By Alex Molina / info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce started the season with a win, the best possible start for coach Sarunas Jasikevicius and his team, which, like everyone else, is still growing at this point.
Still, Saras had plenty of things to be happy about.
“If we don’t count rebounds and fast break points, our offense and defense were quite good”, he said post-game with a healthy dose of sarcasm.
Still, he admitted that it’s still early in the season: “Of course, playing against Paris is very tough. Right now, no team is fully ready, so at this point, the most important thing is to keep moving forward by winning. The veteran players stepped up and gave us a lot of good things. No team in the Euroleague is ready. We are extremely happy to get one point and hopefully learn from things”.
Despite the final score, it wasn’t an easy victory for the current Euroleague champs.
“Not easy at all for players arriving from the USA to Europe, we are aware of that. They’re probably facing these kinds of defenses for the first time in their lives”, he explained and added, “For example, no team in the NBA plays this aggressively against them. Today, every one of our newly arrived players did a good job. We need to be patient; I’m sure they will be of great benefit to us. If you tell me before the game that we will have 16 turnovers, lose the rebound battle by 8, and that they are going to take 13 more offensive rebounds than us, I would tell you we can’t win this game. We have 3 new guys who have no idea about the intensity that is happening in the Euroleague. Like I said, I want to change my music about the hunger, that’s why teams usually don’t repeat”.
Saras also didn’t forget his former assistant, who had just minutes earlier achieved his first EuroLeague win as a head coach, leading Zalgiris to a road triumph over Monaco: “I also want to congratulate Tomas Masiulis against Monaco, his first win, very happy for my guy.”