By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
VITORIA-GASTEIZ– After finishing the EuroLeague regular season at the top of the standings and overpowering Zalgiris with two wins in Kaunas in the playoffs, Fenerbahce Beko saw its dreams of winning the title getting crushed by Anadolu Efes.
For Fener guard Marko Guduric, it was a major letdown to perform so poorly in the semifinal, especially after the best EuroLeague regular season run in the history of the club.
“I feel sorry for myself and my teammates, because we weren’t at our 100% when it was the most important,” Guduric said.
Eurohoops had a Q&A session with Guduric about turning the page after the loss in the semifinal and his second season with the Turkish powerhouse.
– How goes the recovery process from last night’s defeat?
– I don’t know. It’s tough to recover after losing in the most important game of the season. Especially mentally. At the same time we have one more competition to play. And one more competition to win. It’s another day and another chance to improve and learn something. And stay positive.
It’s not easy to win the EuroLeague. Many of my teammates know this better than me. We just have to keep working hard to be ready for the next time and the next chance we’ll have.
– Kostas Sloukas said that you didn’t deserve qualify. Your Serbian national team teammate Nikola Kalinic characterized the loss as a “catastrophe.” Do you agree with them?
– For sure we didn’t deserve it. If you look at last night’s game. And consider that we had a great season. I feel sorry for myself and my teammates because we weren’t at our 100% when it was the most important. I’m really-really sad because I think we really did a good job in the season. But it is what it is.
I wouldn’t say it is a catastrophe because it’s not easy to be in a Final Four for five years in a row. It’s something to also appreciate. But the most important thing is to learn from our mistakes. Improve ourselves and win next time.
– What did Zeljko Obradovic tell you after the game?
– Honestly, not much. It’s very tough to talk. I’m sure we will have a meeting and talk about what happened. He said that we should forget this and focus on the Turk Telekom game.
– Your production output (9.3 p.p.g. on 57.5% True Shooting, 2.2 a.p.g., 2.0 r.p.g. over 21:55 was increased this year. How do you asses your second EuroLeague season with Fenerbahce?
– For me, the most important thing was that I was healthy throughout the whole season. I did a very good job this summer and recovering and working on my body. That was the reason I was able to practice hard and play better. I have much more room to improve and I will do my best to push myself really hard this summer and come back even better and try to be even more of a leader.