By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
MANILA, Philippines – Despite a memorable run in the FIBA World Cup, Canada didn’t make it to the final, but this is not over yet.
And coach Jordi Fernandez set the tone in the press conference after the lost semifinal against Serbia: “It’s very important for the country, the players, the program. We are very emotional right now, but getting a medal will be very important for us and we know we can still get better. We want to leave this tournament hungry and thirsty for more”.
As he added on a personal level: “Ten minutes ago I was mad, now I am excited”.
RJ Barrett echoed the sentiment: “We have more and more experience and we want to leave here with a medal. Credit to Serbia, they played hard, they played physical. they are very well coached. They started hard and they led with 10-12 points for the rest of the way. We played hard as well, but our defense could have been better”.
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Both Fernandez and Barrett were also asked about the physicality of the game and the way it was called.
Canada had more fouls in the third period, compared to their foul total in a whole game in the previous FIBA World Cup contests.
As RJ Barret said: “We came into the game and played hard. We gave what we had. We played hard and called for some of those fouls. We can’t control it”
Fernandez added: “It’s part of the game of basketball. Those officials, their job is to judge, our job is to coach. I got a “T” on purpose and I had a reason. I will leave judging the official to those who judge them, we can only say thanks to them for doing the job”.
Fernandez focused on the fact that his team “was atrocious defensively”, and he also added: “We as coaches say we have to be physical without fouling. but it’s not easy. I am not going to judge the official, but in the third quarter, we trimmed the lead to seven. We were so close to making a run but we couldn’t get a stop. So that’s on us, we will never judge the official”.