The most hailed club in Germany of recent years (Moscow Region’s own Ademola Okulaja participated in various winning games with the Albatrosses), and not long ago the leading champion of the Alba Club of Berlin, lost in the match against Khimki: 77-82 (16-22, 15-24, 18-12, 28-24). The Berlin team, with three Cup victories, has no room for losses to get a chance to go to the playoffs.


With the intention of undertaking the day’s work


Head Coach for BC Khimki, Sergey ELEVICH asserts:

— The club needs a victory in the German capital city, which will clear the way for the playoffs. We travel to Berlin to win. The match for the ULEB CUP demands total concentration, which we lacked last Saturday, and was the cause for our player’s inability to follow through on the plans the coaches had drafted for the CSKA match.

— Nonetheless, I am sure the game against the Russian and Euro League champion was an excellent antidote against the lack of game practice. I certainly was mistaken to not have played against the second team on the eve of the first official game of the year.

But, faced with the all important Berlin match, the down time for Torres, Okulaja, and Gorenc was quite significant…

— It's possible that the lack of game practice for these players will bear down. But, I can not deprive the boys of long awaited vacations. We gave them a break. I am sure we didn’t make any mistake, and we will see it there. Ademola comes into the game in a marvelous way, even in short bouts, so I don’t think that will affect him. Oscar does not flinch, and this basketball trio is a seasoned one. And though I am inclined towards the Russian players, all the same, from personal experience I know that in the Euro Cups, you can not get far without foreign players.


They became only leaders

On Saturday as part of the 15th day of the German Bundesleague championship, the capital city club beat out the home team in Trier, situated at mid-table, TBB Trier: 84-76 (22-22, 25-18, 20-16, 17-20). Among the visiting teams, the top scorers were Julius Jenkins: 24 points (3-pointers 4/5), Johannes Herber and Nicolai Simon scored 11 points each, Ruben Boumtje Boumtje: 10, Chris Owens: 9, Nenad Canac and Koko Archibong: 7 each, Chris Ford: 5 + 9 rebounds. After this victory, the Berliners went on to become the only leaders: 13/2. They were followed by: EnBW of Ludwigsburg: 12/3 and in the third place Euro League club, Rhein Energie from Köln: 11/3.


Meet the opponent

Should one of the strongest clubs in a given country be located in the capital? Well, yes, and that is what happened, but not until 1991, when previously Alba was known as DTV Charlottenburg and were based in the small town from where they got their name. They packed up for the capital city after an initiative of their official sponsor, a refinery company. Here the era of the Albatross begins in German b-ball.

During its first season as Berliners, the team one the silver medal in the Bundesleague (the most resounding success of Charlottenburg had been fourth place in the 1986 Korac Cup). The players from this team made up the core of the German National Team, winning the gold in the 1993 European Championship. Among the players defending Alba’s colors — yellow, navy and light blue, over the different seasons are: Henrik Rödl (current coach for the team), Jorg Lutcke, Patrick Femerling and Sasha Obradovic, Günther Behnke and Uwe Blab, Teoman Öztürk, and Marco Pesic, Teoman Alibegovic, and Ademola Okulaja.

Later Alba demonstrated their performance in the National Championship gaining:

1995 – 2nd place
1997 – 1st place
2002 – 5th place
2003 – 2nd place
2004 – 1st place
2005 – 1st place
2006 — 1st place


Besides the mere seven leading titles as National Champion, they simultaneously clinched four victories in the National Cup during seasons, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2006.

Alba was the emblem for German basketball in Europe for many years. After their 1994/95 Korac Cup victory they went on to participate in the FIBA European Club Championships three years running, reaching the quarter finals in 2001, along with their three seasons making the ULEB League, though they failed to garner any laurels for the first two.

This season the team has boosted their ranks by more than half, signing on 10 new players. Their most renowned sign on being the Serbian veteran center position, Jovo Stanojevic. Playing now for five years with the team, this season-start he is out with an injury, and was replaced in the front line with the North American rookies on the team: Jenkins, Avery, Owens, and Ford.

Alba (Berlin, Germany)

	Johannes HERBER	Guard	1983	197	Germany
6	Matej MAMIC	Forward	1975	203	Croatia
7	Philip ZWIENER	Forward	1985	198	Germany
8	Chris OWENS	Forward	1979	204	USA
9	Jovo STANOJEVIC	Center	1977	207	Serbia
10	Demond GREENE	Guard	1979	185	USA/Germany
11	Julius JENKINS	Guard	1981	187	USA
12	Yannick EVANS	Forward	1986	202	Germany
13	Nenad CANAC	Forward	1976	204	Serbia
15	Nikolai SIMON	Guard	1987	191	Germany
19	Oskar Faßler	Guard	1988	198	Germany
20	Koko ARCHIBONG	Guard	1981	202	Nigeria/USA
21	William AVERY	Guard	1979	188	USA
25	Sharrod FORD	Forward	1982	206	USA
44	Ruben Boumtje Boumtje	Center	1978	212	Cameroon

Head Coach: Henrik RÖDL
Coaches: Calvin OLDHAM and Konstantin LWOWSKI