Two weeks after the start of the season in the bundesliga and the opening victory against freiburg, the basketball players of DJK brose bamberg have landed on the hard ground of reality. In their first home game, coach steffen dauer’s team conceded a stinging 51-73 (24:38) defeat to the girolive-panthers osnabruck in front of 500 spectators at the stauffenberghalle on saturday. From the start, the hostesses did not manage to get much going. In the end, they hit 26 percent of their shots from the field.

An avoidable ball loss here, a carelessly missed basket there – and on the other side an opponent, who – even if not overpowering – played his game in a straightforward and concentrated manner. All in all, too much to get out of the hole they had dug for themselves in the few phases in which a turnaround would have been possible. "We actually thought after the first game of the season that we had moved on.

A performance like that in your own hall in front of a great crowd naturally hurts a lot", said the dejected trainer dauer. "Especially in the first half we didn’t show enough aggressiveness and intensity. Offensively, we were too often caught up in individual actions instead of solving the problem as a team, and defensively that was not enough either. We can do better, the players show it day after day in training. But it’s no use if we don’t put it into practice in the game as well. You can’t win a game with 26 percent shooting and 51 points scored."

The nine-time german champion brose bamberg had invited together with the BBC coburg to the rough elementary school basketball day in rodental. There, the clubs gave more than 200 children an insight into franz’s favorite sport. The event was organized by the brose bamberg association. At the basketball taster course for elementary school students in the city of vesta, the program included not only the basic skills of the sport, such as ball handling, throwing and basket shots, but also coordination and athletic content. In addition to the time-honored coordination ladder – known to many from soccer – the third and fourth graders from the elementary schools in rodental, monchroden and einberg were able to participate in the "ice marathon," for example proving their balance. Together with their teachers, the children spent around two hours learning about the sport of basketball and eliciting the best tips and tricks with the orange leather from the brose youth coaches.
With such a large number of kids willing to play basketball, the BBC coburg naturally did not miss the opportunity to take part in the event. Youth coordinator yasin turan and jo wunder, co-coach of the coburg professional team, stood at the stations and took a close look at the young talent.

When TSV bad konigshofen plays TTC neu-ulm this thursday at 7 p.M. In the ninth preliminary round match of the tischtennis-bundesliga (TTBL), it will be exactly 46 days since the last league match between the two opponents with the same points – and that in the middle of the season.

Officials, athletes and fans can twist and turn as they like when it comes to bringing this highly interesting sport out of its niche existence and more into the public eye: six and a half weeks off, then three games within six days, that's counterproductive. But the world governing body ITTF and especially the pecuniary dominance of china are closing many doors for the TTBL due to a glut of international tournaments and only a few time slots.

Leading wolf and pack of young players

Neu-ulm and bad konigshofen have two fundamentally different structures and economic opportunities. Among other things with the consequence that the TSV has four players for the three-team under contract, the TTC their five. "Our possibilities for tactical positioning and predictions about the outcome of the game are therefore very limited.", kilian ort points out.