Gameday number seven in the EuroLeague and the start of a Munich anniversary season - the FC Bayern basketball team faces an eventful weekend. As a prelude, head coach Andrea Trinchieri's team will welcome top club from Serbia, Red Star Belgrade in the Audi Dome on Friday evening (6.11.). Only 44 hours after the final buzzer, a special season begins for the FCBB - and the Audi Dome: The opening game on Sunday (8.11., 18:00) against Rasta Vechta heralds the tenth BBL season for the Bavarians, and at the same time the tenth in their "living room".
Both games will be shown live by MagentaSport as usual, the broadcasts start 15 minutes before the start.
Sunday marks the start of the tenth BBL season for the FCBB but first is a matchup vs Belgrade
Like Bayern which has played well at 4-2, Red Star Belgrade has also had a thoroughly positive start in the EuroLeague. The opening defeat at Fenerbahce Istanbul (77-63) was followed by a brilliant road win in Vítoria (90-73) and a spectacular home win in overtime against top favorite CSKA Moscow (86-84). Most recently, they received a damper on their excitement at Khimki Moscow (83-77), as did Bayern in Madrid (100-82).
Red Star comes with a good friend at the helm: The former Alba coach Sasa Obradovic (2012 - 2016) was given the prestigious post at his home club after two years in Russia with Krasnodar and a preseason in Monaco. The former BBL professional and world champion (1998) has Toronto's Jordan Loyd, currently the hottest offensive player in the elite class. The American, who came from Vítoria this summer, has a whopping 22.6 points per game after five appearances.
Jordan Loyd is currently the top EuroLeague scorer
The ambitions of "Crvena Zvezda" to once again surpass its rival Partizan in the basketball metropolis of Belgrade were proven by the top-class signings of playmaker Taylor Rochestie (return of Olympiakos), Johnny O'Bryant (14 points at debut in Khimki, from Krasnodar) and Center Emanuel Terry (Jerusalem). Second player in the double-digit scoring behind Lloyd is currently US guard Corey Walden, who switched from Partizan and has an average score of 10.4 points.
"Red Star has been able to strengthen its squad in the last few weeks with three players at once, with three very strong players", Bayern coach Trinchieri said, paying tribute to the opponent. "It will certainly be the hardest game so far in terms of physical fitness, because they play very aggressively and with a lot of energy. Their squad is now very deep and they defeated CSKA, which says a lot about their ability. It's going to be a hard day's work for us and we'll have to fight hard on offense as well as on defense. And for that we have to increase our current level of play."
Bayern guard Nick Weiler-Babb adds: "We've now had a week off and an intensive week of training. That was important because they are a tough opponent with very good players. We have to close up on them on defense, that will give us a chance to win. We all have to share the responsibility. We can't just concentrate on Lloyd, we have to defend them hard from position one to five and take them out."