With three days of the LEB Oro regular league left to play, Movistar Estudiantes and Covirán Granada continue without fail and maintain their fight for direct promotion to the top category. Immediately after in the table, ICG Força Lleida and Bàsquet Girona do not say goodbye to the fight, although the path to return to the elite of men's basketball may be a little longer. They don't lack desire.
Marc Gasol's team (in fourth position) precisely certified their mathematical classification to the LEB Gold Playoffs in the quarterfinals this past Sunday in Fontajau against Força Lleida. The latter (third in the table) is also guaranteed to participate in this phase of the competition.
At the end of the regular season, the two Catalan clubs will start with the home field advantage in their respective quarterfinal matches. The matches in this phase will begin on the 26th and will pit the eight teams classified between second and ninth places against each other in the best of five matches (matches that can be followed through LaLigaSportsTV).
The four winners of each of these four qualifying rounds will meet in the LEB ORO Final Four, where the second ticket to the highest category will be decided between June 18 and 19.
Despite their youth, ICG Força Lleida and Bàsquet Girona share their status as heirs of two historical teams that came to coincide at the top between 2001 and 2005. After the disappearance of their two most representative clubs and their respective refoundations, the two capitals Catalans are vibrating again with two projects based on local talent, which they hope will become the backbone of their respective teams in the not too distant future.
“Lleida has recovered the enthusiasm for basketball after very difficult years. We are all very excited to be able to play and organize Playoffs that we intend to be a celebration for Ilerdense sports, without any pressure and, at the same time, without limits. As our slogan says, in these Playoffs
The Catalan team's project began to be forged in 2012 and goes hand in hand with the other club in the city (CB Lleida, from the Women's League 2) following an integrative model and involved in the territory, which has already been able to attract more than 300 boys and girls in its 30 base teams.
A philosophy and structure very similar to those proposed by Marc Gasol in 2014 for his Escola de Bàsquet that has ended up laying the foundations of the current Bàsquet Girona.
Both clubs pick up the baton of decades of work in historical entities such as the Sícoris Club from Lleida, and in schools such as the Maristes, predecessor of the extinct Club Esportiu Lleida Basquetbol, where illustrious names such as the internationals Jaume Comas, Roger Grimau, Alberto Angulo have paraded or Johnny Rodgers.
In Girona, for its part, the parish center of Sant Josep was the one that served as the seed of a CB Girona, which even won a FIBA EuroCup and which, under different names (Valvi, Casademont, Akasvayu), played for 18 seasons in the highest category, serving as a springboard for a very young Marc Gasol, and bringing together in its ranks players of the stature of Raül López, Jordi Trias, Darryl Middleton or Dusko Ivanovic, among many others.
Living history of Catalan basketball, Girona and Lleida are now re-editing an old classic that could be repeated in the LEB Oro Final Four and that, on an individual level, would pit two of the highest-rated players in the competition: Marc Gasol and Venezuelan forward Michael Carrera, who has become one of the great sensations of the season (17 points and almost 8 rebounds on average).
On the one hand, and after missing the last derby in Fontajau due to suspension, the international 'vinotinto' will return in this decisive stretch of the season to take charge of the team led by Gerard Find, which also has the American shooting guard Mark Hughes and with two young talents on loan from FC Barcelona (the Italian-Argentine point guard Juani Marcos and the Senegalese giant Ibou Badji) as players to watch.
On the other, a Marc Gasol who needs no introduction, and who will be accompanied by seasoned players in the top category such as Albert Sàbat, Txemi Urtasun and Josep Franch; for an Eric Vila who recovers sensations after his serious injury; and by the Argentine shooting guard and world runner-up with the albiceleste, Max Fjellerup.
