The men’s play-offs have been both spectacular and surprising so far and the best-of-5 finals series between Amicale and T71 is now ahead of us. National team head coach and FLBB head of basketball Ken Diederich shares his thoughts about the play-offs and the upcoming finals.
The number 7 seed (Amicale) and the number 8 seed (T71) will play in the finals, does it surprise you?
If you look at other leagues, this never happens. Maybe one lower seeded team qualifies for the finals once in a while but this is clearly a special situation. I must say that it is nearly unthinkable that a 7 or 8 seeded team win the title but that will be the case now. It shows that no team has been really strong or dominant all season and that teams from 1-9 have been playing at a similar level, the Musel Pikes could be in the same situation if they had made the play-offs for example.
What are your thoughts about the game 3 thriller in Esch on Sunday?
The final minutes of game 3 between Basket Esch and T71 might not have been brilliant from a basketball standpoint but they were very thrilling and that is what people want to see. Esch was in an excellent situation to win this game at one point (they led by 2 points and had the ball) but could not finish the game as they missed many free-throws. It was clearly a devastating loss for Esch, a team that had a chance to win the double.
Contern and T71 were tied in points after the regular season (9:13 record), now T71 is in the finals and Contern will try to avoid relegation, what does this tell you about our league?
Obviously it tells me that the league is extremely balanced and that there are not really dominant top teams. I thought that Basket Esch and Etzella were the strongest teams on paper and they are surely disappointed with the way they have been playing, especially in the play-offs. Etzella has not played a strong season overall in my opinion, Esch won the cup competition which is nice but the championship title has a higher value.
Which players stood out during the play-offs?
Bobby underlined his JICL MVP title and Joé Kalmes has been playing at a very high level lately to help T71 qualify for the finals, those 2 players are the best JICL players of the play-offs so far. Bobby is by far the best luxembourgish player in the championship and he has proven that this year. Together with Jarvis Williams, the dynamic Amicale backcourt was responsible for their finals run. T71 Dudelange may not have performed well for most part of the season, especially early in the season, but in the play-offs, it became obvious that the quality in the roster is there.
The finals are up next between your ex clubs, is there a favorite?
After what happened in this year’s play-offs, I do not think that you can point out a favorite in this series. I did not expect these 2 teams to compete in the finals and I think it really is a 50:50 matchup. In a best-of-5 series, the adjustments will become extremely important and it will be interesting to watch how both coaches and teams change their game plans. Amicale has home court advantage which is, however, only a very small advantage in my opinion.
What could become the keys in this series?
The duell between Jarvis Williams (Amicale) and Jimmie Taylor (T71) will be a major key. If any of those 2 players can be the best player of the series, their team will be in a good position. Bob Melcher will be hard to defend for Dudelange while Steinsel will be challenged to guard Joé Kalmes under the baskets. This series should become a very thrilling one to watch with 2 teams playing on a very similar level.
