2018–19 Círculo Gijón season

The 2018–19 Círculo Gijón season was the second in existence and their debut in the professional basketball, after achieving one of the vacant places in LEB Plata, third division, after the expansion. The club was called TeslaCard Círculo Gijón for sponsorship reasons.

TeslaCard Círculo Gijón
2018–19 season
ChairmanIván Menéndez
Head coachNacho Galán
ArenaPalacio de Deportes
LEB Plata19th (relegated)
PIR leaderShane Osayande
18.4
Scoring leaderSaúl Blanco
15.3
Rebounding leaderShane Osayande
9.4
Assists leaderSaúl Blanco
2.9
Highest home attendance1,600
Círculo 57–58 Juaristi ISB
(30 December 2018)
Lowest home attendance600
Círculo 63–59 Clavijo
(14 November 2018)
Average home attendance1,075

Overview

Pre-season

After failing to promote to Liga EBA in the club's first season, Círculo Gijón achieved one of the eight places created after the expansion of the LEB Plata from 16 to 24 teams.[1]

Despite the sporting failure, Nacho Galán, owner, decided to continue as head coach and only former NBA player Robert Swift and Junior Johnson continued in the club. With the aim to promote Asturian players, Círculo Gijón signed four of them: former ACB and EuroLeague player Saúl Blanco, former LEB Plata Javier Menéndez, Alejandro Rubiera from local Liga EBA team Gijón Basket and Ángel Moro, who played two years ago also at Gijón Basket.

First stage

On 6 October 2018, Círculo Gijón beat Ávila Auténtica Carrefour "El Bulevar" in their debut in the professional basketball by 75–67.[2] Four days later, the team lost their first match by wasting the work made in the first half against Quesería La Antigua CB Tormes with a disastrous third quarter, lost by 8–25. Osayande was the best player by performing 18 points and 12 rebounds and Nelson Yengue made his debut with the team. The week ended with the first home loss, against Basket Navarra Club. Despite winning the first quarter by 16 points, with nine three-points shots made, Navarra won the match thanks to a shot of Carles Marzo with only nine-tenths of a second left.

The bad streak continued on 21 October, at Azpeitia, with a 74–72 loss against Juaristi ISB after an overtime. With this third loss, Círculo Gijón was dropped to the last position of the Group West.

On 12 December, Círculo Gijón announced the come back of former Gijón Baloncesto point guard Rubén Suárez, that played with the club in the previous season. Subsequently, Junior Johnson was waived. In his first match, Círculo Gijón beat Quesería La Antigua CB Tormes by 78–66, continuing the team's good streak at home, with three consecutive wins. On 30 December, Círculo Gijón lost in the last second against Juaristi ISB in a match where point guard Ángel Moro was injured for the rest of the season. This was the first match of South African Pieter Prinsloo that, despite being signed in August, could not play with the club due to bureaucratic problems.

On 19 January, Círculo Gijón lost a very controversial home match against Aquimisa Laboratorios Queso Zamorano. After being losing by 14 points at the end of the third quarter, the Geometrics took the lead of the game when, with 1:30 left, Saúl Blanco was disqualified as being called an unsportsmanlike foul to him and a technical foul to Zamora player Anthony Libroia, thus meaning the visitors having one more free shot and recovering the possession.

One week later, despite losing at Bodegas Rioja Vega, Shane Osayande was named MVP of the week with a Performance Index Rating of 30.[3]

Círculo Gijón ended the first stage with three consecutive wins for reaching the ninth position with nine wins and 13 losses. The club would start the group for avoiding the relegation with six wins and four losses.

Second stage

Círculo Gijón started the second stage with a huge home win against Arcos Albacete Basket by 79–62. Osayande, with 19 points 20 rebounds and four blocks, was chosen MVP of the week.[4] However, the injury of Saúl Blanco, which only played a couple of minutes in the win against Albacete, dropped the team to the relegation positions after six consecutive losses.

Point guard Davy Baltus was fired in the week previous to the match of the seventh round against Torrons Vicens CB L'Hospitalet, that meant the come back of Saúl Blanco and a new win by beating the Catalans by a huge 86–52. However, despite winning four of the last five games, Círculo Gijón could not avoid relegation.

Saúl Blanco was named member of the team of the season.[5]

Players

Squad information

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

TeslaCard Círculo Gijón roster
PlayersCoaches
Pos.No.Nat.NameHt.Age
PG 6 Baltus, Davy 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 29 – (1991-10-22)22 October 1991
SF 21 Blanco, Saúl 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 35 – (1985-05-16)16 May 1985
C 11 Đorđević, Nemanja 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 25 – (1995-05-10)10 May 1995
PG 0 Johnson, Junior 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) 31 – (1989-09-05)5 September 1989
SG 14 Kimbrough, Martyce 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 25 – (1996-01-08)8 January 1996
PF 12 Menéndez, Javier 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 23 – (1997-08-05)5 August 1997
PG 3 Moro, Ángel  1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 27 – (1993-10-11)11 October 1993
PF 22 Osayande, Shane 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 28 – (1993-01-20)20 January 1993
C 34 Prinsloo, Pieter 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 29 – (1992-01-07)7 January 1992
SG 7 Rubiera, Alejandro 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 22 – (1998-04-17)17 April 1998
PG 10 Suárez, Rubén (C) 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) 43 – (1978-01-14)14 January 1978
C 31 Swift, Robert 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) 35 – (1985-12-03)3 December 1985
SF 23 Yengue, Nelson 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 28 – (1992-03-01)1 March 1992
Head coach
  • Nacho Galán
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Injured

In

From the previous season, only Robert Swift and Junior Johnson continued in the club. Rubén Suárez came back during the season after his retirement.

Pos.Nat.NameAgeMoving fromDateSource
PGÁngel Moro24Cazorla Jaén Paraíso Interior23 July 2018
SGAlejandro Rubiera20Gijón Basket27 July 2018
PFJavier Menéndez21NM Highlands Cowboys10 August 2018
SGMartyce Kimbrough22Findlay Oilers15 August 2018
SFNelson Yengue26Laurentian Voyageurs22 August 2018
SFSaúl Blanco33Prat27 August 2018
PFShane Osayande25Saskatchewan Huskies29 August 2018
PFNemanja Đorđević23Tamiš4 September 2018
CPieter Prinsloo26Toros de Aragua4 October 2018
PGRubén Suárez40Free agent11 December 2018
PGDavy Baltus27Uppsala24 January 2019

Out

As a result of promoting two divisions, Círculo Gijón changed all its roster before the season. During the season, Davy Baltus was fired due to disciplinary issues.

Pos.Nat.NameAgeMoving toDateSource
PGDavy Baltus27Free agent12 April 2019

Club

Technical staff
Position Staff
Head coach Nacho Galán
Assistant coach Óscar Moro
Assistant coach Emilio Pérez
Physical trainer Jonás Vigil

Source: Círculo Gijón

Pre-season and friendlies

LEB Plata

First stage
Main article: 2018–19 LEB Plata § Group West

League table (Group West)
Pos Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
7 Bodegas Rioja Vega 22 12 10 1696 1657 +39 34 Qualification to Group A2
8 CB Extremadura Plasencia 22 10 12 1637 1576 +61 32
9 TeslaCard Círculo Gijón 22 9 13 1640 1637 +3 31
10 Ávila Auténtica Carrefour "El Bulevar" 22 9 13 1563 1651 −88 31
11 Grupo Eleyco Baskonia B 22 7 15 1587 1696 −109 29
Source: FEB

Results summary
OverallHomeAway
PldWLPFPAPDWLPFPAPDWLPFPAPD
22 9 13 1640 1637  +3 7 4 822 752  +70 2 9 818 885  −67

Source: FEB.es

Results by round
Round12345678910111213141516171819202122
GroundHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAH
ResultWLLLLLLWLWLWWLLWWLLWWW
Position41091212121212121012121212121111111110109
Source: FEB.es
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; L = Loss

Matches

Second stage
Main article: 2018–19 LEB Plata § Group A2

League table (Group A2)
Pos Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Relegation
5 Arcos Albacete Basket 22 13 9 1564 1604 −40 35
6 Grupo Eleyco Baskonia B 22 13 9 1658 1621 +37 35
7 TeslaCard Círculo Gijón 22 11 11 1666 1619 +47 33 Relegation to Liga EBA
8 CB Extremadura Plasencia 22 10 12 1565 1513 +52 32
9 Ávila Auténtica Carrefour "El Bulevar" 22 10 12 1591 1601 −10 32
Source: FEB

Results summary
OverallHomeAway
PldWLPFPAPDWLPFPAPDWLPFPAPD
12 5 7 919 874  +45 3 3 484 420  +64 2 4 435 454  −19

Source: FEB.es

Results by round
RoundS123456789101112
Ground–HAHAHAAHAHAH
Result–WLLLLLLWWWWL
Position5355888997777
Updated to match(es) played on 23 March 2019. Source: FEB
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; L = Loss;   = Relegation to Liga EBA

Matches

Statistics
Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3FG%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  PIR per game
Player GP MPG 2FG% 3FG% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
Davy Baltus 1019.4.471.176.6671.81.80.60.14.51.3
Saúl Blanco 2832.5.500.389.7884.12.91.30.215.316.6
David de la Vega 11.2.000.000.0000.01.00.00.00.01.0
Nemanja Đorđević 3115.9.536.375.7743.60.60.50.37.17.9
Junior Johnson 40.5.143.000.0001.50.30.80.00.5–1.0
Martyce Kimbrough 3431.0.435.376.6883.12.21.10.114.210.7
Javier Menéndez 2819.2.406.348.5905.50.50.50.66.37.2
Ángel Moro 1223.7.545.323.5261.72.30.80.16.34.7
Shane Osayande 3127.6.468.353.8089.41.50.81.812.418.4
Pieter Prinsloo 2024.7.434.316.6675.91.10.40.78.48.8
Alejandro Rubiera 3415.3.327.307.6971.70.80.30.04.32.1
Rubén Suárez 13 5.4 .500 .000 .000 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.0 0.2 0.1
Robert Swift 3322.8.502.286.7384.80.80.31.08.19.1
Ignacio Uccello 51.6.000.000.0000.40.00.00.00.00.0
Nelson Yengue 2822.1.496.231.6533.51.60.70.15.76.4

Source: FEB.es

References
  1. "El Círculo Gijón jugará la próxima temporada en LEB Plata" [Círculo Gijón will play the next season in LEB Plata] (in Spanish). El Comercio. 11 July 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  2. "El Círculo debuta a lo grande" (in Spanish). La Nueva España. 7 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  3. "J.19: Shane Osayande, musculatura canadiense en el MVP de la esperanza" (in Spanish). FEB.es. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  4. "F-2 - J.11: Shane Osayande, dominio físico para el MVP de la estabilidad" (in Spanish). Spanish Basketball Federation.
  5. "Quinteto ideal 2018/19: Una temporada de ilusiones y un triple bonus track" (in Spanish). Spanish Basketball Federation. 6 July 2019.
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