In a season to remember, UCAM certified the first small mid-season objective yesterday with its direct qualification for the 'top 16' of the Champions League. A more exciting one, such as entering a Copa del Rey in which it has only done so once due to sporting merits under the celebration format in the final phase, is about to happen. But, if you want to achieve it today, it will be looking for the most difficult one yet.
And, on the one hand, Sito Alonso's men are looking forward to qualifying for the Málaga Cup. There are already nine victories in fourteen games, fifth is their position in the table and, with three days left until the end of the first round, the advantage over the candidates is one victory plus the 'baket-average', which for the purposes practical makes it count as two.
With a point difference in favor of 83, UCAM does not have the classification tied, but, at least, it breathes easy. Below them there is only one team among the eight provisionally classified with positive basketball average, Manresa. And it's only two points. The next one, that of a Tenerife that is tenth with seven wins, with six goals in favor. That is to say, by winning today and putting a two-win lead (they couldn't be less because the ninth, Baskonia with eight wins, has already played this matchday), UCAM would reach the last two matchdays with a two-win margin that, with a 'basket-average' unattainable in any parallel reality would count as three.
Green and purple cruise
But, on the other side of the coin, is today's rival. Unicaja is the streakiest team in the Endesa League, ranked second thanks to an active chain of ten consecutive wins. UCAM's best historical streak is five. Making it even more complicated is the context. Both people from Malaga and Murcia have played during the week, but the former did so on Tuesday in Greece and in a European capital like Athens with a direct connection to Spain via airport. The Murcians, a day later, on Wednesday, and a little further away, in Turkey. They did it in Bursa, from where they traveled by bus to Istanbul to fly to Valencia and arrive yesterday, around 9:00 p.m., in Murcia. At the time that the Tofas-UCAM was being played, the people from Malaga were already checking in at their Murcia hotel. They are much fresher.
The possible reappearance of Augusto Lima a year after his injury, after his strange departure, is one of the great incentives
To give more morbidity to the recent history between Unicaja and UCAM, faced in the quarterfinals of the last Champions League and in the semifinal of the Super Cup, with quite a few clashes between fans on social networks, today an ex like Augusto could play in Murcia Lime. The Brazilian reappeared a year after his injury this Tuesday against Peristeri, and today he could do so in the Endesa League in front of the fans who once adored him and who, after his last departure (just a month after renewing for two seasons) , he was left with a look of circumstance.
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