Valuation. “I don’t think it was, although I think it was a great game, especially a great game to watch, I think it wasn’t our best game. But, as I have told the players, I think we have won because we have had our best week. Because it is true that the training week has been very good, that the work is being excellent, we had done it from day one, now there are some players available and that has allowed us to recover from two very complicated, very complex situations, like a 6 down, a 10 down, his consecutive triples and well, I think we have recovered from the most difficult thing. And being a game, I think it was very serious, but without excessive shine, since it has allowed us to win the one that until now is the leader of the competition, as I said in the previous one, for me the team that has played the best basketball. I think we have to take our hat off to the work that Inigo is doing, that Iraurgi is doing, they have been doing it for many years now, I think they get oil from everything they have, very quality players who get oil and that has allowed us to reach the end of the first round of leaders, which was something that when we have had all the injury problems, well although it is something anecdotal, I think we could hardly even dream of.
You have known how to play that ‘other basketball’, right? “It’s complicated, it’s complicated, I think we haven’t been bad, but there was a moment when we were on the bench and I made that comment to my staff and Héctor, the delegate, defined it perfectly, who said, ‘sometimes it seems like we lack maturity’ and I think that later we had it. There are situations in which, well, it’s also something that we talked about during the week, that we were convinced that the influx in Pisuerga was going to be high today because of the date, because of the actions of the club with the children, because of what the people were transmitting to us and that it did not weigh on us. I mean, I keep saying that seeing Pisuerga like this every day, more and more people come, every day, so that it did not weigh on us. But in the end we have had that necessary maturity in the hottest moments, even though it is not easy, because with the issue of the possession clock, not because of what the break means, which is a chore for both teams, but because of playing with something that we can’t handle. “We are used to it, that it is not seen. Well, it generates situations that are a little strange and we have known how to play with them.”
The rival coach has described the refereeing as ‘fabric’. “Well, I could describe many things as fabric. I repeat that I already said it in the preview, I have said it again now, the respect for Iñigo’s work is maximum, I think it is excellent. I mean, it seems excellent to me. Yes, there are days when the fouls go one way or another, I think I don’t know, we would have to see the game, I think they have played with more hardness, but not with a bad hardness, but I think that they have put a level of intensity in certain situations that is very, very, very high and we We knew how to read it, just like we went down in the first half, we were not able to find three-point shots. In the end they are part of basketball, so we have forced more situations to try to get fouls from them. We have managed to do it and there are days when we don’t. I get a technical in the 40-second deficit because of something that was obvious, which is that the possession clock had stopped three seconds before he shot and I like a technical for that, so I could say, bad. match by that technique, I kill someone. In other words, I kill someone because I think it is well called. In other words, it may be well called because in the end I gesture more than necessary, but from an obvious situation.
Although it has not been, as you say, a good game, at least the team has been able to hold on by making the rubber and with the rival’s three-pointers. “I do think it is a good game, but I repeat, not the best. We have not been excellent at the level of play. I think there has been a little bit of nerves, a little bit of, well, that pressure that sometimes we put on ourselves playing at home, knowing that we can be leaders. We had made a bet with the kids that if we won and became leaders we would give them one more day of vacation during the next break. Well, all of that in the end you try to motivate them, but there is also a point that they are children and that happens a little, right? But I think that about letting go against a great team, especially a great team that, apart from the fact that it is a great team and plays well, came with very high confidence and it shows. In other words, those free shots they have, that everything they have, those situations in which we, even though we come with confidence, have some doubts because it seems that, ‘what if, what if, what if’. The advantage that they had is that, damn, if they beat us today and become leaders, with Córdoba 1, with Sevilla, Ponferrada and us at 2, they are a team that also has a lot of injury problems in this first round, and if they lose in Valladolid, then it can fit into the script, I understand myself a little bit. So I think we have taken that pressure worse at some point, but by not letting go, especially with the team being 10 down with their three. consecutive triples, it’s to congratulate the kids. We also say yes, we try to change, we call a timeout, whatever we want, but that’s theirs, that character is theirs, that not giving up anything is theirs.”
How is the locker room? It seems that you have not lowered your heart rate. “Well, it’s a bit of an emotional day to see Pisuerga like this. I do, today I usually lower it quickly and it’s a little more difficult for me. I think that also seeing people like that, the truth is, when he’s not with people a little bit, well, we’ve been trying for a while, or he’s been trying to come, but today now at the end we’re with Fito Robles, with the singer Siloé, who is something for us too. I mean, there are people who right now carry the name of Valladolid with that pride, Come on, cheer up, be with us, send us messages during the week. Damn, forgive me, but it’s shit. So, today there is a feeling that it has to be lowered, because it can’t be, not for any euphoria, we haven’t won anything at all, we haven’t tied with anyone, but for me personally, it’s hard for me to enjoy myself after the games, even if I win a lot, today is a bit of a special day, not for winning, not for putting the leaders in the game. which is anecdotal, but to see Pisuerga like this. I’ve been saying it for a long time, but as a Valladolid player and those who are, seeing Pisuerga in the third category, which unfortunately is the third category and we have to accept it, damn, it gives you a feeling. Look at the happy, happy people, now the children, it seems to me that that generates joy for us, well, we have to chew it, now take a walk, have a beer and tomorrow I would think about Toledo.”
And Three Kings Eve, with how cold it is, 3000 people on Second FEB… “I can’t say anything else, it seems that sometimes we go a little with the Somos Valladolid, returning to the origin, I don’t know whether to define it as posturing, which is the truth. Damn, there have been games in higher categories with less attendance in our last seasons and always, damn, and it’s always something that has been requested, right? I mean, it has been requested from this place, from this microphone, coaches for whom I have absolute respect, who are almost my sporting and personal mentors, and one of The wars were for people to come to Pisuerga, and come on, you are not the ones in front, I watched it from Ponferrada or from Ibiza, following the press conferences on YouTube, and it was like a small war, right? Damn, the team hasn’t lost at home for two years, they haven’t lost at home, we have to blow up Puserga every day. So, we came with the almost opposite discourse, of, damn, we’re in Second FEB, we know it. Come, please, it sounds very like that, but almost please, we are going to try to show you that it is worth coming, that at least you are going to try to enjoy yourself. So, to achieve that, there are already more than 3,000 people, which I cannot say, I have already said it, but I repeat, for us it is the host.
You have mentioned, David, the anecdotal issue of being leaders, due to the triple tie, right? “It’s a triple tie already in the first round, if I’m not mistaken, until the end, what happens is that it is remade next week, it’s by difference, basically, it’s general, and then from now on the end of the first round, that is, I’m telling you this anyway, and I just get home and there’s Córdoba, eh? Because from now on, well then we’re not leaders, well I’ll repeat what I said, that is, it’s just the end of the first round that makes it From the general average, the particular one, then it is exactly that point, but well, we consider it, I am not saying about a lead, but we consider being there as we have to be. I reiterate that it is a doubt of mine, which is that I did not even know how to answer it. Until the end of the first round, the general basket average is considered, and I believe that this match is included, so I think it is anecdotal that we are leaders, but from the start of the next day, which is tomorrow, it will be the one with the best individual average, but Well, we do our thing.”
