Andrea Trinchieri knows European basketball quite well, so the FC Bayern Munich head coach could understand the significance of his team setting a club record with four straight victories in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague – especially given the opponents.
Trinchieri's arrival on the Bayern sidelines has been met with success as the German powerhouse defeated Olympiacos Piraeus 74-68 on Friday to improve to 4-1 in the standings. The home win followed consecutive road victories over ALBA Berlin, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul – the latter with a comeback for the ages. Those wins all could mean that much more if Bayern finds itself in a tiebreaker with one or more of those clubs at the end of the season.
"Don't wake me up," Trinchieri said after beating Olympiacos, which combined with Maccabi and Fenerbahce have won four of the last eight EuroLeague titles.
"This means a lot," Bayern forward Vladimir Lucic said. "We bounced back against a great opponent, for me one of the most underrated teams in the EuroLeague this year, with a big championship mentality. So it's a big win for us."
Lucic was part of the last Bayern team that won three in a row in the EuroLeague before the current run. The club's previous such stretch came in Rounds 11 to 13 during the 2018-19 season.
In the win over Olympiacos, Wade Baldwin led Bayern with 18 points against the only other club he has played for in Europe.
"Olympiacos is historically known for being a tough team. We knew it was going to be a battle, but I am so happy for our guys that we managed to keep pushing through," Baldwin said.
Trinchieri has clearly made an impact at Bayern, which marks his second stint in Germany after guiding Brose Bamberg to a 31-45 record in three seasons in the EuroLeague from 2015-16 to 2017-18. Bayern kept a core of players like Lucic, Nihad Dedovic and Paul Zipser over the summer, but as quickly acclimated its additions of Baldwin, JaJuan Johnson, Jalen Reynolds, Malcolm Thomas and Nick Weiler-Babb.
Bayern's next EuroLeague game will be at Real Madrid on October 29. Real has been struggling thus far in the season with just a 1-4 record. After getting wins over teams with names like Maccabi, Fenerbahce and Olympiacos, it shouldn't be a surprise that Bayern fans are dreaming of a win over mighty Real Madrid as well.
Just don't wake up Andrea Trinchieri.