No luck involved: Brescia deserved to win Italian Cup / News - Basketnews.com

In an exclusive article for the BN+ members, BasketNews expert Augustas Suliauskas analyses the reasons for Germani Brescia's success in the Italian Cup, arguing why Alessandro Margo's team fully deserved to become champions.

Credit: Simone Lucarelli/SIPA-Scanpix Credit Simone Lucarelli/SIPA-Scanpix

Basketball is weird, yet magnificent. Who could have thought that a team who had lost the last 6 Serie A games would come away with the Italian Cup? And accomplish it by eliminating the two giants: Olimpia Milano and Virtus Bologna.

Apparently, neither did Brescia's front office, who hadn't booked a hotel following their quarterfinal match. But the beauty of the cup competition happened: the underdogs managed to write a fairytale story once again.

However, for Brescia, it was the first of a kind: the Lombardian side had never managed to win a major trophy before.

Often, single-elimination tournament winners get called lucky because the format increases the possibility for the less-talented teams. We couldn't apply this to Alessandro Magro's side, who dominated both games against the EuroLeague teams and demolished Pesaro.

From genius ideas by Magro against Ettore Messina and Sergio Scariolo to incredible on-court execution by his players, Brescia functioned like a well-oiled machine for the whole week.

Let's take a look at how they clicked and what details brought the first-ever major trophy to Brescia.

Defensive Domination

Olimpia scored 29 points in the 1st half against Leonessa, Pesaro 22, and Virtus 30. In all 3 games, their defense allowed Magro's team to enter the halftime break with a 10+ points lead.

With nothing to lose, Brescia started aggressively from the first minutes of Coppa Italia: putting Milano's offense in extreme discomfort, pressuring the ball high up. The Italian champions didn't deal with this well and couldn't respond with the same intensity on the other side of the court.

For example, their first two possessions of the second quarter ended in ugly and forced shots - none of the two attempts even grazed the rim.

We saw every little detail from Brescia that a perfect defensive sequence could ask: denying the next pass, top-locking shooters and entry passes to the post, switches late in the shot clock, and active hands to force turnovers.

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