Euroleague Qualification

[mcege]

Varese-Oldenburg Varese returns to international campaign after a long decade, but I don't expect that journey to last more. They have been unconvincing at friendlies (had a losing record, despite they played against Italian teams only, some of them were just mediocre top level teams and even second league teams...) and I rate the squad they built, lowly. They don't have a deep bench and most of the starters arrived this season, couple of them are really overrated players, who I think could've had a chance to play at these levels, if economic crisis hadn't hit basketball in some countries. Oldenburg has a better squad on paper, they didn't have massive amount of transactions during summer. They didn't seem as they are world beaters in friendlies as well, but they played against similar level of teams and as far as I see, they had a winning record. I don't think Oldenburg should be an underdog. Oldenburg ml 3/10 @2.05 Lietuvos Rytas-VEF Riga Rytas is the host of this tournament and it is the team with most appearances and experience in European scene, for sure. But, I don't think an upset is out of table. Riga is coached by Lithuanian R.Butautas and it's a very stable club, they don't change the skeleton of the squad for every single season, coach Butautas is with the team for three seasons. I'm not a fan of Lietuvos' squad, especially their front court lacks both quality and quantity, O.Cook is a spirited guard, without consistency to include teammates over and over. Lietuvos brought D.Bauermann, although I admire his previous work, he disappointed with Polish NT and I believe, it'll take more time him to establish his solid defensive approach, to a team which never seemed to care about defensive end of the court, in recent couple seasons. Lietuvos had 6-3 preseason record, 2 of those W's were with 1 point, and couple of them were against teams which can be no match against Riga. Hosts always had success in these qualifications, therefore I'll keep my stakes moderated, although I believe, they have pretty similar level of squads, Riga is more stable team with a Lithuanian coach. If this game was in any different city of Earth, I would've use my regular stakes... VEF Riga ml 1/10 @3.06

[mcege]

Re: Euroleague Qualification Oldenburg won, Riga lost, +2.15