Stories of the 2023-24 EuroLeague season: FC Barcelona deliver a powerful blow to Virtus Bologna at Palau Blaugrana

Tumutulous summers turned into terrific starts to the EuroLeague season for both FC Barcelona and Virtus Bologna. On a beautiful Wednesday night in Barcelona, the Spanish club blew the doors off Bologna in this one by a final score of 84-57. Nicolas Laprovittola and Willy Hernangomez led the way on offense with 16 and 17 points respectively, and Tomas Satoransky locked up Marco Belinelli, holding the Italian sharpshooter to 1/7 from deep.

Bologna was 4-of-25 from 3 as a team on the night. But while this game had an impact on the standings — Barcelona has solidified their second-place position once more and Bologna fell from third to fifth — both teams' seasons have been about much more than any one game no matter how important.

Barcelona lost Nikola Mirotic, Cory Higgins, and head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius this summer. Bologna lost Milos Teodosic and head coach Sergio Scariolo. Expectations for both teams ranged from securing a playoff spot to potentially missing out on the play-in (we were incorrectly low on both teams in our season preview, like wayyyyyy too low). 

For Barcelona, their departures were met with notable additions such as Jabari Parker and Willy Hernangomez — two names familiar to NBA fans. As well as Dario Brizuela and Joel Parra — two names familiar to ACB fans. All commendable players in their own right, but none of them are Nikola Mirotic, arguably the best basketball player in the world not in the NBA. 

Jasikevicius was replaced by Roger Grimau, a former FC Barcelona player who lifted the EuroLeague championship with the Catalan club in 2010. For the impressive career Grimau had as a player, his coaching resume was light. He was not only a rookie EuroLeague head coach but had never taken charge of a European team in one of the top domestic leagues. Hometown credentials are nice, but doubters worried they were covering up a great dearth of experience that could go south quickly. 

Instead, the season started well. Barcelona won their first four games before losing the first Clasico of the EuroLeague season to Real Madrid. A 6-2 stretch over their next eight games followed before disappointing back-to-back defeats at the hands of Milano and ALBA Berlin. 

Rumors circled about Grimau’s job security. Barcelona bounced back once more, winning five of their next six including a key home victory in the second El Clasico of the season. But heading into this matchup with Bologna for second place in the EuroLeague standings, Barcelona has lost two in a row — again to Milano and by 24 points to Anadolu Efes. For a team that’s looked like a near EuroLeague Final Four lock, the season has felt like more of a rollercoaster ride than a paddle down the river. 

Grimau has had to handle all of this as a rookie head coach, his introduction to this job has been far from forgiving yet he has managed to deliver results in spite of that. A potential testament to what the future could hold for him and Barcelona should they decide to bet on his impressive performance in less-than-ideal circumstances for this season, regardless of how it ends. 

“We’ve seen the concentration and determination level of the team,” Grimau said at the postgame press conference. “We try to have the same energy every night, it’s hard in EuroLeague. We had a tougher time at some points but now we have a good physical shape and hopefully, we stay like this and go upwards for the rest of the season. There will be ups and downs, and hopefully more ups than downs.”

Grimau was not the only head coach in this game in his first year on the job. Luca Bianchi is no stranger to EuroLeague basketball and international hoops at large, but it had been nearly a decade since he coached a EuroLeague team before taking over Bologna a month before the season began. 

Banchi picked up where he left off with Latvia at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Leading another team to defy expectations. After a disappointing loss to Zalgiris to start the season, Bologna won five in a row. A loss to Real Madrid followed and then they won six out of eight. 

Led by an MVP-level season from Tornike Shengelia, the backcourt that continues to defy father time in Daniel Hackett and Marco Belinelli, and another impressive season from French wing Isaia Cordinier Bologna are right at the top of the standings with Barcelona and back where they’ve always belonged: among EuroLeague’s best. The journey here, while quick, was not easy or linear, and to stay here will be an even taller task. 

“We had good vibes from the beginning of the season and for most of the season,” Banchi told FanSided in the postgame press conference. “Now we enter February and it’s a month where we will play the domestic cups where we will have the national team windows so still, it’s a lot. We have some history on our back despite it’s a weird season but the first month shows that if tonight, Jan. 31, we are in Barcelona, facing Barcelona and sharing the same position in the standings it means something.” 

“It’s time for me to keep the guys together, conscious that difficult moments are part of the path of a team but it's also my job to give everybody the direction and the confidence that we will find a way to respond and to bounce back at the level of basketball and effort and energy and consistency that we already prove to be capable of,” he added.

Being in the top four or in contention through 24 rounds of EuroLeague action makes making the tournament in May a goal. But the likes of Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos have swooped into the mix, and Mike James’ Monaco is not far behind. 

If Barcelona and Bologna want to play for it all in Berlin, Grimau and Banchi will need to do everything they can to make sure their teams are playing their best basketball when it counts. That’s easier said than done, but they’ve already proven they’re capable of doing so this season. Let’s see if they deliver again in April and May.