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Having not even played in EuroCup Women for the past two seasons it’s quite obvious that we will be seeing Targoviste in EuroLeague Women because they can afford to, not because they deserve it.
Affording to play and affording to put together a good team is not quite the same.
As it stands right now this team is full of inexperienced players and/or players who have done very little at this level. Most points in EuroLeague Women of any Targoviste players belongs to Ivanka Matic. That who is a 6.3 point per game career scorer in ELW. Other post options include young, raw and inexperienced but with a lot of upside Russian center Ksenia Tikhonenko, from a torn ACL still recovering Florina Pascalau and Jillian Robbins. In Turkish league, which has emerged as one of the strongest in Europe, Robbins showed last season that she can score on anyone. Her rebounding was not that consistent – against both EuroLeague Women teams from Turkey her rebounding dropped below her season average quite a bit. Considering that it wouldn’t be surprising if she will beast against Arras or Sopron.
Targoviste will be orchestrated on the court by Latvian guard Elina Babkina. If past is any indicator that is not a good thing. Having played almost all of her EuroLeague Women career under George Dikeolakos she has yet to show why she should be considered a point guard. She has more trouble assisting teammates than keeping the ball safe with an assist/turnover ration of 0.98. Why not play her at SG where she can use her much better scoring than distributing ability is beyond yours truly. Maja Miljkovic is really not much of an improvement over Babkina in that regard so they’re pretty much stuck with Babkina as a starter. Despite being listed as a point guard Natalie Novosel is not one and she was not one not in Notre Dame, nor with the Washington Mystics. She will likely be their starting shooting guard.
Most exciting talent on this team has to be Gabriela Marginean. This recently college graduated Romanian wing possesses a scoring mentality that’s much more similar to that of American players, not the typical Europeans. And she has the scoring skills to go with that mentality.
Before the season, the team talked about qualifying for EuroLeague Women playoffs as a season objective. While they could take on Arras, Sopron will be a tougher nut to crack.
