Hapoel Tel Aviv gets back into continental action when they host Joventut Badalona in Bulgaria on Wednesday (19:45) and will look to help their new head coach Dimitrios Itoudis to his first win with the Reds in EuroCup play after having fallen to Israeli sensation Ben Saraf Ulm 82-80 last week. The Greek tactician, who was able to pick up a victory up at Gan Ner over Hapoel Gilboa Galil, was able to get a good view of pretty much his entire squad as minutes were split up across the board with no one playing more than 25 and fewer than 11.

From Noam Yaacov who received the surprise start to newcomer Marcus Bingham who just arrived from Hapoel Holon as well as Johnathan Motley’s imminent return to the active roster and whether or not Patrick Beverley will stay or go. But perhaps the most important transaction of the early season was bringing home Israeli star Yam Madar.

The Reds are still trying to find their way as to how best they will be able to compete both in the domestic league and in the EuroCup and Itoudis has plenty of issues to sift through and find the best mix of players for what he wants to accomplish going forward. But with a number of questions still needing to be answered he’s going to need to work around those items in order to reach the promised land.

The most immediate challenge in front of Hapoel Tel Aviv is no doubt the Badalona game along with Sunday night’s Derby being hosted by Maccabi at Yad Eliyahu and Itoudis will be without question ready to meet those challenges head on. The coach immaculately prepares for each game with an acute attention to detail as he is already aware of each of his players abilities and tendencies but he also knows the play between the two leagues is different and realized that the local league has a certain characteristic that he will need to adjust for.

“You are talking to someone who likes to watch a lot of film,” the bench boss said. “And if I don’t, I feel naked without it. The coaches do a great job, more or less I have witnessed from the scouting, the highlights and games that I have watch. I got the feeling of the ideas that coach Dedas [implemented] who was doing a great job. I will have to get used to the fact that in the Israeli league we will have a high pace and we will have to make certain adjustments as to how to play the game.”

With that, Madar will no doubt be a very important piece of the Reds pie in both competitions after having played under Zlejko Obradovic at Partizan Belgrade as well as Itoudis at Fenerbahce before he was relieved of his duties while this season the guard began the campaign in Germany with Bayern Munich before moving back to the Holy Land.

“I know Yam and he got very quickly into the game. You could see it was as if he was already here for months because he played with some of the Hapoel players on the national team,” Itoudis exclaimed.

Madar was also happy to be back with a number of familiar faces which will help him thrive back in Israel, “I tried to get on the court and do everything I could to help the team win. It was fun to reunite with Itoudis and Stephanos Dedas as I had a good time with them in Fener and I’m happy to be here. It’s fun to return to Israel, it’s a different feeling, you’re playing for something much bigger.”

As for his role, the Boston Celtics 2020 2nd round draft pick will have a wait and see attitude, but it’s clear that he will be a very important part of what Itoudis will want to do with the club which is ultimately playing in the Euroleague.

“It’s hard for me to say about my role,” the 23-year old continued. “I came here and I’m trying to do everything so that the team wins, to do everything so that others feel comfortable and that everyone is in the right spots and feel good.”

Madar who scored 5 points and dished out 6 assists in his return to the club was excited to be greeted with an abundance of love from the travelling fans which also included his parents.

“I missed this crowd as I haven’t been here for a long time. It was fun to get on the court, the energy never ends. I’ve been here for two days with the team and it was important get into the swing of things as quickly as possible. There’s still a lot of work to do and we can play much better as there are a lot of talented players and we need to get the best out of everyone so that we meet our goals.”

The goals this week are to get back onto the winning track in EuroCup play and defeating Maccabi at Yad Eliyahu in the Derby, but both are tall orders for what is a team still looking to find its identity.

One player who will be taking part in his first Derby is Marcus Foster and he is aware of what the expectations are this coming week, “I understand how big the Derby is and the guys are telling me how big it is. But for us it’s also another game and we have to get ready to play because they have the same pressure as we do. I’m excited about that, but we have to first deal with the game Wednesday.”

There had been talk about Madar possibly moving from Bayern to Maccabi, but that was just apparently a non-starter with the yellow-and-blue not showing any interest, however, that was never really a consideration in any case for him.

“I’m a Hapoel Tel Aviv player. It’s clear that when I would return to Israel, there would be this talk. But the decision was clear to me. I know what a Derby is like, we’ve been in derbies before and we know what our goals are this season. We’ll do everything to make the fans happy.”