Tonight in Ljubljana,Slovenia people will have an opportunity to enjoy a great match between the old rivals who only last year started playing again in the same league as they did for many years in former yugoslavian league. Only this time the name is different.Goodyear league,that is.
From basketball piont of wiew it is a great thing for both teams as they didn't have much to play for in the last decade of 20th century, both easily winning in Croatia and Slovenia every time exept Olimpija's one small flop two years ago.
Both teams have budgets much bigger than any other team in the region and it was not hard for them to take the cream , all the top talents ,that were available around. People will have a chance to see Planinic 20 years old who is projected to be taken in 2004 draft next big hope of Croatian basketball who is coming from the injury and is expected to quickly become the leader of the new Cibona. Under the boards they will also have a chance to see Mujezinovic as they did all last season only in different uniform this time. Olimpija's budget got smaller this time and they did again the same thing as they do for a long time they went to look for low price talented players who should gain reputation of a stars in Olimpija. Funny is that a lot of the unproven guys this time were Croats like Poljak Bazdaric Dujmovic so in this region it is really hard to find a matchup in any sport that could be of such a high quality and with so many players having that little extra should we say that a lot of them have circled this date on their calendars as one of the most important one's.
It will also be fun to see Repesa's Cibona playing hard defence as Repesa has put a lot of pressure on the players to play hard on defence or sit on the bench something cibona has lacked in many previous seasons while Olimpija' s style of play have been same like that in Sagadin's era which just ended and looks to me that new coach is giving players more freedom. Which is understandable as playing for Sagadin has often been described by players as not a pleasent expirience.
So although Olimpija won the first crown last season it will be difficult to do it again as newcomers Maccabi and Cibona clearly have better rosters and are favorites to decide in March in Zagreb who is the best.
It will be not an easy task to beat Olimpija in their house so I say small things will decide tonight and maybe just a few great moves from any player could be what will seperate a winner from a loser this evening.
Enjoy.