Hapoel Jerusalem will face San Pablo Burgos in the Champions League Final 8 Tournament at the OAKA Arena in Athens, Greece as the Reds will look to win their first continental title since 2004. The Basketball Champions League season was paused in March due to the coronavirus just as Coach Oded Katash’s squad defeated Peristeri in a Round of 16 matchup.

Although the composition of most of the teams in the tournament will be different than they were back in the spring the desire to hoist the trophy after the final is nonetheless the same for all eight teams. Should Jerusalem get by Burgos they will face the winner of the Turk Telekom and JDA Dijon game on Friday with the Final slated for Sunday.

While Jerusalem brought back a number of players from last season’s team there are also some new additions including a few who are just signed through the end of the Final 8. Returning for Katash’s team are point guard Tamir Blatt, forwards Suleiman Braimoh and Deividas Sirvidis who joined the team for the end of last season and centers Tashawn Thomas and Idan Zalmanson. Also back is J’Covan Brown who was named captain but is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury.

New recruits include forward Adam Ariel from Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion who knocked Jerusalem out of last year’s Final Four with a dramatic 3-pointer as time expired in the semifinal, forward Niv Baloul who also comes over from Rishon and point guard Adi Cohen Saban who arrives from Hapoel Beer Sheva. In addition, guard Tarik Phillip joins the club from Tofas in Turkey, Malcolm Hill moves from Astana in Kazakstan to the capital city while guard Chris Kramer comes aboard as well after playing with Khimki Moscow.

A pair of players are signed just through the end of the tourney as center Luka Mitrovic from Maresa and veteran share shooter Nikos Pappas from Panathinaikos add depth to the squad.

Hapoel Jerusalem has been undefeated so far in their preseason games but experienced a scare when Tashawn Thomas got a bit banged up in the team’s WINNER Cup quarterfinal clash with Hapoel Eilat. However, Katash says that he’s ready to for the Reds as the team will look to come home with the title.

“The main thing is that Tashawn’s injury isn’t serious. Preparing for the tournament hasn’t been simple compared to other teams as we have been training much more intensively as we had to do a lot more in a short period of time. We did what we had to do and I hope that we will have a good game on Wednesday. I hope that we will return from Athens on the later side and that when we get back the country will be done with the lockdown.”

Malcolm Hill, who has proven to be a top scorer after finishing last season in the VTB league as the runner up in that category just behind Alexey Shved also feels that the squad is coming into the game in prime form, “I think we are good hands and the trainers and doctors are doing a god job getting the guys who are a bit banged up in shape. That has also provided other guys the chance to step up and get better. I think we are pretty confident.”

The dynamic guard os also aware that he may be counted on to pick up some of the scoring slack for Jerusalem while in Athens, “I’ll have to see how the game goes. I kind of what take what the defense gives me. I try to focus on what I can do most for the best of the team. If that makes me being the X-Factor then that’s cool but it could be any otters player. Right now I am just going to focus on using skills to the best of my ability and see how that works out.”

Jerusalem needed to pack in a lot of preparation in a very short period of time, but Katash feels that despite this they are in good shape, “Our schedule has been busy and our preparation time much shorter. Our goal is to give ourselves an opportunity to win just like the rest of the teams. I don’t believe that there are any big favorites, despite Burgos having played well so far in the ACB. They are playing excellent basketball, but in one game, anything can happen just as we are familiar with here in Israel.”

“It feels good to be put in the position to have the opportunity to win the title and that’s the goal,” said Hill. “In order to accomplish that goal we are trying to get better and we’ve been doing a good job with that in practice and in the scrimmages.”

Katash knows that Jerusalem made a a number of changes in the offseason and that the team may not be as strong as they were when they were challenging for the championship back in March but that there is always a chance to do the unthinkable.

“Can we say that we are as strong as we were before the coronavirus break? For sure that’s not the case as we were much better and you could say that we were the favorites. The situation today is totally different but we are still Hapoel Jerusalem and we want to dream the dream.”

Hill can see that Jerusalem is a special club and that the players are the ones who make the environment surrounding the team unique giving them a chance to go all the way, “One thing that stands out about this club is that there are great guys off the court. It makes things that much easier on the court as they are very competitive and it gets physical in practice. It shows the character of the guys and that’s one thing that I love about the club.”

“We’re undefeated up until now, but coach feels that we can be a lot better which is encouraging because to shows the potential that we have on this team. We’ll see what happens we’re taking it each and every day to make that goal happen.”