At the end of October last year, Montenegrin coach Duško Ivanović returned to the place of success and took over Baskonia.
Ivanovic only had a club a few days before he arrived in Vitoria, and the Basques also had a coach - there was little to indicate that there would be cooperation.
And then - Ivanovic parted ways with Crvena Zvezda and succeeded Đoan Peñaroja, after both the Serbian and Basque teams had a bad start to the season in the Euroleague - winning the first four games.
Six months later, Zvezda finished the competition in the Euroleague in 16th place, while Baskonia with Ivanovic secured the quarterfinals of the Euroleague through the playoffs.
Baskonia finished the regular season in eighth place, then lost to Maccabi, and in the decisive match for placement in the playoffs, they were better than Virtus on their home field - thus they qualified for the playoffs of the elite European competition for the first time in five years.
Ivanovic's team, led by Marcus Howard and Cody Miller-McIntyre, who is playing a career season, in order to reach the final four (the first since the 2015/16 season) have to overcome the best team on the Old Continent - Real Madrid. The current champion of Europe finished the regular part of the season in first place, has the advantage of the home field, and the first game of the quarter-final series is tonight at 21:XNUMX in the "Vizink Center".
"I'm happy to be in the playoffs. We'll try to make it to the final four. The Euroleague was exciting this season - anyone could beat anyone, so we have to believe and fight. Real is the best team, they're playing great throughout season and every position is filled," said Ivanovic, whose team, in the event of eliminating the favorite in the semi-finals, would play with the better team from the Barcelona and Olympiakos series.
Baskonia defeated Real Madrid twice in a row in the Euroleague, and in the last four meetings they recorded three triumphs.
"We deserved to be in the playoffs. We are motivated and want to do a good job in Madrid. We can beat them there. We had a difficult season, with a lot of injuries, but at no point did we lose our confidence, which is still at a high level. It's time for the quarterfinals, all teams have a chance to appear at F4, and we have to be at 100 percent of our capabilities from the first to the last minute," said Baskonia defender Vanja Marinković.
Real experienced its first defeat of the season in the Euroleague in the 11th round (against Fenerbahçe), and the first team to defeat it in Madrid was Panathinaikos in the 27th round.
"We can't wait for the series to start. We want to play well and I hope we will meet expectations. We know how difficult it will be, because Baskonia is also a dangerous opponent, but this is the period of the season when everyone plays with a lot of energy and optimism. That's how we will go on the field come out, too," said Real coach Ćus Mateo.
The series between Panathinaikos and Maccabi starts tonight (the match in Athens starts at 19.30:19), and tomorrow Monaco - Fenerbahçe (21) and Barcelona - Olympiakos (24) will meet. The final tournament is from May 26 to XNUMX in Berlin.
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