Gotta give a ton of credit to both Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv for taking care of business in their respective EuroCup divisions by advancing to the quarterfinals where they will have home court advantage and not having to play in the Eighthfinals. Yonatan Alon’s squad took care of Turk Telekom in fine fashion while Dimitrios Itoudis’s team mounted a fourth quarter comeback over Ulm to punch their ticket as well. 

While no game has been proven to be easy in the EuroCup, both sides did what they needed to do in order to put themselves in the best possible position to weave their way to the final and a spot in next year’s EuroLeague.  

Sure both Valencia and Bahcesheir have high aspirations and they are both extremely good teams that should the pair of Reds have to face them, they won’t be an easy out by any stretch of the imagination, but to finish second knowing what type of challenges they incurred this season, is a massive accomplishment. 

Jerusalem, through thick and thin, one injury after another were able to not only punch their ticket but they punched their ticket in style with two huge wins in the final two gamedays of the regular season. There’s no question that Yonatan Alon’s team looked far, far from being perfect which included a loss at Kiryat Ata, sick players and what it seemed was like a revolving door on the bench, but they did it. They found a way to put it together when they needed it most and that’s what they did. 

Now, it’s clear that if Jared Harper isn’t on this team, the chances of their success is reduced to a small pile of peanuts, but the fact is, is that he is on the team and has had a superstar, MVP worthy regular season. Harper led his squad to one win after the next and without the guard, Hapoel Jerusalem is nowhere near being a contender and most probably would be near the bottom of the Division B standings.  

Sure, Yovel Zoosman is really starting to look like a the player we all thought he could become and Chris Johnson turned back the clock while Khadeen Carrington is a scoring machine, but this is without a question Jared Harper’s team. 

Case closed.  

Hapoel Tel Aviv through their own turmoil were able to get the job done. From a coaching change, to injuries and players being suspended (including one Jonathan Motley that decided to disappear for a month and has come back to be arguably their EuroCup MVP), the Reds under Dimitrios Itoudis were able to dig down very deep in the final frame of their game against Ulm and pull it out.  

By winning, they are now in prime position to get the most out of the postseason and try to reach the goal that owner Ofer Yannay set which was to get into the Euroleague. Will they be able to do so is an entirely different story, but the fact that they are in the right spot to find a way to the promised land is where the reds needed to be. 

There have been some frustrating, actually very frustrating losses along the way whether it was Wolves and Buducnost in the EuroCup or Hapoel Beer Sheva and Hapoel Jerusalem in the Israeli league. Those certainly didn’t sit too well for the Greek tactician but nonetheless they have been able to overcome them and find a way to win when they needed to. 

Of course, coming up will be a State Cup Semifinal Derby against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Jerusalem and that’s a one and done game where they is no return from should they lose. They’ll have the same thing in the EuroCup quarterfinal and there’s no reason to think that they will not be raring to go in any of these games. 

However, as we’ve seen before Hapoel Tel Aviv does have moments where they are not focussed on the goal at hand and even against Ulm had it not been for Yam Madar’s fabulous fourth quarter they may have been playing in the one and done EighthFinals instead of the quarterfinals. There is unquestionably a bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in these Reds and that’s got to be something Itoudis will need to rein in ahead, especially before the postseason begins. 

All in all. Hapoel Tel Aviv fans shouldn’t have one iota of a complaint about the results that their team have been able to procure. 

There is talk that Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv will petition the EuroCup to be able to host their respective playoff games and potentially semifinal series back in Israel and boy would that be huge for both clubs and their fans. The effect that the supporters could have in sold out Yad Eliyahu and Jerusalem Arena would be something else for sure, but no one should be counting on this happening any time soon. 

Don’t get your hopes up as the war still has a long way in getting things back to whatever the new normal will be here in Israel. Teams and league management won’t be racing to bring the games back just yet and most probably will want to see things stabilize first and then welcome back continental competition in the Holy Land next season. These things make nice headlines, but in all honesty, that’s about all they do.

Everyone knows what the reality is and where the focus must be on. Winning is the name of the game and moving on to the next round. Nothing more and nothing less.