Early wake-up call

May 24, 2012

Early wake-up call

For most of my team, Montepaschi Siena, we're heading to the first Final Four in a couple days, and we are glad we finished on a good note, by setting a new record for wins in the Italian League and beating a decent team in a real blowout, 103-40, to finish the regular season. That should give us good momentum going into the Final Four, but we know the games there will surely be a lot tougher to win. But we'll take a good feeling with us as we work hard to prepare for the semifinal against Maccabi. I can say that all our guys are excited, ready to get to Madrid and start playing. Again, it's a huge opportunity, which will be my first time and hopefully not my last, but you never know. This is easily as excited as I've been about an event in a long time. We might not be the favorites, but we know we can beat the other teams there. I'm ready for it.

Besides winning big in our last game before the Final Four, we were happy to see our point guard, Terrell McIntyre, come back strong. Terrell makes a big difference for us, both offensively and defensively. He got out there and played for the first time since the playoffs, and it was good to see him at 100 percent, with no problems at all. It was good obviously for him and for everyone on the team to see him back in action, because we'll need him at the Final Four.

The truth is that even though we finished up winning big in Italy, we had a game the week before that was almost as important, because we lost to the last-place team in the Italian League, and that woke us up a bit. I think those things happen sometimes: we didn't play good as a team, and though it sounds dumb, the other team isn't as bad as last place and has some guys who can really score. The bottom line, however, is that en didn't go into that game with the right frame of mind. Sometimes it's good to lose in the sense that it wakes you up. We stayed on the road and won a tough game a couple days later and then finished up strong, so maybe the loss was good for us. It helped us remember that we can win against anybody but also lose against anybody. It helps you focus. If a last-place team can beat you, think about what Maccabi, Tau or CSKA can do if you don't come to play. We have a pretty experienced group of guys who understand that the Final Four is a huge opportunity for anybody who plays in it. We can win the whole thing or get blown out, if we don't come to play. None of the Final Four teams is going to take it easy on us because we had such a good Italian League season. They'll be ready to hit us hard, and we have to be ready to do the same. Hopefully, our wake-up call came at the right time. Even though it's always better not to lose at all, hopefully we got the loss out of our system for awhile. Obviously, we have better focus since then.

We have got more of a look at Maccabi in recent days, and there's no denying they are a very strong team. They got off to a slow start in the Euroleague this season, but they certainly caught fire toward the end. It's a deep team with a bunch of shooters. It will be critical for us to play good one-on-one defense and to get pick-and-roll stops. They run pick and rolls to free up the open shooters and if we don't stop it early, we'll have to rotate and run a lot, and that would make it a long night. The answer is to stop people one-on-one and contain their pick-and-roll. The funny thing is we are pretty similar in some ways. Both teams have good four-men shooters, and even five-men shooters, from outside. They get out and fastbreak more consistently, maybe, while we adapt to the situation more. One game we might run with every opportunity, but the next we might slow it down. We can do a lot of different things offensively, just like them. We also have one of the strongest defenses out there, so our mix of both will be the key. People talk about Maccabi not playing tough defense, but we aren't fooled by that talk. We know that no team would get this far just on its offense. I see a really good game ahead between two evenly-matched teams. It'll be a test for us, because Maccabi's a team that's good both defensively and offensively. I'm excited to play them. So, see you in Madrid!

POSTED BY

SHAUN STONEROOK - SIENA, ITALY

DATE:

Monday, April 28, 2008