Marvin Willoughby (46) had put together a squad that was primarily made up of players from smaller European leagues due to limited financial resources. It quickly became clear that it would take time to get VJ King (27), Aljami Durham (25), Mark Hughes (27) & Co. up to BBL and EuroCup level. The only professional that Barloschky and Willoughby lost patience with was Terrell Gomez (26). The point guard had to leave early.
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Barloschky quickly found his mantra for the season: “Trust the process” – towards his own players, but also towards the fans and the media. Even when eight competitive games were lost in a row in October and the Towers almost equalled their negative record (nine).
But after that, the Towers pulled themselves together and even briefly came close to a direct play-off spot in the spring. But in the end, victories against teams from the bottom of the table were the only constant. The problem: the lack of killer instinct in decisive moments. Also because all of the key players were far too rarely able to reach their potential together in one game.
In addition, there were home-made problems such as emotional outbursts by the inexperienced Barloschky live on TV during timeouts, or arguments with the club’s own cheerleaders, which ended in the separation.
Emotional highlight: The anniversary game for the club’s tenth birthday at the end of March in the Barclays Arena against FC Bayern (80:81 after extra time) in front of 12,000 fans – the largest basketball crowd of all time in the Hanseatic city! The Towers also found a new jersey sponsor, which will increase their budget from 5.5 million to a good 6 million euros in the coming season.
Foto: picture alliance / Eibner-Pressefoto, picture alliance / BEAUTIFUL SPORTS/Wunderl, picture alliance / nordphoto GmbH / Hafner, picture alliance / Pressefoto Ba
Low point: The EuroCup season! In the second highest European competition, the Towers suffered 16 defeats in 18 games. They were not competitive, especially at the beginning, and were close to the 40-point mark in their defeats against top teams like Paris (69:105) and Tel Aviv (72:111). “Trust the process,” Barloschky repeated here too. And at the end he emphasized how much the games without pressure had helped in the end: “The EuroCup helped us incredibly to find the level.”
Club founder Willoughby came to a demonstratively positive conclusion: “If you look at the whole year, it was a great year.”
His reasoning: “I look back on a season that makes me proud. My biggest goal before a season is always not to waste a year of your life. I always tell the players that when we first meet. It depends on what I do each year. Am I wasting my time or am I going in a determined direction? Everyone did that in an exemplary manner this year. Even if it doesn’t mean that you always get the results you want.”
But since basketball is about results, the bottom line is…
SPORT BILD rating: 3
2024-06-25 09:45:12
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