New home match of the Bertram Derthona championship, engaged against Openjobmetis Varese Sunday 5 February at 4.00 pm at PalaEnergica Paolo Ferraris. Presenting the challenge is, as usual, the assistant coach Massimo Galli:
“After the good away win in Treviso, we are preparing to face Varese, a club that is part of the history of our basketball and where I grew up and stayed for many years.
The head coach is Matt Brase, in his first year in Italy, who is proposing an innovative style of play that we are seeing for the first time in our league, made up of many possessions and great freedom of action for the players. Colbey Ross plays the playmaker role, a rookie revelation of the year who scored in many different ways in the first leg. Sharing the role with him we find De Nicolao, who has different characteristics and guarantees defensive solidity and ability in the field intangibles. The starting guard is Brown, also in his first year in our country, protagonist of an excellent first part of the season and equipped with high-level physical and athletic qualities.
From ‘3’ Openjobmetis lines up Woldetensae, an excellent three-point shooter, while the ‘4’ is Johnson, a great athlete able to light up at any moment of the match. The quintet is completed by Owens, who is an upright player and an excellent intimidator near the rim. Owens’ replacement is Caruso, one of the most promising big men of the season.
Ferrero, captain and flag of the team, excellent shooter from outside, gets up off the bench, Reyes who can play in different positions and excels both with and without the ball and two young players like Virginio and Librizzi who – when called upon – have always been able to contribute”.