Just ahead of their matchup against EFES, Head Coach Oded Katash along with Roman Sorkin spoke about the challenges that lies ahead.

“Beyond the excitement of the competition starting, we would have preferred a bit more time to prepare,” Katash began. “We’re counting on the fact that there are other teams as well who didn’t have an ideal preseason and are also facing difficulties. We don’t feel 100% ready yet; it still feels like we’re in preseason mode. But now the real games begin and we’re playing, especially in the first and second games, against good teams. Anadolu is a very talented team with a lot of guards. We had to make choices about which players to highlight at this level, and I think that until we play the basketball we want to play, what can help us is body language, good energy, and the extra effort we’re willing to bring.”

The two teams that Maccabi will face this week are a bit different in style the bench boss explained, “They’re both slightly different teams doing things a bit differently, but they’re definitely impressive. I can’t really talk about both games together, but starting with Anadolu, as I said, they’re a very talented team with lots of guards, playmakers, and shooting. They have a coach who does things differently and is very creative. It’s pretty clear we’ll need to stop them collectively and it’s not just about one player.”

EFES added a number of new players but due to the Eurobasket, their preparation wasn’t as well as they would have wanted it to be, “I want to believe that. It could help us, but I think it’s much easier to integrate players like Weiler-Babb and Jordan Loyd who know the EuroLeague and the style of basketball, it’s easier than bringing in players who have to adapt to a totally different game.”

Roman Sorkin added his thoughts about playing a familiar face at EFES, “First of all, Jordan Loyd played here, so it’s fun to play against him on a personal level as a friend. They’re a new team, a different setup, he’s in another team in a different role. He’s a great player, it’s always tough to play against him, but we’ll come prepared and try to stop him as much as we can.”
This year, the Euroleague added 2 more teams and increased the amount of games which means there will be more Double Weeks ahead, “It’s different, but they added more games, so it’s better to have it like this at the beginning. The workload has already increased, so better to get it out of the way now if possible,” Sorkin said.

As for the team beginning a new campaign, Sorkin is excited as well as are his teammates, “It’s the beginning of the season and it’s new for everyone. We’re mainly focusing on ourselves whether we play well or not so well, we have to remember that there are players here playing their first year in Europe, so we need to give it time. None of our teams in previous years looked their best at the start.”

Of course a good start to the season will make a statement and as has been in the past, Maccabi and Katash would always aim to make the postseason, but can this be a goal for this coming year?
“It’s very ambitious to say that outright. Making the playoffs is difficult regardless, especially now that the EuroLeague has expanded, and certainly in our current situation. But we do want to be there. I think it’s not a conversation for the start of the season, let’s get through 8–10 rounds and then we’ll talk.”

Maccabi lost a pair of games to Hapoel Jerusalem this past week, but had played well against some of the European opponents they had tipped off against during the preseason preparation. Katash will have a full squad for the Double Week and hopes that he will be able to take advantage of that, but he doesn’t look at preseason results as the be all and end all.

“Yeah, it’s crazy and there are more double weeks ahead. It was already a heavy load, but it is what it is, and we’ll deal with it. You can’t take much from the previous games we didn’t play against Partizan. They were missing a lot of players, especially big men and had many youth players, you can’t draw much from that. This is going to be a game at a completely different level, with different intensity and different capabilities.”