By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
When Obradovic was dominating Greece as the coach of Panathinaikos, in defeats, specially his sworn fans, tried to find an explanation. “Obradovic knows” was the mantra and in some cases it was used to disguise even real issues of his teams. “He lost in order to wake up his players”, “he created a crisis in order to bring the team together” were the versions presented as the cause almost behind every defeat.
This time, in Fenerbahce/ Ulker, after the three defeats of the team in the last four games – two in TBL and one by Barcelona in Euroleague – the situation is similar, but the answer is that Obradovic really knows and things go according to the plan.
After last season with the new Top16 format of 14 games, things have changed in the preparation of top teams aiming for the top of Euroleague. Obradovic did his best in order to avoid any early failures, despite not having the core players of his roster available during the preparation period because of the Eurobasket. Bo McCalebb, Nemanja Bjelica, Linas Kleiza, Luka Zoric, Bojan Bogdanovic, Emir Preldzic and Oguz Savas were absent during a crucial period of time and came in the team having already gaming rhythm due to their national teams obligations.
Fenerbahce used that momentum and after getting the Top16 ticket the team can take the foot off the pedal, train vigorously – in the way most key players didn’t before the start of the season – and prepare for the second phase of Euroleague. We are now at this point and you can expect to see Fenerbahce again at full speed after the start of Top16.