Rome won’t be built in a day over at Hapoel Tel Aviv as Stefanos Dedas’s all-star squad fell to Maccabi Ramat Gan 109-102 in overtime in Winner Cup quarterfinal action. The stage was set for the reds to waltz through the preseason tournament and finally win a title since who knows how long, well not since the 1993 Israel State Cup. But it wasn’t meant to be as Hapoel crashed hard as the contest headed deep into the fourth quarter and then into a one-sided overtime period that saw the court tilted in one direction and one direction only.

There was no way this is how the Reds wanted to see their domestic season begin.

It’s true that Hapoel’s “Big 3”, Patrick Beverley, Ish Wainwright and Johnathan Motley were not dressed for the game as domestic clashes only allow for 5 imports and the Reds have 8 and it is true that Israelis Tomer Ginat is out injured and Bar Timor just had a baby daughter (Mazel Tov!) but still, if Hapoel Tel Aviv has any designs of wanting to put together an unforgettable season, well this game will be one to forget and forget very, very quickly.

Yes, it’s true that Hapoel’s starting five will most probably never be on the court to begin a game again, however, the talent on this team is oozing from all directions and the coach will need to be the one to mold it into a unit, a well-oiled machine that will be able to reach their goals; winning the EuroCup to earn a place in the Euroleague and to win the Israeli league championship for the first time since the summer of ’69.

Don’t think we’ll ever see this Hapoel Tel Aviv Starting 5 again of Ragland, Foster, Palatin, Blayzer and Caboclo.

— Sports Rabbi (@thesportsrabbi) September 21, 2024

Ramat Gan came into the game with a short roster without arguably two of their best foreigners in Roberto Gallinat and Kendale McCullum which gave Hapoel even a bigger advantage but the likes of Marcus Foster, Joe Ragland, Bruno Caboclo, Braian Angola and Ben Bentil should have been able to cruise to a victory.

And cruise they did for the majority of the game, but they never put the pedal to the metal and pull away as Ramat Gan hung around down by roughly 10 points throughout the first half hour of the game.

With both sides playing an 8-man rotation, Bentil was ejected with 6:50 left in the fourth quarter and from that point on it was all downhill for the Reds. One mistake after the next saw the game slip slide away from Dedas’s squad which allowed Roi Huber’s 3-point heroics with just a second left to send the contest into overtime all knotted up at 88-88.

Amin Stevens, Adam Ariel and Yahel Melamed all helped pull Shmulik Brenner’s team into a tie while Ariel dropped a dozen points in the extra session to send Hapoel packing and off to Barcelona for their opening EuroCup game at Joventut Badalona hanging their heads in utter shock and disappointment.

Dedas and company couldn’t believe their eyes and as the disheveled bench boss said over and over in the postgame press conference that everyone made a couple of mistakes to lose the game.

One of those mistakes was Bentil’s technical which saw him tossed from the game, another was missed free throws but perhaps most glaring was Guy Palatin not fouling Huber when he drilled in the game tying triple.

Up by 3-points, Dedas was looking for the foul to put Huber on the line which would have for all intents and purposes sewed up the win but it was not to be as the Greek tactician mentioned the former Kirat Ata guard’s faux pas numerous times not understanding why he didn’t listen to instructions. While it’s true and Dedas is 10000% correct, boy it’s odd to hear a coach throw one of his players under the bus, not once, not twice but he flattened him on the road.

The one thing that Palatin has to do there is follow his coach’s instructions and he didn’t which leads to an even bigger question; if the new Israeli on the block isn’t listening to what his coach is saying, what will the veterans who have years of NBA and European experience under their belts do?

I asked Oz Blayzer, who is one of the Hapoel newbies, how the team is going to really jell together when there are 8 import players, multiple competitions and a team that has only three holdovers from last season and he said that while, yes, it’s a totally new team and it will take time to understand how to play with each other each one has to know what to do and what their role is.

There is no question that this process is going to take some time.

Should Dedas have used the Winner Cup game as a dress rehearsal for Tuesday’s EuroCup contest? How will the players react in their first continental clash? While the preseason results have been good, will that carry over to the real deal?

Dedas is a good coach and understands the Israeli league and mentality> he has taken teams to the top that perhaps didn’t have the biggest of budgets and also has worked with some of the best of the business, that is for sure. But will he be able to take this team, one loaded to hilt to where the owner Ofer Yannay wants them to go? He sees them as the favorites in every single game they will play both at home, on the road, in the EuroCup or on the moon. He has invested massive resources to see this team meet its expectations and he will want results.

One thing is clear for Hapoel which is that they are under construction and there are plenty of unanswered questions that will begin to be addressed when they hit the famed court in Barcelona, the same one that the USA Dream Team won gold back in 1992 at the Palau Municipal d’Esports de Badalona.

Talented the Reds are, that is for sure. Can they come together as a team and can they reach the potential that they have on paper with one star after the next? Well, that’s the real question and the most important job that Dedas has.

It will also be the biggest test of his career.