Early wake-up call

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:01:31 GMT

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...

Going to Madrid to win

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:33:16 GMT

For me, my teammates and for the fans in Siena, it's a great feeling to be going to the Final Four. We knew we could get here if we played well from the beginning of the season. For it all to come together the way it has is great. We're excited and hoping for a chance to win. Everything in this Euroleague season has been great so far. Now, hopefully, we can go to Madrid and get the job done.

I came to Siena because I wanted the chance to win a championship in Italy and then go to the Euroleague. I wanted to play against the best teams in Europe. I wanted exactly this kind of opportunity. We had a good team last year, won Italy and did well in the ULEB Cup, and I knew we would put together a great team this time. To be honest, in one of the first meetings we had this year, before practices started, we talked about team goals and making the Final Four was one of them. We knew that with the guys coming back and what we added, we'd be better and have big opportunities in the Euroleague. Plus we had good guys coming in: Bootsy Thornton, Ksystof Lavirnovic, Vlado Ilievski. I thoguht then we had the pieces we needed and it would depend on how we jelled and came together. The biggest thing with this team has been completely unselfish play. It could be Terrel McIntyre scoring one night, Bootsy another, Lavrinovic, Ilievski or Romain Sato or me.

A big plus for us came when we beat Panathinaikos at home. We played a great game, on defense and on offense, and just played really well as team, played together. That made us believe that if we could beat Panathinaikos by eight or nine, being ahead all game, we can beat anyone. We played CSKA close at their place, too. If I had hit my shots or we had a few less turnovrs at the end, we might have won that one, too. And if you can play CSKA within a basket or two, you take confidence from that. Last year's Italian championship gave us confidence. And having a tough first-round group, playing close or beating some of the top teams, helped our confidence even more.

Winning is something you can get used to, because it's a great feeling and you want to keep doing it. And once you start, you get great confidence. We knew that first group with CSKA, Tau and Olympiacos would be tough, but we thought that we could play with everybody. We got off to a good start in Italy again, then after a few good Euroleague games, we started believing even more, maybe more than the fans and others who came along later. We, the players and staff, believed early on. That feeling kind of rolled over from last year and really hasn't stopped.

Everybody is excited now. For everyone but Bootsy Thornton, it's our first Final Four. We know that if we can go and play great in Madrid, anything can happen. I'm sure we're not the favorite, and that's fine. But we have played against Tau and CSKA, and to try them again, we have to come in and beat a tough Maccabi team in the semis. I don't see why not, honestly. They're tough and we'll have to play great, but if we do, we have as good a shot as any team to win.

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Early wake-up call

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