Basketball / Hapoel Jerusalem looking sharp in pre-season tour

Hapoel Jerusalem is shaping up to challenge Maccabi Tel Aviv in the coming season. "We need to be in shape by the end of October," coach Dan Shamir said recently, and to judge by its opening preseason game, the team is ahead of schedule.

Hapoel beat Domzale of Slovenia 92-81 earlier this week, even though its playmaker, Ed Cota, played only two minutes because of injury.

One of the question marks hanging over Shamir's new-look roster is how power forward Jurica Golemac will suit the game of center Mario Austin, Jerusalem's most effective tool in offense last season.

A Croat commentator recently advised Shamir to use Golemac in a similar role to that of Nikola Vujcic at Maccabi Tel Aviv. "Golemac is a power forward and not a center, but he is most effective passing the ball from around the free-throw line, just like Nikola Vujcic at Maccabi Tel Aviv. If Shamir uses Golemac as a center against zone defense, he will get smart game management out of him and a lot of assists for Mario Austin.

The game against Domzale showed that expectations of Shamir's adopting a similar style to Maccabi of last season, where he was assistant coach under Pini Gershon, were not out of place.

Mehemet Becirovic, coach of Domzale, was impressed by what he saw. "Hapoel's defense is very dynamic with a lot of match-up zone, just like Maccabi. The movement of the players on the court is very impressive, and I was surprised by the chemistry between them at such an early stage. We played recently against Pini Gershon's Olympiacos and against Efes Pilsen and Jerusalem impressed me more than both of them. Tamar Slay looked good, Timmy Bowers was outstanding and Dror Hajaj and Matan Naor were in good shape. Golemac brought down a lot of rebounds against us and worked Austin really well. Dan Shamir was in control of the game and changed his defense a lot. He doesn't look like a guy in his first year as head coach."

Meanwhile Hapoel added another win last night, beating last season's Slovenian runner-up Slovan 87-68.