By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Despite winning all ten preparation games for the upcoming FIBA World Cup, the Serbs are already thinking about making it all the way, and this means getting physical, especially against their top opponents.
Serbia boss Aleksandar Djordjevic talked about his national team after the win over France in the last prep game before the start of the 2019 FIBA World Cup and he emphasized once again that they have to be physically dominant: “As I have been saying since the beginning of these six years, physically and athletically, we have to be dominant in order to get the results we want and for which we work every day.”
He hasn’t been completely satisfied with the squad’s fitness as some guys didn’t take part in team preparations: “All this time there is a difference in the physical fitness of one part of the players who went through the team preparations and the other part of the players who did not go through the team preparations but had private preparations. One-on-zero basketball does not exist, there is no one-on-zero way to prepare for any competition, not even for a game. Only with team preparations that have a specific plan, system and principle and that have produced results for years. And that is the analysis of all this preparatory work. We hope that as the championship progresses we will reduce this difference to as small a level as possible, as it is obvious that it will be the key.”
Djordjevic also praised the opposing French squad and believes they will be among the top four teams at the World Cup: “Two different halves against a great France, a team that, in my opinion, will be in the top four. They played without De Colo. We had one physical, intense, strong game, a one-possession game and we responded well in the second half, with some adjustments. Lots of lost balls, many missed free throws… That’s the first thing that catches your eye.”