Scariolo: "This was a victory we had to count on if we want to go through the phase"

MADRID, 1 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo acknowledged that this Thursday's 114-87 victory against Bulgaria on the first day of the Eurobasket was something they had to tell to "go to the next phase", and from which he takes positive things and others that can " do better," while viewing the upcoming game against Georgia as "a lot of fun" as it is an opportunity to see how his players react on a full court.

"In the economy of the group, it was a victory that we had to count on if we want to go to the next phase. There are things from the victory that I remain, with satisfaction, but there are things we can do better," Scariolo said in a conference. press release after the match.

The Italian blamed his team for one more point of aggressiveness in some situations. "The smaller you are in your position, the more you have to multiply the aggressiveness and energy, because we are smaller in almost all positions, we have to step forward and not let the ball go into our box easily. Then when shoot you have to try to capture a superior defensive rebound percentage", he explained.

The coach sees the resounding victory as "a great first step in the competition." "I think we've played very well, passing, finding the free man, and when you shoot early the percentages tend to be good and we've made them very consistent, but I want more," he said.

Scariolo assessed the first half as "very good in general", although he complains of having "allowed too many tackles". "The second half has been very irregular, we have had many ups and downs, sometimes we were very aggressive, other times we were not able to support that aggressiveness by protecting the area, the ball pressure has been like that, but for a new team this victory has been a gift that we take with pleasure and now we are going to the next thing," he said.

"When people see us play in the 'windows' against 'windows' opponents they say 'these guys play, they can play well'. We know we can play well and score at this level, but we have to see if we are capable of doing it to the next level, now the answer is no, but we have to be able to see how we can do it and manage how to put the pieces together," he warned.

The Italian was unconcerned by Spain's problems at times in the second half, when he ran out of possession time. "I'm not mad about the 24-second violations that we've done because our team wants to play at a high tempo and when that comes down to trying to be smart and focused on shooting, even if it's in the last two or three seconds or finding the open man because has a better shot, do it, even if you have to be sanctioned at some point," he remarked.

Sergio Scariolo did not want to go into "individual evaluations" of any of his players because they all answered "quite well", although "everyone can do better". "No one excluded, because if we don't stay in a correct team," he warned. "We need our debuting players to acquire more and more self-confidence, aggressiveness, concentration, in order to add a group of enough players to be able to put together a rotation in games of a different nature," he added.

"I don't care if you score if you don't defend later or if you make a nice pass if they take a rebound off your head. For those players who want to achieve excellence, that requires presence on both sides of the court and in every moment of every position, that's a higher level, not being able to do certain things on time," Scariolo said.

The coach would like that when the championship is over there are "one or two" of his players who "have taken a step forward to become a star in the FIBA ​​universe", something that he believes he does not have right now.

Against Georgia, their next opponent and host, Scariolo anticipates an atmosphere that "is going to be a lot of fun." "Normally I like to play in those kinds of environments, with big, hot arenas. Surely the more experienced players too, but the challenge is how our young or new players react to this atmosphere and I'm optimistic I think they're going to like playing. on a full pitch," he said.