MEGA TRAVELED TO BAHAMAS ON A MATCH AGAINST KENTUCKY

Mega Bemax basketball players traveled early this morning to the Bahamas where they will play two friendly matches, first with the South American champion, the San Lorenzo de Almagro, and then with the NCAA giant – Kentucky.

The matches will be played at the Atlantis Imperial Arena within the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, with the match against San Lorenzo on August 11 at 1 pm after midnight by Serbia time, while the main event, the match against Kentucky, is scheduled for our time August 12th, also in 1 hour after midnight with live broadcast on TV Arena sport.

To the Bahamas, besides the coaching staff of Mega, also went twelve basketball players: Kostja Mushidi, Dejan Janjic, Andrija Marjanovic, Branislav Ratkovica, Luka Asceric, Ognjen Carapic, Goga Bitadze, Milos Koprivica, Adam Mokoka, Nikola Miskovic, Stefan Fundic and Filip Stanic.

In accordance with the announced matches, the Mega Bemax team started preparing for the following season unusually early, on July 16th, and the beginning of the preparation period was quite atypical, because immediately began with the grinding of the form, not as it is a regular practice, with the acquisition of physical strength and fitness, for the last three days the practices were from midnight to two in the morning, with two convincing victories in the control matches against national team of Qatar.

The reason for this rhythm of the Mega Bemax basketball dictated something happened during May. Namely, to the official address from one of the best American universities, Kentucky, arrived at the address of the club invitation for participation in their tour in the Bahamas.

– We are honored because we will be able to measure the strength with the most successful American college team of all time, led by legendary coach and member of the House of Celebrities John Calipari,

General manager of Mega Bemax Goran Cakic started the story:

– And not just that. Our duel, which is on August 12, the hour after midnight in our time, is a central event on their tour in the Bahamas. In support of this, testifies the fact that in official press release of Kentucky we were announced as a “European Kentucky”due to a figure of as many as nine draft players in the NBA in the period from 2014 to 2017, which is immediately behind Kentucky with 14 and Duke with 10 players. This was not done by any club outside the American continent. Also, the match will be broadcasted live to the most popular American sports television ESPN, which sufficiently tells us what kind of treatment we have,

Cakic said with the note that the viewers in Serbia will also be able to watch this match live on TV Arena Sport on Sunday, August 12, from 1 am.

What a challenge expects a young team of Mega (average 21.6 years) is best told by the following data. Kentucky has the highest number of wins in the history of the NCAA league, as many as 2256, and is the top-ranked success rate, with 76.4 percent of the win. It is a team that played 17 times in the Final Four of NCAA and won eight times the title of the champion. With 125 draft players in the NBA league takes the first place, and they are the first by the number of first picks on the NBA Drafts (3).

– The match with Kentucky is very important to us in every aspect. We gave a lot of details to this, so we trained for the last three days at midnight so that we could adapt as much as possible to the time difference. This match in some way reflects the policy of the club we are leading and represents the peak of the program that we have defined. At the same time, it is a confirmation of the correctness and a kind of recognition of the quality of our work. For this reason, our expectations are not small. Although this is a University that has a fantastic selection, we think that we have nothing to lose in that match. I think we can match them, and they are at the start of the preparations so we hope we can surprise them and win what would be a huge success for us.

Mega Bemax’s expedition left for Bahamas early this morning and had previously won the Qatar team twice in the control games. As the Uverters for the Duel with Kentucky in the Bahamas, they have a match with San Lorenzo, the current champion of South America.

– This will be a great check for us. They are an experienced team, who has won the Argentinian title three times for the last three years. That match will be fully in the service of preparing for the match with Kentucky. The aggravating circumstance, apart from the time difference, is that we will play by college rules, which differ significantly from the FIBA ​​rules, and say instead of 24, the attack takes 30 seconds. But, we want to make the right use of the opportunity that has been shown to us, and the motive is huge,

said Cakic.

Upon returning from Bahamas, Mega will continue to play friendly matches with attractive opponents, and on August 23rd and 24th, in Spain, will play with Estudiantes and another American University – Michigan Wolverines.

Photo 1: Mega Bemax
Photo 2: University of Kentucky Athletics