Benetton Treviso and Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez have been powerhouses of their respective leagues for years. Both teams combine for 13 national championships in the last 20 years and they were regular Top16 teams in the Euroleague. But their decline, which started already last year is really dramatic this season.
Both teams are actually at the last place of their respective leagues. For the French team, they lost 7 in a row after their defeat yesterday evening against a Paris-Levallois team which is far from being a European top team. Some changes happened already with the release of Curtis Whiters which gave some playing time to top prospect Fernando Raposo in the last games.
But after yesterday’s defeat, the big boss from Pau-Orthez Pierre Seillant was going really mad in the French press.
We need to change some head, it can’t be the French players, so it will most probably be the Americans who were miserable tonight. I am disenchanted, we have to put some guys out of the door. We can not stay like this indefinitely before our fans.
Most likely, Terence Dials and Michael Young are the two guys that are probably not long anymore with the team from the Béarn.
In Italy, the changes have already happened. A new coach arrived this week with the Turkish coach Oktay Mahmuti who joined the team coming from Efes Pilsen. With the signing of Reece Gaines coming from Milano in place of the already released DeMarr Johnson, everything should be set now for the rest of the season.
We will see if both teams will make a turn now because still, the chances are there to reach the playoffs for both of them. And both teams are needed in their respective leagues as they represent the Tradition and also have big fan support behind them.
