Vitoria –<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Coach Banchi’s words after the game won on the court of Baskonia<\/strong>: “A solid game, a very promising approach. Then some problems resisting against their great energy, explosiveness, desire to come back. Offensive rebounds and three-pointers made the difference in the second quarter when Baskonia came back, but we stayed focused on our game plan, trying to control the pace at the end, where we maybe lost some of our offensive flow. We started to feel maybe a little bit tired and we were not as sharp as before, but enough to win this game and to take an important step to solidify our identity as a team. Because nothing like wins on the road can help build proper team spirit. The quality of shooting was high. So that means they were spacing correctly, they were sharing the ball correctly. And most of the time we shot well. That was the secret, let’s say, to reduce the opportunities in their passing game. I think that was the key. Our best image. Sometimes we are not that accurate. But when we play with such flow and with such, let’s say, willingness to share the basketball and defensive sacrifices, we can compete. Marco for me is crazy. At one point I was on the bench and I saw his action and I said, wow. Of course I don’t feel like his coach. I’m here to see, to learn. And every day he brings me something from his incredible basketball talent, from his knowledge of basketball. And I think tonight he gave everybody the example of an impressive professional player who has 13 years in the NBA on his resume. And he comes to Victoria with great humility and desire to lead this team, to show everyone the direction that we know. It was our seventh away game between the Italian league and Euroleague with six losses in away games. Right? And it was time to show. And when you have that kind of leadership on the team, everything changes. Because everyone drew confidence from his approach, his poise, the way he spoke. Even in a time of stress, he helped his teammates, he helped me and my staff stay calm and focused. Not every night can be like that. But he really deserves these kinds of compliments. Because he is special. And as I told you, watching from the outside, I’m the first one who enjoys seeing such talent. It is impressive. I’m not the right person to question. I don’t know. It is not my decision. It was not my decision. It’s someone else who has to decide. But the fact that a team like Baskonia and leadership like this would consider my name on their short list of candidates makes me super proud. They are special. This place is special. They have the exact image of my perfect club. Their vision, their strategy, their structure. They are so clear, so crisp, so decisive. As a basketball fan, this club is one of the best in Europe. And if someone in this club had my name in mind in the past, it means a lot to me. Whether it can happen, I don’t know. But I do know that if my name is included in this list, I am very proud. And again, I will continue to do my work seriously. I have my own style, I have my own identity. I will never change. Some people think I have a bad character. I have my own character, it’s different. I have personality. I am not a puppy, I am a coach. Some people like it, some people know it. But I am very strict. And if I tell you I like this club, it’s because I like this club. And I’ve been in basketball for a long time. And I have reason to believe that place is special. I have had players and coaches who are friends of mine, who work here in heaven, available to me. And they all had amazing words. Even Marco who had an unfortunate experience. Everyone knows what Baskonia is. It’s a brand, it’s a style. And to have the chance to meet these people, to shake their hands, for me is the best relationship before the game and after the game. They know me, they know my name.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":63747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,268,256,248],"tags":[308,269,265],"class_list":["post-63753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-euroleague-en","category-primo-piano-en","category-a-league","category-news","tag-euroleague-en","tag-app-en","tag-evidence"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}