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Sassari's coach: We clearly haven't made any progress in the defense

While Oldenburg opened their championship with three wins, Sassari lost their first game this season. They have shown that offense will not be a problem this year either, but their defense looked bad and Oldenburg could punish that

After several seasons of playing in the Eurochallenge cup, Oldenburg finally got a chance to be a part of a significantly stronger competition. They have opened the season with the Euroleague qualifications. They couldn't beat Rytas in Vilnius so they will have to be satisfied with "only" the Eurocup. 

So far, everything is going as planned in the championship for Oldenburg. Three games, three clean wins. They did have some problems against unconvincing Trier on Saturday. They had +11 at the half time, at one point in the fourth period they had +19 and that's when they got relaxed. Their opponents made a 10-0 series and came to -2 only two minutes before the end. That's when the German runner-up got together, changed gears and secured a win. 

-We had some problems against Trier's zone defense in the second half. We failed to score open shots, and we lost the concentration a bit - said coach Sebastian Machowski. 

It needs to be pointed out that Oldenberg had 72% of two point shots. With this they annulled their bad shots from behind the 6,75 meter line (3/22, 14%). Another two problems were weak rebound and lack of contribution from the players from the bench. Except Julius Jenkins (28 points) who doesn't usually start, but he spends the most time on the court. They can be encouraged by Andrea Crosariolo's good game. He scored 16 points and proved that he is a decent replacement for injured Adam Chubb in the offense. 

Coach Machowski announced today's match:

- Sassari will be a big challenge at the start of the European season. They prefer offensive basketball and we have to try to control it. They have excellent shooters in their roster and they are always trying to play as fast as possible. 

Back Chris Kramer added:

- I think we have a good chance of achieving good results in the Eurocup. We're practically the same team as last year, with the exception of Nemanja Aleksandrov and Crosariolo who is replacing Chubb. We played against stronger teams in the pre-season which should help us in the games ahead. 

Kramer will have an important role in stopping Sassari's fast game. Oldenburg is known as a team that can play good defense, especially against the opponent's backcourt line and then score quickly from a counterattack. That will probably be the key today. 

Sassari is returning to the Eurocup after last year's debut. They failed to pass through the group stage and reach the top 16 teams because french Orleans defeated them in the last determining game. Even without that they entered the record books because their player, Travis Diener, set an assist record when he gave 15 balls in the game against Crvena Zvezda. 

The goal this year is to make a step forward in all the competitions they're a part of, but they haven't had a good start of the championship. They were defeated 98-88 in Bologna. They were in the lead by six points, but they ruined everything in the third period when they conceded 33 points. Everything will be revolving around Diener brothers this year as well. In combination they scored 35 points and five rebounds, and it is interesting that they haven't had a single assist. Sassari was completely outplayed in that particular part of the game, they had only six to opponent's 19. Wings Thomas and Sacceti were among the best individuals, they scored 16 points each. 

Sassari managed to counter Bologna in the rebounds even though they have 215 centimeters high Jordan who had 10 rebounds, but Tessitori, Linton and Thoms did a good job at rebounds. It is hard to say that Sassari played a bad game since the two point shot was at 59,5%, while 3 pointers were at a solid 8-21, but it was evident that some players had trouble adjusting to Saccheti's system. Marques Green played a private game and lost 5 balls. Caleb Green and Johnson didn't look good under the basket, they played bad defense, and 98 points conceded are a proof of that. Their biggest problem were lost balls, they had 18 of those. 

- We haven't played well, we had several good periods, but the desire in the players was absent. I thought that the team is defensively better than last year, but we clearly haven't made any progress in that part. We had too many lost balls, and the players will have to give their best in the future - coach Saccheti was criticizing. 

They have a much harder test ahead of them against Oldenburg. Nothing changed offensively in this team, and as the coach Saccheti said, they are playing bad defense and that might result in another game with a lot of points scored. 

Sassari's coach admitted it himself, his team's defence isn't impressive, and neither was it impressive last year. They're extremely offensive-oriented and too dependent on outside shots. They might have some problems there since Oldenburg are particularly strong in the back court when it comes to defence. Joyce, Kramer and Paulding are known for their aggressive defence and I think they can limit the Italians' shot quite a bit. In terms of paint, Oldenburg are physically stronger, and Sassari have no real centre. Moreover, the German team are known for their good home games. For example, they recently defeated the powerful Artland with +22 at home, and this weekend they led +19 against Trier in the fourth quarter, after which they started slacking. Oldenburg's excellent teamwork should also be noted, since their team is almost unchanged compared to last year's, while the Italians' roster has been sufficiently altered.