There were only a few seconds left in the first half when an almost bloodcurdling scream echoed through the s.Oliver Arena. A few moments later, the screamer folded his hands as if in prayer and spoke urgently to Nick Weiler-Babb, and all the gestures and facial expressions of Andrea Trinchieri, the Italian coach of FC Bayern Munich, reminded more of a pleading than a lecture. And the 25-year-old American, up to this point by far the most purposeful and still the best person in Munich, stood there, shrugged his shoulders and looked like a schoolboy whose riot act was being read. An almost bizarre picture, because the player with his 1.96 meters is at least one and a half heads taller than his coach.
At that moment, the highly-favored Bavarians were behind s.Oliver Würzburg with 25:33, and the scene reflected the current atmosphere and mood in the hall quite well: on the left, euphoric, constantly cheering and passionately fighting baskets – quite uninspired, lethargic and listless-looking Bavaria on the right.
People who were sitting pretty close to the Munich substitute bank, of course, saw Trinchieri’s desperation a little more impressively – it is said to have culminated in a by no means everyday ruffle for Paul Zipser: “Shame on you!” – “Shame on you!” The 26-year-old seasoned German national player and former NBA professional (104 games for the Chicago Bulls) really had a pretty used day, like the majority of his colleagues. And when Zipser actually sank a threesome at the beginning of the last quarter (he tried seven times in total), Trinchieri shook his head and is said to have exclaimed: “Impossibile!” – “Impossible!” Irony is sometimes quite good in sports too.
The team of guests, overwhelmed with industry stars, at the end heard the pleading of their trainer, who, because of his temperament and henceforth unrestrained need for discussion, was about to face his second technical foul and thus about to be thrown out of the hall, then he still struggled thanks to one thing more committed appearance in the final quarter ultimately led to a 74:70 (27:33) success. “It was a difficult game for us because Würzburg played well for 35 minutes and we weren’t fully there,” said Trinchieri, who perfected it on the line to make Rumpelstiltskin look like an orphan. The 52-year-old Milanese congratulated “Würzburg on the good fight” and was “happy that we won this game as a team”. With the Munich team playing in a continuous loop through the Euroleague, who have a realistic chance of being the first German team to reach the quarter-finals of the premier class, a Bundesliga game like on Wednesday evening against – at least nominally – well-defeated Würzburg can sometimes be a minor matter.
The Baskets can of course not only be proud of their performance, as captain Felix Hoffmann said – they can also draw hope from it for the tasks ahead. “The fight was there, it wasn’t pretty.” Coach Denis Wucherer got it right to the point, even when he said: “In order to have a real chance against such a team, the assists turnover rate has to be better. The throw rate has to be better, too.” His men distributed 15 assists – with Tyson Ward with five and Cameron Hunt, the top scorer of the game with 19 points, with four assists. But the Würzburg team also threw the ball away 19 times. And a hit rate of only 36 percent from the field (in 64 attempts only 23 throws found their target, whereby the rate was identical for two and three) is rarely sufficient for a win.
After the three expected defeats in a row against the heavyweights Berlin (85:99) and Oldenburg (84: 124), in which a larger class difference became apparent regardless of the result, and now Munich, the most recent appearance of the Baskets can after all give some courage. Your next three games are definitely trend-setting for the fight to stay in the league: First it goes against the cellar children Göttingen (with four wins on the 15th, Saturday, February 6th) and the last Gießen (two wins, Tuesday, February 9th, each time at 8.30 p.m.) before heading to Weißenfels for the MBC (eleventh with five wins like the Baskets, Friday, February 12th, 7pm).
“If we defend against Göttingen and play with the same intensity as against Bayern, we should hopefully be able to act at eye level,” said Usurer, who also warns: “Göttingen has a lot of good throwers, so we have to defend ourselves move a little better. ” And for the front, he wants “a better rhythm”.
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