The players who make up the team have gained enough experience at international competitions, both together and individually, yet the 2017 edition of Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger feels like a true admission test for the Old School. Under the Romanian flag, the Old School players were one step away from the semis at Poitiers – in the qualification tournament that would have granted them tickets for the European Championship. They stumbled against the Netherlands, losing in extra-time a match that could have given those players the much-needed confidence and reassure them that they can measure up to much more powerful opponents.
Two consecutive victories in the Sport Arena Streetball national tour, both achieved after defeating arch-rival Rahova’s Finest, should provide a starting point for the Old School to build on during the Bucharest Challenger weekend, after the less successful showing in the World Championship, in France.
Star player: Marius Ciotlăuș
The young small forward, only 21 years of age, was Romania’s top scorer at the World Championships in France, with 21 points in four matches. Marius has the qualities needed to put himself in a throwing position. At 1,94 meters, his penetration force and skills grant him advantage in one-on-one play against sportsmen covering the same position.
In four of the five editions of Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger, the Romanian teams that managed to reach at least the semifinals had one player in common: Angel Santana. The Old School, as well as all the other Romanian teams on the roster, will try to get through to the final stages of the competition.
Trying to accomplish this goal, Ciotlăuş will join forces with Mihai Văcărescu – who made the team that represented Bucharest at FIBA 3×3 World Tour Madrid – back in 2012, with Bogdan Cezar Sandu – who came one step short from qualifying to the World Tour alongside Sălăjean Hustlers, in 2013, when he lost the Bucharest Challenger final to Novi Sad, 9-11 and with Bogdan Stăncuţ, the man responsible for the team’s latest success in the national tour.
Previous Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger participation: 2016
Best result: faza grupelor, 2016
