By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The mood was high in the Polish national team press after the win over Slovenia, until the first question, when it was mentioned that the Slovenian national team coach, Aleksander Sekulic, had talked about “strange things” and shots made by “players who are not considered great shooters.”
Poland national team Igor Milicic smiled and replied dropping the gauntlet for a matchup in the knockout phase of the competition: “I really like it when we can beat teams back-to-back and they still don’t believe in us, so… I am thinking, like Jordan (Loyd) said, individual quality, our team preparation, and tactical things that we put together, topped Slovenia again, and hopefully we can beat them again somewhere in Riga, it would be great”.
Speaking about his team, he added: “First of all, the team believes in what we do, and maybe Jordan can refer to the confidence of our players comes from our work. We did a lot of work in our preparation, tactically and mentally, and we have a lot of options offensively and defensively in situations that are not going well for us. But we believe in it, we play for each other, and this gives us these kinds of fruits. I don’t think it’s an accident that we are winning against Slovenia or Luka Doncic”.
Jordan Loyd, who was sitting beside his coach, dropped 32 points, which are the fourth-best Eurobasket debut and second-best offensive performance for Poland since 1987, and was surprised to learn the historical significance of his performance.
As he admitted: “That’s kind of crazy, I didn’t know it. There are a lot of great players who played in this competition, and it’s nice to be able to showcase what I do, but it’s just one game. I am never too high, never too low. For me, it’s always about winning. So as far as we winning, I am good”.
Loyd was also asked about the experience of facing Doncic and beating him, while the spotlight was on the Lakers star, and the naturalized point guard of Poland answered: “One of the best players in the world will always have a lot of hype, news, and media around him. It’s pretty awesome to be on the court with him and a lot of respect to what he has done, but being on the other side, you use that as energy. And as a team, we used that as a motivation. We have to be humble, but on the other side, you’re going to respect us too. Luka is Luka, there’s no more credit and respect I can give to him, but tonight our team was better”.
Milicic also added that big man Olek Balcerowski, despite a minor injury sustained in the game, is expected to be available in the next games.
Photo Credit: FIBA