The three days that will award the second seasonal trophy of Italian basketball begin on Friday, after the Super Cup won at the end of September by Reggio Emilia, in fact everything is ready for the fortieth edition of the Italian Cup, again this year by Beko, the seventeenth since 2000 the Final Eight formula was introduced.
After the interlude of the last edition played in Desio, which saw the second consecutive triumph of Sassari, the event returns to Milan at the Assago Forum, where the organizers hope for a good attendance of the public over the three days, not only for the matches (the Milanese fans obviously hope there will be three) of the home team, EA7, which on average, between the championship and Europe, brings up to ten thousand spectators to the arena.
It begins on Friday with the four matches of the quarter-finals one in a row, at 12 Pistoia and Trento will open the ball, then at 15.15 it will be the turn of Cremona-Caserta, at 18.15 Reggio Emilia-Avellino and at 20.45 there will be the debut of Milan against Venice. On Saturday the two semifinals between the winner of Pistoia-Trento and Reggio Emilia-Avellino in the upper part of the scoreboard and the one between those who will emerge from the Cremona-Sassari and Milan-Venice challenges in the lower part of the grid, the final is scheduled for Sunday at 18pm.
Compared to the last edition, seven teams out of eight participants have remained the same, an indication that, despite the fact that balance reigns supreme in our championship, especially in the central band, a certain hierarchy has emerged in the last two seasons. The only one not present is Brindisi whose place has been taken by the new Pistoia (the Tuscany region has even granted early school leaving at 11 for kids who want to follow the match on TV), good at getting the pass right in the last day of the first round (deadline for deciding the cup draw). Pistoia that not even two years ago, when it immediately hit the playoffs on its debut in the top flight, had managed to qualify for the Italian Cup and now, two-thirds into the regular season, is even in fifth place, while, compared to the end of the first leg when the pairings for the cup were formed, the only one that slipped out of the top eight is Venice, overtaken by Brindisi (even if only for direct clashes).
For the rest after twenty days there is a trio in the lead formed by Milan (which, however, has one game less, to be recovered on March 10th at home against Caserta), Reggio Emilia and Cremona, the real surprise so far this season, two victories away we find Avellino, the fittest at the moment, and Pistoia, then Trento, Sassari and Brindisi close the top eight positions. Another season with more shadows than lights for the great historians of our basketball such as Cantù, Varese, Pesaro and Virtus Bologna, even if all the positions can be reversed within a few weeks, given that between the rear Turin and the Brindisi couple and Venice, currently eighth, dance only four victories difference.
Going back to the news of the Italian Cup, perhaps never as this time have the underdogs all gone in one direction, namely towards Milan (also the advantage of the home advantage from him), a statement written and said several times in the last three years on the eve of awarding a title, but unfortunately for Olimpia fans almost always denied by what happened on the pitch. For the red and white club, the proclamations and expectations were far superior to the final successes obtained on the parquet (the bulletin board was opened only once for the Scudetto two years ago), now Gentile and his companions are forced to lift other trophies and this Cup Italy would seem to be made to break the ice again, taking advantage of the fact that none of the rivals, for various reasons, at this moment seems to have the right weapons to inflict yet another disappointment on EA7 (even if anything can happen in a straight match).
Milan which will have to do without captain Gentile, still struggling with the problem with his hamstring which occurred to him more than a month ago (the third stop of this season), an important absence which in other moments would have been decisive, but which this time seems to worry less about the Milanese environment, given the length and value of the roster with which he presents himself at the start of the event, after the last three winter signings. The Lithuanian Kalnietis has finally brought an international caliber to the point guard role, the former Sassari and mvp of the past playoff finals Sanders has fully recovered from his hand injury and can be a factor from now on, while the Uruguayan warrior Batista, with his 208 centimeters and 122 kilos, he guarantees that physical presence under the basket that especially after the termination with Lawal, and above all in the Euroleague, Olimpia needed like bread.
The Milanese management has moved well this time, even if forced to settle yet another questionable summer market, with the first two, Kalnietis and Sanders, who seem to be two perfect shots also to build around the team in the coming seasons, while it can be raised some more doubts about the third reinforcement. Batista will certainly be useful in these months, but, after being the first Uruguayan player to land in the NBA (with the Atlanta Hawks between 2005 and 2007) and having spent his career among the best clubs in Europe (including Maccabi, Efes and Panathinaikos), Milan had to go and get him all the way to China, where, at almost 33 years of age, since September he had ended up pocketing what seemed to be the last money of his long career. Probably at this moment the center market didn't offer much else (or not?), what is certain and that it cannot be seen as an operation also for the future and the fact that it cannot be used, because hired too late, in the Eurocup, where Milan will be involved in the round of 32 after having passed the Last XNUMX quite easily, however, it leaves some doubts.
Certainly in the league and also in this Coppa Italia he could prove to be a factor and will give breathing space and more freedom to Macvan and Barac (who therefore remains the starting center in the Eurocup), with Magro who in the last period has always responded present when he was employed . EA7 which, having 14 players in the squad, will have to keep out two of its nine foreign players in the next matches, but which is at the start of the crucial part of the season with a finally complete roster (considering Gentile's return soon) and which probably, thus constructed, it would have given better answers also in the Euroleague.
But now it's time for the Coppa Italia and the first hurdle for Milan is called Reyer Venezia, in his fourth participation in the last five years, but protagonist so far of a season that is anything but positive and back from his recent elimination in the Eurocup (same fate also befell Reggio Emilia and Sassari). The Venetians have plenty of offensive talent, Goss and Owens above all, and they will sell their lives dearly, but the prediction seems to lean heavily on Milan's side. There should be more balance in the other three matches, with Sassari and Trento on paper being slightly favored compared to Cremona and Pistoia, while on Reggio Emilia-Avellino it is very hard to make a prediction, with the two teams starting with practically the same probability of passing as shift.
In the lower part of the scoreboard on Saturday, yet another intersection between Sassari and Milan could emerge, with Dinamo authentic black beast in the last years of Olimpia. Sassari who, after a troubled start to the season to say the least, both in Italy and in Europe (above all), seems to have put things right in recent weeks, also thanks to two first-rate reinforcements such as Mitchell, last season's mvp with the shirt of Trento, who returned to Italy after not finding himself, despite excellent numbers, first in Russia at Volvograd (a company owned by Cantù's owner Gerasimenko) and then at Estudiantes in Madrid, and Kadji, the Cameroon big man who has been fundamental in recent months of last season and returned to Sardinia after playing, and well, the first part of the tournament under Brindisi. Sassari who is stronger but who will have to play at his best to overcome Cremona (met, and beaten, also in the first round of the last edition), which however comes with some ailments (McGee recovering from an injury and Vitali in doubt). However, the Lombards have nothing to lose and want to continue the fairy tale of their season, because nobody, but really nobody, at the beginning of the year could have imagined in Cremona leading the standings after twenty days of Serie A.
On the other hand, Pistoia-Trento sees the challenge between another team that hardly anyone would have thought could achieve this goal (deserved) and probably the Italian formation protagonist of the best progress up to this point of the season, both in the league, but above all in Europe, where, at the first participation in its history, it splendidly reached the round of 4, on a par with Milan. Trento arrives at this appointment with a few too many defeats in the last few weeks, but the eagles hope to be dragged once again by Wright, with the precious support of Pascolo, while Pistoia, a team that always gives a hard time even in defeats even to its opponents most popular, can count on Kirk, the white center, one of those with the highest performance in these first XNUMX months of the championship (and even Knowles is no joke).
We close with what is the most uncertain pairing, despite the fact that at the time of compiling the scoreboard, just over a month ago, Reggio Emilia had won the N°1, while Avellino had reached the participation in extremis, after a bad start of season (someone had even started talking about relegation). Now things have changed a lot, with the Emilians who, although still leading the standings, do not make the most of this appointment due to the numerous physical problems that have affected their roster, especially the injuries of Lavrinovic and Aradori, while Since after Christmas, Avellino has transformed itself (it hasn't lost since December 23) and, driven by Nunnally, has put on a series of seven consecutive victories (the last one last week on the difficult field of Trento), including the coup at the Forum of three weeks ago, putting an end to Olimpia's very long unbeaten run between friendly walls in the regular season, which finished with 41 games and which began almost three years ago.
Of the eight participants, those that already have this trophy on their showcase are obviously Milan (4 times, but the last in the now distant 1996, the year of the penultimate championship), then Sassari, with the two successes of the last two editions (at Forum and Desio), and Avellino, capable of winning the cup in 2008 (in the Final Eight in Bologna), before Siena dominated for five years. Virtus Bologna and Treviso lead the general ranking of successes, both with 8 titles, for Milan the possibility of detaching Varese at 4 and reaching Siena in third place, but better not to tell its fans, because, given the last few times, they could answer you badly.
