Ready to go |
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With less than 36 hours to the beginning of the World Championship and just one training left (probably the last, or second before the last, instance of the whole event with physical contact between players), we will refine some tactical aspects and gear up for the game against France while testing for the first time the official court, which has been denied to the teams so far, something we are all eager to see. Today we will train at 8pm and will debut vs. France tomorrow at 9pm (GMT+3). All teams stay at the same hotel, a great chance to see old friends, in my case Maurizio Gherardini, general manager of the Toronto Raptors and sporting director of Canada, Renato Pasquali, assistant coach of Canada, Florent Pietrus of France who has been with me for three years in Unicaja Malaga winning the Spanish Cup, the League and reaching the third place in Euroleague Final4, Robertas Javtokas and Paulius Jankūnas who last year played for BC Khimki and next season will play for Valencia and Zalgiris. Indeed the World Championship is a bit of that too, a life with your team but sharing moments, when it comes to spare time or bumping into each other in the hotel, with actual rivals that in previous phases or maybe even during the club season have been your co-workers.
The feeling is good, we are looking forward to get into the games, with the big fear now of getting injured in the contacts that may occur during training, and with yesterday’s big topic of discussion: the huge, bulky U.S. victory against Greece, a sign that United States are not only a very good team but they are also constantly improving and getting in shape. We hope for a good start because France is a dangerous team: athletic, with excellent players, perhaps without a strong bench but with a dangerous and powerful core of 7-8 players. BC Khimki, meanwhile, has played the first preseason game, winning against newly promoted Nizhny Novgorod, a team that this season will play the Russian First Division for the first time. I have spoken with Andrija Gavrilovic and Oleg Meleschenko, the assistant coaches who are coaching the team in my absence and they have been quite happy especially about the last quarter and the defence. We won 58-54 with 14 points for Dimitriev, 13 for Langford, 11 for Panin and 10 for Eze. They younger players played long minutes, including 35 minutes for Vyacheslav Zaytsev, the best product of our Junior teams. Today we will play against a second division team, finishing tomorrow against Kazan. |
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