GRANADA, Feb. 21 (from the Europa Press special envoy, Rodrigo Trascasa) –
The Copa del Rey 2022 basketball tournament will be remembered by the fans in the stands of the Palacio de los Deportes de Granada. The color and fervor of the eight fans has always been and is a hallmark of the tournament but, losing it last year due to the pandemic, multiplied its strength. People wanted the Cup and it was seen since the first five-year-old boy who usually comes out with the ball to give it to the referee got the “MVP, MVP” chant.
The illusion of that same or any child, when everything is possible and life can be wonderful, was brought as standard by each of the thousands of followers who came to the Nasrid capital. The Cup once again had two giants as very favourites, Barça and Real Madrid, and against them the dream of BAXI Manresa, Río Breogán, Valencia Basket, UCAM Murcia, Joventut and Lenovo Tenerife.
Those from El Bages woke up very soon, Barca barely let them savor their return to the tournament 18 years later. The River Breogán fought a little more with Real Madrid, but Dzanan Musa and the “yes you can” from Lugo did not mislead the whites. Laso’s team showed their doubts about the Cup, but they got on at the expense of Lenovo Tenerife, once again defeated in the semi-finals.
“We are not the third in the League like last year”, said Txus Vidorreta after the elimination. Those from La Laguna, with Huertas physically touched and with two fouls by Shermadini in a minute and a half, had no resources to worry Madrid. Before, Joventut was one minute away from claiming an epic comeback over the Canaries, but the magic of the Cup was capricious.
‘La Penya has a duende in Granada’ would have been the headline of the match that opened the Cup if those from Badalona culminate their unexpected reaction. El Breogán also bought ballots for the bell and whoever was close to touching the Gordo went to Valencia Basket. Peñarroya’s men came back from the locker room with a spectacular 21-0 run and still fell in the quarterfinals against UCAM Murcia.
THE ALMOST MIRACLE OF UCAM
What a history of Murcia! Sito Alonso arrived in extremis after overcoming the quarantine due to COVID and still with the aftermath. With an outbreak in the squad, the team went two weeks without filming, but achieving the first classification in the club’s history for the Cup was worth the effort. 26 years after the edition played as host, Murcia repeated the semifinals.
Sito’s men came close to eliminating Barça, with a festival from Taylor and McFadden and a tremendous dedication in defense. When it looked worst for the champion, Mirotic was the leader, a couple of rebounds, three baskets in a row, and Barça came back in control in the last quarter, where Kuric finished off UCAM.
The performance from Murcia gave people something to talk about and to think about. On Sunday morning, both Laso and Tavares recognized that Murcia’s desire and toughness were their way forward in the final. A good defense makes the difference: control, order and forcefulness, within a thousand revolutions per minute and uncontrollable emotion.
Madrid had recently had the last blow of the eternal rival in the Euroleague, the six of six by Jasikevicius in the capital, and a first quarter of 8-28. Laso adjusted his defense in Granada — he stopped the best attack in the league (Breogán) and prevented a long-distance lover from playing three (Lenovo Tenerife) — and returned the blow.
A 19-5 loss for the Whites opened the final, a turnaround in the forecasts to see the energy of Madrid and its wardrobe. “I’ve seen the team better physically, it was important to get to the Cup with the right mentality,” Laso had said on Saturday. Three defeats in six games, Classics lost, the bad streak had raised doubts, with the wear and tear of the December arreón and the unknown about the need for a renewal in the squad.
The 28-time Cup champion sheltered himself with the extra that gives a title at stake, the aroma that Laso has been pursuing in the last decade with 21 conquests, and the presentation in the final endorsed his improvement. Madrid managed to match forces, cut the bleeding of the last Clásicos and fight one on one, but the fight took a long time.
“I GOT GOOSICK SKIN”
The second half was 30-46, a display of power by a Barça champion, capable of controlling all those emotions that surround a decisive match, in the midst of adversity, with the authority of its recent conquests and with a guide. “I was worried about the faces of the boys, I saw them very cold, very alone,” said Jasikevicius about what he had found in the locker room.
“‘Saras’ has been 10 especially in the break, it seemed that he was the only one who trusted us, he had a great talk, I got goosebumps,” said Mirotic. ‘Saras’ struck a chord, once again showing that what he transmits, although he sometimes seems like a madman from the hill, permeates his tremendously good players.
Barça controlled the pulsations and remembered the booklet of their teacher found their leader, the MVP Mirotic, and the young Lithuanian Jokubaitis, just as impulsive as his boss and compatriot. The confidence was given to him by Jasikevicius, who in a year and a half has changed to a Barça that, although it had tasted two Cups with Pesic, was still living in the shadow of the successes of Laso’s Madrid.
From Kaunas to Granada, in whose lands the Romans persecuted the Carthaginians, the Visigoths arrived from the north and the Muslim conquest and Nasrid Granada left their indelible mark. Next to the Alhambra, a new Kingdom throbs, that of ‘Saras’, on the way to consecrating itself if it protects its domains in the League and is capable of spreading to the confines of the ‘Old Continent’, to raise a Culé Euroleague almost 20 years later .