The Slovenia Times

A New Beginning

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Things were still open prior to the final games of the preliminary round. Olimpija convincingly beat Benetton but a spot in the next round was still dependant on the outcome of Milano and Cibona's games against Olympiacos and Efes Pilsen respectively. Milano lost but Cibona surprisingly won against the Turks, which effectively ended Olimpija's hope of advancing to the next round. In 1997 it was a game against its bitter rival Cibona, Croatia, that secured Olimpija its participation in the Final Four tournament, still its biggest success to date. Nine years later, Cibona was involved again, but the roles were reversed this time. Considering everything that had happened, Olimpija was actually lucky to be able to hold on to the possibility of advancing to the second round for such a long time. After an already poor season last year, Olimpija went through a major reshuffle. Modul Group joined as a financial partner, bringing in a number of new players and inexperienced coach Pino Grdovic. Things began disastrously. After Olimpija lost four games in a row, Grdovic was replaced by the highly respected and charismatic Zmago Sagadin. Sagadin immediately used his influence to effect a major reorganization of the team. The club's director Gregor Fric had to leave, a number of players were replaced and Sagadin's arrival was reportedly also connected with the arrival of some new investors. Under his guidance, Olimpija is set to become a respected school for young players, as it used to be in the past. In terms of results, things started to improve immediately after Sagadin's arrival and the public was ecstatic. However, after the encouraging start results took a turn for the worse, when Olimpija tragically lost five games by a combined total of only 10 points. The last "European" win against Benetton was a good sign that the worst is behind Olimpija. The fans also showed their loyalty and it seems that we can look forward to a fresh start next year. Rumour has it that national team members Marko Milic and probably Goran Jurak are going to strengthen the ranks of the team. With the addition of the injured Saso Ozbolt, Olimpija looks set to become a force to reckon with again. Olimpija will now concentrate on the Goodyear league, which consists of teams from the countries of the former Yugoslavia, where it currently stands three wins behind the eighth place standing that would secure participation in the Final Eight tournament.

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