By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Riga, Latvia – Slovenia coach Aleksandar Sekulic and veteran guard Klemen Prepelic criticized what they saw as unfair officiating against their team following the elimination loss to Germany in the EuroBasket quarterfinals.
“I know we have a great superstar in Luka Doncic, but what the players do around him isn’t easy. It’s very hard. To be disrespected like we were today… It hurts,” Sekulic said in his opening statement.
“It hurts because of seeing the players suffering right now in the locker room. Because I believe we played great basketball today. I believe we were a better opponent. I guess we should apologize for being a dirty team and doing so many dirty fouls in the last quarter against the German team,” Sekulic added sarcastically before adding a bit later: “We can leave the Eurobasket with our head high but this can’t be said for all those who participated“.
After congratulating Germany for the win and naming them the best team in the tournament after Serbia’s elimination, Prepelic went on to call out the level of refereeing not only in this game but in the tournament overall.
“As the coach said, we were better throughout the whole game,” Prepelic said. “I’d say 37-38 minutes, until they allowed us to play physical. If you go through statistics, you’ll see we won the rebounds, we had the same assists, and our percentages are better. There’s just one thing that comes to mind: 37 free throws against 25. 31 fouls against 24.”
“It’s sad,” Prepelic added. “It’s sad because we were together since the 23rd of July. Many sleepless nights. Far from families. Giving summer after summer. And it keeps happening to us. And I believe until certain things, certain performers are going to be on the level of basketball that’s being played in this kind of tournament, like EuroBasket, World Cup, Olympic Games, and especially the level of superstars like Luka, Franz Wagner, Dennis Schroder, Nikola Jokic – not to forget someone – it’s going to keep happening. People are going to be disappointed, people are going to be sad. It’s sad. It hurts, but we can’t do many things. We’ve kept saying it summer after summer. I see many people complaining.”
When asked if he and his teammates put any blame on themselves after consecutive eliminations in summer tournaments, Prepelic pointed out the number of free throws that Germany shot down the stretch and how it doesn’t make sense, according to him.
“Do you believe that it’s normal that on the quarterfinal level in the EuroBasket a team shoots 13 free throws in the last two minutes after such a physical game that was allowed to be played?” Prepelic told the reporter. “To me, these aren’t normal things, to be honest. Especially knowing how many fouls Luka received during every single play. Obviously, you can’t call all the fouls; he can’t shoot 100 free throws. At least you don’t call the superstar with a technical foul in the first minutes. This is ridiculous.”
Prepelic made similar comments in the mixed zone.
“How many people watched the game? Around 9,000 in the arena, and probably many more on TV. Nothing new — this keeps happening every summer. Until certain things reach the level they should in this kind of tournament, it’s going to remain sad. It happens to many teams, and we saw it again this year. We keep hearing it will get better, but instead, it’s getting worse. We leave our families at home for two months, and in 40 minutes, someone takes away what we’ve built over many years. That said, I’m very proud of this team. Germany is an incredible team, world champions with a great squad. They deserve the semifinals. We didn’t, so let’s move on,” Prepelic said.
The former Real Madrid guard, now with Dubai BC, emphasized his pride in the team’s performance this summer.
“I’m very proud of this group, especially because seven players — if I’m not mistaken — were playing in EuroBasket for the first time. We had the best player on the planet surrounded by good teammates, even if some aren’t yet at the level they deserve. Hopefully, they will reach it. People didn’t believe in us, but basketball is a team sport, full of momentum shifts. We had the momentum, they hit a lucky shot, gained it, and beat us. There are things to analyze, but I’m very proud and believe we’re building something for the future,” Prepelic concluded.
Photo credit: FIBA