First official home game of the season for the Apu Old Wild West, which on Wednesday 14 September, at 8 pm, challenges Ferrara in front of the Carnera crowd.
It is the second match of the Supercoppa elimination round, with a success Udine would expel the Este team from the race to qualify and would appear at the derby on Saturday with full points.
We are in mid-September, in this type of match we look with one eye on the result and with the other on the growth of the team project. The APU, which is still waiting for Briscoe (who in turn is waiting to have a visa to leave for Italy), is still an incomplete team: last Friday, when various ailments limited Boniciolli’s rotations, he risked throwing in the air 23 points ahead.
That’s why with Palumbo, Pellegrino and Esposito recovered, we expect to see an autonomy of more than 20-25 minutes.
Grabriele Grazzini, one of coach Boniciolli’s assistants on the Udinese bench, presents today’s challenge as follows: «Ferrara, thanks to the absence of Amici, has the spearhead in Cleaves. Around him there are good players, who make aggression and tenacity their strength.
The mental aspect, in addition to the defense on the aforementioned Cleaves, will be the key to the game. We are confident that we will do an excellent team work, despite being “work in progress”. I’m sure the Carnera audience will help us with their warmth ».
So Andy Cleaves, a guard born in 1996, is the man to keep an eye on in the ranks of the Emilians. The Californian player scored 27 points on his debut against Cividale, shooting with 67% from two and 71% from three. His performance was not enough to avoid the defeat against Pillastrini’s team, confirming that it will not be an easy season for the Este team.
In the summer a savings market was made due to the budget cut, the roster was turned inside out like a sock. Among the well-known faces we find the former Apu Mihajlo Jerkovic (a meteor for mid-season 2019/20) and Simone Bellan from Grado.
The other former Juventus player Alessandro Amici is still in the pits. Under the basket there is the solidity and experience of Luca Campani, formerly of Turin, and of the other foreigner Andrew Smith, an American with a Latvian passport.
Today’s game is getting a good presale response from the public. Already 650 mini season tickets sold for the two APU home matches (in addition to the one with Ferrara also the Saturday derby with Cividale), since yesterday the pre-sale of single tickets for both Supercoppa matches is also active.