The upcoming match schedule might be “brutal” for Aris, but it will also serve as an opportunity for the team to show some character, David Blatt said, one day ahead of the road game against Maroussi (Saturday 23/01, 19:00). The American-Israeli coach also pointed out that his players have to try and win games like this one, in order to make up for some defeats in previous matches.
«Maroussi is a very good team and has had great results, both in the Hellenic Championships and in the Euroleague.Coach Bartzokas and his staff are doing great job. It’s a team with a lot of good elements and maybe their strongest point is the fact that they are so consistent in playing good. Regarding the weaknesses they might have, out task will be to find them. When you play away from home there is a different atmosphere and style of game, but still we will try to play some positive and active basketball, as we did against Olympiacos”, mr. Blatt said.
He also commented that “thinking about the Hellenic Championships top 4 right now, would be looking too far ahead. However, a road win against Maroussi, which is a quality team and won’t lose many games at home, would be a big plus. After all, we have to get such victories, to make up for some defeats. There were games which maybe Aris should have won but didn’t, so we have to make up for this. A win against Maroussi would really boost our morale, but saying it and doing it are two totally different things”.
Regarding the tough back-to-back matches that his team will have to play in the upcoming weeks, starting from now, David Blatt joked that “our program is brutal and maybe I should have picked a better moment to come here”! Nevertheless, he made clear that “I have no problem with it, really. If there is commitment on behalf of the players, the staff, the fans and everybody else involved, the tough program itself will be the thing that will make this team successful. We have to earn the trust and the support of our people and we have to play quality, committed, dedicated basketball every time we come out. If we do all those things, we will have a good chance to turn this in another direction. I won’t say turn around 100%, because it’s not like bad work was being done here. Some things happened that were not successful or maybe the situation wasn’t what people hoped it to be, but there’s a lot of good things that I found here. I just to build on that and give my own touch to that”.
The renowned 51-year-old coach also spoke about the special elements of the Hellenic Championships: “It’s a high quality league. There are many great coaches and players here. There’s also the passion, which has to do with the tradition of basketball in Greece. I believe that my first task will be to learn about the opponent coaches and their tactics on court. I hope that we get to a situation at which the other teams will have to respond to us, as opposed to us responding to them all the time. We’re not there, but we’re working towards this”.
Mr. Blatt was also asked about Aris’s great performance on his debut, against Olympiacos, and gave credit to his players: “The coach doesn’t play. The coach shows the way to the players and they do -or they don’t- what the coach calls. My players did what asked them to do. Certainly the element of surprise did help us in that game. Olympiacos couldn’t prepare for what we did, because it was the first game of our team under my coaching. Also, we are not at 100% in terms of fully utilizing different tactics. We’re just in the process of building that. I think we have a lot more to improve and a lot more to gain from different things”.
Finally, when he was asked about the enthusiastic comments of all Aris players on the new, up-tempo style of play, mr. Blatt quoted: “I always try to put elements of my philosophy, but I also evaluate if these elements would fit to the players and if they would work. You can’t change everything in a team on January. You must take the good from before and build on that. And more than this, make the best use of the kind of players that you have, in order to make them feel comfortable, excited and happy about playing”.
