Hapoel Tel Aviv's basketball team have mapped out a pre-season itinerary that will take Dimitrios Itoudis's squad through three countries in barely three weeks, ONE reported, ahead of a competitive schedule that opens with two heavyweight fixtures in quick succession.
The trip begins in Bulgaria, where Hapoel will play BC Balkan Botevgrad twice — on August 29 and again on August 31 — giving Itoudis an early chance to test rotations and combinations away from home.
From there the squad moves on to Serbia for a demanding back-to-back: Partizan Belgrade on September 5, followed a day later by FMP, two of the country's established Adriatic League sides.
The most eye-catching stop comes in Sardinia, where Hapoel will take part in the City of Cagliari International Basketball Tournament at the PalaPirastu on September 12 and 13. The event brings together Hapoel, German outfit Bayern Munich, Tony Parker's ASVEL Villeurbanne and the newly formed Italian club Maxima Roma, with Hapoel scheduled to face two of the other three sides.
The preparation window is short. Hapoel's competitive season begins on September 17 with the Israeli Super Cup against city rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Menora Mivtachim Arena, the traditional curtain-raiser to the domestic basketball calendar.
Only a week later, on September 24, Hapoel open their EuroLeague campaign against Bayern Munich — their first taste of the continent's top competition after winning last season's EuroCup, which earned the club promotion. Officially a home fixture, the game will nonetheless be staged in Sofia, where Hapoel have continued to host their European matches because of the security situation in Israel.
That means Itoudis's players will face Bayern Munich twice inside a fortnight — once in the Sardinian tournament and again in the competitive EuroLeague opener — a demanding but useful gauge of where a reshaped roster stands against a genuine continental contender before the results start to count.
