Big man Rasid Mahalbasic is a basketball globetrotter. Born in Slovenia and raised in Austria, he has played in those two countries, as well as in Croatia, Poland, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and now Russia, since joining Eurocup powerhouse Nizhny Novgorod over the summer. Mahalbasic has already played the Eurocup with CEZ Basketball Nymburk and did really well, averaging 11.3 points and 6.2 rebounds in the 2013-14 season. Back to the competition after a one-year absence, Mahalbasic will be Nizhny's main reference in the paint. Don't miss the chance to follow how he and Nizhny are doing in this exciting Eurocup season!
It was really important to start the Eurocup with a win. I can say that, at the beginning of the game, we didn't know what to expect from Hapoel, a very experienced team with some well-known players like Lior Eliyahu and Yotam Halperin. We were expecting a tough game but maybe having too much respect for our opponent made us start losing in the first quarter. Of course, we also made mistakes on defense, but we improved in that aspect during the second and third quarter. I have to say that, at the end of the day, we are in better shape and were more focused in the second half. That allowed us to turn the game around and get the win.
It is not easy to start the Eurocup: you never know what to expect from every team. Everything is new. Some teams, or some players, can surprise you. Of course, the deeper we go into the tournament, the more predictable the competition will be. As you probably know, we lost Greg Maynor last week, so right now Dmitry Khvostov is the most important player on our team because he is the only real, true point guard we have. Khvostov is a very quiet, friendly guy, but on the court, well, you know how great he is. He played really well against Hapoel. Of course, we will miss Eric because he is a big part of our team. You never know when an injury like this can happen to a player. Eric is expected to be out for six to eight months after getting injured early in the first official game of the season. Everybody was shocked, but at the end of the day, this is life. Things like this happen and you cannot change it. You can only make the best of it.
I missed playing in the Eurocup. I have played two games a week throughout my entire career and the Eurocup is always a lot of fun to play. It is getting better and better every year. You get to play against better teams and it is always fun to travel around and meet friends here and there. It is really interesting and now that I am with Nizhny, I hope to go far in this tournament. We have a really big team with a lot of versatile players. It is a big advantage for us, having a lot of big, fast players. I think I am the only one who is a little bit slower! We try to adjust the game to make perfect combinations on the court and right now, with Semen Antonov and Victor Rudd, we have good defenders. Antonov also has good three-point percentages while Kaspars Berzins and I try to manage things inside and do what our coach says.
We will play back-to-back road games against Krasny Oktyabr in Volgograd and against AEK in Athens. If we manage to get at least one road win, we will be in a very good position to advance. We expect the next game, against Krasny, to be very difficult. They are a very unpredictable team. They managed to beat AEK in Athens, which means that they have a lot of talent. We are focusing on this game and then we will move on to the next one, but I am sure we can expect a big basketball atmosphere in Athens. It will be very hard to play there but, at the same time, we are getting better after each game and if we manage to keep it up and progress, we will be taking steps in the right direction. Did you see what Loukas Mavrokefalidis did against Krasny? 55 index? Unbelievable! Amazing! It tied the all-time record! A game like this doesn't happen every day and I have great respect for Mavrokefalidis. It will be very, very nice to play against him in two weeks' time!
I like life in Nizhny. The city is quite big, with a lot of traffic. It is very different from Austria, where I am from, or Western Europe. I am adjusting well even when I have been having troubles to read everything in Cyrillic letters. It is different than what I am used to, but there are very good restaurants and a nice river. The only big problem is that it can be very cold here, but I knew that coming in. It has already snowed and the road was frozen, which can be crazy. As for the club, everything is perfect, from the medical to the office staff to the coaches... everything is at the highest professional level. It's amazing. Our press officer, Vladimir Spivak, works 24/7 and he knows everything about basketball.
Right now, I think that if you dominate at home and steal one or two games on the road, there is no chance you can be out of the second round. The group is really balanced: Galatasaray won by just a few points in Klaipeda while AEK and Krasny went to overtime. You never know, so we have to be ready for everything. For instance, Hapoel will have a big home-court advantage when they play in Jerusalem. I don't know what to expect but I hope we can do well on the road in the next couple of weeks and after that, we will know where we stand. Personally, I came with the goal to be successful with Nizhny. In this group, full of big, experienced teams with good budgets and good fan support, nobody will have it easy to advance. Three of the teams in our group were in the Euroleague last season and Jerusalem won the Israeli League. It is very interesting and I think that the teams that advance in this group will reach the elimination rounds, too.
I hope one of this teams will be Nizhny Novgorod, and we will work hard to be there! See you next time!
Nizhny Novgorod landed Sean Denison
BC Nizhny Novgorod signed a one-year deal with Canadian bigman Sean Denison (211 cm, 111 kg, 32 y.o.). Last season he spent in Romanian CSM Oradea, participating in the national championship and Basketball Champions League. From 2011 till 2013 he played in Russian clubs Spartak-Primorye and Ataman.
Nizhny Novgorod terminated the contract with American forward Erik McCree who’d joined the team this august. The decision was made by mutual agreement. At the moment Nizhny is in search of a new player for the vacant place.
BC Nizhny Novgorod signed Erik McCree
BC NN signed a two-year contract with American forward Erik McCree (23 y.o., 203 cm, 102 kg). From 2013 to 2017 he was playing for Louisiana Tech in NCAA. Last season he showed his best statistics averaging 17,7 points, 8,9 rebounds, 1,3 assists in 33 games.
Sterling Gibbs joins BC Nizhny Novgorod
BC NN signed a two-year deal with American point guard Sterling Gibbs (188cm, 84kg, 24 y.o). In his college years he played for Seton Hall Pirates and Connecticut Huskies in NCAA. In 2016-2017 spent his first season overseas as he joined Hungarian team Kormend. He helped the team to semifinals in Hungarian Cup and Hungarian League averaging 14,4 points, 2,1 rebounds, 3,3 assists in 27 games.
