European Season Opens with a Tough Trip to Burgos

Cedevita Olimpija will open the new BKT EuroCup season on Wednesday at 20:30. In the first round of the group stage, the Dragons visit Recoletas Salud San Pablo Burgos, a two-time Basketball Champions League winner that will play its first-ever EuroCup game against the Ljubljana side. The game will be broadcast live on Šport TV 1.

Cedevita Olimpija will begin its European campaign for the 2026/27 season in Spain. Head coach Zvezdan Mitrović’s team will face Recoletas Salud San Pablo Burgos at the Coliseum Burgos on Wednesday at 20:30. It will be the Dragons’ first BKT EuroCup game of the new season, following their quarterfinal appearance last year.

Burgos is competing in the EuroCup after receiving a wild card from the competition organizer. Although this is the Spanish club’s debut in Europe’s second-tier club competition, it has a rich international history. Burgos won the Basketball Champions League in both 2020 and 2021, as well as the FIBA Intercontinental Cup in 2021.

The club last competed internationally in the 2021/22 season. Darüşşafaka eliminated Burgos in the Basketball Champions League play-in round in January 2022. The following month, Burgos reached the FIBA Intercontinental Cup final, where it lost to Flamengo. Wednesday’s game will therefore be its first European contest in more than four years.

The Dragons’ injury situation has improved somewhat ahead of the EuroCup opener. Jordan Gainey remains sidelined with a thigh injury but is recovering according to plan. David Škara, Noah Kirkwood, Matthew Hurt and Osayi Osifo gradually returned to training last week and are now fully involved. Unfortunately, the Ljubljana side will begin its European and regional campaigns without Brandon Murray. Further medical examinations revealed that his shoulder injury is more serious than initially thought, and he is expected to be out for at least three months.

TV BROADCAST

The first-round BKT EuroCup game against Burgos will be broadcast live on Šport TV 1. Studio coverage begins at 19:45.

PRE-GAME QUOTES

“Burgos is a very good team, as it showed in its latest league game against Baskonia. It plays at home, where there is a great atmosphere and strong support from the fans. Burgos has enough quality players to use different lineups and combinations. It can play with three smaller players or with a tall center. The team has shown a lot on both ends of the court, uses different defensive schemes and knows how to change the tempo of a game. Against Baskonia, for example, it turned a ten-point deficit into a ten-point lead. This is a quality team from Spanish basketball, so we certainly have a difficult game ahead of us,” Cedevita Olimpija head coach Zvezdan Mitrović said before the trip to Spain. “As for the EuroCup, we are in a difficult group and the competition as a whole is extremely strong. It is hard to make any predictions at this point. First, we have to focus on ourselves, compete and show what we can do on the court. Because of all the issues we have had with injuries and training, our team is still something of an unknown even to me. The games will show where we stand.”

“The team is gradually coming together, and after all the injury problems, we are beginning to look like a complete group. We recently added Rihards Lomažs, so I feel we are on the right track to develop a game that will allow us to compete with other teams from the start of the season. Our first game is in Spain against Burgos, and it will certainly be difficult. We need to go into it motivated, focus on the things we have been working on in practice and carry them over onto the court,” Cedevita Olimpija captain Jaka Blažič said ahead of the EuroCup opener. “Burgos is a very physical team that attacks the offensive glass. It showed that against Baskonia, where it was particularly effective in that area, so we will have to pay special attention to it. It is a Spanish team that plays very fast and relies heavily on transition. Like other teams at the start of the season, its players are still getting to know one another and finding their rhythm. If we can limit their main strengths, we will certainly have our chances.”

“I’m looking forward to the start of the BKT EuroCup. We haven’t played a game for a couple of weeks, so we’ve been working hard and preparing. We have a tough game on Wednesday. Opening the season with a EuroCup game certainly isn’t ideal, but we’re all excited and can’t wait to get started. We’ve mostly been playing against each other in practice over the past few weeks, so we’re looking forward to getting back on the court for a real game,” Matthew Hurt said ahead of the season opener in Burgos.

GAME PREVIEW

The Spanish team has undergone major changes ahead of the new season. Experienced Pablo Almazán and Daniel Díez, who spent five seasons in the EuroLeague, are among the key players who have stayed from last season. Other notable names on the roster include American point guard DJ Steward, Belgian international Retin Obasohan, Slovenian international Žiga Samar, Chase Audige, Christian Sengfelder, Balša Koprivica, Rubén Guerrero, Dušan Radosavljević and Sekou Doumbouya.

Burgos is coached by experienced Spanish head coach Porfi Fisac, who took charge in December 2025 and guided the team to safety in Liga Endesa. Fisac also knows the EuroCup well. In 2021, he led Gran Canaria to the semifinals, where he faced current Cedevita Olimpija head coach Zvezdan Mitrović, then in charge of Monaco.

One of Burgos’s most dangerous players is DJ Steward, who averaged 15.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists for Trento in last season’s EuroCup. Žiga Samar also has an important role after joining Burgos following two seasons with Gran Canaria.

Recoletas Salud San Pablo Burgos will open its European campaign after a painful 98–97 loss to Baskonia. Fisac’s team led by as many as 12 points after an excellent third quarter and dominated the rebounding battle, but surrendered a nine-point lead in the closing stages. Slovenian point guard Žiga Samar was Burgos’s leading scorer with 17 points, six rebounds and three assists. Six Burgos players scored in double figures.

Cedevita Olimpija will take the court in Spain on Wednesday for the first time in almost 14 days. The Dragons last played on September 17, when a depleted lineup lost to Krka in the Slovenian Super Cup in Nova Gorica. The teams were due to meet again in the opening round of the first phase of the AdmiralBet ABA League, but that game was postponed. The trip to Burgos will therefore be Cedevita Olimpija’s first official international game of the 2026/27 season.

BKT EUROCUP – GROUP A, ROUND 1

Coliseum Burgos (Burgos, Spain), Wednesday, September 30, at 20:30:
RECOLETAS SALUD SAN PABLO BURGOS – CEDEVITA OLIMPIJA (Live on Šport TV 1)

LOOKING AHEAD

With Cedevita Olimpija’s opening game of the first phase of the AdmiralBet ABA League against Krka postponed, a second-round game against Cibona is scheduled for Saturday at 17:00 at Hala Tivoli. On Tuesday, October 6, the Ljubljana side will play its first home BKT EuroCup game of the season. Hapoel Jerusalem, considered one of the favorites to win the competition, visits Stožice at 18:30. Tickets are already available at vstopnice.olimpija.com, Eventim Slovenija and Petrol Slovenija.