Žibėnas, who distinguished the character of the students: “At the decisive moment we showed more struggle than the competitors” / News

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

In the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) game on Saturday, Vilnius Rytas was barely wearing a healthy coat.

Most of the match against Kėdainiai “Nevėžis-Optibet” lagged behind the capital’s basketball players in the fourth quarter, when Andrew Goudelockas started, shot 15 points and led the hosts to a difficult victory – 96:91 .

Rytas performed tonight without a disqualified man. Coach Donald Kairis and Giedrius Žibėnas, who replaced him, noted at the press conference that “Rytas” took over the chaser role due to relaxation after an easy start to the match.

“We know we can play better. We have problems and we are trying to fix them. We made a lot of psychological mistakes at the start of the game, because we started the game very easily, which put us to sleep, said the 36-year-old strategist. – The changes did not strengthen us and we would like the separation between the five starters and the substitutes to be less. Unforgivable when we start the third quarter. But in general, we are happy that the game took place, because this year the season is very strange, everything is often canceled. We wanted to enjoy the game. Somewhere it went in and somewhere it failed. Now we will focus on the next Champions League game in Greece. “

– Do you notice a lack of activity and enthusiasm on the part of your students during the game? Especially in the substitute bench.
– I would be lying if I said we did not see, but the conversations continue. We spoke with both the players and the club management and tried to solve this problem. It will not work in a day, but over time we will try to capture the pleasure of the game and hope that the bench will be more active not only on the field but also off it.

Man of the match

– Andrew Goudelock, who scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, decided the end of the match. However, there is a growing tendency for an American to keep quiet during all games and turn on only when interested. Are these the details of your game or the psychological nuances?

– I would not agree with the psychological nuances. He is such a player and the latter needs to keep up. Sometimes Andrew wants bigger minutes to keep up, but we also have more local players helping us and expect even more from them. If we play 7-8 players, it would be easier for him, but it is not. We want to rotate more players and promote more intense basketball.

– What positive can be learned from this game?
– Victory is victory. At the decisive moment, we showed more struggle than our competitors and fell for every ball, and it is very difficult to do so against Kėdainiai. We lost the first match against them only because the people of Kėdainiai took the 50 situations against 50 and it is very difficult to play against such a young and hungry team. It was very difficult to prepare for the game because they have a new coach, new combinations. The rotation of Nevėžis-Optibet players is different in each game because they have problems with injuries. That is why today we focus more on ourselves.

Victory is victory, we respect all opponents and we do not say that we will throw everyone in the LKL or the Champions League. We never spoke, we respect everyone, and Kėdainiai played a great game today, he hit a lot of difficult shots, but there were some that we had to cover and missing is unforgivable. If Nevėžis-Optibet reaches its full potential, there will be an even more interesting team with such a coaching staff and promising young athletes.

At that time, the team leader Kėdainiai “Nevėžis-Optibet”, who started the victory at the end of the match, Coach David Gale was not too disappointed by the failure.

According to the strategist, the lack of experience changed his leg and highlighted that the students could not understand the recently implemented system.

“At the end of the game, we let them run. We must learn to close matches with such perseverance. Today we had gained a tangible advantage twice, but we could not keep it,” taught the new team coach K equipodainiai. – However, I am happy with the performance from my men and I don’t want to take anything away from them. They are still trying to get used to the new system. When we lost to CBet, we had an excuse for injuries, but this failure is much more painful. It would be an amazing victory. “

– How do you rate Imru Duke’s debut?
He takes such throws during training, but I don’t think anyone expected Imru to hit three 3s today. He played great games and helped us a lot from the bench. Duke had coronavirus and did not play basketball for a month before arriving in Kėdainiai and participated in only two training sessions. I think Imru will give us a lot of energy, athleticism under the basket, speed and when everyone gets back on track, he will be a perfect fit here. Duke surprised me. He could have scored a triple, but he wasn’t expecting three.

– When will Abram Canka, Ariel Hukport and Jacob Gintvainis return to the lineup?
– I hope Ariel returns in the next match, because he is still recovering from the COVID-19 virus. We need to find out what the condition is, do some testing, and then we will know the exact date of return. Doctors could say more about Canka’s situation, but I hope he will return before the FIBA ​​window, which will take place in mid-February. Gintvainis has a bad back and we hope he will be back on the pitch in the near future. We are very short on players, we saw it today, when Domantas Vilys did not finish the match due to a foul limit, so we really need Jacob.

– How did your team manage to fight with the naked eye against the most capable “Morning” team?
– We came to the game knowing we could win. Self-confidence has a huge impact. If you feel safe, you play much better. Before this game, we were a 22 percent 3-point shooting team, today we hit 45 percent long shots. When you see a few shots fall, your confidence increases. Looking at the naked lineup, Rytas has a lot of stronger players individually, but matches are not played on protocol, you won’t achieve anything playing one by one.

Sure, legions were won by their legionaries, Ndour, Goudelock and Boatright had their moments, but we are very young. When I worked as a coach in the United States, I faced all these players, but most of my guys are playing against them for the first time and they are not afraid of authority. I will repeat, we arrived knowing that we had a chance to win and we had to win today. When we meet them again, we will have the same attitude. We have to go to all the games thinking that we will win.