Bologna –<\/p>\n
Coach Banchi<\/strong><\/b> spoke in press conference after the victory over Cremona: “An important victory, I think it’s fair to congratulate the team because they produced another important effort, with not only physical but also nervous energies<\/em>. From the very first lines it was clear that it was not going to be easy: Cremona showed up with its style and with lightheartedness.<\/em> In the second half we returned to the court decidedly more aggressive and managed to trigger our game well: offensive rebounds and second opportunities came.<\/em> Very precious victory, between two very delicate games like the one against Baskonia and the one on Tuesday against Efes.<\/em> With consistency in the second half we were able to keep Cremona at a distance.”<\/em><\/p>\n The defense in the second half? “It needed from everyone an extra effort, these are complex games to play, it’s human and legitimate, there is fatigue and frustration from Friday’s game.<\/em> In these games you try to find the resources, you get there without preparation less than 48 hours, against a team that has very solid game organization, with longs that hit you from the arc.<\/em> They have players who can penetrate, it was not an easy avveraario: I am satisfied that at halftime there was an awareness that we needed to tighten the bolts on defense.<\/em><\/p>\n We did it with criterion, dedication and humility: these three aspects will be decisive until the end of the regular season, hoping to continue having such busy weeks.”<\/em><\/p>\n “There are games where it is difficult to find resources to be able to impose one’s rhythm.<\/i> I would not like to judge this season in the ordinary, this is the extraordinary: the day after tomorrow we will play our 35th Euroleague game, to which the Supercup, Italian Cup and championship must be added.<\/i> You go on the court, you try to have adequate preparation in these kinds of games, against a team that has its own identity, we have to think that there can be games where you struggle to find the rhythm you would like, otherwise it would be easy to mash a button.<\/i> There is no will to play whoever makes the most, we recognize the merits of the opponents, who prepared the match in a week, with lightheartedness and crispness.<\/i> Keeping the same level over a range of 80 games is difficult, also looking at what’s happening in Europe: today Baskonia won at the buzzer against one of the worst teams in the Spanish league, it’s not that simple.<\/i> The guys have to be given credit for following a direction, always trying to keep the bar straight at various different times. There was never an unwillingness to defend or to keep up the offensive level: today I appreciated the second 20′, it’s not for everyone to change the inertia after a start like tonight. It had also happened in Cremona, where we were in a very good moment but failed to hold the reins of the game. Today we have to give the team pride and determination, always with the balance of evaluating the season in an extraordinary way, which does not mean winning, but this kind of performance spread out over such a large time is part of the extraordinary, especially with players of a certain age, as happened tonight with Marco and Bryant. I think it’s fair to point out the merits of the whole team but especially of two players like that, in a game where they might have deserved to watch it from the stands. To see them on the court, at halftime, in the locker room, setting an example in terms of commitment and determination: we are facing the extraordinary here; the ordinary would be to see them sitting back and relaxing. This is a testament to how much they care and how much we care that this season has the ending we deserve. The bitterness of Friday night is palpable, it is normal: a game that could have left some dross, which did not affect two of the most identifying players.<\/i><\/p>\n This means that the whole team has a desire to fight until the end: I have been waiting for years for an opportunity like this and I want to play it to the end, as do some of them who have a certain career.<\/i> I don’t feel like saying that sometimes we play who makes more, I’m saying that it’s not always automatic to produce the levels of the last 20′ today after the 40′ on Friday, bravo to the team and bravo to the staff.<\/i> These are great guys and whatever happens on Tuesday night we’re going to give them a hug.”<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66301,"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":[268,256,248],"tags":[308,269,265],"class_list":["post-66315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","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\/66315","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=66315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtus.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}