Towards the end of the conversation, Denis Wucherer really picked up speed and no longer made a murder pit out of his heart. The coach of s.Oliver Würzburg does not believe that the desperate attempt of the basketball Bundesliga to play a regular season with 34 game days and subsequent play-offs will be crowned with success. On the contrary: “It’s just not up to date. You could have been more innovative,” he said. His fierce criticism of the league, which starts the season this weekend, now received concentrate shortly before the start of the season: three of the nine games scheduled for this weekend had to be canceled due to corona cases and the quarantine ordered. Status: Friday evening!
“During this time, it is generally too cheap for me to believe that it makes sense to play basketball once a week and to prepare for six days in between and hope that on Fridays everyone will test negative so that we can play on Saturdays does not fit into this time at all, “said Wucherer, who is certainly not alone in his industry with this opinion. League boss Stefan Holz has a completely contrary opinion and is apparently convinced that no adjustments to the game operations will be necessary due to the exploding number of infections: “We’re not dealing with that yet. We have a plan A, and we will pursue it until it doesn’t more is possible. “
Wucherer has a plan B that he would have liked to see implemented from the start: He refers to the final tournament in June in Munich as an example: “This bubble showed how you can play a relatively large number of games in a short period of time without a high risk of infection to have for the players and to abandon or even cancel games. ” His idea: Bubbles at different locations, in which six teams then play everyone against everyone, then mix the bubbles again and everyone against everyone again. So maybe not every team would play twice against the same opponent, but each would then at least have a tolerable number, maybe 20, 25, of games. Because: “With the best of intentions I can’t imagine that we will play 34 games in the current mode and then there will be two relegated teams in May and eight teams playing play-offs.”
?? Yes, that’s right, unfortunately the trophy went completely wrong, and then apparently everyone was on autumn vacation and no one thought about how things could go on any other way. ??
Denis Wucherer, Baskets-Trainer–
The Baskets coach would have liked the league to have been more innovative. There was enough time. In the cup competition, the Bundesliga was creative, four groups of four teams each, the group winners qualify for the top four tournament in which the cup winner is crowned. Nice plan! But Sars-CoV-2 also destroyed that, because positive corona tests in Berlin, Bayreuth and Bonn resulted in game cancellations and the cancellation of the final tournament. The Berliners brought the virus from the EuroLeague game in Moscow and then had a total of seven positive cases. Which didn’t surprise usurers either. Shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic, he had already stressed that “international competitions are not a good idea in these times”.
Usurer continues: “Yes, that’s right, unfortunately the trophy went completely in the pants, and then apparently everyone was on autumn vacation and nobody thought about how things could go on any other way.” So this Saturday (8.30 p.m.), Wucherers Baskets receive ratiopharm Ulm for the first time in their Bundesliga history in front of empty stands in the s.Oliver Arena, because the lockdown ordered by the federal government and the Free State of Bavaria forbids spectators at least until the end of November. “We’ll get started on Saturday and see how far things go. So we’re approaching this season in a relaxed manner.”
The virus that has the world in a stranglehold also terrorizes sport, of course. Nevertheless, some things also seem strange, such as this: In the first and second Bundesliga there were also many corona cases, including false positives. But an entire team has never been quarantined, which is why no game has had to be canceled to this day. The basketball players have at least as strict and sophisticated a hygiene concept as the soccer players – and yet, entire teams were quarantined by health authorities for 14 days, which also angered league boss Holz, who rightly wondered why the league and the clubs were so hard and Have invested money in a hygiene concept that explicitly wants to allow the possibility of isolating individual players, coaches or supervisors who have tested positive and to let the rest continue to train and play after negative tests. The decisions are ultimately made by the health authorities.
Be that as it may, the Baskets are now headed against Ulm. And of course, all good things should come in threes: In a test match, the Lower Franconians were defeated by the Swabians as well as in the cup game two weeks ago. It was close both times. “We know them pretty well by now,” says playmaker Tayler Persons, who demands “to play with more self-confidence in crucial situations”. The 25-year-old American, who is expecting a child in March with his wife, whom he married in August, and who may therefore take the pandemic and the protective measures a bit more seriously than some young teammates, also wants to take on responsibility on the floor and ” like to lead younger guys in the team “. You should be able to rely on him.
At least as long as the Bundesliga is played.
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