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Getting our attitude back!

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:03:54 GMT

Hi again, everyone. Let me tell you, it was quite nice to bring back a trophy to our fans this weekend, the Kresimir Cosic Cup of Croatia! It was really like a double trophy for us, because we won it for the first time in seven years and we won it in Zadar. To win against them and their crazy crowd is worth double! Why did it take so long between cups? For sure, the other Croatian teams are good, and they also prepare for the chance to beat Cibona in one game, which is when they have more of a chance than in a series during the playoffs. So usually they are waiting to try to knock us off. That is why this and a lot of cup tournaments have a lot of surprises. This time, though, we had a great bus ride back to Zagreb and our gym, where our fans were waiting for us. It's always great to arrive home with a trophy to give them. Our coach, Velimir Perasovic, then gave us a day-and-a-half off to clear our heads of basketball a little bit and get rested for everything that's coming now.

The truth is that the first Croatian Cup title in seven years couldn't have come at a better time for us. Of course, this trophy will help us have more self-confidence in both the Top 16 and the important Adriatic League games we have coming up. Before the cup, we suffered a bad loss at home to Fenerbahce Ulker in the Top 16. We certainly didn't feel right that night. Scoring only 55 points at home is not normal. We realized that we didn't play at our top level in that game, and for any win in the Top 16, you have to play at your best level, everyone on the team. Knowing we could have done better that night is what pushed us to play better since then.

The truth is that we had started the Top 16 exactly as we wanted, beating Montepaschi at home. We thought that game would probably be the key one if we were going to have chances until the end of the Top 16. We all know how well Siena has played this year. That was only their third loss all season, I think. After that, though, we started playing worse. We had a lot of small injuries, about four guys who could not practice and couldn't be in their top physical shape for the games. That punishes a team, not having all 10 or 12 players to practice. Losing the next game at CSKA was worse than we thought, even though very few teams ever win their. That and the Fenerbahce loss were different, but not the way you would think. Yes, we lost both, and the loss in Moscow might have been more expected, but it wasn't the way we want to lose. It was the difference between a bad loss and giving everything you have, but still losing. In Moscow, we gave up too early and let the point difference get too big. We can't allow that as members of the Cibona team. Against Fenerbahce, even though we lost at home, it was different because we kept fighting until the end and our attitude was there. Fenerbahce was just the better team that day, but we had the right attitude.

Now, we have to play Fenerbahce again in our next Top 16 game this week. It's a bit strange because usually you don't play the same team twice in a row in Europe. But at least we realize the mistakes we made in the first game and they are fresh in our minds so we can correct them right away in the next game. It's maybe easier in that way not to have to prepare double scouting for the same team again. Also, I think we are all healthy now and we expect to play at our best level. We did everything to win the...

On schedule, in Zagreb and beyond

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:19:09 GMT

I am back after hoping in my preseason blogs that we could help to lift Cibona up again. I am happy to say that right now, everything is good and we've become what we wanted to be in the beginning of the season, and this is a competitive team. We feel we are now on the level where we can compete with any team in Europe, so that is something we can be happy about. What's really interesting is that maybe two games we lost gave me the strongest sense that we have reached where we needed to be. We knew we would probably be good at home. We have a tough court and always have, but in previous years we didn't manage to win even one game on the road. This year, we won our first one away, at Le Mans, but honestly we didn't play very well. Not our top level, let's say. But we won, and proved something important, that we can win away even when we are not playing so good. That helped our confidence. Then we played on the road at two very tough courts, in Malaga and Tel Aviv. We were there to the end, close to winning both games, and that was a step forward. We were competitive, even on the road. We didn't win either, but especially in Tel Aviv, we had a chance to win. After that game in Tel Aviv, I think we realized that against good teams on tough courts, we can now compete on the same level. We knew we were now good enough as a team, solid enough and consistent enough, to play with anybody. I am happy about it, of course, and I just hope it continues.

If we talk about what has a happened to make our team better, I think the main reason we are competitive now is we don't depend on one or two players. We are a group in which many players can score the crucial points or make the crucial plays to win. And that, to me, is the mark of a good Euroleague team. Although we aren't yet at their level, someone like CSKA has the same dynamic. They are not about one player, but about the whole team, and any of six, seven or more players could prove to be the crucial one in a game. You never know. The other thing helping us is our practices. They are the basis of everything, and have become very strong. Every player on the team has a chance to prove himself in practice and that has had a positive effect on everybody. This should come as no surprise considering who our coach is: Velimir Perasovic. First of all, you have to remember that many of us grew up watching him when he played. We all knew he was a great professional and a hard worker. He has brought the same attitude as a coach that he had as a player. He's a coach who is a fighter. He doesn't give up, ever. He's always searching for a win, he wants to improve and wants to push us to improve our game everyday. Right now, that's his biggest quality, his ability to push us. He's never satisfied, always hungry, and he wants us to become hungry like him.

It turns out that our first truly must-win game of this season came against an old friend of our team, Chris Warren, who played for Cibona two-and-a-half seasons. But friendships aside, that was a hugely important game, because his new team, Avellino, was and remains our direct opponent for the Top 16. Knowing we had to win that game made it tougher mentally than it was in terms of basketball. Despite the pressure, we were always in charge of the game, up by plus-10 at one point, but of course Avellino is a very talented offensive team with great shooters, so they came back, as we expected. Still, we were...

Hoping for home cooking

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:36:39 GMT

Well, we started the season a little down, losing our first two games in the Adriatic League, before winning the third one against Zagreb here at home. We had some problems with injuries and changing players late, and that makes us kind of a new team still. We brought on two new Americans, lost another player and our captain and starting center, Niksa Prkacin, is out with an injury. We are not the same team without him as with him, for sure, but for sure we plan to be ready to play against Maccabi as strong as we can. Already people are starting here to talk about the game, because a big European team with a big reputation is coming to Zagreb for the first time since last season. We know they are very good and we have to be prepared. During recent years, it's true that Cibona always played much better in Zagreb, and I hope that tradition will continue and we will be the same strong team as the last few years. We can't think that's going to happen without great effort, however, and this year we want to step forward and try to become more competitive as a visiting team, also. Still, there's no doubt we get a lot of confidence playing at the Drazen Petrovic Basketball Center, and I know that our fans have a lot to do with that. I know, because last year I came here as a guest with Unicaja, and it was very clear how tough it is to come here and win. Since we only want to think about the first game with Maccabi, the key now is to be strong and confident at home to get the Euroleague season started right.

About our group, as usual there are a lot of tough teams. It's ovbious that Olympiacos has a really strong team on paper. They have a big budget and have spent a lot of money to get the best roster, and for sure they will be the big name in our group. Also I would mention here my old team, Unicaja, which has a new coach and made some key player changes. I see them as a very, very talented team, and with the great fans and sellout crowds they get for every game. Those two teams are the biggest favorites for me, but of course, Maccabi is another special case, a team that always makes a big name for itself. This year, they have a new point guard in Carlos Arroyo, whom I played against in qualification games to reach the Olympics in Athens. I think he will be Maccabi's team leader so we have to be ready for him. Le Mans and Avellino have pretty much new teams and rosters. It will be interesting to see how they play in a little while. Now, maybe, it's a little early to say something about them, because they are only two or three games into the domestic leagues. We need time to see them and what they are all about, but if they're in the Euroleague, you can be sure they want to take advantage of the opportunity.

And for ourselves, I think we'll have a good chance playing against every team, especially at home. We are not thinking right now about future games, but only playing the first one against Maccabi. It's very important to start well in the Euroleague, because it becomes much easier if you win and get confidence and just play from there. As I said, we didn't start the Adriatic League well, losing the first two games, which none of us expected. But we won a game finally and it will be very important to win the next Adriatic League game, on Saturday against Buducnost, so that we are calmer going into the Maccabi game. If we lose in the domestic league, we will be more nervous than we are...

A hopeful homecoming

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:41:32 GMT

I am more than happy that Euroleague.net has asked me to blog about the preseason, but first I have to say that my experience this summer at the Olympics has a lot to do with my high hopes for Cibona as we head into our first friendly games this weekend.

Getting back to the Olympics for sure was a big thing for basketball in Croatia. There has always been great interest in basketball here, but unfortunately not so much happiness with our national team. So getting to the Olympics was a big thing for us after so many years. We made good progress each summer, starting three years ago to qualify for the European championships, then qualifying to the pre-Olympic tournament, and there reaching the Olympic Games, where we played well for as long as we could. Most of all, it was a big accomplishment that now everyone in Croatia is talking about basketball again. Our togetherness was important, because we came up at a time when everyone was comparing us to the generation of Drazen Petrovic, which was hard. It's difficult if you are compared with Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja all the time, because people come to expect only the best results. We stopped comparing ourselves and started playing together, step-by-step and slowly came out from under the pressure. We learned a lot.

The other good thing about being together this summer on the Croatian team is that some of us decided to become club teammates again at Cibona, too! Last year was a very difficult one for Cibona. In a place the size of Zagreb, with Cibona as one of the city's important brands, the team should be on top always. The club talked with all of us about what our plans were, and if we had the will to come home and play together. First, we talk between each other, all of the players, and agreed that it would be really nice to go home and help make Cibona a better team in Europe than lately. And we went through with that agreement: me, Niksa Prkacin, Damir Markota. Now we are all domestic players on Cibona except on foreigner, Earl Calloway. Our fans perhaps will be able to relate to the team better now than when four foreigners were on the floor. Of course, the goal is for more fans to come watch us, because we'll need them to become as big as we want to become.

We have a new coach, Velimir Perasovic. We are practicing really hard. We know we have to be at the top of our game for the beginning of the Euroleague season, but we have to start winning by working hard now. We have had our first phase of work, and now this weekend we have our first tournament, in Germany. From there, we have more preseason games in Croatia, Russia and Belgium. We will try to come together as soon as possible, because togetherness will have to be the identity of this team. It's all connected with Croatian pride and the very important step we took at the Olympics. We had as our biggest strength a really good connection between the players, and now we have to do same thing in Cibona. The atmosphere is good, the fans are more interested than ever. It's a good base to start from, but of course we have to prove it on court. We are all hungry now to accomplish something big with Cibona.