ESP – Barca ready to pull out all stops in pursuit of ACB crown

BARCELONA (ACB) - Regal Barcelona are heading into the Spanish post-season with one thing in mind.
 
Xavier Pascual's players are determined to capture a fourth title in the 2009-10 campaign.
 
Winners of the Spanish Supercopa, the Copa del Rey and the Euroleague, star-studded Barca must now prevail in three play-off series to capture the league crown.
 
"The ACB is a title that I have not won and the club wants to win it," said Ricky Rubio, the Barcelona playmaker who was voted as the league's top point guard this season - his first with the club since joining from DKV Joventut.
 
"It's what is missing in order to complete a perfect season and with the campaign we have already had, we have many options of winning it."
 
First up is a quarter-final tie with Gran Canaria 2014, who finished eighth in the regular season.
 
For those who aren't giving the Canary Islanders a chance, they should reconsider.
 
Barcelona fell at Gran Canaria, 67-65, in the third week of the season.
 
"They have proved that they can beat us," Rubio said.
 
"They have a court on which it is very difficult to play."
 
But with the stakes this high, few will bet against Barca.
 
No team in Spain and probably all of Europe is as deep, and talented.
 
Ricky Rubio, Juan Carlos Navarro and Erazem Lorbek were each voted to the Ideal Quintet in the ACB while Pascual was named Coach of the Year.
 
There are no weaknesses in this Barcelona team, one that won 31 of its 34 ACB games.
 
In addition to Spain internationals Rubio and Navarro, there are others that will play at the FIBA World Championship this summer like Slovenia guard Jaka Lakovic and possible big man Fran Vazquez of Spain, the MVP of Barca's Copa del Rey triumph over Real Madrid.
 
Pete Mickael, Terence Morris, Roger Grimau, Victor Sada, Gianluca Basile, Boniface Ndong and Jordi Trias make this team one of the best ever in Spanish basketball.
 
The most intriguing showdown in the quarter-finals may just be the one between third-seed Real Madrid and sixth-seed Cajasol Sevilla.
 
It’s another chance for Joan Plaza,  the Cajasol coach, to make Real Madrid regret their decision to let him go last summer in favor of appointing Ettore Messina.
 
Plaza was a former Coach of the Year at Real but Messina – the former boss of CSKA Moscow and Benetton Treviso – has been excellent.
 
One reason why Messina’s Real has thrived this season has been the play of their young Spanish star, Sergio Llull.
 
A player who made a lot of headlines last summer at the EuroBasket in Poland by helping Spain capture their first gold medal in the competition, Llull has been Real’s best player this season.
 
“We hope to give our fans something to cheer about,” he said.

“The road to the title is always hard and we're up against a difficult opponent. We need to remain focused at all times if we want to make it to the semis."

Plaza will have been viewed as a savior of sorts at Cajasol, a team that found itself in relegation trouble for much of last season but has been among the best this year.
 
"It's difficult to last 40 minutes against a team that has such a deep bench,” Plaza said, looking ahead to Real.
 
“It's evident that at Real Madrid even the friendly games matter and I say this from experience.”
 
Plaza is not willing to concede anything to his former club, however.
 
“We plan to end the season on a high note and that means we need to win the games that we still have left to play," he said.
 
Barcelona are not the only team in the play-offs to have won a European crown this year.
 
Power Electronics Valencia won the Eurocup and against all expectations, Neven Spahija’s club finished fourth during the regular season of the ACB.
 
They will go up against Unicaja Malaga, the fifth seed.
 
While Valencia’s Nando De Colo and Florent Pietrus of France, Matt Nielsen of Australia, Kosta Perovic of Serbia and Victor Claver of Spain will head to the FIBA World Championship in Turkey this summer, there are many fans in the ACB that would like to see Rafa Martinez get his chance with the Spanish.
 
Unlucky for him, the Valencia star Martinez plays in a country that is loaded with backcourt stars, be they in the ACB or the NBA.
 
Still, an excellent play-off performance by the man that beat Barcelona with a buzzer-beating three-pointer could see him come into the reckoning for the national team.
 
Unicaja overcame a difficult start to the season to finish with 19 wins and 15 defeats.
 
In his four games since joining the club, Juan Dixon has averaged more than 18 points a contest.
 
Britain internationals Joel Freeland and Robert Archibald have given Unicaja fans plenty to cheer about this season as they have formed an imposing frontline when healthy. Among the other valuable members of the side are Greece international Georgios Printezis and Montenegro’s American playmaker Omar Cook.
 
Caja Laboral finished the season strong and ended up with a 27-7 record – good enough for second place.
 
They face a very dangerous Asefa Estudiantes in the quarter-finals.
 
There is not much to dislike about Dusko Ivanovic’s Caja.
 
The club has the ACB’s Player of the Year in Tiago Splitter and his Brazil international teammate Marcelo Huertas.
 
Both players will be on show at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.
 
Then there is Mirza Teletovic, Canada international sharpshooter Carl English and another long-range marksman that is probably good enough to play for most national teams in the world but has yet to get his chance with Spain.
 
His name is Fernando San Emeterio, and he has had the trust of Ivanovic all season long. San Emeterio has rewarded him with an average of 11 points per game.
 
Carlos Suarez goes into the post-season as the leading man for Estudiantes.
 
He was so prolific this year that he was the fifth player to make it into the ACB’s Ideal Quintet.
 
FIBA