Olimpia Milano, pre-season matches unveiled

Olimpia Milan, preparation

We’re off to a good start. Olimpia’s season officially begins this week even though this year’s preseason will be particularly difficult due to the high number of players unavailable because they are committed with national teams. Wednesday there will be the first training session of the season under the orders of Coach Ettore Messina, in his fourth season in Milan. With him the two new additions to the coaching staff: Dan Shamir, who joins first assistant Mario Fioretti (20th season in Olimpia!) in addition to the confirmed Stefano Bizzozero, and Peppe Poeta, making his debut after a long career as point guard. Crucial at this stage is the performance team coordinated by Francesco Cuzzolin and with Giustino Danesi, in his 10th season at Olimpia, as athletic trainer.

Only eight players from the actual roster will be involved in the first part of the preparation: Naz Mitrou-Long, Billy Baron, Devon Hall, Shavon Shields, Davide Alviti, Deshaun Thomas, Brandon Davies, Kyle Hines. Kevin Pangos is busy until the end of the month with the Canadian national team, which faces Argentina and Panama in the world qualifiers. On the other hand, six Italians are currently involved in the preparation for rainbow and European qualifiers namely Tommaso Baldasso, Stefano Tonut, Gigi Datome, Pippo Ricci, Nicolò Melli and Paul Biligha. In fact, it will not be possible to have the real Olimpia until after the European Championships, in the last week before the official start.

The team will face two closed-door scrimmages in its own gym against Cantù on Aug. 31 and against Verona on Sept. 3. The first official game will be Saturday, Sept. 10, in Cagliari against Varese, the semifinal of a quadrangular that will also feature Dinamo Sassari and Panathinaikos Athens. After that, Olimpia will play Sept. 15 in Desio (against Varese) and Sept. 17 in Vigevano (against Pesaro). The team with national teams will play the Athens tournament on the weekend of Sept. 23 and 24 (semifinals against Maccabi; Efes and Panathinaikos are also participating).

The official season will begin on Sept. 28 in Brescia: Supercoppa semifinal against Virtus Bologna. The next day the eventual final is scheduled (Sassari and Tortona the other two participants). The league opener will be on October 2 at the Mediolanum Forum against Brescia, and on the 6th Olimpia will be the first team to play in the new EuroLeague at Astroballe in Villeurbanne.

Four players have been aggregated at this stage of preparation: Jakub Wojciechowski is a welcome return after the 2020/21 season in which he helped win the Italian Cup. The others are Adam Kemp (2.08 center, 31 years old, last season in Warsaw), Vladimir Jankovic (2.02 wing, 32 years old, last team Paok Thessaloniki) and Mitja Nikolic (2.00 wing, 31 years old, Slovenian who was also at Urania).