The Nationale 2 season is coming to an end and everything in the second highest league has already been decided during the last weeks. Therefore, we analyze what happened this season that finished with two traditional clubs coming back to the elite while the oldest club of the country has been relegated to the Nationale 3.
As expected before the season in our preview, US Heffingen promoted back to the Total League after dominating the Nationale 2 from the beginning to the end. The team of coach Mark Reed , who saw his contract extended, played a good rotation without having one JICL player really standing out. Reggie Fuller (198-F-86, college: Binghamton) was a guarantee on both ends of the court while DeLeon Hines (185-PG, college: Incarnate Word) was a bit more erratic at moments and will be replaced. However, Heffingen needs to add some talent for next season if they want to play a certain role in the Total League as they do not have really high-level individual players in their roster even if 2013/2014 should be the real breakout year for the young Tim Schmit.
Coming from the Nationale 3, BBC Arantia Larochette was looked at a bit like a wildcard before the season. We estimated that they were capable to qualify for the Top 6 but going directly to the Total League is somehow a surprise. However, Paul Missavage had certainly some of the best players in his team with Mike Jones (203-F/C-83, college: N.Texas); our clear-cut MVP of the season; and Rui Nunes (PG) but an injury plagued winter hurt them badly. The addition of Joston Thomas (200-F-89, college: Hawaii) for the Playoffs was the necessary boost for the final run even if the Hawaii alumnus did not always play to the satisfaction of the staff. Now the team from Larochette needs to focus and do the right moves if they do not want to be a one-hit wonder in the Total League next season.
After finishing fourth last season, Grengewald Hostert was in the race for the Total League during a long stretch of the season. The guys around Karel Achten, who will leave the team after the season, played a great regular season where they finished ahead of Arantia in the standings. But the injury of Gilles Kayser was certainly the key turning point for the Greens and they could not continue on their pace during the playoffs. Kirk Crecco and Nick Harrington had too much of the scoring load on their shoulders which ended up in the large home defeat against Arantia that sealed more or less the outcome of the season. Now with a new head coach coming in, Grengewald has clearly announced that the goal for 2013/14 is to promote to the Total League.
Racing had some problems to start the season when the team coached by Louis Wennig lost seven games in a row after their two opening wins. Built around a core of young and local talent and the versatile US forward Scott Morton, Racing got a boost when they added James Lewis during the season who helped them to qualify for the Top6 and save their spot in the Nationale 2. The executives of the club want to build something on the long term so that this season can be considered as a success as most of the players still lack the experience of the high level. Wennig will certainly work hard with his young team during the summer to continue the progress and be ready for a 2013/14 season.
The team from Mondorf, that got some roster reinforcement from Sparta before the season finally finished at the 5th spot. Driven by an aging but still scoring Yves Braun, the team from the South-East managed to avoid the Playdowns quite easily but did not really have the ambitions to attack the Top 3. A one-game addition of a second American in the Playoffs looked like a sign but it was not for the long term. However, the responsible persons of Avanti need to clarify what are their goals for the next seasons and see if the Sparta players come back on loan.
The season of BC Mess was some kind of controversy as the team from Mondercange played several games with three non-JICL players while also claiming to be the hotspot for Youth development in the South. The main goal was to stay in the League which could be reached by finishing at the sixth place of the regular season but a poor Play-off run with only one non-JICL professional looked a bit strange. Considering that Jo Hoeser missed the whole season, the result can still be considered as good as it gave the possibility to young players like Filip Stojanovic or Vincent Sunnen to emerge.
After being close to the top in 2011/2012, the Bascharage Hedgehogs came back to reality this season after the departure of Ivan Tomas to Walferdange. A coaching change and several moves on the non-JICL spots later, the Hedgehogs stayed in the League quite easily in the end even if this was not so sure before the Playdowns. The team decided to play with three professionals during the last games in order to give their youngsters another season on the N2 level which worked out quite well. Christophe Flammang has a lot of work for the next season if he wants to improve his team to a level that they can compete again for the Top 6 spots in the Nationale 2.
Playing the whole season with 3 non-JICL players, the Red Miners Kayldall did the best they possibly could with their limited roster. The rejuvenation of Laurent Mreches was certainly a positive factor for a team that had a quite limited roster in terms of the number of players available. With James Cochran, they had one of the better non-JICL players of the whole League while their twin towers Arpad Buzasi and Dimitri Jorssen put some teams in trouble. The question is what does the future look like for the Red Miners and no major talent seems to come up from the Youth ranks in the next years.
What a disastrous season it was for BBC Nitia in 2012/13. After being relegated from the Total League, the team continued with their head coach and a roster that did not see that many changes on the JICL spots. However, the chemistry never seemed to work and multiple changes on the non-JICL spots did not give the team the necessary stability either. Bettembourg finished the season with probably the worst combo of foreign players in the league and the severe defeats in the playdowns only underlined that nothing really worked out as expected for the oldest club in the country. Now, it is the time for rebuilding a new team in the Nationale 3 as certainly some of the veterans will end their career.
This season in the Nationale 2was probably a bit too early for the young Telstar team. The club from Hesperange is currently building up a large youth program and the first names are coming out on the big stage this season. However, it was not enough to stay in the League as Telstar also did not have the necessary support of two strong non-JICL players as they went with the lonely Chris McSwain over long periods of the season. A coaching change during the season was not positive either so that Telstar will re-start their process in the Nationale 3 next season where they can however be considered as one of the favorites for a direct re-promotion to the Nationale 2.
Source: basketnews.lu
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