Our team has already visited Sardinia Island where the Italian red-blues are located. The Army Men participated in preseason tournament in Cagliari though at the time, in 2012, they played against Olympiakos and Fenerbahce-Ulker. So current trip becomes historical, also because the opponents host the visitors in Sassari. By the way the Army Men will stay in Alghero, the city with its own international airport.
13 players boarded OrenAir plane – the coaching staff remembers about the game in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday. Joel Freeland who continues his post-injury rehab stayed in Moscow as well as Anton Astapkovich, Mikhail Kulagin and Ivan Lazarev who will be busy playing for the junior team and colleges.
“We face the Italian champion and we have huge respect for Dinamo’s ability to run offense and score points,” CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis said. “They play high tempo game, they gamble on defense to force turnovers and open the court for their mobile players. Dinamo has a number of creative players, starting from David Logan who played one year for Panathinaikos with me on the coaching staff. Haynes and Stipcevic are also creative and experienced, Eyenga is very athletic big man who helps the team’s fast offense to flourish as well as Petway, Alexander, Varnado and many others. The Sassari side showed that it is ready to fight in Euroleague this season as they took Darussafaka to overtime in Istanbul after leading with big margin in the game that could have turn both ways. We expect the game to be difficult, we have to be focused in one-on-one defense and helping each other for 40 minutes. I also expect to see hot atmosphere in the gym in Sassari where the fans push the team with their loud support.”
Important numbers
Milos Teodosic needs 9 more three-pointers to catch retired CSKA star Marcus Brown for seventh place on the all-time Euroleague charts. Teodosic enters the game with 318 career triples.
Teodosic has made at least 1 three-pointer in 25 consecutive Euroleague games.
Teodosic has made 25 consecutive free throws in Euroleague action.
Nando De Colo has made at least 1 three-pointer in each of his last seven Euroleague games.
De Colo has scored in double figures in each of his last six Euroleague appearances.
De Colo has made 13 consecutive free throws in Euroleague action.
Kyle Hines is closing in on a spot among the competition’s all-time top 10 in blocked shots. He enters this game ranked 13th with 118 career rejections. Former CSKA forward Marcus Goree (120) is 12th, Nikola Vujcic (122) 11th and Darjus Lavrinovic (123) 10th.
Close “relations”
David Logan played for Panathinaikos in 2011-12 season when Dimitris Itoudis and Andreas Pistiolis worked on the Greens’ coaching staff.
Demetris Nichols and Jarvis Varnado played for the Sioux Falls in D-League together during 2012-13 season.
Past matchups
That will be the first ever teams meeting.
Short dossier
Dinamo Sassari, Italy
Founded: 1960
Colors: white, blue
Home court: PalaSerradimigni (5,000)
President: Stefano Sardari
Head coach: Romeo Sacchetti
Website: www.dinamobasket.com
Trophy case: Italian champion (2015), Italian Cup winner (2014, 15)
