Radnicki 034 Group - Rilski Sportist (preview)

The third quarterfinal series of the Eurohold Balkan League starts on Thursday (26.02), when Serbian team Radnicki 034 Group Kragujevac hosts Bulgarian side Rilski Sportist Samokov in the first leg of their two-game match-up. The fixture makes it a tough week ahead for the Serbians and especially tough couple of days, as they have a decisive domestic league game on Wednesday. After the team from Kragujevac had been eliminated early in the Radivoj Korac Cup of Serbia, they had the weekend off, but now they face two do-or-die home games in just two days.
 
The first one, versus Napredak Rubin Krusevac, they have to win to retain their chances of the 3rd place in the 1st phase of the Basketball League of Serbia, which would give Radnicki a ticket for the exclusive league of the Top 8 Serbian teams in the 2nd phase (when it is joined by the 5 ABA participants). The visiting team from Krusevac is curently tied for 3rd at 13-8, while Radnicki is 5th at 12-9, so their Wednesday night game will be crucial for the outcome of that battle. Just short of 24 hours later, at 7 PM on Wednesday, the Kragujevac team needs another win, this time in the BIBL quarterfinal fixture. And the victory needs to be with as big a margin as possible in order for Radnicki to have any chance of advancing to the Final Four, as BIBL Group B winners Rilski Sportist have home court advantage for the second leg 6 days later.
 
The reason why Radnicki has to face the top team from the other group is simple - they finished 4th in Group A with a losing record of 3-5. In theory they had a chance of climbing to 3rd place in the final day of the Regular Season. But for that to happen, they would have needed a win versus favourites and Serbian league leaders Swisslion Takovo, as well as a Euroins Cherno More defeat at the hands of Feni Industries in Varna. As expected, both didn`t materialize and Radnicki had to resign themselves to finishing 4th.
 
The main offensive threat of Radnicki 034 Group in both their domestic league and the BIBL is a trio of competent young players. Power forwards Rajko Kljajevic (24 y.o.) and Danilo Draskovic (23 y.o.) - both 203 cm tall - and 22 y.o. guard Uros Duvnjak provide 41 points per game between them in the BIBL and more than 48 points per game in the Serbian league.
 
Kljajevic and Draskovic are also the main rebounding force of their team, with Kljajevic adding 5.8 boards per game to a team leading average of 15.5 points in the BIBL, while Draskovic has 8.3 and 13.9 respectively.
 
Rajko Kljajevic is even more of a scoring threat with his 18.7 points per game in the Serbian league, where he is the 5th best scorer at the moment. His powerful frame makes him especially dangerous in the paint, where he regularly plays at center, despite being a bit undersized for the position.
 
Danilo Draskovic`s versatility helps him lead his team in both rebounds and three-pointers scored and attempted. He nets 2.1 triples per BIBL game, and he amazingly hit 6 of those in the home victory versus CSU Cuadripol Brasov back in December. His defensive input is also impressive with 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocked shot per game in the BIBL.
 
Point guard Uros Duvnjak leads the Kragujevac team in the BIBL in both assists (3.6) and steals (1.4). He is also the 3rd leading scorer of the team with 11.6 points in the BIBL (1.7 for 4.7 three-point attempts) and 14.4 in the Serbian league.
 
A third young forward - Petar Beader - and experienced shooting guard Ivan Milosevic are solid contributors for the team too, scoring 7.3 and 6.6 points per game respectively in the BIBL. Veteran point guard Radovan Pesic used to provide help off the bench in the first half of the season too, until former head coach Zoran Cvetanovic parted ways with the club at the end of last year and Pesic was named as his replacement.
 
Radnicki 034 Group have had three new additions to their roster mid-season, but only one of them could make an impact in the upcoming BIBL quarterfinal - guard Igor Mijajlovic, who moved from fellow Serbian BIBL team Mega Hypo Leasing. He had 5 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes of action in his only game in the Eurohold Balkan League so far - the one versus Swisslion Takovo. Another player that came from Mega HL - center Bojan Ljubojevic has already moved on, joining French ProB team JL Bourg last week without having played any BIBL games at all. The third new signing - guard Marko Tanaskovic - has only played minor minutes.
 
Bulgarian team Rilski Sportist of the beautiful Rila Mountain town of Samokov has had a magnificent season in the Eurohold Balkan League so far, finishing the Regular Season top of Group B with a 6-2 record. Curiously, they have performed better in this competition than in the Bulgarian National Basketball League, where they`ve been down at 4th or 5th in the standings, holding a losing record most of the time. But it was exactly the domestic league where Rilski Sportist have had a magnificent victory last weekend, defeating non other than Bulgarian champion and powerhouse Lukoil Academic. The feat proves that sky is the limit to what the team can do in their own Arena Samokov. But they have shown how dangerous they are on the road too, getting the scalp of Fersped Rabotnicki in Skopje last week in what was the BIBL Group B 1st place decider.
 
Now Rilski Sportist, in high spirits after the Fersped and Lukoil games, will certainly take no prisoners in either the Thursday game at Hala Jezero in Kragujevac, or the return leg in Samokov next week.
 
Besides the great to watch uptempo passing game that Macedonian coach Aleksandar Todorov has implemented this season, the Bulgarian team also relies on one big ace out of the pack - American center Travis Peterson. We already said much about him and the way he has become the MVP of the BIBL Regular Season 2008/09 (see here), but no matter how much we say it won`t make it easier for Radnicki 034 Group to contain his offence as well as keep off his shot-blocking, when they try to score in the paint.
 
The 4 best scorers for Rilski Sportist are in the same order in both the Eurohold Balkan League and the National Basketball League, as follows:
Young Serbian power forward Dragoslav Papic (15.6 ppg in the BIBL and 16.3 in the NBL), 20-year old Bulgarian prodigy Ivan Lilov (14.7 and 13.4 respectively), Serbian point guard Branko Mirkovic (14.4 and 11.6) and shooting guard Bogdan Boev (8.1 and 10.6).
 
It will be quite interesting to see Papic and Mirkovic face the team from their home country. Despite being a post player and second best rebounder of the team (5.4 rpg in the BIBL, 6.6 in the NBL), Dragoslav Papic is a three-point shooting treat, similar to his Radnicki counterpart Danilo Draskovic, and the match-up of those two should be curious to say the least. Papic takes the most three-point shots and scores the most for his team too - 2.1 for 5.3 in the BIBL and 1.9 for 4.7 in the NBL.
 
Mirkovic is the leader in assists not only for Rilski Sportist but the entire Balkan League regular season as well with 5.3 per game. He also leads that category in the Bulgarian NBL with 4.9 assists per game.
 
Lilov has shown bits of his great potential, but surely there is much more to come from the talented Bulgarian youngster, while his compatriot playing the same position - Bogdan Boev is another valuable signing for the club of last summer, adding a bit more experience to the starting line-up.
 
Powerful forward Leven Belberov is the crucial veteran presence off the bench, while shooting guard Ivan Nikolov, forward Asen Saraliyski and combo guard Aleksandar Gruev are also there, always ready to go out on court and help. The latter`s season was been interrupted by injury, but before that, in the opening game of the BIBL it was his incredible three-pointer that gave his team a victory with the final buzzer. So Gruev could always emerge once again as the "wild card" for his team in the quarters.
 
There are also a bunch of talented 19-year olds, who are junior champions of Bulgaria for last season and add more squad depth to a Rilski Sportist team, that has kept its roster completely intact throughout the season so far. The Bulgarians are the only BIBL team to have neither brought in, nor released any players for the entire campaign.
 
The game Radnicki 034 Group versus Rilski Sportist on Thursday in Kragujevac is at 19.00 CET, while the return leg in Bulgaria is scheduled for 18.00 local time (17 CET) on Wednesday next week. The winner of this quarterfinal tie will face either Levski or Feni Industries in one of the semifinals.