Offensive and smart basketball alongside softness on defense • Two trophies, with no real threat to the championship • and one virus that may have prevented him from winning the title of greatest coach in the capital
Katsch.
He made his mark in Jerusalem
Photography:
Alan Shiver
For almost three years, Oded Katash coached Hapoel Jerusalem, and his time at the club has two sides - he left a big mark, but also knew mistakes along the way and quite a few falls in money time.
Then came the Corona era, which hurt his chances of being perhaps the greatest coach he coached in the capital.
One of the great things that can be said about the coach's period in Jerusalem is that this was Oded Katash's team.
The coach went a very certain way of offensive basketball, smart, fluent and beautiful to the eye.
His Jerusalem was a group of 90 points on average, and the great coordination between its parts stood out.
On the other hand, the defensive part was less prominent.
Katsch's Jerusalem was relatively soft and had a hard time dealing with the aggressiveness of rivals.
For this reason, his European score is not good enough.
During his time, Jerusalem was eliminated twice just before the Final Four of the Champions League against tough Spanish teams - Tenerife and Burgos.
In the case of Burgos it was in the final tournament of last season's Champions League, held at the beginning of this season.
It should be noted the great upgrade that Tyson Thomas Mazar underwent at Hapoel Holon for a leading and dominant foreigner who has a great chance of reaching the Euroleague, the Bull injury with the arrival of Jacoben Brown and Suleiman Braimo, and of course the blossoming of Tamir Blatt.
On the other hand, Blatt was the only Israeli who stood out under Katsch in Jerusalem.
In his time, Bar Timur and Lior Eliyahu were free, and they left the team after being its captains.
Nimrod Levy also came for one season and left.
In Europe, the Israeli gang, with the exception of Blatt, was pushed aside, and in the local arena it went here and there.
Katsch's Jerusalem has won the cup twice.
In the league and in the playoffs, she had 94 wins against 30 losses, but she failed twice against the same team (Maccabi Rishon LeZion) and failed to qualify for the Israeli Final Four final. In other words - she did not threaten the championship, There was a mental or physical unpreparedness of the group at some money time events.
Two concluding remarks
1.
The first season of Catch the group, when he came to the capital in mid-February and climbed Final Four semifinal and the Cup, less considered, since it came in the middle of the season the team that he has built and the quality was less balanced.
2.
Summarizing Katsch's tenure in the capital, serious weight should be given to the Corona period, as it is possible that the virus prevented Jerusalem from having the largest season in its history.
Last season, Jerusalem put up its best team for years, and seemed to be on its way to a historic season.
She took the trophy and the Winner's Cup, and was the highest quality team in the Champions League, where she reached the quarterfinals with a home advantage over Burgos, knowing that if she passes it the Final Four will be held in Jerusalem.
But then the European plant was stopped, as was the Israeli Premier League, and when the team returned to activity, Jacoben Brown and Tyson Thomas did not return.
It is possible that if everything had gone on without the breaks and mishaps of the Corona, Jerusalem would have finished a season with no less than four titles - which would probably have been an order to cut a statue of him in Safra Square.