Vitoria, April 19 –
These were the words of coach Luca Banchi at the end of the game against Baskonia: “Congratulations to Baskonia, the players, the coaches and the society: they played a great game tonight. I think it is also important to congratulate my players because we got to play this game after a very long season, growing our identity as a team game after game and showing that we can really compete with everyone on every court against every opponent. I leave it to anyone to judge how much we deserved to be in the top eight, but tonight Baskonia had a better effort and performance, especially on offensive rebounds and 3-point shots, most of these shots were generated from extra possessions and that is our biggest regret. The effort produced in the first 20 minutes deserved a lead that we failed to materialize because the signs were already there, in spite of the scoring percentages Baskonia scored many successive baskets at second chances, giving the feeling that they were extremely aggressive and as I imagined they would do, after a game where you concede 113 points it was conceivable that they would put forth all the energy we saw. We were able to cope with these mistakes, which I hoped that after halftime we would be able to solve, but instead 10 minutes ensued in which they came in with even more determination and we magnified their merits with a few too many lost balls and by failing in these loose ball or rebounding situations to control trajectories that could have allowed us to have better opportunities or not be forced to chase as we did in the second half. It’s kind of in their characteristics, the quintets are extremely versatile and the players very athletic. I think we did a great job on Howard, most of the baskets he scored came from rebounds in which we afterwards lost contact. It’s a rhythm of basketball where most three-point shots are generated after transition situations following offensive rebounding. Unfortunately tonight in this we were lacking, our offense was not as accurate as we are capable of, and in rebounding we suffered from their aggressiveness and energy.”
“For what is my experience, it is rare memory of a program that has been able in such a short period of time to scale the heights of national and continental basketball, just look at the palmares of Virtus whose current history of this management was born only 6 years ago. To think that this is only the second year in the Euroleague and we are recriminating about not hitting the top 8 after 34 regular season games. We look back and see which teams we were able to leave behind and that for much of the season was even more. I think it’s fair to point out that this is a program that is growing and needs to have the strength to take energy and momentum from a path like the one we’ve been on for the past two years, which is measured in terms of wins, placement, credibility and recognition. To date, Virtus is a team that is considered on par with the best teams in Europe after only two years since returning to the Euroleague. We have tested it on our skin by the way our opponents match after match have dealt with us.I think this is something that should be a driving force for a club that is making great sacrifices to keep the team at this level, where you understand what the scale of the budgets and the structure that teams have.Staying in this elite will be decisive, I hope Virtus can achieve it because of the path it has had and the results on the court, as well as the obvious successes that are measured in terms of public participation, corporate organization and adhering to financial fair play.The club has proven to be virtuous in this respect as well, these are all details that seem to project this club to the top of continental basketball.”
