What things are. An eternally ascendant team until its return to the Endesa League in 2011, from which it was close to being relegated a couple more times (the last one very recently, in 2019), it is today a direct rival of Barça, a Euroleague Valencia and a Gran Canaria current champion of the EuroCup. All of them have ten wins and, especially orange and yellow, will be very attentive to what happens from 6:00 p.m. at the Pavelló del Govern de Andorra.
And what can happen is that, if UCAM wins, it will add eleven wins in an Endesa League that puts an end to its first round. The Murcian club had never won so much. The record is ten, which is held by Sito Alonso's current group, which ties that of 2022, the, until now, the only Murcian Cup team by way of classification based on sporting merits under the celebration format in the final phase.
That group of the Taylors and Webb III, of which only Radovic resisted, finished sixth in the first round and with ten victories. Even despite the defeat, UCAM is almost guaranteed, barring unrealistic results, falling to fifth place at most. But the challenge is to overcome those ten victories, make eleven and, with them, defend the fourth place they hold and be seeded in the quarterfinal pairing draw for the Cup.
Big words
They could even be third, but for that the Murcians would need a defeat for Barça in their Palau against Obradoiro. And it will be impossible to be seeded if you lose, since Valencia and Gran Canaria face each other tomorrow at 5:00 p.m., so one of them will add that magical number of eleven wins in the bag.
After winning their last two away games, both in Galicia (first against Breogán and then against Obradoiro), the Murcians would add their third straight victory away from home today if they beat Andorra, tying the club's own record. In the last one, two names raised the optimism, especially because they were supporters of the victory who had not gained such importance until now: one of them the controversial point guard Troy Caupain, more comfortable executing than organizing, and another Marko Todorovic, who is taking the point.
A Murcian in front
To try to avoid this milestone of Murcian basketball there will be, precisely, a young man from the land, a Juan Rubio who, at 28 years old, is making his debut in an Endesa League to which he has arrived, like Chumi Ortega, after years of hard work and consistency in the LEB leagues, rising last year with his Andorra.
Role player to provide outside shooting and a physical plus, especially in defense, Rubio could have more minutes today than usual due to the injury of Stan Okoye, one of the forwards most used by Natxo Lezkano. But the big problem is the talented 20-year-old Dominican Jean Montero, leader with 14.7 points per game. With a lot of danger abroad, an Andorra team that won last week to break a streak of eight consecutive defeats is longing to catch its breath from relegation, from which it only has one victory.
UCAM is about to complete the best first round in the club's history, even losing on the last day. It was only two seasons ago when that mark of 10 wins was formed. «The sensations I have are very similar to those of that moment. Now we have an opportunity, within the difficulty, which is that of a little more. My goal, I already said before playing against Obradoiro, is to finish in the top four. Not that of being seeded, what happens is that one thing goes hand in hand with the other,” said Sito Alonso, coach of the Murcia team, at a presentation conference on Thursday.
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