CSKA -at the pic, its player Denis Sidletskiy ('92)- travelled today to Rome to participate in the first Junior Euroleague Tournament of this season. Leonid Spirin, coach of Moscow team, explains in their web site that "we have a tough group. FMP is one of the leaders of European junior basketball, the team which is a core of Serbian U18 National Team. I know that it will be difficult for us to play against Lottomatica – small, mobile team, which shots well from the distance and likes to apply pressure. It can be a problem for us as our backcourt is not so well in defending one on one against active point guards. Benetton maybe is not that strong but has a number of good players and great traditions. It is good that the schedule is more suitable for us this time, we have a possibility to recover and prepare for the next games. Our goal is to demonstrate a high-level basketball, to defend CSKA honor and to try to get to the final. The team is healthy and ready. We played the exhibition game vs Triumph on Monday and won 59-57. I was glad to see that our guys showed their will to win and played focused in the end".  

 

Photo: CSKA / M.Serbin