The Giessen 46ers will play in Crailsheim on Tuesday (8:30 p.m./Magenta Sport). It’s the last chance for the 46ers to go into the next involuntary league break with a good feeling.
It’s a truism in sports, but if you lose a lot, you don’t get better if you keep taking longer breaks. You want to attack again as quickly as possible and become master of your own destiny through victories. Most recently, the Giessen 46ers were forced to rest due to Corona. The fact that the basketball Bundesliga is now going on a three-week vacation in the middle of the season is unfortunate for the penultimate table. In addition to the national team window, there is also the top 4 in the BBL Cup, for which the people of Central Hesse are not qualified.
So the overall situation is always complicated and the situation for the 46ers in the relegation battle is uncomfortable enough. At the start of the week, s.Oliver Würzburg signed Geoffrey Groselle and Charles Callison twice. The Franconians are the only team behind the Gießen 46ers in the table. Oldenburg recently celebrated their third win in four games with new coach Ingo Freyer and left the relegation zone. Frankfurt slipped into crisis. The Hessian competitor had strengthened their squad a long time ago and, among other things, steered guard Will Cherry to the Main. The initial euphoria evaporated after four defeats in a row. Heidelberg also had to leave the floor as a loser four times in a row. The Central German BC from Weißenfels is also not yet in the green zone. The fight for relegation should be decided between these teams.
Corona is shaking up the league, with everyone involved hoping to find a more relaxed situation in March. With a view to the infections in his own team, Managing Director Sebastian Schmidt said last week that all of this had nothing to do with “fair sporting competition”.
“The situation is very difficult,” says coach Pete Strobl after the recent defeat against Bamberg (89:92). “What we have experienced is very difficult for any team. Of course, Bamberg had few players.« The Franconian doyen only played with seven players. »But we also had few players. Those who were there gave everything on the field, but they were broken in the end.« After all, Florian Koch, who was missing last time, should be part of the squad again.
bad memories
The associated lack of power meant that Bamberg kept getting second and third chances after offensive rebounds. “We keep showing that we can keep up. But in the end we have to bring the thing home,” says Strobl. This will also be important on Tuesday from 8.30 p.m. for the Crailsheim Merlins, who, like Bamberg, are speculating on a playoff spot. The Wizards have been victorious in six of their last ten encounters. However, on the last day of the game, head coach Sebastian Gleim’s team went under in Berlin. At home, Crailsheim is a force and only gave up one game. This makes the climber from 2014 and 2018 one of the strongest BBL teams at home. In the first leg, the 46ers left the field as losers with a score of 70:104. The match, played at the beginning of November, was a critical point for the club. Brayon Blake learned of his brother’s death on game day. Blake, who led the 46ers early in the season, wanted to play against Crailsheim. The entire team was in shock, completely lost. A few weeks later, the American returned to his homeland.
Meanwhile, Kendale McCullum has matured into the role of the absolute leader on the floor. The lively point guard will face TJ Shorts against Crailsheim. Both are among the smaller players in their positions. Shorts is on course for MVP with 19.9 points per game and 7.5 assists.
Crailsheim was promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in 2014 and fought relegation for two years. After the resurgence four years later, this trend continued. Since 2019, however, the club has been on the upswing. Tenth place in 2020 was followed by the first playoff participation in the previous year. In the quarterfinals they lost 1:3 against Munich.
