Andrea MAZZON
Avtodor head coach:
“We are happy we defeated the best Italian team, to beat the champion is always nice. In other respects tonight it was just a pre-season game. We can’t be so enthusiastic if we win a pre-season game. At the same time we shouldn’t be under pressure if we lose such a game. So we are going to be realistic and to find a balance. We always need to stay firmly with our feet on the ground and clearly recognize we can win or lose a friendly game. The most important thing is how you win or how you lose. We lost two games so far and both of them at the last seconds of the fourth quarter. And we won all the other games. This is rather good record. So far we are doing a very good pre-season.

It’s also really essential that our players understand what kind of game we are going to play, the kind of the mistakes we are going to cut. As I told them before you can make a mistake. The key is not to make the same mistake twice. As long as we follow this way and striving not to repeat the same mistakes, we can improve as a team. I’m satisfied with our teamwork and that tonight after so many defensive mistakes in the first two quarters we really stopped their three-point shots in the second half. We looked more solid in the last 20 minutes. This is a good point. Some players of the bench did an incredible work. I’d like to say three names, Zibirov, Morris and Shelekheto, who did a really super-job tonight. Downs played a great game but the guys from the bench really helped the team. Klimenko is improving and getting better.

The long season lies ahead. I hope we will finish the season in June next year. So we have to be always humble, always realistic. This good win against the Italian champion can’t make us to feel like super-players. Otherwise, if we lose another game it shouldn’t make us feel like we are bad players. We are a team that is growing. I’d say we are currently like kids who are in elementary school. But then we want to move to the high school followed by entering into the university. For us this is the step we need to take. I’m happy because the players follow what we are looking for, they strictly follow my directions. This is a pretty important.

The final game will be very hard for us because honestly speaking we are going to save a lot of energy tomorrow. This is not our target for the final game to really “kill” ourselves just to win the tournament in Caorle. However, if we have a chance to win, be sure we will use it. At the same time we should never forget we have to play smart and to save energy thinking about the future.”