Pino Sacripantiguest a L’Osteria del Basket – Not only blueberries in the woods on Friday 10/02/2024
How is your health?
I’m as good as new, I’ve made myself right. In short, one never counts one’s physique, one never pays attention to it. Every now and then he tells you that you have to stop. Apart from everything, everything went well, we are like new, we want to start again.
Very good. Let’s talk about Fortitudo. As a coach, did you expect it to get to this point, given the start of the season? With a roster that had caused a bit of a stir with the two Americans under the basket.
I honestly expected it for several factors. First of all because I am an admirer of Attilio and I know that when he puts his hand in it, his way of defending, his doubling up on everyone, let’s say that he always has a great influence.
Let’s move on to Virtus. It is known that you prefer to play with weight centers. How much impact can Zizic have in the playoffs, given that he is a “long” pivot of the classic ones like you like?
First of all, there is great respect for Luca as a coach, so I believe he can give a lot. (Zizic) gives it another, more internal dimension, a dimension also of the physical size of the blocks. I think it’s very important. They’ve added a nice arrow to their bow and can give it more dimension in this.
The difference between the Virtus you were in and the Virtus you see now at management level? I also ask a “sub-question”: when you arrived, I think that the project, even for a non-insider fan, was already quite clear: it was getting serious. Then maybe they didn’t give you the chance, but I know that almost all the Virtus fans are on your side. Do you see a change beyond investments?
Look, I’m speaking to you in a very personal way, for me it was really bad news to have to leave, among other things on the very day in which the good Albertone left us. Here it was a very difficult moment. I came to Virtus and there was great demand from the management to do very well in the cup. It was something that was of interest and, objectively, we did very well in the cup. In the championship, if I’m not mistaken, we were seventh-eighth, something like that, we were there. We also started quite well. Then there was the problem of Brian Qvale in the role of 5. And for me it was truly a great disappointment, beyond the fact that Bologna is a beautiful city, a basketball city, a wonderful city. Virtus is a wonderful place to train, because there was a field available, with a truly wonderful structure. But above all I understood that the following year we started to get serious about investing, because it was already very marked [la via].
It was the first time (in career ed) that I knew that, the following year, I could count on a very, very ambitious Virtus project. It was understood day by day with Baraldi, Ronci, with Dr. Zanetti and this gave me great disappointment. But I am absolutely not surprised where they are now, where they are arriving and what they want to do, because it is nothing other than the continuation of what was done and what was in mind before.
Fortunately, or rather, a little unfortunately, I “practically” reached the Final Four of the Champions League, right in the last match before. We had arrived very well in the Champions League, we had a wonderful journey. Honestly, not having played them really bothered me a lot, it was something that I felt was a bit undeserved, an injustice. But, I have to tell the truth, they have always been very professional, a company that hasn’t left you wanting for anything. You could see that there was a very ambitious project and now they are where they are and I also hope that they can do the best they can, not only the championship, but also representing Italy in Europe together in Milan.
So there is this great regret. But there is a beautiful memory of Bologna, a relationship with the curve, even with the fans, even now.
Among other things, I’ll tell you a curiosity: when I was ill and had operations for kidney stones (then it almost seemed like something more serious, but instead, thank goodness, it was nothing major) I received many messages of solidarity from part of the Bolognese fans. This truly filled me with joy.
Speaking of centers, Qvale was a center who, perhaps, in intention, was similar to the centers you like, but due to injuries almost only Kravic played. How difficult was it to adapt the game to an atypical centre?
I think that Kravic, meanwhile, was a great discovery. On an economic level it was an emerging centre. I was looking at him, he was from Greece, I had him under observation. Like, honestly… not that I discovered it, but I have to give some credit to Kevin Punter, I insisted, I wanted to get him in every way. He seems like a very important player to me. Going back to Kravic, it was a total bet that we made, a very atypical player. I believe that alternating with Brian there could be a possibility of frontal play, of these short rolls, of these “half hooks” that he had. The real problem was that Brian played few games, he had these big back problems, he was struggling a bit in this respect.
I’ll ask you the last telegraphic question, then telegraphic answer. Who was the strongest player you found yourself coaching?
Metta World Peace. What impressed me, in 10 days, was the change she made in the gym. Honestly, the first training sessions… you know, you put someone in, you put him in with all this media pressure and he struggled to make two camps. I said, “What do I do”? 10 days were enough. Then when he entered the game, I had never seen someone so tough, so tough.
The basketball tavern – Not just blueberries in the woods.
Live every Friday and Sunday on Twitch
https://www.twitch.tv/nelboscanonsolomirtilli
Youtube channel
www.youtube.com/@nelboscanonsolomirtilli
https://www.instagram.com/nelboscanonsolomirtilli/
X
