By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Itoudis was also asked if he can announce which CSKA Moscow players will play in the national team windows, as Andrei Kirilenko revealed earlier in the day.
The Greek coach explained the situation: “We are engaged in discussion, it’s not difficult for any party involved. We look forward to the national team games, we want them to have the best possible roster, but also not hurt the other teams in other competitions. I can’t make any announcement. We would love to have the best possible players in the national teams and also the best possible players in the clubs. The issue of the calendar has to be discussed at another level. Why they do that? I don’t know… I mean probably I know, but it’s not on me to talk about it. It’s not an easy situation for our president, our club and also for the national team. Consider this. In the first “window” probably Leo (Westermann) will not be able to play. We have injuries, but probably they don’t give a… I don’t want to say the word, about our situation. I have to work. I will coach you, the journalists, if I have to”.
Itoudis added for the game: “At halftime, we had some targets. We talked a lot about playing better defense, being more competitive, using our strength, our length, our quickness. I think that the 51 to 29 difference in the second half satisfies us a lot. We shot the ball pretty good, with better decisions on splitting their defense and kick-outs. We had good open looks. And overall I think we have seen a totally different picture in the second half. Congratulations to the players because they make it happen. You know it’s not easy to change the chip. We had a very emotional VTB League game on Monday with Khimki, then we came here and had a sloppy start, but overall we deserved to win. We were the better team”.