Besiktas 80-57 CSKA Moscow: A Friendly That Says Nothing, Except for a Forgetful Ejection

Antalya, late September. On a closed practice court, a collision between Ivan Ukhov and Eugene Omuruyi in the final minutes turned into a shoving match, and the referee did not hesitate to eject both. The game ended 80-57 in favor of Besiktas, but the notable thing was not how they controlled the second half, but rather the way CSKA Moscow – a giant of European basketball – lost an unofficial game by 23 points. Writing about preseason friendlies is the most boring job for a sports journalist. There are no offensive efficiency stats, no specific tactical schemes, no certainty about which lineups took the floor. All we have is a final score, a bit of narrative, and a scuffle. In my 46 years of observing this industry, a friendly is like a map that is wrong – it only becomes right when you look at it with skepticism. Let's replay the events. Besiktas prepared for the new season in Antalya, where they played their third friendly. The win over CSKA Moscow was the second in three games. Coach Dusan Alimpijevic seems to be building his squad, and the Turkish side showed initiative in the second quarter. But that is all. There is no data on possession, no shooting efficiency, no rotation details revealed. We don't know which lineups were used, which players were experiments, which were the intended starters. Therefore, claiming Besiktas is stronger or CSKA is weaker is baseless. As someone who has followed many preseason campaigns, I have seen too many teams lose heavily in friendlies and then win big in the regular season. Experimental rotations, subpar conditioning, low motivation – all can explain why CSKA lost by a large margin. Conversely, a friendly victory promises nothing. The only thing we can say is that Besiktas utilized their preparation period well, but even that is just the tip of the iceberg. European basketball does not operate on a 'win the friendly and win the title' basis. If it did, many teams would be champions by August. The only value of this game lies in two things: first, which team maintained focus when the opponent played roughly; second, how the coaching staff reacted to the incident. Let's talk about the ejections. Ukhov and Omuruyi – two names that don't tell us much about their roles in their teams – collided in the fourth quarter. The referee ejected both. Detailed information is missing: who started it, was there a punch, or was it just pushes? No one knows. But for a coach like Alimpijevic, this could be a positive sign if it reflects intensity in practice; it could also be a negative sign if players cannot control emotions. In a friendly, coaches are usually lenient, but they also know that a repeating pattern of bad behavior will be a burden over the long season. For CSKA, the 23-point loss plus the scuffle might be a wake-up call. But I won't jump to conclusions. Perhaps the Russian side is heavily rotating young players, testing new tactics, or simply saving energy. Without data, there is no judgment. What I want to emphasize: friendly results should not be used as a measure of actual strength. Besiktas's next game against Romania's Cluj-Napoca will offer a bit more information. But even that is a small sample. Top-level basketball only reveals itself when the official season begins. Until then, everything is just a map being drawn imperfectly. I have learned from quiet summers that the scary thing is not the score, but what is not told. Here, the bigger story is Besiktas's controlled intensity in the second half, or CSKA's defensive instability? No answers. And so, let's treat 80-57 as a hollow number, waiting for games that truly matter. One last thing: do not be fooled by the name CSKA Moscow. Reputation does not win games. Look at data, look at context, and remember that every map is wrong at the exact moment we need it to be right. This friendly is just a small ink spot on the season's map, nothing more.