Luca Banchi's first EuroLeague night back in charge of Olimpia Milano comes with precious little room for a gentle introduction. Milan have won just once in ten European games and lost eight straight. On Thursday, 12 November, they welcome a Žalgiris Kaunas side that's won four in a row. A change of coach has given Milan a new voice; beating a 6–4 opponent with one of the competition's strongest frontcourts would give that voice an immediate result.
The sharpest problem is at the basket. Milan's official match preview identifies Žalgiris as the EuroLeague's leading rebounding team and the side conceding the fewest offensive boards. Jonas Valančiūnas is averaging 12.8 points and 8.4 rebounds in fewer than 22 minutes. Milan, meanwhile, will be without centre Devin Booker, although versatile wing Leandro Bolmaro is available. That leaves Banchi needing more than a token body on Valančiūnas: early contact, weak-side help and five players committed to finishing defensive possessions.
Žalgiris have just shown what that discipline can look like. In their 83–67 win away to Beşiktaş on 6 November, the Lithuanian side won the rebounding count 47–39 and committed only ten turnovers. They outscored Beşiktaş 25–14 in the second quarter and 17–13 in the third, turning a three-point first-quarter edge into an 18-point lead before the final period. That's the danger for Milan: an opponent that doesn't need a wild shooting burst to create separation.
Nor can the home side simply collapse into the paint. Carsen Edwards is averaging 15.3 points, while Sterling Brown has been an efficient outside option. Ąžuolas Tubelis supplies another 11.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Žalgiris can work through Valančiūnas inside, then punish slow recoveries on the perimeter. Milan's defensive choices have to be connected rather than heroic — contain the first action, help without abandoning shooters, and secure the miss.
Banchi knows the urgency. At his 9 November introduction, the returning coach spoke about restoring a shared purpose between the players, staff and supporters. He previously led Milan from 2013 to 2015, and his first home EuroLeague game during that spell was also against Žalgiris. The symmetry is neat, but the current numbers are far less romantic: Milan's latest European outing ended in a 73–84 home defeat to Valencia, even if an 88–86 domestic win over Trento offered a small lift afterwards.
There's a useful basketball test hidden inside the bigger coaching story. Milan don't have to reinvent their attack in one week to make this competitive. They do have to stop giving away extra possessions and prevent Žalgiris from dictating every half-court exchange. With Booker unavailable, the work of Moses Wright and Milan's supporting forwards on the glass becomes especially important; so does Bolmaro's capacity to help across positions.
Tip-off is 8.30pm in Milan on Thursday. For Banchi, the first visible sign of progress won't necessarily be a spectacular scoring run. It'll be a string of stops that end with a rebound, followed by organised attacks that make Žalgiris defend for the full possession. Against this opponent, that's how a fresh start earns its credibility.
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