The return of the 8th and 9th: it sounds like the name of a film. In reality they are two players from Pallacanestro Cantù: the 8th is captain Filippo Baldi Rossi, the 9th is Riccardo Moraschini. Like old and new theater or cinema couples. Boldi and De Sica, Ric and Gian, Ale and Franz, Ficarra and Picone, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. They scored the decisive triples, namely the one with the extension and the one with safety. Strokes of genius, in the last minute and a half, worthy of the couples mentioned above, but also a couple of oversights or errors that could have been costly, like in a comedy. But it went well and one easily forgets the negative nuances. Because the flashes of lucid madness were truly decisive.
Protagonists
Protagonists in Cantù’s victory in Forlì, the two players are also great friends in life. They have known each other since they were kids: both thirty-three years old, they grew up in the youth sector of Virtus Bologna. They shared the shirts of the youth national teams, then met again in Trento in 2016/17. For a year they have returned to sharing the same shirt, that of Cantù. With even greater motivation and inner drive.
Theirs is a friendship cemented over the years: companions in summer adventures and misadventures, travel, sleepless nights playing the Playstation. Baldi Rossi, a year ago, said this to La Provincia: «My role in Moraschini’s arrival? Quite relevant. In the pool, I talked to him about Cantù’s ambitions and that it could be a good idea to play together again. I was under him: apart from the fact that he will give us a great hand, I am happy to find Ricky as a partner again.”
Couple
The 8 and the 9, in fact, the little phrase that tells of their uniqueness and validity as a couple on the pitch. This explains those two decisive bombs, this is why something is pushing them, this year, to be the leaders of the team.
The story of the last minute and a half of the match in Forlì is a concentration of 8 and 9, by Baldi Rossi and Moraschini. At 68-68, Baldi Rossi is whistled for a foul, but Moraschini recovers in defense. Basile misses from underneath, and Moraschini grabs a rebound that isn’t easy on defense. Ball from there and bomb from Baldi Rossi: 68-71, fundamental.
Forlì loses the ball, Moraschini tries from 3 and takes the rim. De Nicolao recovers the ball in attack and Moraschini, against all odds, rises from 7 metres, practically from a standstill and scores a triple for +6 with 1’04” to go.
In the last minute, another rebound grabbed by Moraschini and a little “madness” by Baldi Rossi, who receives the ball from the throw-in, losing it. Forgiven, obviously, after the free throws by the security team, his and De Nicolao’s.
And it’s not just a lucid madness that moves the two friends: there is the desire, for both, to take the team on their shoulders. And you really need people like that to win.
