By Alex Molina/ info@eurohoops.net
Txus Vidorreta expressed his frustration after La Laguna Tenerife’s defeat in the first semifinal of the Final Four of the Basketball Champions League, in a speech full of self-criticism, resignation, and pride towards his players despite the elimination.
The “aurinegro” coach lamented that the context of the Final Four forces his team to stray from the collective identity that has allowed them to consolidate among the best teams in Europe in recent seasons.
“The opposing team has reduced the whole game to two-on-two, this has been happening to us in the Final Fours, we play a very different basketball than what brings us here. Our players are excellent and bring us here every year, but with a different basketball. We’ve been playing a basketball that can be done over many games, but not in the Final Four, it is what it is.”
The coach insisted that the rival’s defensive pressure and certain tactical details completely conditioned the development of the match.
“Putting overpressure on our handler and extending the roll of the five, it’s very difficult…,” he noted, before also hinting at his displeasure with some refereeing criteria and the imbalance in free throws.
“There has been a clear MVP, but he hasn’t been the most decisive. In the others as well, the most decisive has been another. Harding also had the luck of shooting 12 free throws, Marcelinho would add twelve in the three games,” he added in reference to Marcelinho Huertas.
Despite the disappointment, Vidorreta wanted to emphasize the recent trajectory of the Tenerife team and the merit of continuously remaining at the continental elite.
“The important thing is to be there, there are others who don’t make it. Thanks to them, in the nine years I’ve been at Canarias, I’ve been in the Final Four or Final Eight.”
The coach also expressed the pride he feels for a squad that, he said, allows him to develop “extraordinary basketball.”
“I am very proud of these players, who allow me extraordinary basketball, like against Galatasaray, and to suffer until the end like today.”
The defeat also left concern in the locker room due to the physical state of several players. Vidorreta confirmed that Rokas Giedraitis’s injury overshadowed even part of the sporting blow.
“The locker room is bad, first because of Rokas Giedraitis’ injury. It may not be serious, but it’s not mild either, a knee injury. Hopefully, we can later inform that it is mild,” he declared.
Additionally, the coach called for caution with other players physically affected.
“Let’s see how we finish this Final Four, that Fran Guerra and Jaime Fernández don’t suffer setbacks, and to try to be in the best condition for Saturday and the end of Liga Endesa, to maintain the position and play the playoff.”
Finally, Vidorreta appealed to the team’s capacity to react, recalling what happened last season.
“Last year, we took a similar hit and ended up being semifinalists in Liga Endesa,” recalled the coach, convinced that the aurinegro team can rise again after a new European disappointment.