FIBA Basketball
GRE - Mazzon confident of final success
CHARLEROI (ULEB Cup) - Aris Thessaloniki coach Andrea Mazzon is confident his side can shrug off their indifferent form and down Dynamo Moscow in Tuesday's ULEB Cup final in Charleroi
CHARLEROI (ULEB Cup) - Aris Thessaloniki coach Andrea Mazzon is confident his side can shrug off their indifferent form and down Dynamo Moscow in Tuesday's ULEB Cup final in Charleroi.
The 1997 Korac Cup and 2003 FIBA Champions Cup winners have lost two straight games in the Greek league - away to Kolossos Rhodes and at home against Olympia Larissa - after beating Hemofarm in the ULEB Cup semi-finals.
But Mazzon insists those defeats will count for little when they showdown with Russian giants Dynamo for the ULEB Cup.
"Our form is not great right now, but we are ready for this kind of game. My players will be motivated no matter what," Mazzon told PA Sport.
Mazzon, who took over at Aris midway through the season following the departure of Elias Zouros, will be coaching in his third European cup final.
He led Verona to the 1997 Saporta Cup final and won the 1998 Korac Cup with the Italian side.
"It would be my second title, so I can understand how it would be something big and very important for everyone - the organisation, the players, the coaches and especially our loyal fans," the 30-year-old added.
Aris fans will likely turn the Spiroudome into a sea of yellow, as Greek fans always come out in droves to support their teams.
Mazzon's biggest weapon is Corey Brewer, who leads the team in scoring with 18.9 points per game. The American guard scored 22 and 25 points in the semi-final matches.
Brewer should receive good support from center Ryan Stack, as well as veteran guard Terrell Castle, rookie forward Mike Wilkinson and Russian Nikolai Padius.
However, Mazzon's X-factor could be the big-game leadership of 35-year-old playmaker Giorgos Sigalas, who will be playing in his sixth continental title game. He helped lead Olympiacos to three titles in 1997, including the EuroLeague crown.
"The only way to win the ULEB Cup is with team work throughout the whole game. And I will only realise that I did my job well when I take the trophy back home," Sigalas said on the ULEB Cup website.
Sigalas will be facing his coach from the 1997 Olympiacos team - Dusan Ivkovic, who led the Yugoslavian national team to the 1990 World Championship, three EuroBasket crowns and the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics.
Besides the 1997 title, Ivkovic led AEK Athens to the 2001 Euroleague Final Four before taking Russian giants CSKA Moscow to the past three Final Fours and three Russian league titles.
After last year's huge disappointment at CSKA, when the Russian team hosted the Euroleague Final Four but failed to win either of their two games, CSKA decided to make a change and that freed Ivkovic up to sign a three-year deal with Dynamo Moscow.
He came into the season with the goal of getting the Russian team to next year's Euroleague by winning its first European title.
Dynamo - who crashed out of last season's ULEB Cup in the eighth-finals - are paced this year by their dynamic duos of Americans Mire Chatman and Ruben Douglas, plus Greek big men Lazaros Papadopoulos and Antonios Fotsis.
Chatman and Douglas, who average 19 and 16.3 points per game respectively, provide Ivkovic's team with an outside punch as they combined to hit 39% of their three-pointers in 16 ULEB Cup games.
Chatman played in the Euroleague last season with Pau Orthez while Douglas competed for Climamio Bologna. Douglas, everyone will remember, hit the game-winning three-pointer for Climamio against Armani Jeans Milano to give his side a 3-1 victory in the championship series.
And the 2005 EuroBasket champions with Greece, Fotsis and Papadopoulos, each average more than 10 points per game and are tied with a team-high 6.6 rebounds per contest.
"People told us that we were favourites in the beginning of the season, but we didn't think of it all. Everyone has tried to win from the very beginning and now we earned a shot to win the championship. We have been focused all season, and we have one more game left to win the title," Douglas told the ULEB Cup website.
Ivkovic sees his biggest challenge in trying to offset the experience of Sigalas.
"Sigalas is a captain, a leader and the most experienced player. Aris doesn't have any other player with so much experience, and I think my team has an advantage here - something that Sigalas will try to erase," Ivkovic said.
By David Hein, PA Sport Exclusively for FIBA
The 1997 Korac Cup and 2003 FIBA Champions Cup winners have lost two straight games in the Greek league - away to Kolossos Rhodes and at home against Olympia Larissa - after beating Hemofarm in the ULEB Cup semi-finals.
But Mazzon insists those defeats will count for little when they showdown with Russian giants Dynamo for the ULEB Cup.
"Our form is not great right now, but we are ready for this kind of game. My players will be motivated no matter what," Mazzon told PA Sport.
Mazzon, who took over at Aris midway through the season following the departure of Elias Zouros, will be coaching in his third European cup final.
He led Verona to the 1997 Saporta Cup final and won the 1998 Korac Cup with the Italian side.
"It would be my second title, so I can understand how it would be something big and very important for everyone - the organisation, the players, the coaches and especially our loyal fans," the 30-year-old added.
Aris fans will likely turn the Spiroudome into a sea of yellow, as Greek fans always come out in droves to support their teams.
Mazzon's biggest weapon is Corey Brewer, who leads the team in scoring with 18.9 points per game. The American guard scored 22 and 25 points in the semi-final matches.
Brewer should receive good support from center Ryan Stack, as well as veteran guard Terrell Castle, rookie forward Mike Wilkinson and Russian Nikolai Padius.
However, Mazzon's X-factor could be the big-game leadership of 35-year-old playmaker Giorgos Sigalas, who will be playing in his sixth continental title game. He helped lead Olympiacos to three titles in 1997, including the EuroLeague crown.
"The only way to win the ULEB Cup is with team work throughout the whole game. And I will only realise that I did my job well when I take the trophy back home," Sigalas said on the ULEB Cup website.
Sigalas will be facing his coach from the 1997 Olympiacos team - Dusan Ivkovic, who led the Yugoslavian national team to the 1990 World Championship, three EuroBasket crowns and the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics.
Besides the 1997 title, Ivkovic led AEK Athens to the 2001 Euroleague Final Four before taking Russian giants CSKA Moscow to the past three Final Fours and three Russian league titles.
After last year's huge disappointment at CSKA, when the Russian team hosted the Euroleague Final Four but failed to win either of their two games, CSKA decided to make a change and that freed Ivkovic up to sign a three-year deal with Dynamo Moscow.
He came into the season with the goal of getting the Russian team to next year's Euroleague by winning its first European title.
Dynamo - who crashed out of last season's ULEB Cup in the eighth-finals - are paced this year by their dynamic duos of Americans Mire Chatman and Ruben Douglas, plus Greek big men Lazaros Papadopoulos and Antonios Fotsis.
Chatman and Douglas, who average 19 and 16.3 points per game respectively, provide Ivkovic's team with an outside punch as they combined to hit 39% of their three-pointers in 16 ULEB Cup games.
Chatman played in the Euroleague last season with Pau Orthez while Douglas competed for Climamio Bologna. Douglas, everyone will remember, hit the game-winning three-pointer for Climamio against Armani Jeans Milano to give his side a 3-1 victory in the championship series.
And the 2005 EuroBasket champions with Greece, Fotsis and Papadopoulos, each average more than 10 points per game and are tied with a team-high 6.6 rebounds per contest.
"People told us that we were favourites in the beginning of the season, but we didn't think of it all. Everyone has tried to win from the very beginning and now we earned a shot to win the championship. We have been focused all season, and we have one more game left to win the title," Douglas told the ULEB Cup website.
Ivkovic sees his biggest challenge in trying to offset the experience of Sigalas.
"Sigalas is a captain, a leader and the most experienced player. Aris doesn't have any other player with so much experience, and I think my team has an advantage here - something that Sigalas will try to erase," Ivkovic said.
By David Hein, PA Sport Exclusively for FIBA