Are Spanish coaches just what young German players are looking for?
Are Spanish coaches just what young German players are looking for?
Four Spaniards are coaching in the German easyCredit BBL compared to two German head coaches. As it turns out, the Spanish coaches seem to be good for the development and playing time for youngsters.
The German easyCredit BBL currently has four Spanish coaches among the 18 playcallers - a fact that has some alarmed in the country, especially considering there are just two Germans patrolling the sidelines for teams. All that being said, any worries that having Spaniards leading teams would lead to the detriment of young German players appear to be entirely unfounded - as the stats after five rounds of action and the first round of the German Cup have shown.
If you enjoy this content or any other other articles on the Taking The Charge substack, don’t forget that little “Subscribe now” button below. By clicking on it, you are certain that you will get an email any time something new is posted on Taking The Charge. If you don’t want to miss anything, then you know what to do.
Proverbial alarm bells were ringing this past off-season in Germany as some in the German basketball scene expressed fears for the game in the country. What happened, you ask? The contingent of Spanish coaches among the 18 easyCredit BBL clubs jumped from two to four - which was two more than the number of German head coaches in the league.
Okay, fear may be a bit over-exaggerating, but some were definitely concerned that clubs were not picking German coaches. Would that impact the playing time for young German players? Well, one thing is certain. It hasn’t had a negative effect.
Let’s take a step back …
With Pete Strobl moving to JobStairs Giessen 46ers, the job at Basketball Löwen Braunschweig opened up, and management of the club owned by German national team star Dennis Schröder brought in Spanish coach Jesus Ramirez. The 41-year-old was not a new face in Germany as he served as an assistant coach at ratiopharm Ulm from 2011 to 2017 - interestingly enough in 2016-17 alongside Strobl as an assistant as well.
The move of Finnish playcaller Tuomas Iisalo to Telekom Baskets Bonn created an opening at Hakro Merlins Crailsheim, who swooped up young German coach Sebastian Gleim. The 37-year-old came up as a coach in the youth ranks at Fraport Skyliners and was Frankfurt’s head coach in 2020-21. With an opening available, Frankfurt decided to go another direction and hired Spanish coach Diego Ocampo.
The 45-year-old Spaniard had been out of a job since being fired from Casademont Zaragoza early on in the 2020-21 season. Ocampo had the previous two seasons been coaching at FC Barcelona’s second team in the LEB Gold and LEB Silver second and third divisions, respectively, and Zaragoza’s slow start did not fit with the club’s high expectations and Ocampo was axed.
One could argue that a third German club chose a Spaniard over a possible German coach as ALBA Berlin handed their coaching reins to Israel Gonzalez when Aito Garcia Reneses decided to take a leave of absence. But Gonzalez had served as the Spanish coaching legend’s assistant in Berlin.
The fourth Spanish coach in the German top flight is Pedro Calles, who is making waves and considered one of the brightest young coaches in European basketball as he has Hamburg Towers in the EuroCup in his second season after accomplishing big things at Rasta Vechta, including guiding the team to the German league Semi-Finals.
18 coaches from 12 different countries
Just as a reference, the second German coach is Denis Wucherer at s.Oliver Würzburg. Besides Strobl at Giessen, there is one other American coach (John Patrick - Ludwigsburg) with other head coaches from Argentina (Rodrigo Pastore - Chemnitz), Austria (Raoul Korner - Bayreuth), Belgium (Roel Moors - Göttingen), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mladen Drijencic - Oldenburg), Italy (Andrea Trinchieri - Bayern), Montenegro (Igor Jovovic - MBC), Netherlands (Johannes Roijakkers Bamberg), Serbia Ignjatovic - Heidelberg) and Slovenia (Jaka Lakovic - Ulm).
Concern about Spanish coaches not giving young Germans playing time however couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the top three clubs in playing time by German U22 players - born in 2000 or later and eligible for the German Young Player of the Year award - are coached by … wait for it … Spaniards.
Frankfurt are the runaway leaders thus far through five rounds of games plus the German Cup first round. Ocampo has given his U22 players 371 minutes 23 seconds. That number would probably be even higher but 2000-born Bruno Vrcic is yet to play this season with a knee injury.
In second place is Braunschweig with Ramirez giving his youngsters 218 minutes and 02 seconds. The playing time could also go up as 2003-born big man Sananda Fru is getting closer and closer to playing his way into the rotation as he is dominating the German U19 NBBL circuit.
Berlin and Gonzalez are third with 158 minutes and 19 seconds split up between his guards Jonas Mattisseck and Malte Delow.
The first non-Spanish coached team is Ludwigsburg. John Patrick has sent his youngsters out on the court for 145 minutes and 32 seconds - two of them being his own sons (2003-born Jacob Patrick and 2001-born Johannes Patrick).
Ulm chime in fifth at 118 minutes 21 seconds with the trio of Fedor Zugic (yeah, yeah, Montenegrin but still am counting the minutes because of the commitment to youth), Moritz Krimmer and Nat Diallo. Interestingly enough, Ulm coach Jaka Lakovic played multiple years in Spain and was an assistant coach at Barcelona, Bilbao and Joventut before taking the offer as head coach at Ulm.
Munich are sixth at 114 minutes and 06 seconds with the duo of Joshua Obiesie and Jason George.
Then comes the fourth Spanish coach with Hamburg and Calles. The coach has given his youngsters 95 minutes and 35 seconds. Most of those have gone to 2001-born German national team playmaker Justus Hollatz, but 2000-born big man Hendrik Drescher could start to get some minutes soon as well as he finally seems to be getting fit.
Where do the two German coaches stack up?
So, you might be wondering … where are the two German coaches?
Wucherer and Würzburg are 11th - though he has given 14 seconds of playing time to both 2003-born Yulian Ramirez Montero and 2004-born Elijah Ndi.
Crailsheim and Gleim meanwhile are 13th with all 7 minutes and 35 seconds going to 2002-born and Serbian native Aleksa Kovacevic, the only player 2000-born or later on the Crailsheim roster.
Crailsheim is also one of six clubs who have not given their young players at least 10 minutes of total playing time this season. Bonn, Chemnitz and Heidelberg in fact do not have a single second of playing time for a player born 2000 or later.
STATS
Frankfurt: 371m 23s (109p 65r 14a 13s 4b) - Lorenz Brenneke (00), Alexander Richardson (03), Bruno Vrcic (00), Len Schoormann (02), Jordan Samare (02), Matthew Meredith (00), Alvin Onyia (00)
Braunschweig: 218m 02s (72p 31r 8a 10s 1b) - Luc van Slooten (02), Brandon Tischler (00), Nicholas Tischler (00), Sananda Fru (03), Jannik Göttsche (00), Simon Roosch (01).
Berlin: 158m 19s (33p 29r 3a 6s 1b) - Jonas Mattisseck (00), Malte Delow (01), Christoph Tilly (03)
Ludwigsburg: 145m 32s (45p 11r 5a 7s 1b) - Lukas Herzog (01), Jacob Patrick (03), Johannes Patrick (01), Eduard Roschnafsky (03)
Ulm: 118m 21s (29p 14r 4a 2s) - Moritz Krimmer (00), Nat Diallo (00), Fedor Zugic (03)
Munich: 114m 06s (23p 17r 3a 2s 2b) - Joshua Obiesie (00), Jason George (01)
Hamburg: 95m 35s (21p 13r 20a 6s) - Justus Hollatz (01), Hendrik Drescher (00), Leif Möller (03)
Giessen: 70m 39s (17p 11r 5a 2b) - Kilian Binapfl (00), Maximilian Begue (01)
Weissenfels: 58m 45s (19p 9r 3a 2s) - Radii Caisin (01), Evans Rapieque (02), Robin Danes (01), Vincent Friederici (01), Hendrik Warner (02)
Bayreuth: 53m 17s (20p 7r 1a 2s 4b) - Kay Bruhnke (01)
Würzburg: 28m 07s (5p 1r 5a) - Julius Böhmer (02), David Gerhard (04), Elijah Ndi (04), Yulian Ramirez Montero (04)
Oldenburg: 17m 35s (8p 3r) - Norris Agbakoko (00), Jerry Ndhine (02), Max Schell (03)
Crailsheim: 7m 35s (2a 1s) - Aleksa Kovacevic (02)
Bamberg: 3m 13s (0 stats) - Elias Baggette (02)
Göttingen: 1m 50s (0 stats) - Marios Giotis (02)
Bonn: 0m 0s (0 stats) - Mark Mboya Kotieno (00), Ralph Hounou (02), Jonas Falkenstein (00), Bruno Albrecht (01), Oshane Drews (01)
Chemnitz: 0m 0s (0 stats) - Nick Lasch (03), Brendan Gregori (04)
Heidelberg: 0m 0s (0 stats) - Anthony Watkins (00)
Findings
Is this a condemnation of non-Spanish coaches or a confirmation that bringing in a Spanish coach is the best thing? No. It’s clearly stating the facts in terms of playing time. Of course, the culture of the club and its approach to youth players play an enormous role in these statistics. And it seems overwhelmingly clear that the management at Berlin, Braunschweig, Frankfurt and Hamburg all feel comfortable with Spaniards handling their young players.
Stats through the first five rounds of the easyCredit BBL and first round of the German Cup (Oct 26, 2021). Stats do not include international competitions - EuroLeague, Basketball Champions League, EuroCup or FIBA Europe Cup.
Note - stats with an empty name mark (see Jonas Mattisseck - 13:29 etc) are the players’ stats in German Cup action.
2nd Note - names included on the list are players 2000-born and later who are listed on the club’s page on the easyCredit BBL website.
