Graz basketball players

“We’re going for the title one hundred percent!”

Zach Cooks(Bild: GEPA)

Start of the final series! The basketball players of UBSC Graz want to start the best-of-five series against the Oberwart Gunners on Saturday (17:30/Sportpark) with the right "leg". US guard Zach Cooks has been a guarantee of success most of the time this season. Fans, watch out: Graz's second "home game" is not in the provincial capital.

Many of his friends play in the NBA back home in the USA. Of course, that was also Zachery Cooks' dream. But the throwing cannon from Atlanta, Georgia, is in no way saddened by this. "My path led me to Europe, to Austria, where there are also very strong and good leagues." Such as the Euroleague, once a dream destination for the US boy.

Last summer, he prepared for his second season at UBSC Graz with extra shifts at the NBA camps in Las Vegas. "I still have to develop further, I can't just concentrate on my shot." This season at UBSC, however, it has worked like clockwork, with Cooks scoring 914 points, the most of any Super League player. Things are really working out for the 25-year-old guard. Probably also because of his relationship with the coaches in Graz. "Ervin Dragsic and Dimitris Sarikas are the best coaches I've had in a long time. They know my strengths and weaknesses and also respond to me as a person." The chemistry should also be right throughout the team: The squad, in which six US-Americans set the tone, got in the mood for the final spurt at bowling evenings.

Free buses into "exile"
Cooks and Co. have yet to lose a game against Oberwart this season. Their chest is broad anyway. "We've eliminated two top teams on our way to the final in Wels and Klosterneuburg, and now we don't want to stop winning," said Cooks, "we'll do it one hundred percent!"

The first step should be taken on Saturday (17:30) in the Sportpark, the next home game (Thursday, May 23) will then take place in the Walfersamhalle in Kapfenberg due to the Badminton Open in Graz. UBSC fans will be offered free bus transportation to Kapfenberg so that the hall will be buzzing in "exile".