Cedevita Olimpija start preparing for new season

Cedevita Olimpija senior team has been gathered for the first time on Monday in Stožice Arena and started its training camp ahead of the 2023/24 season.

Without Jaka Blažič, Zoran Dragić, Gregor Glas and Justus Hollatz, all of which will play at the forthcoming FIBA World Cup, the senior team of Cedevita Olimpija has gathered for the first time ahead of the new season in the small Stožice Hall. The Dragons will again play in the AdmiralBet ABA League, BKT EuroCup, Slovenian National Championship and Slovenian National Cup, as well as both Slovenian and ABA Super Cup.

In the first practice ahead of the 2023/24 season, the head coach of Ljubljana squad Simone Pianigiani has greeted Sean Armand, Amadou Sow, Rok Radović, Justin Cobbs, Karlo Matković, Shawn Jones, Luka Ščuka, Alexander Shashkov and Mert Akay. The later has been a part of the senior squad last season, but had to deal with the recovery following injury and now he is ready for new challenges.

In the forthcoming season, Saša Ciani will not be part of Cedevita Olimpija, as he will move to the United States of America, to study. Lon Ličan, Luka Šmitran, Alej Kump, Vukašin Todorović and Filip Horvat will join the senior team, all of which are the young prospects of Cedevita Olimpija. Damian Kruzynski will join the training camp for its first stage, but will most likely spend the season at one of the Slovenian clubs as a player on loan.

Edo Murić, who is undergoing rehabilitation following knee injury has greeted his teammates in first practice. Former Slovenia National Team member Jaka Klobučar will also join the team for the first stage of the training camp, a player, who used to wear Union Olimpija jersey on two occasions before, between 2008 and 2010 and in 2011.

As he gathered his players for the first time in this preseason, new Cedevita Olimpija head coach Simone Pianigiani told: “The first day of the preseason is just like the first day of school. After composing the team throughout the summer, we can close ourselves in the hall, which is what we enjoy the most. There is a long process ahead of us, since the team is practically brand new. Ahead of us is a tough season with a tough schedule. We are still missing a couple of players, since they are a part of their national teams. There is a positive energy all around and that is what we need in these times, since the team is new and there is lots of tough work. If you work hard and if we all strive to the same goals, the results will come. All players are motivated, since they want to make a step forward in their careers. Our task is to work day by day and see how we develop.”

Vlado Ilievski, the Sports Director of the Ljubljana club told: “I hope that the players get to know each other well in the preseason period. The team is refreshed with lots of young players. We tried to create the mixture of young and experienced players and I hope that a successful season is ahead of us. The goals stay the same, as always for Cedevita Olimpija, both in the regional league and BKT EuroCup. I hope that we have lots of success and that the fans will be cheering for us and stay by our side.”

“This is my eight season at Cedevita Olimpija. I am happy that we held our first practice. The teammates are excellent and I’m not giving too much focus to the renovation of the team. I hope that with teammates we get together just fine, just as we should and that the chemistry would be excellent,” Rok Radović, who used to wear the jersey of Cedevita Zagreb before coming to Ljubljana told.

Luka Ščuka added: “First impressions agre great, we’re playing basketball again! We have plenty of experienced players and some young. I like such a mixture. I expect the season to be better than the last one and I hope that we succeed in making excellent results.”

This summer, Cedevita Olimpija players will play five preseason games. Four of them will be played behind closed doors, while the game against Panathinaikos, which is scheduled for 7 September 17.30, will be played live in Stožice Arena, in front of fans. It will be a humanitarian event, as the profit from ticket sales for the game, will be devoted to the victims of the floods, that hit Slovenia in the previous month.

Cedevita Olimpija Director Davor Užbinec told: “We are happy to have gathered such a great number of players in the opening practice of the preseason and that there are quite a few young players there. We have started with the new three-year period. We will be chasing the result, but that’s not all that matters. We hope that the young players get their chance to play and that we can create a new generation of players, that will bring us joy with excellent basketball in the ears to come. The preparations will mostly take place in Ljubljana, while a part of it will be held in Kranjska Gora. We have also a couple of preseason games scheduled and an especially important one will be the one against Panathinaikos, that is perhaps coming a bit too early for us, since we will not play it in our full strength. However, it will represent an opening of the season and will be open for fans, with a humanitarian character, since all the revenue from the ticket sales will be devoted to heel the consequences of the catastrophic floods. Afterwards there will be the ABA Super Cup and then Slovenian Super Cup, while right afterwards the season is coming up.”