Basketball: Arnaud Cotture: “The truth is that we were dead”

Because Monthey, with its significantly lower budget and its virtuoso Jay Jay Chandler (29 points), made the perfect match for 36 minutes, Friborg Olympic came close to elimination in the Swiss Cup, two months after that in the SBL Cup. So at the time of the interview, Arnaud Cotture was a relieved man.

Arnaud, were you scared?

It would be a lie to say otherwise. In the first half, we did the first five minutes correctly but we couldn’t make a defensive stop and we left too much space for the opponent. Afterwards, for fifteen minutes, we literally sink. At half-time, we weren’t calm and in the locker room, the guys said to themselves that we were missing out on the event. This is where the coach told us: do you know what is at stake in this match? And he was right, we weren’t playing it like a Swiss Cup semi-final.

Was it the most important game of your season so far?

Yes, clearly! Since this defeat in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue, we only play on two counts. Tonight, if we miss the start to the end of the match, it could have been disastrous for the rest of our season. Even if it was not finished with the playoffs.

It was the Swiss, Natan Jurkovitz then Boris Mbala, who sounded the revolt.

I just said it on television, precisely. Nathan saves us. His start to the second half changed everything. Because we were in a moment of great difficulty. He put a crazy intensity to get everyone on board with him. Behind, Boris’ address does us a world of good. They took us out of the tunnel.

Despite that, you are still trailing 80-71 with just under four minutes remaining.

It was the same gap as before our comeback in the Coupe de la Ligue final against Massagno last season, except that there we had more time. You just had to play and stop thinking about the score. Once again, we showed that we were never dead and it was important to prove it again. We have had difficult times since the start of the season but we remain a team capable of winning big matches.

You failed to stop Chandler for 36 minutes. Until Davonta Jordan wakes up.

I wanted to say it there, when I arrived in the locker room, but we decided to be positive. We have to stop getting knocked out to react, because it has happened to us several times this season. We have to find a way to put a great intensity from the start, not when we are in the hard. This is the big lesson to be learned.

Can we say that you saw the precipice up close tonight (note: Saturday)?

I just told my family: the truth is that we were dead. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, we have to lose this game. But we didn’t give up, we were able to stay together in a difficult context and I think that’s what we have to build on.