Maccabi Tel Aviv visits Bayern Munich Thursday night (21:45) in Euroleagie action as they would like to take the positive momentum from the Derby victory and the win over Hapoel Haifa and translate that to a victory in Germany. After getting swept in last week’s double week against Paris and Barcelona, the yellow-and-blue will look for a way to crack Gordon Herbert’s squad which features a surging Carsen Edwards.

The 26-year old point guard seems to be getting into the swing of things in what is his third season in Europe and his second with Bayern after his 2022/23 debut with Fenerbahce. Edwards is averaging a league leading incredible 20.4 points per game, almost 2 points more than second place Nikola Mirotic with 18.7 points and close to double what he scored in the 2023/24 campaign when he averaged 11.5 points per game. It’s clear that Herbert’s basketball methodology is helping the former Philadelphia 76ers 2019 2nd round draft pick at 33rd overall, reach his full potential.

In addition to his prowess on the court, cutting to the hoop and creating havoc for the opposing defenses, Edwards is also shooting 39/105 for 37.1% from beyond the arc as he is making his mark at the professional level. This has no doubt raised a number of eyebrows among the opposing teams who are trying to find a way to stop or even slow down the Houston, Texas native including Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Oded Katash.

“They’ve been doing impressive things since the beginning of the season, especially Carsen Edwards, who has surprised everyone,” Katash said. “Everyone knew he was a good player, but I don’t think they appreciated how good he really is. They’re very confident and offensively, they’re one of the best teams in the Euroleague, if not the best. They play at a high pace and it’s one of the toughest games in the Euroleague, especially with the form the team is in right now.”

One of Katash’s players who is very familiar with Edwards is relative newcomer David DeJulius who was with Michigan as a freshman when Edwards was a junior with Purdue, “They are a great team and one of the guards Carsen Edwards, I have looked at for myself to watch his game. One of the reasons why I got my thing going in college is because of when he was at Purdue and I was at Michigan and I had play him for a scout team in practice and I had a very good practice because I was able to have confidence. I have played against him several times as a professional and every time I do play him he has always been great, so I am excited to play against him again.”

In fact, the ensuing game that Edwards played against Purdue saw him go for 19 points in a 76-57 win over Michigan where DeJulius played for one minute while the main scorer was a former teammate of Deni Avdija in Washington, Jordan Poole.

Perhaps with DeJulius’s knowledge of Edwards and after having scored 21 of his 26 points in the 4th quarter of the win over Haifa earlier this week, will give him a chance to play a bit more than he has the past couple of Euroleague games when he was on the floor for just 12 minutes in total. There’s no question that DeJulius has enjoyed his time thus far in the continent’s best league and seems to understand how fortunate he is to be in the position to make a difference for one of the great franchises in Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“You always hear about Maccabi and they are a very big brand in Europe and just being here you understand how special it is. Not in terms of just the past accolades which is extraordinary, but also the locker room that we have and staff that we have is amazing. The Euroleague is amazing and we have to just continue to play together and play hard, we have everything what we need in the lockerroom.”

Edwards may be the engine that makes Bayern go, Herbert has plenty of other players who can cause plenty of damage, including Devin Booker and Andreas Obst making them a pretty well rounded team.

“That team as a whole are a very good team and we have to come in prepared for sure,” DeJulius commented. “I played in Germany and when I was at Gotingen I played there before so I know they have a great fan base and they are a great team. But we will come and play together and come play hard and as always our coach will put together a great game plan for us.”

Katash also spoke about what the keys to victory may be in this matchup after Maccabi had broken a 4-game losing streak at Bayern just this past March but he knows full well that his team will need to play at their very, very best to take the win.

“Obviously, we need to slow them down and control the rebounds. We’re coming off a derby that might have given us some confidence, but on the other hand, we have a crazy schedule with injuries and it’s hard for us to get practice time and time to continue to improve. Hopefully we will come into this game as refreshed and rested as possible.”