ULEB Cup draw profile: BK Ventspils
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One of the best home teams in ULEB Cup history, BK Ventspils is back in the elimination rounds again. The Latvian powerhouse is the only team to advance out of the regular season in each of the last five ULEB Cup seasons, getting as far as the quarterfinals in 2005. During its impressive run, the club has gone 25-5 on its home floor, knocking off some of the top teams on the continent. Now this season’s squad is determined to build on past successes and to make a run at the Final Eight. Keeping the heart of the previous season’s team, new coach Gasper Okorn improved the squad with the addition of center Akin Akingbala, who went on to lead the ULEB Cup in blocked shots, and scoring guard Jimmy Baxter. Meanwhile veteran playmaker Justin Love moved to the bench and embraced his role as sixth man, which allowed Raimonds Gabrans to continue to develop as the starting point guard, while veteran power forward Uvis Helmanis remained as effective as ever. With that cast together, Ventspils went out confident on opening night, but was sent away to rethink things after committing 20 turnovers in a rare home defeat at the hands of Besiktas ColaTurka. After that, Ventspils came back more determined than ever winning its next three games by a combined 49 points as seven players scored in double figures Week 2 against Ovarense and Baxter scored 24 in a Week 3 win over Koln.  When Baxter was held to 5 points in Week 5 at FMP, but Love came off the bench for 21 points and 6 assists, leading Ventspils to a big 70-76 road win and a 4-1 record, it was clear that Okorn’s bunch had turned into something special. However the team would struggle somewhat with three of its next four games on the road. Despite staying close in all of them, Venstpils saw its record slip to 5-4 and heading into a Week 10 showdown with FMP needing a victory to secure a berth in the Last 32. As expected, Baxter rose to the occasion with 26 points and Akingbala stood tall with 23 points, 13 rebounds and 7 blocked shots – all season-highs – as Ventspils won in style. Now having been here before, this team has its eyes set on the next task, determined to go further than ever before on the road to Torino.
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POST-DRAW REACTIONS | BK Ventspils general manager, Martins Ribens:"First of all, we know Lukoil Academic already, as we played them a couple of times in the past. It is a good basketball teams, with great tradition and good players. We already know it is very tough to face them in Sofia, so we must get ready for two hard games against them. I can definitely agree that we are lucky to play the 2nd leg at home by finishing second in our regular season group. The home court advantage can have a major impact in the outcome of the series. I hope it will work well for us. I think it is good that more teams have the chance to play in the ULEB Cup this year. It is a great basketball celebration and the Final Eight is very good from that side. The competition did not decrease with more teams, but only got better and better. We must play very hard to get into that Final Eight, it will be very tough but we will try to survive those two elimination rounds." |
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
ULEBCup.com
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