Hapoel Jerusalem takes on JDA Dijon to open up the Basketball Champions League Round of 16 Group Stage on Wednesday at the Jerusalem Arena at 21:05 as the Reds will look to get off to a good start in order to advance to the knockout stages of the competition.

One person who is definitely looking forward to the first game is head coach Aleksandar Dzikic who was the “star of the show” so to speak following the Reds 84-82 comeback overtime win over Bnei Herzliya. Speedy Smith who scored 28 points was no doubt the player of the game, but the Serbian bench boss stole the show as the game time expired.

Dzikic grabbed the public address announcer’s microphone and started saying at the top of his lungs that he wants to see 10,000 fans packed into the arena for the game against Dijon. Fill the place up and make sure the fans give their team the best chance to win by creating an atmosphere that will be almost impossible to handle.

“Fans are important and these guys are passionate about it. It’s a strange but that’s the way I am,” Dzikic said at the post game press conference after his performance on the big stage.

The players have definitively been challenged both on and off of the court by their bench boss as he is the conductor of the Reds orchestra Speedy Smith explained, “It’s very exciting we ask the fans to come out. Coach is a passionate guy I love him man. All in the right way. The coach is the star of the team. He better be the star.”

Dzikic wasn’t thrilled that his team needed to play chase all game long after going down 27-11 after the opening frame, but little by little his squad was able to chip away at the lead and eventually win the game in the extra session.

Or Cornelius who is in the midst of a breakout season under Dzikic’s tutelage at Hapoel Jerusalem has been an invaluable piece of the capital city puzzle both on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball while being tasked many times to shut down the opposition’s most lethal scorers time and time again.

Dzikic saw Cornelius’s desire and drive during the exhibition games that the team played as well as the Winner Cup preseason competition and said right from the get go if he played that way going forward he would be on the court. On average the guard is playing over 25 minutes a game and put in over thirty in the State Cup win over Hapoel Tel Aviv as well as against Herzliya. There’s no question that Dzikic trusts the Israeli as much as any other player on his squad.

“I’m here to do my job,” Cornelius said. “I dreamed about this type of atmosphere my entire life and I do what I can to help the team. Everyone knows we have a very special coach and he brings a lot of energy, I really like him both professionally and personally.”

While Khadeen Carrington was out with an illness, Levi Randolph was back after an ankle injury and his timing couldn’t have been better because it was all hands on deck. Clearly he was rusty shooting 3/11 from the field but down the stretch he hit his free throws going 4/4 and did what Jerusalem needed to help the Reds get the game into overtime and notch the win.

“I told him to carry the load a bit in the fourth quarter and he was able to hold his own,” Smith said. “We practice really hard. We get through these situations. We know how to play when a guy is out and everyone is ready to play.”

Dzikic also spoke about Randolph’s return to the court, “It’s super opposite how we wanted Randolph to comeback. He’s a stubborn person and I had no chance to convince him to sit. He’s coming back and looking to get back Into the rhythm and he had to try today with the BCL coming up this week.”

“I’m happy that Levi is back and he’s healthy as well. He had a great game for us,” Cornelius added.

While Randolph’s return to the fray is a positive one for Jerusalem, should Carrington not be ready to go, Smith will once again need to take center stage. As he has done many a times for Jerusalem this campaign. Dzikic will need him to raise the level of his game which is something which most definitely not in doubt one iota.

“Speedy is our leader,” Cornelius commented. “Anytime we are in a hole, he takes responsibility for the team and he’s a great player and every day he shows us what he is worth. He has a huge heart.”