DEBRECEN (Hungary) - The club's senior team, EWE Baskets Oldenburg, completed their fourth ever campaign in the Basketball Champions League this season. They were German BBL winners in 2009 and German Cup winners in 2015.

Baskets Oldenburg Academy will be playing in the Youth BCL for the first ever time this year, in Debrecen. Like many German clubs, the Oldenburg Academy provides a vital pipeline of talent for their NBBL U19 team which is currently in second place in the NBBL Division A North. 

Head coach Demitrios Polychroniadis feels that testing themselves in the Youth BCL will be excellent preparation for a strong run to end their NBBL season.

"For this team, it's our first time playing an international competition and that's a big thing for us. We are in the Quarter-Finals of the German Championship at U19 level and this will be very high-level preparation for that and of course, a great experience for the whole team," he said.

"This team is one of the best-ever years in our program so I think that we want to compete to finish as high as possible."

"We are a team with good chemistry and we want to be defensively one of the best teams in the competition," Polychroniadis added when talking about the team's ambitions for the tournament.

Youth BCL Players to Watch

Djordje Klaric | Date of Birth: April 5,  2009 | G

The younger brother of the captain, Lazar Klaric, is one of the youngest players at the competition in Debrecen but has already represented Germany at youth level. At 1.90m (6ft 3in), he has the size and scoring ability to really make a splash at this event. 

Both of the Klaric brothers will have high hopes and point guard Simon Paul Kohlhoff has already been included on the Oldenburg senior team's squad for certain games this season.

Program Alumni

Norris Agbakoko throwing one down in the BCL

Norris Agbakoko | Jan Niklas Wimberg

Seven-footer Agbakoko had one of his career-best seasons for Oldenburg this year, averaging 8.8 points and 5.7 rebounds in six games. Jan Niklas Wimberg is almost certainly the biggest product of the Oldenburg Academy. He represented Germany in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and currently plays for Bayern Munich.