David Dudzinski is back at EuroCupBasketball.com to blog for the second season in a row, though now he will do so wearing a different uniform after signing with Frutti Extra Bursaspor over the summer.
David Dudzinski, Bursaspor: 'I was drawn to Bursaspor'
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Different season, different team, same brilliant blogger. David Dudzinski is back at EuroCupBasketball.com to tell us all about his new team, Frutti Extra Bursaspor. He started his professional basketball career with Italian side Moncada Agrigento and also played for Siauliai of Lithuania and Steaua Bucharest of Romania before joining Antwerp in 2017. Dudzinski helped Antwerp win back-to-back Belgian Cups in 2019 and 2020 and led the team to a third-place finish in the 2018-19 Basketball Champions League. Last season, Dudzinski made his 7DAYS EuroCup debut with Antwerp and is back for a second consecutive campaign in the competition, joining Bursaspor. Don't miss Dudzinski's blog appearing regularly on EuroCupBasketball.com!
Hello again, EuroCup fans! After four years with Telenet Giants Antwerp, I have joined Frutti Extra Bursaspor. I was very, very comfortable in Antwerp and I have such great respect for the organization. But I had a feeling that it was going to be my last season just because I was playing really well. I was in good form and I thought there would probably be some good offers coming. And early in the summer, I was getting some attention right away and I really was drawn to Frutti Extra Bursaspor because I thought their vision for the season was really close with mine, to be a very competitive team every night, playing in a very good league like the Turkish League and making a name for ourselves in the EuroCup.
"The team that we put out there in January or February is going to be better than the team we have today."
It's a very interesting season to be in the EuroCup because out of 20 teams, 16 will make the playoffs. That's good for us because we are also a little bit of a young team, but we have big ambitions. I know every team says they work really hard, but we are very focused on the details here. And for me, it's really nice to get this opportunity at 29 to still grow, get better, learn more details about the game and see the game through Coach Dusan's eyes.
I like the new format a lot. It gives us a chance to maybe not count games so early, like last season. A year go, you lose a few games early and you're like, 'well, now we have to win'. This season, we can take maybe more of a long-term approach and say, 'Okay, we really got to take care of our home games and be really competitive on the road'. It gives us a chance to develop and I think the team that we put out there in January or February is going to be better than the team we have today. And by the playoffs, I think we could be a very dangerous team. So I like the format and it gives us a chance to play in this high-level competition for much longer, which is nice.
We got our first win on the road against Umana Reyer Venice, a very good, very talented team. We knew coming in that individual matchups, one on one, would be very important, but at the same time, I felt like we were kind of sleepwalking for part of the game. I didn't feel like they dominated us so much. We weren't setting very good screens and were turning the ball over and they had some very easy layups. We knew that if we could have eliminated some of those easy points, I feel like we could have been in the game much closer. And then in the fourth quarter, our defense really tightened up. And it was really a pleasure to be a part of it.
It was a great feeling because it felt like no matter what we did, we were going to make the right play. I felt like our defense, all of a sudden, kind of clicked and we knew exactly where to go and exactly where we needed to be and our rotations were good and on time. We were being physical and that really gave our offense a lot of confidence. We started taking very good shots and keeping them in half-court offense sets. It was an amazing fourth quarter for us and it was very important because we go to 1-1, won a tough road game and keep going from there.
Before that, we played against Virtus at home, one of the best teams in the competition. Virtus is one of those teams where somebody shoots a shot and against other teams, maybe you'd be like, 'okay, that's good defense', but if they have Marco Belinelli or Kyle Weems, they are going to make these shots. It's a very high level and that's why we want to be in this competition. We want to test ourselves against these teams with very big ambitions like Virtus. It is something we can learn from, and I think we did. We responded with a good game this week in the EuroCup and even last weekend in the Turkish League, too. So it's a good response from us.
"If someone calls me 'The Dude', I don't even question it, I just answer!"
I like it here in Bursa. For me, it's a completely different culture. I never lived in Turkey before, but it's a nice city. The people have all been very nice. Our supporters are some of the best in Europe, I think. Very passionate people. And I'm still getting to know everybody and finding my favorite spots in the city. But one of my favorite things is there's so much beautiful nature in Turkey and so close by to Bursa. So I've had some fun exploring on our off days and sometimes in the morning. If we only have an afternoon practice, I'll go hang out outside for a bit and it's really, really nice for me personally. I love it a lot. Now I've been here for almost three months, I am kind of starting to learn the words a little bit and I'm able to navigate a menu and stuff.
Our next opponent is Cedevita Olimpija. They have been playing really well. One of my really good friends who played in Antwerp with me two seasons ago, Luka Rupnik, is a backup point guard with Cedevita, so I'm excited to meet up with him again. Luka, brate, see you soon! They've been playing really well there too and are 2-0. It's one of those teams where maybe at the beginning of the season, you wouldn't expect them to be after such a hot start, but they are, so we definitely have to take them very seriously at home and keep our momentum going. And after that, we have some more tough games. I mean, there's no night off in our group. I knew when they announced the groups and I was looking at our list, I was like, 'I don't see any nights where you can take it easy and expect to win'. So we take it one game at a time. Our coaching staff does a great job of giving us the right information that we need. And you know, I'm excited to see if we can get a home win and get above .500 and see how that goes.
It seems like everywhere I go, I get a new nickname, so in every new group of teammates, I get new nicknames. People sometimes defer to 'The Dude'. That's a good one. They also called me 'The Machine' sometimes, and 'Captain America', all kinds of random little nicknames. But 'The Dude' is probably the easiest one since it runs so smoothly with my name. If someone calls me 'The Dude', I don't even question it, I just answer! In here, I think we're all at the point where we're still kind of getting to know each other a little bit, but it's a good group of guys and it's different for me because a lot of the guys here have families now. So we're a little bit of an older, more mature bunch and I think that's kind of cool. It is a little bit of a different environment than Antwerp, where it's a bunch of kids in their first few years out of college. But we will get to the point of people having nicknames, I am sure!