| 02 March 2006 By Jeff Taylor, PA Sport DKV Joventut center Andy Betts could hardly have written a better script for his season so far.
The Spanish high-fliers completed a two-game sweep of Lokomotiv Rostov in the quarter-finals this week.
Betts poured in 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the 86-57 Game 2 victory to help his team advance to the EuroCup Final Four where they will take on Ukrainian powerhouse BC Kyiv.
After an impressive three-year spell at AEK Athens, where he played under Dusan Ivkovic for a year before having Dragan Sakota at the helm for two campaigns - the latter was recently appointed head coach of Serbia & Montenegro - Betts arrived at Tau Ceramica hoping to take his career to new heights but instead he found himself playing a minor role for coach Dusko Ivanovic.
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Betts played with Argentinian international Luis Scola last year
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| Tau's frontcourt usually consisted of Luis Scola, Kornel David and Tiago Splitter.
"I don't think me and (coach Dusko) Ivanovic were a good fit," Betts said.
"I don't hold any grudges against anyone, though. We had such a great team."
Betts did draw positives from his experience in Vitoria. The team played in the ACB Finals, losing to Real Madrid in five games. They also reached the Euroleague final where they lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Betts, in fact, played a crucial role off the bench for Tau in their semi-final win over CSKA Moscow.
He says the biggest plus about being at Tau was the competition he faced all the time.
"Everyday in practice, I was able to go up against Scola and Splitter," Betts said.
"They are good, especially Luis. For me, he is one of the top three players in Europe.
"He does it every single night and is pretty unstoppable one-on-one in the low post."
Indeed, Scola, a gold medal winner with Argentina at the Athens Olympics, is widely viewed as the best player not in the NBA.
At DKV, Betts also faces good competition in practice each day. He says he is not surprised the club has done so well.
The 2.13m center said: "I signed very late.
"Out of the teams I had offers from, I felt I had a chance to play here and Barcelona is a great city. I just felt this team could do things."
With two more wins, Betts and DKV will truly be able to say they have done things.
"We are really delighted to be in the Final Four," he said.
"With this competition, we felt we had a chance to go very far. We were in one of the strongest (Round II) groups and hopefully we`ll keep winning." |