Alarm mood in Bonn
Champions League winner immediately falls into crisis
By Emmanuel Schneider
October 7, 2023, 8:33 a.m
Long faces in Bonn. The runner-up in the Basketball Bundesliga also lost the second game of the new season – again against a promoted team. The false start is perfect and the trainer’s statements make you sit up and take notice – the alarm bells are ringing.
It wasn’t the spectators’ fault. Despite the sometimes shockingly weak performance on the floor against newly promoted Tigers Tübingen, the 5,500 spectators in Bonn continually cheered on the team in magenta. “We want to see you fight,” was heard from the stands from time to time. Alone: It wasn’t about the fighting, but about the skill – at least on this evening. After the third quarter the game was basically over (49:67), but in the end it was a 76:88 defeat. The Bonn basketball players had already lost the start at Rasta Vechta with 79:84.
“I don’t like to look for excuses. We were at an unacceptable level. It’s difficult to find an explanation,” said Bonn’s new coach Roel Moors on “Dyn”. It’s probably “a mental thing that has nothing to do with basketball.” After the first two games, it becomes more and more apparent, which was of course already clear beforehand and is somehow a common comparison: Structure Harald Frey is not TJ Shorts, giant Ike Udanoh is not Leon scratch, Brian Fobbs is not Sebastian Herrera. The celebration and party hours in Bonn are probably over for now.
Last season, the Baskets Bonn wrote a true basketball fairytale, stormed through the main round, sensationally won the Champions League trophy and only narrowly lost out in the playoffs in the final against Ulm, another underdog. In short: Bonn was the story of last year, the team of the season.
Paris is bringing ten people from Bonn
The team worked as a collective and through peak performance, for example from the brilliant builder TJ Shorts, who either assisted or finished himself. Another Bonn professional shone again and again. Somehow the ball almost always went in and Bonn won. That pretty much sums up the preseason.
The team also unintentionally made headlines in the summer because the team fell apart brutally. Six players and head coach Tuomas Iisalo were poached by Paris Basketball and moved to the French capital. Including leader Shorts. The remaining players also joined other teams. Sports director Savo Milovic was faced with the difficult task of putting together a new team from nothing. Together with the new coach Roel Moers, he signed a completely new squad that still has to be found.
Baskets President Wolfgang Wiedlich said at the time in an interview with sport.de and ntv.de that it was definitely a new dimension that one European competitor was “sucking the other dry”. “Four people from the coaching staff, six from the player squad. Legally, it’s all legal,” said the Baskets boss, explaining the Paris activities in the summer. “But on this scale it is certainly a first in European basketball.” The Bonn credo in the summer was: wipe your mouth, carry on.
Instead of “Sweet Caroline” there is silence
Baskets Bonn’s declared goal for the season is the playoffs. After the two opening defeats, this currently seems like a Herculean task, but there are still 32 games left. But the tasks don’t get any easier. One thing is clear: the team still has to find itself. At times she caused slapstick interludes and even desperate laughter in the audience with strange ball losses. That’s what it’s like when twelve new players have to find their way. Mistakes are inevitable.
But the facts speak for themselves: after just two games, the Bonn team have as many main round defeats as they did in the entire previous season. It should have been clear to everyone that this season wasn’t going to be so incredibly fairytale-like, but there still seemed to be something like disappointment or at least severe disillusionment in the hall at Hardtberg. The many own mistakes and the strong performance of the Tigers Tübingen ultimately sucked a lot of energy out of the otherwise frenetic hall in Bonn. Silence instead of “Sweet Caroline”.
The Baskets will continue on Monday. Then they receive the Syntainics MBC from Weißenfels. The team is also winless so far. A real crisis summit. And at the first Champions League home game in two weeks against Hapoel Holon from Israel there will at least be another big spark of euphoria. Before the game, the “Champions League Winners” banner will be pulled up to the ceiling of the hall. The triumph was only five months ago – it already feels like half an eternity.