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Pete Strobl is not a coach who glosses over. He hates defeats – and especially those like on Saturday, when nothing worked at his Gießen 46ers and everything at Crailsheim.
Anyone who knows Pete Strobl knows that he exploded inside on Saturday night. His basketball Bundesliga team – the Giessen 46ers – received a 70: 104 swat in the home game against the Merlins Crailsheim. Special circumstances such as injuries, illnesses and personal things meant that the people of Giessen were completely out of the way. On the club’s homepage, managing director Sebastian Schmidt specified the special circumstances and said that the Gießen 46ers and their team received shocking news on match day: The brother of one of the American players in the Gießen 46ers had been shot. The player in question, Schmidt continued, wanted to play on Saturday. He is currently in the USA and will return to Giessen in a week. That explains a lot. And in the interview Strobl answers further questions.
Why did you decide to put the two young players Maximilian Begue and Kilian Binapfel in the starting five against Crailsheim on Saturday?
That was because of the personal worries and injuries. Both are on the right track. They need to gain experience, so they need minutes of play. They don’t help us that much at the moment, but they will certainly help us in the future – in a month or in the next season. They work hard on their development, before training, after training. The two have earned their commitment. They need to get game minutes, even if it hurts every now and then, if they make mistakes or if they are not as dangerous as maybe others. We have to invest in them.
Playmaker Bjarne Kraushaar only stood on the floor for 69 seconds on Saturday. Why?
He suffers from a muscular injury to his leg. We tried to make him play. We had to change something in the second half – so we tried him. But he was in pain and couldn’t deliver the way he wanted.
The season is not going so well for Kraushaar yet. How do you develop a young player in this situation?
You can work much easier with a player who is healthy. Still, young players can learn, especially if they are as ambitious as Bjarne. Bjarne is injured. I very much hope that this week he will have more time to regenerate so that he can go full throttle again. He’s a young player – and they have to work harder than anyone else. If he delivers in training, then he gets more game minutes. This applies not only to him, but to everyone.
After such a defeat, it is important that the unsettled-looking team is straightened out. How do you go about it now?
What we have to do is not get together and sing and dance. We have to work. We have to have a rhythm – and we haven’t got a rhythm since the game in Würzburg.
Because of our difficult preparation – with too few players and not with the planned team – it was not a good training week. We have to be patient for the boys to get well again. But that is not so easy. Because: I want to work, I want to train with them, I want to push them, I want to develop them further. At the moment, however, things are not going as they should. So it’s a good thing that we have a weekend free of games. We will use this time wisely to work with those who can and spare those who need it. But next week we just have to be able to train like a real team again.
Are there any extraordinary measures – a meal together, for example, or something similar?
The guys already work it out among themselves. Our team chemistry is right – the guys like each other, they like to work with each other, and sometimes they argue. They deal with the conflicts and fight in training. And then they are a unit again. What we have to do is not get together and sing and dance. We have to work. We have to have a rhythm – and we haven’t got a rhythm since the game in Würzburg. For me that is crucial.
How did you perceive the support of the fans in the Osthalle on Saturday?
In all honesty, I don’t understand the words during a game. They sing, it’s loud. I don’t notice that much because I focus on the game. In the end, I had the feeling that despite our terrible performance, they supported us. I am of course very, very grateful for that. But I’m sorry for all of our team that we played so badly and didn’t give anymore. Our spectators are absolutely great – and we play like a 14th or 15th in the league. We just have to deliver more.
