The basketball talent farm that is Belgrade, Serbia, seems bottomless in depth sometimes. So it is that for the second time in months - and for what seems now like seasons upon seasons - a young big man from Partizan Igokea is wowing everyone who watches him. Even though he had been showing up in boxscores for a couple of previous seasons, Partizan Igokea forward Novica Velickovic was still waiting his turn to shine. That turn has come this season, and alongside buddy Nikola Pekovic, the 21-year-old Velickovic has been the other major force in Partizan's drive to the Top 16. Velickovic’s third double-double in the last eight games helped Partizan blow away Bamberg 85-37 last week at home to end all drama about the team's Top 16 deservedness. It would be the second Top 16 appearance for Velickovic, who knows that the formula for team and personal success comes straight from the club he grew up with. "Each guy who plays for Partizan has to leave his heart on the floor to justify not each minute, but each second," Velickovic told Euroleague.net. "It is not so easy to struggle with that obligation, but if you want to be the best you have to justify each second."
Let's talk about last week's almost unbelievable score, 85-37 over Bamberg. Was it hard to believe, too, for those of you who were playing and looking up at the scoreboard?
"Sure, it is unusual to beat anyone with so huge a scoring margin. Before the game, however, we all believed that we are able to do that, to win with a points difference that secures us the Top 16 phase. I remember
last season in the Euroleague we beat Olimpija with almost the same margin. We invested a lot of labor in this competition and it is fair that we see the prize."
Before the game, what did the players say to each other to be so super-motivated?
"There was no need for super-motivation. Absolutely none. Each player was extremely self-motivated already, like we are before each game. And we felt some kind of a positive pressure. A day before our game, Le Mans beat Cibona, so all that we had to do was to beat Bamberg and wait to see the final score of Maccabi-Armani Jeans in Tel Aviv. Beating Bamberg was not an easy job. We had a deal between us: no
panic if we started bad."
Last season, Partizan made its first Top 16 after coming close several times. How much confidence did that give the team coming into this season?
"That gave us lot of confidence for sure. Last season's success showed us all that what we are able to accomplish. That was kind of a road sign for us. Last season, we were playing in a very hard group. It's the same situation now, but we believe. In the 2006-07 season, we believed that we could do that together with Kosta Perovic, Vonteego Cummings and Predrag Drobnjak. This season, we believed in ourselves.”
Since last season, the team lost some big men like Perovic, Drobnjak, Luka Bogdanovic and Predrag Samardziki. You and Nikola Pekovic knew responsibility was coming your way. Did you know you were ready meet that responsibility so well as you have?
"Me and Pacman - which is Pekovic's nickname - have been friends for a long time. We've been playing together for four or five years now. We know each other very well. It's a pleasure to play with Nikola, and it is so easy. We both kind of felt responsibility even before the competition started, but it was positive feeling. Pekovic and I could hardly wait for the opening game and after that everything was easier."
In the opening game, of course, you upset Barcelona, showing Partizan's potential. Did beating one of Europe's top clubs make it easier going forward or did it raise expectations higher?
"After beating Barca, we continued with a road win against Roanne and had a 2-0 record. But the game with Barca was important because it showed us that we were able to compete with any team in the Euroleague. After we had that 2-0 record, there was pressure from our home crowd to continue with wins, but we tried to forget everything and just concentrate on the next game. Those weeks in November were the best school for us all."
Partizan, as usual, is the youngest team in the league, with 10 players born in 1985 or later. Does playing lots of minutes at a young age mean more or less pressure on a player?
"Each guy who plays for Partizan has to leave his heart on the floor to justify not each minute, but each second. It is not so easy to struggle with that obligation, but if you want to be the best you have to justify each second. But definitely, I think it is better for a young player to play more minutes and deal with high pressure."
Even though you lost six of the last seven games before Bamberg, did the close defeats to teams like Panathinaikos and Real Madrid help the team?
"Definitely, those losses helped us a lot. We are the youngest team in the competition and after each loss we feel like we are on our way home after school. We can see clearly where our mistakes were. But in each of these six losses we sold our skin very expensively. And we showed our teeth. To any young player, not only each win, but each loss, too, means a lot."
You had never played more than 13 minutes in a Euroleague game before this season. Now you average 28, a big jump. Was there a moment when you started feeling comfortable as a full-time contributor?
"I was improving from game to game - and I am still rising. But there is no me: Partizan is the most important, my teammates are important. We are close friends off the court. We spend our time together and that is a very important thing to each of us."
Going back to the Barcelona upset and the Bamberg blowout, how much did the home fans in Belgrade have to do with those two highlights?
"Our fans are best in the whole world. Nobody has fans like we have. And we are happy. When we are winning, they are singing. But they are singing when we are losing, too. They are our sixth player, definitely."
Your jersey number is 12, just like Vlade Divac when he played at Partizan. He was there to watch your game with Bamberg. Did you feel any pressure because of that?
"At the time when I was starting to play basketball, Vlade Divac was the legend and we all were struggling to get his number 12 jersey when we were practicing. I am happy because I wear the same number, but I have to say that there were so many legends in Partizan beside Vlade: Sasa Djordjevic, Zarko Paspalj, Predrag Danilovic, Zeljko Obradovic... What a joy to be part of the club like Partizan! That number 12 is the cherry on the top of the cake."
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