The LEB Oro has entered the second season of the downturn of the Students, if it can be emphasized like this on its 75th anniversary, with several ingredients that have made the competition a more than interesting point of interest. The Madrid club have been directly joined by the two descendants from the ACB, Burgos and Andorraas promotion favorites, although one has better benefits than the other, also adding to the Lleidawho was in the Final Four last year, already an unusual leader. Zunder Palencia has equaled the record for victories in the first round, compared to the record Manresa achieved in 2001/02: 16 wins and 1 loss. The competition has enough incentives to have an exciting second part in the search, first, for direct promotion and, later, for positions of honor in order to fight for the other place.
The people of Palencia have played with the promotion in past times. They have not neglected their level even though they have not been able to reach the Endesa League and that work is paying off this season. Pedro Rivero, after starting his career on the bench putting Fundación Lucentum de Alicante in Gold, is the touch of grace. The signing of Wintering has given a different air to a group that is Castilian, which has also been well reinforced with nationals like Germán MartÃnez (Granada) or internationals like Devin Schmidt (Cáceres). Also noteworthy are two Madrid youth squads: Kostadinov and Kasibabu (with him the same path has been followed as Estu with Larsen: taking him out of Breogán in the middle of the season when he saw that he had no minutes in the Galician team).
Andorra. With two former Estu players like Dee and Dos Anjos, taking advantage of LEB talent like Juan Rubio or Micah Speight, or directly ensuring players who could be in the First Division right now, Llovet, Czerapowicz, Luz or the international Schreiner, are behind Palencia by just one win. Lezcano has reached the position of coach knowing that there is a budget to return the team to the first Spanish category and, for now, it complies: it will be the other team that competes in the Princess Cup, having been the second best in this first round.
· Students. He is suffering against the greats and with the coupling of a player in a very different squad from last year. He does not win against the greats, it is costing him, but he remains three from the lead. And reinforcements are expected. Larsen’s physical problems and Atencia’s long injury have launched offices to reinforce themselves. Of the two that are expected shooting has already provided the first name: Danny Agbelese. Now, with Javi RodrÃguez still adjusting concepts, he gives the feeling that the team has one or two more gears because it is still being done. The point of quality that is reached when the regular phase is ending will determine if they are to fight for promotion or the plan should be opened to more years.
Burgos. With level players for the ACB like Mahalbasic or Rupnik they are still far from the level that is expected of them. World champions do practically nothing, you can talk about failure in the stage of Paco Olmos at the helm of the team. Now it is Curro Segura who is in charge, someone who knows what it is to be promoted first-hand. The team has finished with a defeat close to embarrassment in A Coruña after completely dominating the match. They are not consistent or give a sense of danger. In the table they are ninth.
During this last day it was also possible to see the record of the season in terms of valuation of a player. The Swede Melwin Pantzar achieved 53 with Valladolid against Cáceres. Only the Venezuelan Michael Carrera surpasses him in average during this campaign. Both have already received offers from the ACB. Los Pucelanos and Los Lleida are two of the teams that are working the best and will opt for everything, like the ones mentioned above. Good position also for Alicante. Below everything is very different: the worst feelings are those of Oviedo if we compare it with the previous season; Juaristi will fight with what he can; Cantabria seems to stabilize; The province of Albacete will fight to keep the two teams in the category, the one from the capital and Almansa…