By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
One day before the big final (9/5, 19.00 local time) in Nizhny Novgorod, the coaches and two players from the Basketball Champions League finalists declared the obvious.
While San Pablo Burgos has a historic chance to repeat as the BCL champions, Karsiyaka is more than eager to get the BCL trophy.
Coach Ufuk Sarica didn’t hide his intentions: “Burgos is the last champion. They have been playing together as a great team, they have a lot of weapons. I respect them. But we are also in good shape, both offensively and defensively. We trust ourselves to do our best. We are like family. Everybody trusts each other. We like playing together, all my players know what I want from them”.
Point guard Tony Taylor was even blunter about the goal of the Turkish club: “We came together to win championships, I’m grateful, extremely proud of my team and we are ready to play. Now we gotta raise our level of focus and intensity and leave everything on the court”.
On the other side, Burgos coach Joan Penarroya believes in his team’s mentality: “It’s important that my team has heart. Our job’s not easy. Last year we achieved great results, but the covid situations, two times in the last months got difficult. Now we will fight against a great team”.
Veteran sharpshooter Vitor Benite, clarified what this mentality is and the level of confidence that Burgos has since winning the 2020 BCL title back in September: “I’m in a different situation right now. Even if we don’t play well, we have an amazing connection. in the end, in games like that, it’s all about playing on that level. I think we showed this connection, this effort. I know that tomorrow we are gonna have the same level of intensity and whatever happens, this energy can help us a lot to face such a great team”.
Watch the press conference in full below: