The Winner Cup semifinals as the Israeli basketball preseason tournament will provide hoops aficionados a Friday afternoon doubleheader at the Holon Arena when Maccabi Ramat Gan and Bnei Herzliya will do battle at 12:40pm while Maccabi Tel Aviv will take on Hapoel Holon for the right to play in the final.

Following a pair of stunners with Ramat Gan ousting Hapoel Tel Aviv and Bnei Herzliya sending Hapoel Jerusalem packing in quarterfinal play, Holon came back and took care of Nes Ziona while Maccabi easily disposed of Kiryat Ata to punch their tickets to the final four.

With that, the four games allowed fans and media the chance to see eight teams in action and what can be expected this coming season while also understanding what they will need to do in order to compete both in Israel and abroad as we focus on the latter two contests that make up the second semifinal matchup.

Oded Katash’s squad looked mighty fine and fluid against a Kiryat Ata team that will still need plenty of time to find their stride which will most probably also need to add a player or two with the imminent departure of Liam O’Reilley as new head coach Eldad Bentov gets used to his new position following his promotion. One player that will be key for the team’s success is no doubt JJ Kaplan who has continued to hone his trade and become a true blue legitimate threat on both offense and defense.

Kaplan has moved into becoming one of the squad’s leaders as they look to show that last year’s season was no fluke after playing in the league semifinals and knocking off Ramat Gan.

“JJ Kaplan is one of the true pros on and off the court,” Bentov explained as he spoke about how important the naturalized Israeli is to the club.

“I was with some of the Americans after the missile attacks and instead of someone calming me down which was the case over the past three years, it was me who was doing that for them,” Kaplan acknowledged as one of the veteran leaders that the club will need in order to reach their goals both off and on the court. “It’s nice to get recognition but I want to help my team be as successful as we can and I feel like I’m getting an opportunity.

Over at Maccabi, Katash was content with his team’s showing led by Rokas Jokubaitis, Tamir Blatt and Roman Sorkin but he also knows that with an import contingent of just five due to Wenyen Gabriel’s injury that will keep him out for a month, the fact of the matter is that it’s just not enough to compete in both the Euroleague and Israeli competition.

“We are always looking at the market to bring in a player or two and we are always trying to be better, but we have to be competitive and it’s not easy as we have to find the right fit. Maybe it will be someone who will be just come to fill in for Gabriel and maybe not, but it has to be the right player,” the bench boss said.

One player who has made quite the positive impression is Jokubaitis who led all Maccabi scorers with 15 points in the win over Kiryat Ata as the Lithuanian guard has been handed the keys to the yellow-and-blue car. The floor general is looking to take the next step in his very young career and as a 23-year old he has spent more than half a decade in the Euroleague.

So far, his integration has been seamless as he explained, “It was easy to get comfortable to the city, the team and coaching staff very quickly and they have been all very good with us. It was great for our preparation and I’m enjoying the team environment and staff for which the club’s management deserves big respect for that. It’s my first month and I feel like I’ve been here for much longer but credit to Maccabi for that.”

Over at Hapoel Holon, two things stuck out; one was how well Marcus Bingham played and impacted the game both on the inside and from the outside as well as the depth that head coach Guy Goodes has on his team as they ready for their opening game in the Basketball Champions League next week.

“We all saw his quality from January when he came back from his injury,” Goodes said of Bingham who scored 19 points. “He came from a big college with one of the coaching greats in Tom Izzo who I have admired for many years. His size allows him to play both the 4 and 5 and he will be very useful against other teams because of his flexibility and ability.”

Netanel Artzi spoke about the BCL campaign that is about to begin, “We have players that have played at the top levels and I have played with many of the Israelis on this team who have also played in Europe so it’s been easy to play together. We need to prepare really well for the BCL and know what we want to do in that game.”

At Nes Ziona, their bench boss Amit Sherf who had been at Holon last season still needs to see his team come together as one unit, “I want to play quick and fast basketball and that’s how we came back into the game against Holon. My guys need to find solutions and some other players like Zuf Ben Moshe needs to get their shots and they need to be in the game. Games are determined by the set offense and that was the issue for us to defend against as well as to operate.”

One of Nes Ziona’s new players is guard Bryce Brown who no question has plenty of skill and can take his own game along with the team to the next level after having played in France with JL Bourg, was a Polish league champ, featured for Besiktas and graced the floors of the G-League.

“I’m slowly finding more opportunities to be aggressive,” the shooting guard said. “In France I played on a high level team and my job was to hold back kind of what of I was capable of for the betterment of the team. Coach here has made me open up my game, Israel is a style of basketball I really like and the more experience I get in this league the better I will be.”