I'm coming back at you from Rome after a long blog break, a long regular season where a lot of things happened. We finished up with three overtime games in a row, and lost two of them, which might explain why I took off my headband at halftime of the last game. I had a headache! We're in the Top 16 now, though, and that's what it's all about. I came to Lottomatica Roma a year ago before the Top 16, and I didn't think we could have a tougher group than that one - with three teams from the previous Final Four in it - but this year we had another tough draw with Unicaja, Panathinaikos and Partizan. This time, however, I really do think we have a great opportunity to fight for position to make it to the playoffs. First, I think we have some very experienced players now, and second, I think we have become a lot better as a team than we were this time last year. I don't know how much my experience from arriving and playing through the Top 16 last year counts, but I know that I have surely learned a lot in the last year, so I am readier now.

What we've done so far shows me that our team has good potential. We had to really grow up fast in the regular season. This is our first year together for most of the guys on the team, unlike teams like CSKA or Panathinaikos, which pretty much have the same core players every year. When you are not that type of team, you have to learn to gain chemistry and experience in faster ways. We have...