A big trip to the Bosphorus: The Bayern basketball players set off on Sunday from various locations towards Istanbul, where they will stay until Thursday. A quartet started from Bremen, where they had arrived the day before (with delay) for the BBL game in Oldenburg. The rest, including head coach Andrea Trinchieri, started the week-long road trip from Munich airport - reunion was scheduled for late lunch at the team hotel in the Kozyatağı-Sahrayıcedit district.
After the early qualification for the EuroLeague playoffs through the 82-57 triumph on Friday night against Red Star Belgrade and the defeat of a makeshift squad in Oldenburg (106-75) only 19 hours later, which unfortunately had to count, the final ranking of the FCBB after the regular season will be clarified in the coming week. On Monday evening (18:45), the Bavarians first host Fenerbahce Istanbul, on Wednesday (18:30) city rivals and defending champions Efes, and then on Friday for the round finale at title contender Real Madrid (20:45).
The marathon trip concludes Sunday (15:00) with the BBL game in Giessen, before the FCBB return to the Audi Dome on Wednesday, April 13th for the big "Music meets Basketball" event with "Jan Delay & die Delaydies & DJ Mad" at the MBC home game.
Six games in nine days
Coach Trinchieri naturally cannot look that far ahead. After the team's Corona phase, the return of long-missing players like Nihad Djedovic or Paul Zipser, and given the absence of Nick Weiler-Babb (concussion) and Corey Walden (covid), balancing loads is still his main task. "We are now facing a huge challenge because this will be the first Triple Week in EuroLeague history and for us it's six games in nine days," the Italian reckons. "The only goal, therefore, is to tackle one game at a time and give our best every time."
The final three games of the regular season will determine whether Bayern (13-11 wins) can still move up from eighth place. As eighth, they would enter a playoff series (best-of-five) with EuroLeague favorites FC Barcelona (home game on April 26/27, tickets available). Two wins could still result in a move up the standings.
"I'm happy we're in the playoffs, we've gotten enough wins on what I would call a crazy journey. We never had the complete team before and yet now we played our best basketball at the right time. Fener is a good team, even if they are not in it, but we absolutely respect them with their great fans. This week will be exhausting, a lot of traveling, you have to eat and sleep well. We want to win more games and use the momentum."
Othello Hunter
Fener out for revenge
For the first host Fenerbahce (9-16), the playoffs are out of reach. The main focus now is the Turkish championship after Efes triumphed again last year. Currently, Fenerbahce is the leader of the BSL with one less loss than Efes, which is back in the EuroLeague playoffs.
Even the return of star center Jan Vesely (13 ppg) couldn't prevent Fener from a recent run of six EuroLeague losses - after five straight victories before that, including wins against Real Madrid and in Milan. Former Bayern coach Sasa Djordjevic's deep squad, with names like Devin Booker (9.1), Marko Guduric (10.8) and Nando De Colo (11.9/injured), should be desperate to make amends in front of their own crowd. Danilo Barthel (5.0) returned to action after long weeks of injury in the 66-57 win in Berlin.
Photo-Credit: Eirich