ZOUK MIKAEL (Lebanon) - It may be a new Al Riyadi on the surface, but Karim Zeinoun sees - and says - otherwise.
While it's become common knowledge that two of the reasons behind their success over the past few years aren't around, the two-way star believes that it's practically the same old Yellow Castle that we're all witnessing.
"To be honest, nothing has changed very much. The chemistry is still there," he offered. "We might be different, but we're still Riyadi. We're a team of 12 players, anyone is ready to step up and fill in when the team needs."
Much has been said about Wael Arakji and Thon Maker leaving for Al Ula Club but the Lebanese powerhouse showed that everything's A-OK following a successful start to their FIBA WASL title defense Thursday.
Today we didn't display maybe our best basketball, but I promise you, in the next games, in the Lebanese league and in WASL, we're gonna show a completely different team - hopefully.
The pan-regional tilt's reigning two-time champions accomplished as much following an 89-80 victory over Al Wahda SC, beginning their bid for a 'four-peat' in the WASL-West Asia League on a high note as well.
Zeinoun himself was crucial in the triumph with 15 points and 3 steals but he isn't naive whatsoever not to acknowledge that there remains plenty of work to be done if they want to succeed this season.
While much of the team's core remains intact, Riyadi are still in the process of integrating the new reinforcements to their scheme of things, particularly Perrin Buford and Maurice Kemp - both of whom are seasoned pros.
In all fairness, the two were solid in their first WASL game. Buford top-scored with 26 points alongside 14 rebounds while Kemp finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds as they proved key in the strong closeout.
"The thing is that we have new foreigners," said KZ. "Before we used to get foreigners that used to be with us the season before, so they're going, like we say in Arabic, slowly slowly. But I think it's a great way [to start]."
Still, it was quite evident that the squad, as a collective, has some more polishing to do. They actually started slow against Al Wahda and even trailed by eight at one point, but simply leaned on experience to escape.
Even they admit that it wasn't up to par to their own standards, but head coach Ahmad Farran is taking any kind of win at this point as they're still in the midst of regaining their spunk - and perfecting their jelling as a unit.
"At this part of the season, the beginning of the season, it's very important to us to think about winning more than performance until we catch our rhythm, until we find the chemistry," he offered.
"As you know, it's a different team from the past three years. And every time, we go to this championship as defending champions - the last three times we are the champions - so there's some pressure," added Farran.
"Everyone wants to beat us. This is a part of the game we live with. And we live with it," continued the champion bench tactician, whose team hasn't lost in WASL since last season. "Ugly, but thank God we won."
Zeinoun, though, vowed that a much better Riyadi will show up moving ahead into the season - not only in WASL but in the Lebanese Basketball Championship as well, where they are the defending three-time titlists.
"Today we didn't display maybe our best basketball, but I promise you, in the next games, in the Lebanese league and in WASL, we're gonna show a completely different team - hopefully," the 26-year-old said.
FIBA