Olympia Miano, first day of work

Olympia Milano kicks off

Olimpia’s season officially started at 11:30 a.m. at the Unipol Forum with the full roster, an unusual fact these days. 15 out of 15 players in attendance, all of whom went through the entire approximately 95-minute workout. No need to put in aggregates to plug holes as has often happened in the past due to the national team schedule. The pre-season menu includes a week of practice and finally on Saturday the closed-door scrimmage against Varese.

Coach Ettore Messina then directed the first practice for the sixth consecutive season. Né in Serie A or even in the EuroLeague there have been coaches for longer at the top of a team. He enters this season with a league record of 136-44, a 75.6 percent win rate. Shavon Shields è the longest-serving player in Milan: he begins his fifth season in the biancorosso: the top EuroLeague scorer in club history è two appearances away from 100 in an Olimpia jersey in Europe. Among the Italians, Pippo Ricci è the veteran: he begins his fourth Milanese season. Of course, not counting Giordano Bortolani’s years at the youth sector. Among the newcomers, the only ones with Italian experience are Zach LeDay and Ousmane Diop ; in EuroLeague are rookies Dimitrijevic, Brooks, McCormack and Diop himself.

Obviously, this is a deeply renewed team: for example, in EuroLeague the confirmed produced 47.3% of the total points scored last season. And the’average ageè dropped around 28 years per player, and only because of the presence of 37-year-old Fabien Causeur.Olimpia will play four official friendlies plus two scrimmages before the Supercoppa in Bologna.