Olimpia Milano, Ettore Messina for honor with Barça

The words of Ettore Messina

The last home engagement of the season in EuroLeague is of the highest level because at the Mediolanum Forum comes Barcelona, in full fight for the top spot or anyway to finish as high as possible in the standings, with its eight wins in the last ten games played. Olimpia has no ranking interests but has won eight of the last 11 EuroLeague games including the last six played at home and would obviously be keen to end its European season in the best way. Especially in front of its home crowd, which comes to its last engagement with an average of 9,294 spectators per game. In an up-and-down season, crowd attendance has always been a constant for Milan. So have injuries, suffice it to say that Brandon Davies, Johannes Voigtmann and Kyle Hines have been the only players in the top ten for average minutes always available. Among those ten, Devon Hall missed nine games, Kevin Pangos 18, Shavon Shields 24. Paul Biligha (knee) and Stefano Tonut (flu symptoms) will not be available.

“It’s the last game of the EuroLeague season in Milan and we want to honor it by giving the best of ourselves in front of a public that has always been close to us both in terms of attendance numbers and moral support,” coach Ettore Messina said on the eve of the game. “We are sorry not to be able to play in the playoffs for the third consecutive season, we are left with the small consolation of having kept hope lit up until a few days ago with a nice comeback. Now we will use this and the next game to better prepare ourselves for the Italian championship playoffs. Of course, we are aware that we are facing a team such as Barcelona with great quality and experience.”