Maccabi Tel Aviv has been busy preparing for the upcoming 2025/26 season with plenty of preseason games along with plenty of practice time over the past number of weeks. With many new faces on the yellow-and-blue, the bench boss who is beginning his fourth season on the bench is comfortable and confident in his squad as the Euroleague season opens up on Tuesday September 30th against Anadolu EFES in the first of two games of an early Double Week.

Just ahead of the continental season opener, Katash spoke about the club’s busy summer building a new team that will be able to compete at the highest of levels in Europe.

“There’s a lot of excitement just like every season,” Katash began. “I want to thank everyone, from the new general manager Claudio Coldebella and the rest of management for helping to put together a competitive team for this year. We’ve had a very tough time the last two seasons due to the war which brought upon plenty of challenges for us, but I want to begin by saying that I wish and hope that all of the hostages will come home as we reach Rosh Hashana and those who are protecting us and who have sacrificed so much can get back to their regular lives.”

One of the biggest issues that Maccabi has faced since October 7th is the fact that the club has been forced to play their home games away from the friendly confines of Yad Eliyahu as they have been located in Belgrade, Serbia where they have been welcomed with open arms, but miss the supporters who would create a real home court advantage.

“We really miss our fans,” Katash continued. “We miss them being with us on game day and making an impact. I want to really want to give thanks to our players that they are here with us for another season as well as the new players. We wanted to try and keep some sort of consistency with our squad from last season and we’re really looking forward to the new year and campaign ahead of us.”

Last season, the yellow-and-blue finished the Euroleague season in 16th place after having gone to the playoffs the previous three years and that’s of course one of the club’s goals for this upcoming season. Katash will be looking to take his team once again to the quarterfinals and from there look to advance to the Final Four. However, it won’t be as easy as 1-2-3 as there are now twenty teams in the competition and four more games for a busy schedule of 38 contests beginning in September and running through April with no less than 9 double weeks.

With last year’s season on the rear view mirror, Katash is looking ahead but also is aware that there will be plenty of eyes on his team as they look to improve on what was no doubt a poor showing last season.

“We understand what the expectations are,” Katash commented. “We know that we are a team that has a long and rich tradition. There were some good things that we can take from last season but now we are building something new this year and we are going in the right direction. We will take it from there. It’s not going to be simple and it won’t be easy, but we are ready for the challenges that are in front of us.”

Katash’s modus operandi throughout his coaching career that spans close to twenty seasons is to bring on board players that are of the highest character. Character for Katash is crucial for the teams that he builds and he’s very content with the players he has in his stable for the up ming campaign.

“We made a lot of efforts to build this squad and we have a lot of character. We know that this will be a challenging season and we know that things may not always work out the way we want it to and how we planned it to. But like I’ve always said, we want to always select players that have a lot of character and we then go from there.”

For Katash, the preseason period has been extremely important for him to give over his wisdom and style of play to the players as he also relies on the veterans that have been with the team for some time to help the newcomers learn what the bench boss expects on and off of the court from his squad.

“The preseason is very intense and condensed and while we’ve played a number of exhibition games, it’s never quite enough. It’s a process as we go along and we can see an improvement from day to day.”

With a roster that has many players who have featured in the NBA and do not have European experience, that will one of Katash’s biggest tasks as the tip-off for the 2025/26 Euroleague is right around the corner. Debutants include NBA champ Oshae Brissett, Jeff Dowtin Jr., TJ Leaf, Marcus Santos as well as Lonnie Walker who has just 19 games of experience in the continent’s top competition.

“We have a lot of players that are here who are also learning the ways of the Euroleague and they will need to adjust to the league. There are many small details and rules that we will work on with them which is our responsibility. We do have a good squad but should we need to strengthen it we will do so. We are very proud of what we have done here so far.”