By Alex Madrid / info@eurohoops.net
Several teams will be fighting for the last spots in the Basketball Champions League playoffs next week while others have already done their homework. MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg showed that they are one of the toughest teams to beat during the regular season and now they are ready for what’s coming.
Thomas Walkup has been a leader for the German squad. After playing for the Windy City Bulls of the NBA G League, the point guard is enjoying his first experience in European basketball as he said to Eurohoops. “I didn’t really have a tone of expectations coming over. I came over and I just wanna do my part, play the best I can and do the things that I do well. I wanna try to help the team win. I think that everybody this year is doing a great job”.
Walkup and Ludwigsburg will try to reach the first spot of Group B next week after securing the homecourt advantage in the Round of 16.
“The Champions League is looking really well for us. We have done a good job up to this point this season taking care of business. We are in second place, we have made the playoffs. We put ourselves in a good spot where we can get into the playoffs and win some games”, said Walkup.
Last season, the German team was one point far from reaching the Final Four. Ludwigsburg won their first game by 5 against the runners-up before trailing by 6 in Banvit. Is reaching the Final Four their main goal?
“If we play hard in playoffs, we play together with effort… if we do that we can beat anybody. I absolutely think that we can reach the Final Four this year. It’s definitely our goal and let see what happens from there”.
Ludwigsburg has only been defeated by the defending champions. Tenerife beat them twice this season but Walkup isn’t worried about this fact. “I don’t think anything is missing from our team this year. I think that we haven’t played well both times that we played them. Them along with the other teams we’ve lost to this year I think that on any given night we can beat those teams for sure”.
With that confidence Walkup doesn’t care about who are they facing in the next round. Group B has been one of the toughest but that’s not a reason to be afraid. “There’s nobody that we care to avoid coming-out the Group C. Who we get is who we get and we are gonna get out there and we are gonna do what we do. That’s how we are gonna approach. We know that it’s about us and about doing the things that we do well to win games”.
Walkup and Dwayne Evans are the most proficient players in one of the best teams in the competition but they rank 50th in efficiency in the BCL. “Our key is absolutely team effort. I think we played really well together as a team. A lot of it is just unselfishness of guys willing to share the ball, pass the ball. Nobody cares who gets the credit. With this team, it’s really fun to play within the system like this. There is so much unselfishness and there are so many guys that are just all about winning”.
Supporting Ludwigsburg and having such a leader as Thomas Walkup must be a relief. The American point guard has one objective in mind and that’s the Basketball Champions League title.
Photo credits: BCL