Wed 24 Oct 1800 - Falco Vulcano 80 v 65 Leicester Riders

OPPONENT

'Falco-Vulcano Energia KC Szombathely'. To be honest I'm not completely sure what the appropriate abbreviation is for this utter abomination of a team name. 'Falco Vulcano'? 'Falco KC Szombathely'? Maybe even just 'the Hungarians' will suffice? Call 'em whatever the hell you want.

RECENT HISTORY

Came close to folding in 2002. Hungarian champions in 2007/08. Runners-up each of the last two seasons. Europe Cup participants in 2015/16 and 2017/18. Yet to advance beyond the opening group phase but have been decently competitive on both occasions, going a combined 5-7.

NOTABLE EX-PLAYERS

A rather different list this week. No former lottery picks...

Zoltan Horvath - A member of the national team from 2005 up until his death, Horvath was killed in a car crash in 2009. He was averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds per game in the Hungarian league at the time. His number has been retired by the club.

Laszlo Kalman - Notable primarily I think because he played for absolutely ages. Strong possibility he holds some club and/or Hungarian league records. Do you really care? I doubt it.

Justin Robinson - Last season's BBL MVP made a dozen appearances for the Hungarians in 2013/14 averaging 14.5 ppg. Moved mid-season to eventual runners-up Atomeromu.

Cameron Rundles - Popular ex-Rider paced the team in scoring (13.2), assists (3.3) and steals (1.2) during their inaugural European campaign. Now playing in Belgium.







If you're feeling sufficiently bored/curious/nostalgic, highlights of Cam competing in the 2015/16 Europe Cup can be viewed HERE.

KEY PLAYER

Ron Curry played in the Basketball Champions League last season for a German Bundesliga club though his numbers were pretty horrible. And Juvonte Ruddic is another intriguing newcomer. Appared in a Final Four whilst at VCU and averaged 12 and 6 in the Greek top flight in 2016/17. Played in Belgium last season but struggled with injuries and seemingly left on very poor terms. Both these players got off to pretty inauspicious starts with their new club but came alive in a win against Atomeromu on Saturday and ought to have fairly significant upside at this sort of level. All that being said, Evan Bruinsma seems like the most logical choice here.





The 6'8" forward was one of the key performers last season on a Dutch team that made the semi-finals of Europe Cup and dominated domestically. And he's started well in Hungary averaging 16 and 7 through Szombathely's opening four NBIA fixtures. Was also the game's leading scorer (22) in their European curtain raiser last week.

PREDICTION

Szombathely are off to a mixed start this season. They competed well against Szolnoki Olaj in their Europe Cup opener but were hammered by that same team in the Hungarian league a few weeks ago and currently have a 2-2 record domestically. Bruinsma, as mentioned, seems a quality addition but he's no borderline NBA talent and the other new Americans, though promising on paper, probably have a few questions to answer. All in all this looks like a significant drop down in level. Given the roster we've put together here, even the worst sides we face in Europe are going to have more relevant experience in their ranks than us and home court advantage will surely be enough to make the Hungarians favourites. But after a better than expected result against Sassari, I'd be disappointed if we don't at least compete fairly well here. Pinch a win and we've got a semi-realistic chance of making the second round. Lose heavily and I think the writing will be on the wall already. Much rides on this one for Leicester (see what I did there?).

WHY SHOULD YOU WATCH?

A chance to maybe, possibly, see a BBL team win in Europe for the first time since... well, a long time ago? If you want to know the exact time, location, opponent, margin of victory, etc. then ask Dan Routledge not me. I've done enough Googling for the day.

Great analysis as usual from Mctowlie

Yep it's no good being plucky losers here

One way or other we need to find a way to win this

Wonder if Hampton can contribute worthwhile minutes in this one

I think we will need to play out of our skin to win the game. But why not?

Can you not get pukka pies either now?

I believe that it's the arena who manage the hot food being sold and have to make a profit from it etc. Source their own supplies etc. 

And so any contra deals or similar Riders had in place with previous food suppliers became redundant. 

I think the tuck shop is still under Riders supporters club control but the rest of it and the bars in the arena are all under arena control with their own budgets and targets etc.

What is his injury and when did it happen ?

Ankle - 5 or 6 weeks ago

If that's the case, are the Riders realistically any better off for having "their own" venue?

Well, for starters, they control access to the Arena so can hold midweek matches there such as the European games - which is why Eagles haven't been able to play in Europe.

Presumably Riders also have access to the Arena when they want it for training etc -'not to be underestimated.

And I bet the corporate hospitality and general turnover from shop etc has increased their revenue since the move.

As I understand it the Eagles model will be a bit different and they will at least share catering/ drinks revenue with their provider. But of course there will also be downsides of their arrangements too. Either way the move should be positive commercially and from a sporting perspective.

Game on!

Yep it's their arena to train or use whenever they choose. Albeit they have to pull curtains across as college kids will be using the other courts either side etc as it's also a Community Arena as part of all the funding. Full state of the art gym etc. I'm sure there are loads of benefits. What we don't take in income we will be saving in not have to cover costs we would face if it was all down to us as well.

Fair answer, thank you!

I'm sure that the move to the arena gave Leicester a real lift too - not just better training and practice facilities, but a psychological lift of playing in an impressive shiny new venue. It really is a good facility and any teams able to develop their own should benefit too as long as they get the maths right. I'm hoping the Eagles' imminent move will have a similar positive effect!

Meanwhile, back on topic, I hope Leicester do well on the road tomorrow.

Dunno about 'out of our skin'. We'll need to play well (and ideally avoid any more nine minute scoring droughts) but I think this is probably about as easy it's going to get in Europe. If a BBL team is ever going to get anywhere in the competition, they'll need to win a few games likes this.

We should be able to compete in the paint far better this week than we did against Sassari and Bakken, particularly if Hampton's fit enough to make a half decent contribution. Reddic is the biggest player on Szombathely's roster at 6'9" and top to bottom they're really no bigger than us. Perhaps even a little smaller in fact. They're also not especially deep. Only used eight guys in their win Saturday and three of their four Americans are currently averaging 30+ mpg.

They'll be a pretty useful side don't get me wrong but they won't be levels above the kind of standard our players are used to. We're underdogs but it's nothing like the horrible mismatch that last week's fixture was on paper.