EuroLeague Women Review: Week 4

MUNICH (EuroLeague Women) - Our women's basketball specialist Paul Nilsen gives us his take on Week 4 of EuroLeague Women action.

NOTHING CLEARER IN FIGHT TO MAKE FINAL FOUR

Who will make this year's Final Four? I thought it was something apt to review now that we have seen every team four times and yet we have learned nothing new. That's not a bad thing by the way, it just means that UMMC Ekaterinburg, Fenerbahce, Nadezhda, Dynamo Kursk and ZVVZ USK Prague have all started the season well. Even if UMMC and Fenerbahce now have an early defeat to their name, both were against tough opposition and they will both get better.

Maybe the only questions answered were whether Kursk could deliver against expectation and they have done that after beating Fenerbahce on the road. Meanwhile after major roster surgery, any doubts over Nadezhda seem to have evaporated and perhaps that is not surprising either, with such a good EuroLeague Women navigator still at the helm in Roberto Iniguez.

Those five teams won't go into four of course and at least one will miss out - even if they all have some seriously great players.

The most powerful intrigue is whether a Perfumerias Avenida, Beretta Famila Schio or maybe a French team can make a sustained run and cause an upset.

It's very early days, but at this juncture it's hard to look outside the big guns and we are about where I expected us to be a month into the new season.

WELCOME BACK TO COACH KOVACIK

I am a big supporter of Maros Kovacik and vividly remember that first season in EuroLeague Women when he took Good Angels Kosice to an historic Semi-Final place at the Final Eight in Ekaterinburg during 2013. Out of the game for too long after parting ways with Kosice last season, I am delighted to see he is back on the EuroLeague Women beat with CCC Polkowice. He heads into a difficult situation as something is not right at the Polish side who are onto their fourth play-caller and it's only the second day of December. That fact alone epitomises the scale of the task.

A winless 0-4 in the competition, it is the 4-5 record in the Polish League which is most galling. It's a ridiculous record for that group of players to have, who individually have real talent and I like many of their team a lot. I just hope that the senior players in particular ensure that Coach Kovacik will have the support needed inside the locker room to be a success.

On paper at least, if the players trust in him, they can enjoy the rest of the season. Something which is surely more enjoyable than continuing to be beaten. At the moment their combined 4-9 record reflects just as much on the players themselves as it does on the previous coaches. It would be embarrassing if they continue to lose as they are doing and especially in the Polish League, because I believe the talent is definitely there. They should all now come together and sort out the current mess.

THE WEEKLY GONGS

Team Performance of the Week: I have to hand the gong to Lucas Mondelo and Dynamo Kursk. Yes, they are stacked with talent and are a favourite, but anybody winning against a similarly stacked Fenerbahce team in Istanbul deserves high praise. It was exciting and their 72-69 success gets the nod from me.