LAGUNA (Basketball Champions League) - Txus Vidorreta has followed up a bronze-medal winning summer as an assistant coach for Spain's men at the Olympics with a blistering fast start to the season as the boss of Iberostar Tenerife.

What has helped pave the way for a terrific beginning to the campaign has been the one-two punch provided by Canadians Aaron Doornekamp and Carl English.

Iberostar sharpshooter English also plays plenty of defense

The former signed in June after helping Fraport Skyliners win the FIBA Europe Cup and the latter, a well known player in the Liga Endesa after turning out for many clubs, moved to the Canary Islands team 20 October.

English had been about to begin the campaign with rival Spanish club Bilbao Basket but parted with the team on 29 September. He joined an Iberostar side that was looking for a shooting guard after Nico Richotti went down with a broken hand.

Each took different journeys to the European professional ranks. Doornekamp attended Carleton University in Canada before going on to have a successful pro career in Italy and Germany.

English, 35, had what many would view to be a dream college experience. He attended the University of Hawaii from 2000-3 before turning pro and playing for numerous clubs, the majority in Spain.

Doornekamp, a 2.01m forward, has a lot of qualities. His most important may be toughness. He joined Iberostar after consulting English, who had had a spell with the club a few years ago.

"He told me very good things about the organization and the professionals that are at the club," said Doornekamp, who is averaging 12.3ppg, 5rpg, 4apg and 1spg.

The 1.95m English has always been among his teams' most explosive scorers. He has played in two games in the Basketball Champions League and is averaging 20.8ppg. Both have been downright lethal from behind the arc.

Doornekamp has connected on 9 of 18 (50 percent) attempts from long range while English has drilled 57.1 percent (8 of 14). Doornekamp hit 3 of 6 shots from the arc at Utena. 

The two are just pieces to the puzzle for Iberostar, yet they are proving to be very important pieces. While the club has a long way to go in the Basketball Champions League, it could not have had a better start. The team has blown out its three opponents - Cibona, KK Mornar and Juventus Utena - by an average of 32 points.

Iberostar host SIG Strasbourg in the Basketball Champions League on Wednesday.

An even bigger surprise has been the fast start in Spain, one of the old continent's toughest leagues.