Turin –

Coach Sergio Scariolo spoke in a press conference after the game against Brescia: “Congratulations to Brescia, they deserved to win by playing a very good game. I congratulate the club, the team, the coach, the fans, everyone because they deserved it. I unfortunately failed to keep the team out of the risk that, as we said yesterday, so many teams in Europe have taken related to pressure and concentration. The nervousness in the first half was very evident and this was evidenced by our 6/14 on free throws, without Jaiteh shooting any. We managed to come back two or three times within a possession, even with the ball in hand to tie or go over but more due to tactics and individual generosity than defensive tightness. We couldn’t defend on their guards, we couldn’t find a guy to mark Della Valle throughout the entire contest. The zone gave us a big hand, it was the first time we did that kind of zone, it can help us in other games but we all know it can be the icing on the cake, not the cake. The cake has to be individual defense: the players have to at least contain their respective attackers, which did not happen today. We came with great generosity and courage to one possession away: there every time a Brescia guard made a basket, and the only time it wasn’t they got a rebound and an extra possession. We had our opportunity, we earned it, we were not good enough in taking advantage of it. I reiterate congratulations to our opponent who deserved more than us to win.
The wrong approach? As we have said in recent days it has happened to so many favorite teams in this week of cups, in Europe and also in Italy: obviously the risk of not knowing how to handle this kind of pressure is present even in players with great experience and mental quality. It is never a risk that stays out the door. I saw a lot of it: we had two fouls in the first quarter, 6/14 at the free in the first half. It doesn’t take a degree to see that we were nervous and not 100% focused. Probably in these hours we thought more about how it would be nice to win the cup instead of thinking about what we needed to do to win it. It’s not the first time this has happened, hopefully it won’t happen to us as often, I would say it’s nothing new under the sun.”