The Nationale 2 season starts this Friday when Heffingen and Bascharage meet already in a highly anticipated clash between two favorites for the promotion. See below for the a quick preview on the other games of the upcoming weekend as well as the traditional Basketnews.lu season preview for all the teams in the second highest league in Luxembourg.
There are other key games already this upcoming weekend as the two promoted teams from Bettembourg and Hesper meet on Saturday while the game between Schieren and BC Mess will give a first indication where both clubs are heading this season. On the other hand, the two playoff teams from last season, Racing and Grengewald will meet in a game that will tell if they are once again in the race for the promotion this season while Residence should not have too many problems in their opener against the Kordall Steelers.
US Heffingen
Arrivals: Daniel Colbach (Amicale)
Departures: Tim Schmit (Black Star), Bob Mathieu (Grengewald), Dan Weyrich (Basket Esch – loan), Claude Weyrich (?)
NON-JICL Players: Brad Reese (USA), Evrick Gary (USA), Nuno Maia Soares (POR)
Coach: Mark Reed (USA)
The team of Coach Mark Reed has lost several talented players and will start into the N2 season with a younger group. Heffingen will most likely try to find into their game through aggressive defense on the one side while the two US players should be the main scorers on the other side. Brad Reese looks like a potential MVP of the Nationale 2 as the former Texas Tech Raider has an impressive background but he comes from several tough injuries that prevented him so far from a more illustrious career in Europe. Additionally, Heffingen has the size with Andy Eicke to compete against teams like the Hedgehogs while Coach Reed will try to integrate young players like Dan Colbach into the rotation. Overall, Heffingen might not be the main favorite for the promotion to the Total League but they will certainly play a major role in the Playoffs in spring.
Residence Walfer
Arrivals: Thierry Steinmetz (T71 – loan), Maxi Lamesch (Amicale – loan), Christian Mafuta (BBC Kehlen – return loan), Filip Flammang (BC Mess)
Departures: Joe Biever (Basket Esch), Pitt Koster (AS Zolwer), Max Schmit (T71 Dudelange)
NON-JICL Players: Tim Dezelski (USA), Everage Richardson (USA)
Coach: Amadeo Dias (LUX)
Residence Walfer has a completely new face this season as the newly arrived coach Amadeo Dias will run one of the younger teams in the league. Kevin Moura and Oliver Vujakovic decided to stay with the team which is great news as both players represent the future of Residence. With the arrival of Tim Dezelski and especially super-scorer Everage Richardson, they form a core of four players that will probably have to go for a lot of minutes but that will also be hard to stop in the Nationale 2. Coach Dias has a large bench with the arrivals of Thierry Steinmetz and Maxi Lamesch while the veterans Mike Schumacher and Ivan Tomas are great assets on this level. Walfer played an impressive pre-season winning even against several Total League teams and they can be considered as the most evident favorite for the promotion.
Racing Luxembourg
Arrivals: Mike Oppland (Black Star Mersch – loan), Luc Ruppert (Basket Esch – loan)
Departures: Billy McNutt (Etzella), Gilles Surkijn (Red Miners)
NON-JICL Players: Scott Morton (USA), Mike Oppland (USA), Michael Larsen (DEN)
Coach: Louis Wennig (LUX)
The team of Coach Louis Wennig wants to make the next step this season and earn the promotion to the Total League. The extension of Scott Morton for another season is key for the Capitals as the American is one of the most versatile players in the league. The addition of Luc Ruppert is an excellent move as the former Esch guard will bring the necessary scoring on the JICL positions which was one of the main problems last season. Mike Oppland is a different player than Billy McNutt who played extremely well in 2013/14 but he showed that he can help a team to earn promotion as he did with Black Star Mersch. Overall, the roster of Racing looks deep enough to play the long season and be a team to look at in the playoffs when it comes to promotion.
Grengewald Hostert
Arrivals: Bob Mathieu (Contern/Heffingen), Ben Hurt (T71 – loan), Yannik Kombo (AS Zolwer – loan)
Departures: Keven Reuland (Contern), Gilles Kayser (Arantia – loan)
NON-JICL Players: Brandon Macklin (USA), Ronald Coleman Jr. (USA)
Coach: Claude Koch (LUX)
Grengewald Hostert is another team that wants to make the next step and play for the promotion this season. After his tough injury, Nick Harrington is not back in Oberanven so that the team of Coach Claude Koch underwent some changes. The arrival of Ben Hurt looks interesting as the young former T71 guard should be able to contribute nicely with his scoring in the Nationale 2. With Bob Mathieu out for several months, Grengewald needs to find other options on offense as Yannick Jullien cannot do everything on the court. Yannik Kombo is not known for being a great scorer and the rest of the team does not have the offensive talent to compensate the departure of Gilles Kayser. A lot will depend on the level of the newly arrived professional players so that Grengewald might be less strong this season compared to 2013/14.
Bascharage Hedgehogs
Arrivals: Max Flies (Sparta), Steven Mersch (Sparta/Mondorf)
Departures: Gary Pleimling (Telstar – return partnership), Neven Zeravica (Telstar), Yvan Neves (Kordall Steelers)
NON-JICL Players: Kyle Kelm (USA), Augie Johnston (USA), Dimitri Jorssen (BEL)
Coach: Christophe Flammang (LUX)
The team of Coach Christophe Flammang will be a candidate for the promotion this season. The Hedgehogs will certainly be the biggest team in terms of size as they will play with the 2m06 tall Kyle Kelm and the 2m10 tall Dimitri Jorssen on the court. Paired with the outstanding shooter Augie Johnston, the team from the South-West will have one of the strongest non-JICL trios in their roster. What has changed to last season though is that the club has decided to play the three non-JICL players on the court together. However, the Luxembourgish spots are the key for the Hedgehogs as their JICL rotation will be quite short. Louis Arendt and Max Berens will have the main load and the bench is quite short even after the arrival of Steven Mersch. Nevertheless, if everybody stays healthy throughout the season, the Hedgehogs should play a major role in the promotion race during the season.
Black Frogs Schieren
Arrivals Felix Hoffmann (T71)
Departures: None
NON-JICL Players: Japhet McNeil (USA), Justin Marshall (USA)
Coach: Toni Ostojic (CRO)
The Black Frogs played a great season in 2013/14 which helped them to stay in the league after being promoted. This time, the future looks a bit tougher as the two teams that come up from the Nationale 3 can be considered to be on a similar level (at least) than the team of Coach Toni Ostojic. The main news of the summer was the extension of top scorer Japhet McNeil for another season. However, the second non-JICL spot is more of a question mark for Schieren as Justin Marshall comes from a long break of playing professional basketball. For the JICL spots, the addition of Felix Hoffmann looks interesting in a roster that is built around a good team spirit over individual talent. The Black Frogs will most likely need to fight until the end of the season to secure their spot in the Nationale 2 which has to be their main goal.
BC Mess
Arrivals: None
Departures: Jo Hoeser (Amicale), Filip Flammang (Residence Walfer), Tim Steffen (career-end)
NON-JICL Players: James Lewis (USA), Marko Vranjkovic (SLO)
Coach: Pure Radomirovic (SRB)
BC Mess will go into an interesting season as the club run by Pure Radomirovic has to deal with the departure of their top scorer Jo Hoeser and the career-end of Tim Steffen. The team will continue to be built around players from their own youth sections (two new players have been added to the roster in Yorick Melchior and especially England U16 National Team player Christopher Jack) so that young guys like Vincent Sunnen or Charlie Lordong need to make the next step. James Lewis will give the team some stability without being a major scorer while Marko Vranjkovic will be an interesting guy to follow as he is a quite atypical addition for a team in Luxembourg. With this roster, BC Mess will most likely compete once again to stay in the league and it will depend how the scoring loss of Hoeser can be compensated in order to see how far they can go this season.
Kordall Steelers
Arrivals: Yvan Neves (Hedgehogs), Yann Patassi (Longwy)
Departures: None
NON-JICL Players: Chris McSwain (USA), Lindsey Hughey (USA)
Coach: Ted Kartheiser (LUX)
The Kordall Steelers managed to stay in the League last season which was a great result for the young club from Rodange. As they could hold their core together around Chris McSwain, Lindsey Hughey and Sascha Muepu, the Steelers should be able to play again for the safe spots this season. The additions of Yvan Neves and especially Yann Patassi give them more scoring options and the growing impact of Anderson Borbon makes the Steelers quite deep in their rotation. However, the key is how Sascha Muepu will go through the season as the former Nationale 1 player is their do-it-all guy on both sides of the court. In any case, the Steelers should be able to defend their spot in the Nationale 2 for another season as they have the size and the talent to win the decisive games in the Play-downs.
BBC Nitia
Arrivals: Gilles Kerschen (Sparta/Red Miners), Raphael Gang (T71 – loan), Tim Schroeder (T71 – loan)
Departures: None
NON-JICL Players: Domonique Crawford (USA), Laron Griffin (USA)
Coach: Adam Radomirovic (SRB)
After dominating the Nationale 3 promoting without any defeat, BBC Nitia Bettembourg will probably have more problems this season in the Nationale 2. The club decided to continue with Domonique Crawford who is however still recovering from a severe injury and who will miss the beginning of the season so that only Laron Griffin is in the roster as professional player right now. The additions of Tim Schroeder and especially Gilles Kerschen will help coach Adam Radomirovic to strengthen the inside rotation but the team lacks most likely the necessary scoring power on the wings. It will be interesting to see how the team manages the absence of Crawford in the beginning of the season as Griffin is a totally different player to what the rest of the team has been used to last season. Bettembourg will start their fight to stay in the league from the first day of the regular season as they are most likely in the relegation battle with Telstar, BC Mess, Schieren and eventually Kordall.
Telstar Hesper
Arrivals: Neven Zeravica (Hedgehogs), Gary Pleimling (Hedgehogs – return partnership), Eric Wagner (Basket Esch – return partnership), Chris Muller (Black Star – return loan), Maurice Decker (Arantia – return loan), Yannick Baer (Basket Esch – loan), Giacomo Migliore (Basket Esch – loan)
Departures: None
NON-JICL Players: Neven Zeravica (CRO), Gabor Boros (HUN)
Coach: Jacques Sitz (LUX)
A lot has changed in Hesperange after their up-and-down season in the Nationale 3 which was finally crowned by a buzzer-beating promotion. A new coach arrived with Jacques Sitz and not less than 7 new players will compete for roster spots with the team that went up last spring. While some players have returned home after a year with other clubs, the arrivals of Yannick Baer and Giacomo Migliore are quite interesting as both come from Basket Esch. With Neven Zeravica and Gabor Boros, Telstar is the only team in the N2 playing without a US born player but both have a good amount of experience. Coach Sitz has to establish a new hierarchy in the team and manage a large roster quickly as Telstar does not want to go back to the Nationale 3 again. The talent level is certainly there and it will be interesting to see how players like Eric Wagner or Gary Pleimling have developed last season. Nevertheless, Telstar will have to play to avoid the relegation but their chances should not be too bad this season.