MIES (Switzerland) - We've been talking for a while now about the potential MVP candidates, and most of them are elite scorers or passers. What if the top candidate is actually a guy who does neither of those things?
Leoni at 5-0
Different lions have been around the Basketball Champions League, most notably Galatasaray and ERA Nymburk facing off in an all-lions battle just last week. But there are also the Italian lions, Leoni, as Bertram Derthona Basket are nicknamed, due to the fact that their bigger logo had a lion's profile engraved on a ball.
Tuesday was all about fives for the Lions. They picked up another road win, taking down the NINERS in Chemnitz with ease, holding them to just 61 points on the day and storming to a 5-0 start to the BCL this season.
They had five men in double figures, and the most important five was about their "five" guy, the center. Ismael Kamagate had yet another game with 5 blocks.
That's already his third game with 5 blocks this season, becoming the first player to have had 5 or more blocks across three games in a single season.
Since he also had 10 points and 8 rebounds, he is now the first player to get three games with at least 10 points, 5 rebounds and 5 blocks in BCL history. Already in the record books, and he's still just a 23-year-old.
Kamagate's heroics have been exactly what the doctor prescribed for Bertram Derthona Basket. Coach Walter De Raffaele loves having strong, dominant players inside the arc, and Kamagate loves getting the call. But does he actually have the numbers to deserve the MVP praise from the start of this article?
Yes, he does. Not just because of the history making, not just because of the insane blocks, the 12.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists he produces every day, but also because he's making a difference. Plenty of it, too.
The Lions are a +78 team in his 131 minutes played this season. He's one of seven players who have accumulated more than 100 efficiency points in their first five games, and when you see Derthona standing tall at 5-0 in Group G, you have to consider him in the MVP talks.
One thing about Derthona and fives, though. Last season, they finished the group stage at 5-1, but did not win the group because of points difference in a tie with UCAM Murcia, and they ended up in the Play-Ins, falling to the hands of the Istanbul lions called Galatasaray.
Lesson learned. Their panache is evident, their roar is even louder in Season 9, and if they keep it up, the man whose name Ismael means "God will hear" will make sure everybody hears about his historic campaign.
Other notes from Tuesday's games
Tim Abromaitis (La Laguna Tenerife) is the first player in the BCL history to have won 75 games.
Kendale McCullum (Maccabi Ramat-Gan) had 23 points, 7 steals and 6 assists against AEK Betsson BC, becoming the first player in the BCL history to have combined for more than 20 points, more than five assists and more than five steals in a single game. McCullum tallied eight steals total in his previous seven games in the competition.
Amin Stevens (Maccabi Ramat-Gan) had 24 points and 7 rebounds, becoming the first player ever in the BCL combining for more than 15 points and more than five rebounds in each of his first five appearances in the competition.
Errick McCollum scored 27 points for Karsiyaka against La Laguna Tenerife: this is his fourth game with 25 or more points scored in the BCL, whilst only three players have had more such games than him in the league since his debut (Kyle Guy and TJ Shorts II both with six games and Marcus Foster five games).