Welcome back to the Taking The Charge Podcast. This week’s interview is with Jesus Ramirez, head coach with Basketball Löwen Braunschweig in Germany. He talks about his journey from outside of Barcelona to Ulm, Germany back to Spain and via Hungary and Poland back to Germany at Braunschweig as head coach.
Before that … let’s take a quick look around the world of basketball with the Big Three
4:00 - Story we are watching - Three more teams will book spots at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2022 as the FIBA U18 South American Championship 2022 is going on in Venezuela.
5:40 - Young player of the week - Fedor Zugic is really playing well for ratiopharm ulm, and the 2003-born Montenegrin was praised by Ulm head coach Jaka Lakovic after the team’s win in the 7DAYS EuroCup.
7:45 - Up-coming event we are watching - The second leg of the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament tips off this Friday in Patras, Greece and there should be a lot of really interesting talent to watch there.
Before we get into the talk with Jesus Ramirez , we would like to give you a sneak peak of the Taking The Charge Prospects Podcast interview with Croatian forward Roko Prkacin from Cibona Zagreb - which is part of the paid subscription section of the TTC substack.
9:30 - Sneak preview of interview
Jesus Ramirez - head coach Basketball Löwen Braunschweig - 17:15
Here is a breakdown of the interview
18:15 - Update on injury to David Krämer … and how he deals with an injury to a major player as a coach
20:20 - About dealing with highs and lows with young players - and losing seven games after having double-digit leads
24:05 - how he sees the state of the team in the home stretch of the season
27:05 - about his beginnings in the game just outside of Barcelona
30:25 - who some of his role models in coaching were growing up
33:20 - how he made the move as a 32-year-old from Spain to Germany and ratiopharm ulm
38:00 - what some of his highlights were during his six seasons at Ulm
42:10 - what made him decide to leave Germany and return to Spain and become an assistant coach at Bilbao
44:55 - how he landed after that season in Hungary at Alba Fehervar
47:15 - Helped Fehervar reach the FIBA Europe Cup Quarter-Finals and had a crazy series with Hapoel Holon - losing by 33 points in the first leg and then finishing the second game regulation with the exact same score but lost in overtime
53:25 - About coaching Spanish playing legend Carlos Cabezas in Hungary
55:45 - Landing at Polish side King Szczecin in December 2020
58:00 - About returning to Germany to take over as head coach at Braunschweig
1:00:25 - About how Germany is seen and recognized outside the country within Europe
1:02:25 - What makes Spanish coaches in Germany have the resilience and willingness to play young German players
1:05:35 - About bringing in Fabien Tellez for the U19 and Regionalliga teams from FC Barcelona’s youth team
1:07:20 - How he learned to tell the difference between identical twins Brandon and Nicholas Tischler and if they ever tried to trick him
1:09:10 - About the Tischler brothers’ development this season
1:10:45 - How the development of Luc van Slooten has been going
1:14:55 - About the development of 2003-born big man Sananda Fru
1:18:00 - How it is working with Dennis Schröder as the team owner and his commitment for the club
Are you looking for more Taking The Charge? Here are the first 300 episodes of Taking The Charge, just click here and head over to heinnews.com.
If you enjoyed this interview or any of the other content on the Taking The Charge substack, please, do yourself a favor and click on that “Subcribe now” button. That way you will not miss any posts when they are published. If you decide to be a paid subscriber, you will get access to the Taking The Charge Prospects podcast as well as the archived editions of the Talking Talent podcast.
Taking The Charge Podcast: Jesus Ramirez, head coach, Basketball Löwen Braunschweig