The coaches of CBT, CB Valls and CB Salou aspire to maintain their promotion options until the end of the season
The competition is back, basketball is back and the EBA league is back more exciting with the three teams from Tarragona at the top of the table. CBT, CB Valls and CB Salou fight to get in the first two positions at the end of the season and thus compete in the play-off for promotion to LEB Plata.
The first part of the season has left a fast-paced classification. After being relegated from LEB Plata last season, Berni Álvarez’s Tarragona Basketball Club began a process of renewal of the team, forming a base of young players with projection. The first part of the season did not go bad at all for Tarragona, who are fourth with nineteen points, tied with Castelldefels, who is third, and CB Valls, second. The Cebetistes did not reach Christmas in the best way, with two consecutive defeats that left a bitter end after a good start. His coach, Berni Álvarez, values positively how they are competing in the EBA league so far because “in the summer the team had to make a generational change, with young people, a project that has to be consolidated and the results are not the primary, he says. evolution and has been accompanied by good results so far.
The CBT is already preparing for the resumption of the league this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Basketball returns to the Seraglio and the Cebetistes will face Sant Cugat, a team that is at the bottom of the table, with the intention of finding victory again. Looking ahead to this second part of the season, Berni Álvarez hopes to follow the objectives that were set from the beginning: “This base will be the future so we want them to continue growing, so that their performance does not stop.” Álvarez does not forget the competition and believes that “if four or five days from the end we have a chance to be among the top three, we will fight it.”
A CB Salou in racha
CB Salou finished the first round with an impressive four-game winning streak. This good dynamic of results promoted the team to the classification and, currently, they are fifth with 18 points, in the middle of a fight for the top positions. The Salouenses hit the table in the last two days, winning the two Tarragona derbies against CBT and CB Valls. Its coach, Jesús Muñiz, values the season positively: «The four positive results before the strike put us in the fight for the top positions and having achieved them at the end is a coup that can help us at the start of the second round ».
The restart will be more complicated for CB Salou, who will face the leader, El Olivar, in their field this Saturday at 18:30. “It is the third day in a row that we played against the leader, first it was CBT, then CB Valls and now El Olivar, a team that surprised us during the game we played against them,” Muñiz told Diari Més. A difficult match on a court where the local team has only lost once.
Heading into the second round, Jesús Muñiz is clear about the team’s objectives and they want to “keep all the options intact, we want to be at the top and aim for everything.”
CB Valls, second, leading the Tarragona teams
The good results of CB Valls this season have taken them to second position. Their coach, Oriol Pozo, says that achieving this milestone has not been easy because “we are in a very close league, this is one of the strongest groups and it is demonstrated by equality at the top of the table.” The last day ended with defeat, but Pozo values the team’s performance so far: «It is true that we did not end with good feelings because of the defeat, but it is also true that we had not lost since October, and that speaks very good of the work of the players ».
CB Valls visits the Baricentro Barbera field at 7:00 p.m., last classified, with the aim of maintaining the competitiveness of the team. Pozo emphasizes that the team is not going through its best moment physically because “we have players with discomforts that alter the work dynamics, but on Saturday we will compete with the tools we have.”
Looking ahead to this second round, Pozo emphasizes that his ideal goal is “to remain hooked to the top, but with the current situation of covid-19, thinking in the long term is difficult.”
The covid situation alters the competition
The covid pandemic is affecting all sports competitions equally. Also, to the work dynamics of the teams. Berni Álvarez emphasizes that “with this situation we cannot train normally, losing a player we cannot prepare as well as we would like”. Juan Muñiz emphasizes that “at the moment we do not have any positive, but this situation generates uncertainty of not knowing if it will end up affecting us at any time”. Oriol Pozo agrees with the two technicians and adds that the covid ends up affecting the team’s objectives “it would be daring to think long-term with this situation.”
For the competition, it is foreseen by regulation that the teams test the players for antigens days before the matchdays and, if a team has more than two positives, it will be considered an outbreak and the match they would have to play will be postponed.
Anyway, basketball officially returns this weekend and the Tarragona teams will seek to continue in a state of grace this second round, but at the end of the season only two will qualify for the play-off. The competition returns more exciting than ever.
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