Abegglen hopeful of Milan upset
Haribo London Towers will look to make home advantage count at Crystal Palace on Tuesday for what promises to the trickiest tie of their bid to qualify for the last 32 of this year's Saporta Cup. And the Towers also released unhappy American point guard Randy Duck, who was not on the club's European roster.
Three-time European champions Adecco Milan are the visitors to London and Crespi Marto's side made a convincing start to the competition with 86-67 win over Swedish side Plannja last week.
Towers coach Ron Abegglen will put his men up against the likes of Italy's ex-NBAer Stefano Rusconi and Greek centre Milan Jeremic but is counting on the hosts improving on their narrow 84-88 loss against Split last week.
"To win some of these Saporta Cup games, we have to be at our very best. I thought we were good enough - not great - but good enough, offensively last night to win that game. We only had six turnovers and we have been averaging about 15-17 turnovers, so we have cut down there and made some strides. But we have to improve defensively. We are not going to win a lot of games where we let these good teams shoot over 50% or if they out rebound us. I really feel we are getting better and if I keep encouraging them and challenging them to get better, maybe we will win one or two of these games.
"Rick Taylor's dream is to be one of the best teams in Europe and I support that totally. This is one avenue to be recognised in Europe. We want people to recognise that London Towers are a very good opponent."
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