MIES (Switzerland) - ALBA BERLIN started their journey in the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL with a home matchup against Elan Chalon, who are currently one of the hottest teams on the continent to start the season.
The German giants have the history and status to arrive in this competition and instantly be considered amongst the favorites to win it.
Whilst Elan Chalon made their way through the traditional underdog route of the Qualifying Round Tournaments (QRT) and travelled to Berlin with very few neutrals expecting them to win.
But win they did! They used a 25-15 run to dominate the second half and to travel back to France with a vital, 81-76 win.
Whilst it's still too early to gauge much from the outcome, let's look under the hood and see what we can take away from the game.
Boogie Ellis is a Top 15 player
Remember the Player Power Rankings? Good.
ALBA's new star playmaker continued his excellent start to life in Germany with an eye-opening performance on his BCL debut.
Ellis had 27 points and 7 rebounds in only 24:51 minutes of playing time. He also shot 60 percent overall and 50 percent from deep on 6 attempts.
This wasn't just a volume scoring effort, this was an efficient effort.
It wasn't just the rapid burst of pace and explosive scoring ability that stood out for Ellis either.
On the defensive end, Ellis is just as likely to make a play and gave Elan Chalon headaches from the opening tip.
There were still some kinks to iron out as Ellis adapts to the tempo that Pedro Calles wants him to run this team, as evidenced by the 3 turnovers and some rushed shot selections but regardless, an efficiency rating of 27 was the second-highest of any player on Gameday 1.
Elan Chalon found the answers
We should probably have expected more chemistry and solutions in place from the team that has already won a Qualification Round Tournament, taking down UCAM Murcia in the process, and then followed that up with a win over Monaco in the French league.
But that didn't make it any less impressive to watch Elric Delord's team overcome an 8-point deficit at halftime to run out winners by a 5-point margin.
"We were the nail in the first half, in the second half we went back to being the hammer."
As early as the season still is, ALBA already look like they are going to be one of the best defensive teams in the BCL.
The intensity and physicality were on full display in the first two quarters. Chalon were held to just 35 points at the half, and the clip below is a great illustration of the issues they were causing their French opponents.
When you watch that YouTube video, watch how #17 Norris Agbakoko is super aggressive hedging out on the pick-and-roll defense.
From there, ALBA are sprinting to every rotation and swarming all over Chalon until they forced a rushed, contested shot and eventually a shot-clock violation.
In the post-game press conference, Chalon's Nate Darling spoke specifically about that hedge defense and how Berlin had disrupted their offensive flow with it.
"We talked about it (at halftime) I think they were making us struggle with their hard hedges, we were kinda dribbling around too much and once we went back to the locker room and talked about how to attack that, we started to flow a little bit more offensively and had a better rhythm with each other."
The adjustments made by Delord and his players clearly worked, as Chalon scored 46 points in the second half and we can see those adjustments in the video below.
In the first clip, watch how #20 Matheo Leray was able to get outside the hip of Agbakoko on the hard hedge.
This made the pass to #13 Lionel Gaudoux arrive earlier when he was facing the basket, and enabled him to make a play towards the basket.
Then, in the second clip, Chalon flip the angle of the screen late and then #1 Clarence Nadolny rejected the flipped screen.
The confusion in the ALBA defense enabled him to get downhill and create an advantage for #6 Yohan Choupas in the corner.
Jeremiah Hill is also a Top 15 player
Now, remember the time I asked if you remembered the Player Power Rankings? Good.
Right now, there can't be many better clutch scorers out there than Jeremiah Hill.
He did it in the QRT's, he did it for Cameroon in FIBA AfroBasket this summer, and with the game on the line, on the road in a hostile atmosphere, he did it again for Chalon against ALBA Berlin.
Hill had 15 points in the game, with 14 of them coming in the second half when his team needed him the most. There is nothing else that needs to be said here.
If there is a game on the line, keep your eyes fixed on Jeremiah Hill.