Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash has been hailed as a miracle worker thus far in the 2024/25 Euroleague season. With a 3-4 record despite playing with a depleted squad and home games in Belgrade due to the security situation in Israel, the yellow-and-blue bench boss has been able to make the improbable possible as his squad has been super competitive in each game even though the cards have been stacked up against them. In fact, Maccabi could easily be a game or two over the .500 mark had exhaustion not set in and if they had a bit of luck down the stretch of some of their losses.

However, for Katash’s Maccabi there is no time to cry over spilt milk as they head into a Euroleague Gameday 8 date against Virtus Bologna as the contests have been coming at them fast and furious with yet another double week, the third of the season slated for the following week. Add to that a perfect 5-0 Israeli league record as Katash is being hailed as the be all and end all for this year’s version of the yellow-and-blue.

Following a pair of domestic league clashes, Katash spent time discussing the campaign to date along with some of the challenges the team has faced as well as the return of some of the injured players and the addition of some new recruits who will be able to help bolster the thin roster.

“We have been careful with our players and the minutes that they are on the floor for,” the Maccabi bench boss began. “We were have been doing our best in order to keep their load down and to rest them when possible. Against Elitzur Netanya we didn’t play Levi Randolph and versus Hapoel Beer Sheva we did the same with Jaylen Hoard.”

“Jaylen is a phenomenon, he doesn’t want to rest if we don’t force him to. He and Levi lead the Euroleague in minutes played and this is their first season playing in the competition. As for Wenyan, who just returned from a knee injury, he was part of the preparation period we had from the end of August into September with us and for new players this time is very important.

“Jaylen didn’t practice the first couple of weeks of the preseason as he was hurt but Wenyen had been on an upward trend until he was injured and then he went backwards because of the injury. I am not going to judge him at all in terms of basketball at this point as the only goal and concern that I have is that right now he is healthy and is feeling better.”

One of the players who has been struggling a bit with his shooting is the Maccabi captain John Dibartolomeo, howeverm Katash made it crystal clear that the guard one of the most important pices to the puzzle, “John-Di is a stalwart and sometimes we take it for granted. Sometimes players struggle or have slumps, it happens and it’s perfectly fine. I love the shots he takes and I have no issue with his selection. I adore him and while he may not be the most vocal, he plays with his heart and leads by example. What he brings to the table is priceless. I want him on my team no matter where. I’m fine if we are going to lose a game with my players as long as they do the rights things which he does all of the time.”

Following Jordan Loyd’s departure due to the Iranian attack prior to Rosh Hashana, Maccabi inked a new guard in Saben Lee who just happened to hit the game winning to down Real Madrid last week. While Lee has been a terrific addition to the squad, for the moment he has no agreed to come to Israel due to the ongoing war and is staying abroad. By not returning to Israel with his teammates, he is unable to not only play in the domestic league games but also isn’t taking part in many of the team’s practices.

“We are missing Saben for these games in Israel because we need guards. But we also know the situation the country is in since October 7, 2023 so we need to put everting into proportion. There are things right now that are more important than the difficulties we are having as there are people in the country who are experiencing very tough and significant things. It’s hard to complain about these things when people are going through hell.”

“It’s a situation that I don’t yet know how deal with in the long term as it’s certainly not ideal,” Katash continued. “Had he been with us [in Israel], he would have looked even better and so would we. I didn’t know that [Lee not coming to Israel] was what was agreed upon and I hope that the situation will be resolved. If there will be some quiet in the country things will work out. I have no complaints against him, he set the conditions before he arrived, but I have hope that maybe that will change for our good and I think maybe this will be for his good as well because this is a great opportunity for him.”

Maccabi did add a new player to help lessen the load as David DeJulius arrives from Aris in Greece in order to pick up some of the slack and give the team another option at the point guard position, “This will give us another player in a spot that we need. Even when the injured Tamir Blatt returns, we still needed another player. There are Euroleague teams that are able to rest some of their players in their respective domestic leagues but we don’t have that privilege now and that might cost us later.”

“I like DeJulius’s age and the position that he is playing. Beyond that we will have to wait and see, he is a player with an upside who hasn’t yet played in the Euroleague and it will take time for him to get used to the level of play.”

While Maccabi has been shorthanded in the guard position, Katash has been able to use 18-year old Omer Mayer who was with the team last season and starred alongside Ben Saraf with the Under-18 Israel National Team squad this past summer. Mayer, hasn’t looked one iota out of place in the Israeli league and if he can continue to give Katash solid minutes domestically that will also help the team continentally in keeping some of the senior players’ minutes down.

“Omer is an amazing kid and an amazing player, he’s going to be really good and I am happy that he is with us. Our expectations of him and of himself are high. He’s in a good place and his playing time will be gradual but his contribution will be significant, I have no doubt at all. I am not even looking at his age at all and while his role last season was limited and different, this season he is a legitimate rotation player like everyone else. There will be times where he will play more significant minutes than others, even in the Euroleague. But we also have to be patient with him, we really like him, he has incredible potential and unbelievable abilities, but we also have to remember that he is only 18 years old. He’s a great kid.”

Katash has had to be very creative in order not to run down his players over the past month and it has no doubt been a challenge, but one that he has been able to handle with the right support staff.”

“It’s not simple and we don’t always have practices with contact. We have one of the best physio’s in Europe in Regev Fanan as well as the the medical staff that work hard to make sure that the players are ready. Right now we may not be playing the most beautiful basketball but we want the players to be as fit as possible and for that we also have to try and be creative as possible.”

Katash and Maccabi are still playing their home Euroleague games abroad and the first two Israeli league games were played in Beer Sheva due to a radius penalty, so the first games back at Yad Eliyahu were the Hapoel Beer Sheva and Hapoel Galil Elyon matchups. It didn’t matter that there were only 4,000 fans in the stands due to the Homefront Command regulations as both the fans and players were happy to be back in familiar territory for the first time since they won the league title.

“It was great to come back here and I hope that we will have 10,000 fans in the stands very soon. We missed being at home as we have been on some many flights and in so many hotels. We haven’t played a home game in over four months, but this was great fun and we are all praying that very soon there will be ten thousand spectators here.”