Basketball – Natan Jurkovitz: “Our best game in a long time”

Natan Jurkovitz is at home in Freiburg. So much so that the Olympic winger showed up barefoot at a press conference after the convincing victory (80-61) of the Swiss team over Austria on Sunday. Interview.

Natan, it’s a victory that feels good, right?

Yes indeed. In Austria, we had a very difficult match. We knew what we had to do because we spent a lot of time in the video room. Really a lot of time… We knew the tactics to follow and we played a full match for 40 minutes. It hadn’t happened to us for a long time.

What tactic came out of these video sessions?

The coach arrived with a well-defined strategy. We owed a lot switcher (editor’s note: change facing after a screen) to find us in a good position on their shots and it paid off. We knew they moved the ball well and that we couldn’t respond directly to the physical challenge.

Like you and Arnaud Cotture, Michel-Ofik Nzege was impressive defensively…

Michel is a particular physique. It can evolve in several positions. We saw him in Geneva last year, he was also voted best defender in the League, so we know what he is capable of. He is a very mobile person, like Arnaud, so we played on this strength.

The scoring is fairly well distributed over this match. It is important?

We knew how to spin the ball well to find open shots. We know very well that Robert Kovac, Marco Portannese or Marko Mladjan can score at any time and in any position. We know our offensive strengths and we knew how to play them perfectly.

Is it fair to say that this is your most accomplished performance in a while?

I totally agree with that. We had a full game throughout and we see that when that happens, we are able to beat Austria by 20 points. Thursday, against Ireland, we only played twenty minutes, the first and the last quarter. But luckily that was enough. Otherwise, the victory this Sunday would have been for nothing.

A word about your personal performance? Little in the scoring, but you were everywhere else…

This is also my strength. I can defend in several positions and I’m used a lot for that. I had less opportunities today, because when I was at the low post, he sent a second player on me. So I tried to create gaps, to find open teammates. I didn’t score much but I don’t care (laughs).