Bologna, November 20 –
At the end of the game against Germani Brescia, valid for the eighth day of Lega Basket Serie A, these were the words of coach Luca Banchi: “We archived this game with great satisfaction for the inevitable difficulties we encountered in facing such a fiercely determined and well-prepared opponent, who tried to immediately direct the game on tracks of great athleticism and physicality. We were able to respond, finding resources with good continuity beyond a few legitimate mistakes related to fatigue and lack of lucidity. Credit must be given to the opponents who played extremely aggressively in a match that was perhaps not easy to referee, but also quite difficult to interpret in terms of the refereeing metre. It was certainly a physical and hard-fought game, a balanced game that we were able to control with good discipline, so we file with satisfaction, moving our attention to the next Euroleague game against Fenerbahce.”
On Dunston’s minutes and on Lundberg as point guard: “As far as Iffe is concerned, I think it fits his characteristics, the way he has always played. It may be as it happened against Efes that he, due to the emergency of Daniel’s absence, had to play as an alternative to Pajola, but generally he is always flanked by one between Alessandro and Daniel. He works as second ball-carrier, which allows us to lighten the pressure and the load on the other two, you have seen what treatment Petrucelli has reserved for our players, and then having a second setter like him, a role that Smith struggles a bit to play because perhaps it is not in his style both in technical and physical terms, but in Iffe’s case this is one of the things he does best. Valuable in attack for his ability to take advantage, a quality that is recognised, but not negligible is his defensive work. For a good part of the game he took care of outfielders who you saw what kind of dangerousness they had on the perimeter, from the talent of Christon and Della Valle to the physicality of Massinburg, Cournooh and Burnell. There was work to be done and Iffe did it very well. As for Bryant, it was not in the budget for him to play but with Jordan’s injury we have a rather predictable rotation. The game and especially Bilan’s minutes and Cacok’s foul problems convinced me to keep him on the court. For us he’s a reference point, I know it’s a lot of minutes but I’ve seen him pacing around the locker room, he was ready to change on a pick and roll after the shower. We enjoy the fact that he is a player who is also giving clear signals to his teammates on how we need to be on the court to have a future during the season. There will be days when he will play a little less, now we are in an absolute emergency situation and so he, Abi and Toko are called upon to work overtime.”
On the refereeing metre: ‘For the coaches it is not a particular problem, it certainly complicates things a bit. I was able to say this during half-time, when the head coach approached Daniel Hackett apologising for the obvious mistake he made on the third foul. You whistled it, there’s no point in apologising. I would like them to become aware of the seriousness of such a whistle that risks compromising the game of a player who, on the other hand, has shown incredible solidity, because with three fouls he still managed to play a consistent game in the second half, a situation that risks to condition you because maybe taking a technical on that foul is the most obvious thing that can happen. I think we have to reflect, tonight on the field there were the two teams that shared the first place in the standings and what came out was a tough game, physical and edgy, and as you pointed out with an indecipherable refereeing to the detriment first of all of the game, even out of context with what should be the criteria with which you try to protect the game and the players. You have to take note that everything changes, for the coaches it is complex but the most important thing is for the players, they have to be put in a position to express their full potential, we are at the service of the players, not above them. The fact that tonight, in the two teams that shared the place in the standings we are here talking so much about the refereeing is a negative sign. Tonight it was right to speak of Brescia’s great performance, of the maturity and physicality with which they played, of Massinburg, of Petrucelli, of Iffe, of Dunston and Abass. Not to mention the refereeing would have been to pay them the highest compliment.”
On the team’s lucidity in the most difficult moments: ‘We give credit to the opponent, who as I said played with great aggressiveness and physicality. We didn’t always have an adequate quality of execution, we are on a trajectory to types of matches that will be repeated. Here there was a Super Cup won on their pitch by a very wide margin, imagine the emotional load and the desire for revenge they had, that match was an episode in itself with many days to prepare for it. It’s not easy, they were tactically very ready to try to limit our game. We found cues with good continuity, this is the second double week of the season, we came from a game with Milan and Panathinaikos and now we have beaten the first ones in the standings, let’s be content.”
