Three of five our team’s newcomers remain sidelined as Nando De Colo and Demetris Nichols practice individually as well as Manu Markoishvili is busy with conservative therapy. Victor Khryapa who came back after rehab in Athens is also out. So in fact CSKA will have 8 last season Final Four participants dressed plus inexperienced Pavel Korobkov, Ivan Strebkov and junior team player Anton Astapkovich.
“Maccabi is the defending champion, one of the biggest teams in European competitions which always have high expectations,” CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis said. “We don’t have much time to prepare, we started our preparations right after our Monday game, but this is life. Maccabi went through some changes but they continue to play high-quality basketball. Talking about the opponents’ game you start from the fact that they ran the floor, they execute on primary and secondary fastbreaks, they have a number of shooters like Smith, Pnini, Landesberg, Haynes, Linhart. Pargo is shooting well this season and he is really important for the team. They can play big, they can use smaller lineup with Pnini at 4. With Sofo under the basket they have quality to pass the ball inside. To sum up this short analysis, you can say that the team is well balanced, it can spread the floor and able to play effective inside-outside game. We are certainly improving and our main task for now is to play consistently for longer stretches during the game. I’d like also to call our fans again to come and support us. As I said before the season they have to set their expectations and show the team that they really want us to perform well and to bring them big wins.”
Close relations
Coach Dimitris Itoudis was an assistant coach at Panathinaikos Athens during the two seasons that Maccabi center Aleks Maric played there.
Milos Teodosic was a teammate of injured Maccabi big man Sofoklis Schortsanitis at Olympiacos Piraeus for three seasons between 2007 and 2010.
Jeremy Pargo played for CSKA Moscow last season.
Alex Tyus was a teammate of Manuchar Markoishvili during the 2012-13 season at Cantu.
Pini in the shadow
Arale Weisberg, Israel Hayom for cskabasket.com
September 23rd, 1999. The reigning FIBA EuroLeague champion, Zalgiris Kaunas, begins its journey to defend the title with a home loss to Panathinaikos. 15 teams were crowned since then; each and every one of them started the next season with a win, and so was Maccabi Tel Aviv, who beat Limoges CSP last week.
So it seems that Maccabi is supposed to be a very regular team. But actually, there is nothing regular about the yellows this season. One name will describe it in the best possible way: Pini Gershon. The legendary coach led Israeli powerhouse to three European titles – in 2001, 2004 and 2005 – and made two more finals – in 2000 and 2006. And now he is back on the bench, but not in the familiar spot. At the age of 63, he is the new assistant coach.
The head coach is former guard Guy Goodes, who played for Gershon in Maccabi in 1998-99 season. Goodes was the assistant for six years, and now he has quite a big responsibility on his shoulders: covering for David Blatt’s absence, after the miracle season last year, which ended with the Euroleague trophy making its way to Tel Aviv.
This night will be special for Jeremy Pargo. He played for CSKA Moscow last season, and now he is back for the first time as a visitor. In 2010-11 season, the American point guard became a sensation and brought Maccabi to the final game, but since then he couldn’t re-accomplish his success.
Now he is back: in his first game back to the yellow number 4 jersey, he scored 20 points and dished 9 assists in 35 minutes. And that’s not a one-time incident. Pargo will be the undisputed leader of the champions.
Maccabi lost some of its biggest names this summer. Coach Blatt moved to Cleveland, David Blu retired, Tyrese Rice and Ricky Hickman are still wearing yellow and blue – but in Khimki and Fenerbahce. And that wasn’t all. When the team began to practice, Sofoklis Schortsanitis returned with health problems – he put on too much weight this summer and had to went through a surgery in his eye. Maccabi hurried to sign Aleks Maric on a temporary contract.
But now Sofo is also back. The big Greek center was welcomed with a lot of love by the fans at Nokia Arena and scored 11 points in 13 minutes vs Limoges. He will share the center position with Alex Tyus, who will miss the game in Moscow, and Aleks Maric.
Pargo will join forces in the backcourt with newcomer Marquez Haynes from Montepaschi Siena, while Yogev Ohayon and Sylven Landesberg remained in the guard positions. Brian Randle joined on the forward position, along with Devin Smith and captain Guy Pnini.
Maccabi still remembers its last visit to Moscow. On February, 21st this year the Israelis lost 65-100 to CSKA, in their worst game over last 38 years. Less than three months later, they beat the Red Army club in the Final Four and eventually won the title.
Important numbers
Sasha Kaun recorded his career high in scoring against Maccabi. Kaun went for 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting to lead CSKA to a 77-72 victory in the Russian capital in December 2009. He also set career highs in free throws made (9) and attempted (15) that night.
Teodosic needs 5 more assists to surpass another CSKA Moscow great, J.R. Holden, for seventh place on the Euroleague’s career assists charts. Teodosic has 604 career assists.
Teodosic has made 10 consecutive free throws in Euroleague action.
Vitaly Fridzon has made at least 1 three-pointer in 23 straight Euroleague games. He is shooting 44 for 86 (51.2%) from downtown over that stretch.
Sonny Weems needs 15 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone for his Euroleague career.
Short dossier
Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv, Israel
Founded: 1932
Colors: yellow, blue
Home court: Nokia Arena (11,000)
President: Shimon Mizrahi
Head coach: Guy Goodes
Website: www.maccabi.co.il
Accomplishments: Euroleague champions (1977, 81, 2004, 05, 14), Suproleague champions (2001), Adriatic League champions (2012), Intercontinental Cup winners (1980), Israeli champions (1954, 55, 57-59, 62-64, 67, 68, 70-92, 94-2007, 09, 11, 12, 14), Israeli Cup winners (1956, 58, 59, 61, 63-66, 70-73, 75, 77-83, 85-87, 89-91, 94, 98-2006, 10-14)
