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Both teams have been without several important players for a better part of the preparations

Riga have rejuvenated their squad a lot, they largely rely on their young assets and have only 3 foreigners in squad. Against this competitor, Euroleague is a far-off dream and even this first step could be too high. Strasbourgh had their problems during preparations but are the favorites ahead of this game

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The summer has brought many changes and Riga have refurbished their squad ahead of this season. They no longer have Butautas on the bench as he has been replaced by Nikolajs Mazurs, who will try to get better results. They have also lost most foreigners (Nix, Brown, Robinson, Bajramović), who played a major role in the squad. Riga are largely relying on their youth players, and they brought Americans Robinson and Dillard to organize their game. Bamba Fall (came from Kalev) will also be a major reinforcement in the paint, who will be their oldest player at 28 years of age (average age 23).

Riga were anything but convincing in pre-season and they surely do not have too many things to be optimistic about ahead of their arrival to Belgium. They had poor performances, even defeats, against Lithuanian teams that are far from the top, and Dillard and Robinson have imposed themselves as the leaders of this team. They spent a lot of time with a fragmented squad as several domestic players had international duty. In their last prep game, Riga were defeated by Zenit, and Dillard ended the game with 35 points. However, having only 3-4 good players is not enough to handle strong opponents such as Strasbourg.

- We have the information about our opponents and we will be tactically ready. We should have no problem with motivation and desire as everyone is willing to prove their worth. These things could make up or the fact that we have had limited preparations with full squad. However, we have nothing to lose - said Mazurs.

Strasbourg also did not have their full squad available for the preparations. Coach Collet led the French team to a bronze in Spain and Antoine Diot was in the squad. They were only able to join their squad in their last prep game (win over Bourg-en-Bresse by 78-72), and in addition, Strasbourg also struggled with injuries. Duport missed the whole pre-season, and Lacombe got injured a few days ago. However, his recovery went better than expected and he traveled with the team to Oostende and is expected to get some playing time against Riga.

Unlike numerous other French clubs, Strasbourg held on to their core players from last season. Out of important players, they lost Thornton and David Andersen, who stepped in as a replacement for injured Duport, while Greer and Ajinca left the club mid-season. Anderson left the club as he and the board did not reach an agreement and even though the board wanted to bring in a few more major players (Eidson and Gelabale were being mentioned), they did not have any luck. Strasbourg`s important asset is this qualification tournament for Euroleague as the biggest continental competition would surely lure some big players and things will be much clearer after this tournament.

On the other hand, they brought Tadija Dragičević from Belgrade. Their front court was particularly thin against Limoges and it is no wonder their reinforcements were mostly focused on these positions, as they also brought Ali Traore, Matt Howard and Bangaly Fofana. Traore will work with Collet after five years and it is certain his experience will be of great help. The only addition in their back court is great point guard Anythony Dobbins, who led Dijon to historic semi-finals last season.

- We have the potential to be good and fight for the top. Our squad is somewhat weaker in offense in comparison to ASVEL, Paris, Le Mans or Limoges, so we will need a lot of discipline in attack and hard-work in defense -