Lo fácil es pensar que el equipo se ha acostumbrado a ganar, que no tiene hambre, pero ése no es el diagnóstico que tiene el equipo. Ni le falta humildad, ni le sobra soberbia. Tenéis que valorar cómo le afecta a un equipo profesional jugar el martes con Galatasaray y no volver a entrenar hasta el viernes por la tarde. No me estoy quejando, el equipo se mereció hacer lo que hizo la semana pasada, pero hay que pagar por las cosas que haces y las decisiones que tomas».
At the start of his press conference at Carpena, Unicaja coach Ibon Navarro assessed the physical condition of the team: «Tyler Kalinoski has trained these past two days and we will see how he is today, if he can complete the whole training session or a significant part of it. We have two days left to work and hopefully we can count on him. The rest, in principle, I think are doing well.»
After overcoming an atypical week, where the team was away from Malaga from last Thursday until this Wednesday, the coach stated that the team is emotionally «good, with a lot of desire to regain normality, daily work, and each player their routines to get out of all this whirlwind of travels and events we have had, which has taken us far from a routine that is very necessary for us. We are happy to be back home because being away for seven days is not good.»
Regarding the match against Real Madrid a month ago in the Copa del Rey final, where Unicaja emerged victorious, Ibon Navarro pointed out that «basically there are two differences. One is the presence of Gaby Deck, who is a key player for them; and the other is that in the two games we have won against them, Mario Hezonja has not been at a very high level, who did not play in the Supercopa Endesa and was not very accurate in the Copa del Rey. I think they are two very important players for them and they determine the course of a game against Real Madrid. These are two very differential factors compared to what we have had in previous encounters against them.»
Regarding the importance of the match in terms of classification, the Vitorian coach assured that it is «none. With everything that is left… Last year when they beat us here, it seemed like it was all over and then what happened happened [Unicaja finished first in the regular season]. When the final part of the EuroLeague arrives, many things happen, there are very strange results in the last five games… What did it benefit us to finish first last year? Did we win the league for finishing first last year? No. You have to arrive in good shape when you have to arrive in good shape.»
Regarding the team’s performance in recent games, he stated «that in terms of symptoms we can all agree and it is easy to cling to body language, to the feeling of apathy, but you do not have information about what is happening inside. The easy thing is to think that the team has gotten used to winning, that it lacks hunger, but that is not the diagnosis the team has. It does not lack humility, nor does it have excess arrogance. You have to consider how it affects a professional team to play on Tuesday against Galatasaray and not return to training until Friday afternoon. I am not complaining, the team deserved to do what it did last week, but you have to pay for the things you do and the decisions you make.»
FUENTE
