Bologna –
Virtus Segafredo Bologna vs Bertram Yachts Derthona. Tip-off tomorrow, Sunday, May 27, 7:30 p.m. Virtus Segafredo Arena.
Nove, Eleven Sports, Eurosport 2 and Radio Nettuno Bologna.
Referees: BEGNIS, BALDINI, GRIGIONI.
Online Tickets. Ticket office in Constitution Square from 5:30 p.m. tomorrow, Sunday, May 27.
The t-shirt made by Macron for Virtus Segafredo Bologna in collaboration with the Emilia Romagna Region will be on sale from Sunday itself inside the Store present at the Virtus Segafredo Arena and all proceeds will be donated to charity to support actions in favor of those affected by the flood.
The words of Coach Sergio Scariolo on the eve of Game-1 with Tortona: “We had a good week of work with a first part in which we dealt mainly with ourselves and to continue to strengthen the strong points and improve the weak points, at the same time growing in physical condition, in the second part of the week we obviously dealt with reasoning about our opponent that, as we all know is very demanding from the point of view of tactical preparation with excellent qualities that have had an evolution, this year in the structure of the team and are always able to create big problems to any opponent. On the other hand, the prospect of fighting to reach the third final out of three in domestic competitions is an extremely motivating prospect because it is something that seems taken for granted but it is not, in fact it doesn’t happen every year and it doesn’t happen to everyone, and I repeat that it has to be a motivating prospect for itself, although it has to be recognized that there is a higher pressure component given that if you are the number two ranked team both in the predictions at the beginning of the season and in the current reality, getting to the final is a discriminate between a negative season and a positive one, we have to know this and accept it we have to naturally digest it and be able to handle this situation in which obviously I speak for myself, who has, unfortunately, a few white hairs and similar situations I have experienced dozens of them, some of our players also, others less so, so you have to be able to have maximum concentration only on the task that each of us has to do on the field.”
On what aspects has Tortona further improved? “Tortona has improved defensively, the numbers show it, and they have players that in 1v1 very decisive, able to play some more isolation, some more pick’n roll and attack on broken possession without a gained advantage as vice versa they were much more so last year, with this system of great ball movement that remains, because then there are clearly the shooters, the players who are able to take advantage of the distractions of the opponents to get open and make a three-pointer or do it very early in the possession in transition, so they keep the qualities that they had and in my opinion they added these two things a little bit more defensive strength and a little bit more decision-making ability in the final part of the possession with the 1v1 players that they didn’t have before. ”
Will it be a high scoring series like the one with Brindisi? “Pace depends on defense because it is with defense that you can recover balls or force mistakes, get rebounds and play in the open court, so everything will depend on the defensive ability that we will be able to put on the court, it will depend not only on the defensive performance of the best defenders but especially on the defensive performance of the worst defenders because if they can stimulate and challenge each other to get to their limit we will be able to reach a collective team defensive level even high, vice versa no, and we like to go into the open court, like to have, when appropriate, possessions that are not necessarily long, but then the opponent’s defense in the playoffs, actually as you say, will probably lead you to have the patience to accept that you didn’t find a shot earlier and look for it without forcing it later in the same possession. So I wouldn’t use the reference of the series against Brindisi because they are two completely different teams and situations, we certainly won’t see such high scoring, on our part, not because we don’t like it, but because this is a more physical team, better armed defensively, they are one of the top defenses, one of the best teams in conceding or not conceding percentages both from two and three high, and also because clearly they are capable of trying to make you play at their pace, so we will try to be smart in running when we can but also be able to accept half-court possessions that the game will give us.”
The Italian Cup game with Tortona? I don’t think it’s too indicative, they were missing Radosevic who is a very important player in their game economy plus they were not great physically. We were definitely not 100 percent as well, but we played a game of substance, with a very physical, determined approach and with concentration, attacking their defensive adjustments very well. These are two teams that know each other quite well, so it is not very easy to surprise. Tomorrow I expect a different game, although for us the physicality and the qualities we have must always be there and we have to put them on the field by default. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t: that depends on everyone coming to their limit, not so much that Cordinier or Ojeleye for example do 10 percent more but there is a need for everyone to grow and commit themselves, getting it into their heads that games are won if your team is defensively strong in addition to great talent in the offensive half of the field.”
