TURIN. Let’s be honest, there has never been a match between Turin and Old Wild West. Annihilated from below, the Boniciolli gang immediately went into trouble and, when everyone expected a reaction, perhaps led by the leaders Johnson, at the beginning of the third quarter, it sank surrendering to the fury of the former Diop and to a team not unbeatable perhaps for Scafati , Forlì and Napoli, the big names in the other group, but which, especially playing as on this occasion, the guys from the West see with binoculars.
Also because, now at the end of the game, Mussini fell to the ground holding his right knee: the rupture of the cruciate ligament, alas, is highly probable.
We start with a question: how big has Diop become? It gives an idea of how difficult the afternoon will be for Udine. A Cavina disguised also on the bench, a commercial for Minister Speranza, the bench player Pagani at the start is enough to stop Foulland, who immediately loses a contact lens and has to go out and leaves the USA Pinkins on the bench. The American added Diop sends a business card with a dunk monster.
It is true, Antonutti has a different attitude than Voghera, but Diop from below is not marked and in defense also cancels the former companion Pellegrino. With such a long sound the alarm siren for the Apu is soon blown away by Pinkins too, when Osmane has to go out for a blow to the face.
It rains in the wet for Udine: Johnson immediately makes two fouls but Boniciolli cannot do without him, turnovers, non-existent fluidity in attack. First quarter: 22-15. A luxury for Udine for what it was like. Only Antonutti, however, is a lion, Boniciolli tries to take refuge in the 3-2 zone, throws Schina into the fray as well.
But he has no outside baskets and between Pellegrino and Foulland (0 out of 4 to free players) you don’t make a presentable one. Pinkins and Diop camp from below or bring the bewildered Udine towers out of the area: they are the best pivot of the A2 three years ago in Casale and that of this season, you name it. Pellegrino and Nana are one-dimensional and also in a bad evening, 11 points in two.
Half game: 45-36. If Udine (horrible 7/13 for free and 7/17 for two) is still, vaguely, clinging to the match, it owes it to the two triples of an excellent Giuri and to a strong Schina.
But we need to change the register, and immediately. The beginning of the third quarter, however, is emblematic: Antonutti missed a triple alone and a naive Mussini foul on Cappelletti complete with a free gift. Lost ball, Diop’s basket and here is the 50-36 that if it weren’t basketball where everything can change in a few minutes would already be a kind of Dan Peterson’s “mom throw the dough”.
If you play badly for two quarters and start the third worst there are no excuses: you have to go home and work more. Unfortunately the serious injury to Mussini complicates things a lot.
You swear almost perfect and Antonutti keep up the hut, with them there is only Schina, the latter for the future a wonderful news for the present a very bad one.
But the boys from the West are unable to get back within range of Turin, despite Diop, who is twenty years old and will still have to grow in something, otherwise he would not play in this championship, he quickly makes the third and fourth foul and has to get out.
If, in fact, Pinkins and Diop have dug the furrow, just to put their finger in the wounds of Udine, points of Capelletti, the play of the Cavina boys and the fact that Foulland, in the second horror game in a row after his best a Milan, can’t even score against Campani. End of the third quarter 70-55, an agony for the Juventus fans glued to the TV, not a great spot for the ambitious president Pedone.
Three flashes of the fourth quarter: the coach taken by Boniciolli who at least clears his disadvantage, the injury to Mussini (to whom we send a big hug), and the final siren with 83-74.
Ah, net of the well-known extra-basketball events, let’s close with a reflection: put Diop in the Udine team, where he played, and you decide how the game and season would have ended. It’s life. —