Madrid, November 9 –
Coach Banchi’s words at the end of the game with Real: “We played a good game on offense in the first period. But Real really has an incredible ability to score. In the second quarter we created too wide a gap, losing too many balls. It was difficult after that, although I appreciate the effort to come back and stay in the game. But if you end up down in Madrid by that much, it’s really complicated to do that. We try to take the best we can from tonight, we come from a bad defeat in Italy. We have to focus on the next game, where we have to have a different attitude. Our DNA is different, and if we want to be in the competition we have to have a different energy level. The 10 turnovers in the second period are criminal for those who want to compete, we fed Real’s counterattack, assists and easy baskets, and when you collect that gap it’s hard to come back. In the second period we were very poor, lost balls and poor quality of shots, it is an objective fact. We didn’t do anything we had prepared. Real has known each other perfectly for so many years, very high level of understanding. You have to try to clean up the game with dedication and maximum concentration. Against the European champions you expect this attitude, instead in the first 10 minutes we kind of mirrored it, and then suddenly everything deflagrated. We made puzzling passing choices that don’t do justice to the quality of our coaching. Unacceptable level of play, not only for Real, was seen in Cremona. These lurching moments we absolutely cannot afford.”
