After game cancellation: BG Göttingen licks its wounds – what about Brown?

The bad news reached the club and fans on Friday morning. The home game of BG Göttingen against the Fraport Skyliners was postponed by the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) at short notice, said BG spokeswoman Birte Meyenberg.

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After Frankfurt’s Lukas Wank had already tested positive for the corona virus at the turn of the year, other Skyliners players had been infected in the past few days. Since the Hessians would have had fewer than eight regular players available, they applied for the game to be rescheduled in accordance with the regulations, which the league then approved.

Most recently, BG Göttingen was affected by a game failure shortly before Christmas, when the away game against Chemnitz was postponed at short notice. Back then, too, the reasons lay with the opponent: After several Saxon players had tested positive for Corona, the local health department had sent other players into quarantine.

The violets had not been able to fully understand the decision to postpone the game. “All the other Chemnitz players were tested on the day of the match. The fact that the game was canceled anyway is of course annoying for us, but also a bit surprising,” commented BG Managing Director Frank Meinertshagen on the cancellation at the time.

Particularly bitter: The violets lost the catch-up game against Chemnitz last Wednesday after a comfortable lead in the end by a hair’s breadth. The players were crawling on their gums in the last quarter after playing six games in two weeks.

And to make matters worse, playmaker Stephen Brown was ailing. Many observers agreed that, under normal circumstances, the BG would have easily taken this game home.

In this respect, the new transfer of the game this time should come in handy for the violets. BG coach Roel Moors took the news calmly on Friday. “That’s just the rules of the league, we just have to respect that,” he said.

He has now given his players a few days off because the past few weeks have been “mentally and physically very difficult”. A lot of games in a short space of time, a small rotation and a few injuries would have hit the violets badly recently.

He’s spending a few days with his family himself, Moors said, and it sounded like he could use a little break, too. The coach emphasized that he would of course use the time to continue looking for suitable players for the BG.

BG managing director Frank Meinertshagen was not annoyed about the postponement this time – on the contrary. “The weekend off is good for us,” he said, as the players can rest and some of them can recover from injuries. Usually these are only small malaise, but with Stephen Brown they are also “something bigger”. The BG boss was not more specific as far as the injury to the playmaker was concerned.

In general, the situation in the BBL is of course difficult, said Meinertshagen. Finally, in addition to the BG game this weekend, the games Chemnitz vs. Würzburg, Berlin vs. Gießen and Bamberg vs. Crailsheim were postponed due to the corona.

All of this is still tolerable. “But of course you have to see how that develops,” explained the BG boss. “The closer we get to the end of the season, the more difficult it becomes to catch up on games.” At the moment you have to watch from game to game. However, there is still consensus among all clubs and the league “to end the season as normally as possible”. And if that doesn’t work, you have to think of another solution.

A new date for the game against Frankfurt has not yet been set. “BG season ticket holders who have already booked new seats for the game don’t have to worry about anything,” says BG spokeswoman Birte Meyenberg. The tickets would be canceled automatically. There will then be a new start of advance ticket sales for the new game date.

Meanwhile, the throw-off time for BG Göttingen’s home game against Heidelberg on Saturday, January 29, has been postponed to 6 p.m. A live broadcast on free TV on Sport1 was originally planned for the game. However, the broadcaster has changed its program and is now broadcasting a different game on Sunday. This means that the duel can take place at the regular tip-off time. The Veilchen Stand are now playing the next game on Sunday, January 23, at 3 p.m. in Weißenfels at the SYNTAINICS MBC.

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While the BBL team is taking a break, the two youth teams of BG Göttingen are challenged at the weekend. The youngsters will meet UBC Münster in the JBBL at 12.30 p.m. in the Sartorius Basketball Lab (admission free with 2G-plus rule). The juniors conclude the main round in the NBBL at 2 p.m. with the derby at SG Junior Löwen Braunschweig. The game will be broadcast live on sporttotal.tv.