We take a look at the expectations and roster-changes of the teams in the men’s Total League before the start of the 2020/21 season.
Basket Esch
Arrivals/Extensions:
coach Sylvain Lautié stays
Clancy Rugg stays (pro)
Miles Jackson-Cartwright stays (pro)
Departures:
Ben Kovac (Den Helder Suns, starts his professional career)
Basket Esch is the champion of the 2019/20 season, but they are not satisfied with the way they won the title after the season was cancelled. As they have a very similar team than the season before, their only goal can be to defend their title. With Clancy Rugg being the most dominant player in the paint and Jackson-Cartwright being the leader on the floor, everybody knows his role on the team which is a big advantage.
Musel Pikes
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach John Dieckelman
Keith Stone (pro)
Robert Hubbs (pro)
Departures:
Coach Chris Wulff
Laurent Schwartz (career end)
The Musel Pikes just missed a title last season, their goal in this upcoming season can only be to attack the first place in the standings once again. The challenge for the Musel Pikes will be to create the same collective strength that they had last season with their new coach and professional players. Coach Dieckelman is new in Luxembourg as well as both professional players and with Laurent Schwartz, an important role player has ended his career. This season, the Musel Pikes clearly wnant to play in the big games at the end of the season.
T71
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Ken Diederich stays
Jo Hoeser (Amicale)
Steve Harris (pro)
Jimond Ivey (pro)
Departures:
Laurent Majerus (career end)
T71 has always had high ambitions over the last years, their goal is to win titles. With Schumacher and Muller still being great luxembourgish players in the Total League, T71 wants to make a run. Coach Ken Diederich will have 3 key players joining the team. Next to the 2 professional players, Jo Hoeser could be a very important player for the team.
Etzella
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Kresimir Basic stays
Yann Wolff (Amicale, returns to his former club)
Henry Pwono (pro)
Austin Burgett (pro)
Departures:
Mathis Wolff (Sparta)
Last season came to an end when Etzella was starting to find its rhythm. This season, they clearly want to find the right professional players earlier and play a strong role from the start. Coach Basic will enter another season, the key JICL players are still there and Yann Wolff has returned to his former club so that their roster is clearly capable of being a contender in the Total League.
Racing
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Torbjörn Gehrke (Sweden)
Bob Melcher (returns from studies abroad, lastly played in Steinsel)
Max Hilger (returns from studies abroad)
Jordan Giles (only professional player on the team)
Chris Scholtes (Amicale)
Sam Ney returns from retirement
Departures:
Coach Philip Dejworek (Mondorf)
Scott Morton (Bascharage)
Olivier Braun (Preizerdaul)
The club from the capital has been the winner of this year’s off-season. They landed key player Bob Melcher who returned to Luxemborg after studying/playing in Germany for a couple years. Max Hilger, Sam Ney and Chris Scholtes could all 3 become key players as the team will only play with 1 professional player. This decision (to play with 1 pro) will bring a great challenge to the team of newly acquired coach Torbjörn Gehrke. It will be very interesting to see how they can compete against other teams.
Arantia
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Christophe Ney
Gilles Poos (East Side Pirates)
Chidi Delhommais (Etzella)
Tyrell Sturdivant (pro)
Duane Johnson (pro, joins from Black Star Mersch)
Departures:
Coach Brian Carroll
Arantia is trying to establish itself in the middle of the standings in the first league. For a club that played in the Nationale 3 a few years ago, the improvement has been impressive over the last years. This season, some things have changed: Christophe Ney will coach the team and 2 professional players have been added. However, Sturdivant and Johnson know the country and the level of play since they played in Luxembourg before so that this could be an advantage for the club, especially early in the season.
Heffingen
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Daniel Brandão stays
Denell Stephens stays (pro)
Milik Yarbrough (pro)
Christopher Jones (Gréngewald)
Departures:
Yves Bellwald (career end)
Heffingen has played a very strong last season and wants to build on last year’s good results. Their qualification for the play-offs was one of the biggest surprises of last season in the Total League. The challenge for coach Brandao will be to refocus and repeat the success of last season. The addition of Christopher Jones is huge on the paper, if he can reach his potential from past years, he could be a big addition and one of the main scorers of the team or even in the league. The team’s energizer Denell « Nelly » Stephens is on board for another year as the team will try to once again avoid the fight against relegation at the end of the season. A lot will depend on second professional player Yarbrough and especially his ability to score.
Sparta
Arrivals/Extensions:
coach Pascal Meurs stays
Mathis Wolff (Etzella)
Miles Bowman Jr. (pro)
Chaed Wellian (pro)
Departures:
Dean Gindt (Résidence)
Sparta’s plan is to build a young team for the future while being competitive at the same time. Coach Pascal Meurs took over during last season and now has had a full preparation with the team. While Sparta will lean on Koster to take over responsibility late in games, young players like Verbeelen, Feipel, Arendt and others want to make the next step in their development. The goal for the team in Bertrange should be to reach the play-offs and compete with the best teams in the league.
Contern
Arrivals/Extensions:
coach Gavin Love stays
Jerome Frink (pro)
Mike McCall (pro)
Departures:
Tim Steffen (career end)
Yann Weirig (Mondorf)
Contern has disappointed last season. Before the season 19/20 ended, there was little hope that the club would remain in the Total League. However, they are still there and want to improve. With 2 new professional players, Contern is looking to surprise some teams. With Andjelkovic taking over more responsibility and Birenbaum continuing to be the team’s leader, Contern is clearly looking to play a much better season in the 20/21 season.
Amicale Steinsel
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Etienne Louvrier stays
Christian Cunningham (pro)
Amin El Amrani (Sweden)
Departures:
Yann Wolff (Etzella)
Max Schmit (Kordall)
Jo Hoeser (T71)
Bob Melcher (Racing, did not play for Amicale in 19/20)
Yannic Hoek (Résidence)
A lot of things have changed during the summer in Steinsel as their starting 5 from last season is gone. Both professional players and their 3 luxembourgish starters (Hoeser, Schmit and Wolff) have left the club, so that you could talk about a « restart » in Steinsel. It is now time for young players to develop and take over more and more resposibility. With their young team, the main goal has to be to get better game by game and try to stay in the league at the end of the season which will be a tough challenge.
Résidence Walfer
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Alexis Kreps stays
Yannic Hoek (Amicale)
Dean Gindt (Sparta)
Laquincy Rideau (pro)
Adam Eberhard (pro)
Departures:
/
Résidence has made some noise last season by playing in the cup semi-finals as a team from the Nationale 2. They have played a solid season in the Nationale 2 and managed to promote, now the real challenge begins in the highest league. Coach Kreps stays on board while both professional players are new. Résidence can play with a very tall team, especially after the addition of Dean Gindt from Sparta and with national team center Xavier Robert-Francois. A lot is possible in Walferdange as the team has a lot of talent on the paper.
Telstar Hesper
Arrivals/Extensions:
Coach Gabor Boros stays
Tom Vodanovich (pro)
Christian Williams (pro)
Departures:
/
Telstar has not made any JICL roster moves in the off-season and they have been waiting very long with the addition of professional players so that the team practiced most of the pre-season only with their non-professional players. After their strong season in the Nationale 2, they will now get a chance to compete against the strongest teams from the country while their first goal is clearly to stay in the league.
–> On the first game-day, all 6 games will be played on Saturday the 26th of September:
Heffingen – T71
Sparta – Etzella
Contern – Résidence
Racing – Telstar
Musel Pikes – Arantia
Basket Esch – Amicale
Season preview women –> Saison-Virschau bei den Dammen (+ Video-Interview mam Thierry Kremer)
