By Cesare Milanti / info@Eurohoops.net
On April 13, Varese was in the middle of a dream, basketball-wise. Following two of the worst and most difficult seasons in the club’s history, which saw the red-and-white team ending the championship on the edge of relegation in back-to-back fashion, a new dawn was rising in Masnago.
After officially retiring from basketball, Luis Scola took an essential step in his last team’s future, acquiring some of Varese’s quotes to fill the CEO’s shoes. He did that as the 2021-22 season approached, but the experiment of first Adriano Vertemati and then Johan Roijakkers didn’t work enough well.
The real deal started when the summer of 2022 came, as the new General Manager Michael Arcieri and the new head coach Matt Brase were the first elements of the red-and-white revolution, which saw the Italian team implementing a way of basketball never experienced in Italy before. Without competing in any European competition, Varese started to grow, capturing victories week after week.
April 13 was just another Thursday of preparation until the next championship game, against Trieste, which has also seen in the past few months new faces around, as CSGI Group acquired the 90% of this Italian club. Instead, on that day Varese found out they had to forget about the playoff run at the end of the season, as the Italian Federal Court penalized the red-and-white team by 16 points, dropping to the last place in the LBA, and being put out of nowhere in the battle for relegation.
Eurohoops visited the Enerxenia Arena two days before to tell the story of how an exciting and thrilling project was rising in the Italian basketball landscape, interviewing coach Matt Brase and GM Michael Arcieri. Their words were full of enthusiasm and commitment, and we thought, following a good end of the story we will track down later, it would have been right to keep them within the narrative.
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The way of believing for Matt Brase
Matt Brase has been part of American projects in the NCAA, G-League, and NBA since the beginning of his coaching career with the lights of the Arizona Wildcats, Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston Rockets, and Portland Trail Blazers, while being the head coach of the Haitian national team in 2017-18, and unprecedentedly landed in Europe to take part in Varese’s new dawn for the 2022-23 season.
His approach never changes, in whatever latitude his bench is. “It’s not just me, it’s our coaching staff. We try to bring energy every single day. We are upbeat, and we like to be positive within our group. We like to teach and help them find solutions on how to be the most efficient team that we possibly can. I think that there’s an energy level we bring, with our coaching staff we acknowledge the game using analytics and using efficiencies to our advantage. On top of that, there’s a love factor: we love our players, and we treat them with the respect that they’ve earned. It’s a family and we are doing this all together. In the group there’s energy in every single day, it’s empowerment and love for our players”, he said in an exclusive interview with Eurohoops.
As stated before, these words came before the punishment but can be perfectly perceived even now, with things that have changed drastically. Following that judgment, in fact, Varese won two back-to-back tough games against Trieste on the road and Brindisi at home, but failed to succeed against EuroCup participant Reyer Venezia. Following that loss, however, the 16 points of penalty got reduced to 11 on April 26, leaving Varese with the possibility of saving itself in the last two LBA Rounds, by getting at least one win.
Despite the goal changed throughout the season, Matt Brase’s coaching staff, which includes also the former Vanoli Cremona head coach and national team assistant Paolo Galbiati, has tried to create since the beginning an environment in which players could have taken a step forward down the line, emerging as potential revelations of the season.
The perfect example can be found in Colbey Ross, who recently produced the 6th-ever triple-double by a non-Italian player in the LBA with 33 points, 13 assists, and 10 rebounds in the decisive clash against Scafati, which officially saved Varese. He has been one of the most-watched and “must-watch” players in Italy this year, alongside teammates like Tariq Owens, Markel Brown, Jaron Johnson, Guglielmo Caruso, Justin Reyes, and a lot more.
Colbey Ross is HIM. Triple-double of 33 points, 13 assists, and 10 rebounds, shooting 12/21 from the field, and 5/5 at the line, with 2 steals, and 46 of efficiency, leading Varese to the 95-81 win against Scafati and avoiding relegation. He’s the MVP of the LBA season, no doubt. pic.twitter.com/1PMqrX2sxs
— Cesare Milanti (@cesaremilanti) April 30, 2023
They managed to be wrapped by Matt Brase’s learning process, which has been implemented by the American head coach by watching more and more styles of basketball here in Europe, now that time zones permit him to do so. “I think basketball is always a learning process, you learn from a lot of different ways. In my career I’ve kind of always watched other leagues and other levels to try to get something out of it, even breaking down college or high school games, certain plays, ways, or coaches believing in things. I’ve been watching a lot of EuroLeague, EuroCup, and Champions League, because we’ve got a lot of time during the week playing only the domestic league this season”, he explained.
“Here I’ve watched a lot more European basketball, I used to watch only some clips or coaches’ clinics. It’s the beautiful thing about basketball: there are a lot of different ways to play, a lot of styles. P&R, pin downs, and off, a lot of offenses, 5 out… a lot of stuff away from the ball. There’s not one right way to play, but there are a lot of right ways to play. It’s important that the team has an identity that provides who you are. Talking about the Italian league, for example, teams which have an identity are always tough, because they are very good at what they do because they have an identity in what they do. That’s what we want to do here: we want to play in a certain way and do things in how we feel it’s best to do them as an organization. We know internally how we want to play, and we try to maximize that”, the former Mike D’Antoni’s assistant coach added.
The identity, which was also brought into the conversation by General Manager Mike Arcieri, was the key to remaining humble while going up and up in the standings, and at the same time the perfect ingredient for the no-relegation recipe in the most difficult and tough moment of the whole year.
And the identity of Varese, that’s for sure, came only by involving the team with joy, which is also the feeling that the spectators perceive by watching these guys play on the court. “You only know what you know sometimes. This is what I know of coaching this way. I’ve been able to be with some really good and positive coaches, who want to empower your team, giving freedom and creativity. Basketball players are one of the most complete athletes in the world, they want you to put them in a position to succeed. They don’t want to be robots, be asked to do this or that. The offense that I’ve learned from other people is not my offense necessarily, but things being put together with a lot of freedom. Attacking the rim to score, the ball-handlers finding the roller, or kicking out for an open three: it’s a style that I like coaching”, Matt Brase said about his coaching style.
“I’m comfortable with it, and once players get used to it they really enjoy it and want to learn more about the details and the evolution of how we want to play, being more creative. After the first 8-10 games you start to see more creative stuff from the players once they start learning. Everything takes time in life, especially when you put together a team: it’s fun to watch our guys now when they do something which is the right solution, we are looking for and it’s not necessarily something that we talked about it. They just make the read and take what the defense gives them. That’s always fun as the season goes on: players increase their creativity, they see things watching the film to which they may react maybe I can do that, I can do this, executing on the court… this brings joy to our fanbase. We have fans who are excited about how the players are putting their effort in. I love coaching here”, the 40-year-old coach added. Varese’s supporters love that as well, no doubt.
The red-and-white team, which will now face the last game of the season with the only goal of concluding the year on a positive note by taking the victory, but without having the possibility to fight back again in the playoff picture, has been under the spotlight for the vast majority of the season, playing an entertaining and really enjoyable style of basketball.
The numbers are on Varese’s side: they are the first in points scored per game (90.7), pace (80.0), three-point shots made (11.4) and attempted (32.1), and free throws attempted (22.3). But they are also the team that draws more fouls (22.7), and the third-best team per assists shared (18.1). They shot amazingly inside the arc (2nd in two-point percentages with 56.0%), and, generally speaking, they are so fun to watch.
These numbers get an even better meaning if we think that Varese plays in this way in one of the most competitive leagues in Europe, which comes behind only Spain and Turkey in terms of the quality expressed by the all teams. “It’s a great high-level league. You have players with really good experience, NBA and G-League experience with European backgrounds, very talented players who have really high basketball IQ, who know how to play. There are a lot of tough competitors, guys who want to win and who’ll fight in every possession. It’s a tough league to win and something we experience every night with our best punch. We’ve seen teams in the lower part of the standings beating the best ones, and we’ve seen a lot of teams in the middle beat each other up a little bit. There’s no saying that anyone can’t take anybody else to spot on home or road and beat opponents higher in the standings. That’s the fun thing about competitive sports: you’ve got to come every night, there are no gimmes in this league, no games in which you can’t come with your best effort. You have to expect to win every time you show up”, Matt Brase said before seeing the possibility of fighting for a championship being shut down.
“The goal has been kind of the same the whole year: get better every single day. You’re going to go through highs and lows during the season, you’re going to have tough losses and good wins. It’s handling the emotions of the team, so you don’t get too high or too low based on the results of the weekend. You’ve got to keep building as best as you can throughout the season. I’m a believer that if you keep doing that, then you’re going to get what you deserve at the end of the season. Ultimate success is winning a championship, but there’s a certain level to playoffs, getting there, and whatever. It’s just building that upward trajectory the whole time, it’s not going to be a straight line ever. You just want to keep the trend going on: not too high and not too low. Keep our positivity and our identity of whatever we’ve created so far”, the American head coach commented, with prophetic words.
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“Having Luis Scola as the leader is beautiful”
If Matt Brase is focused on the coaching style of things, Mike Arcieri is behind the scenes, sharing the responsibility of the project alongside Luis Scola, who convinced him to join the team to make shape Varese’s new future. “I knew who Luis was as a player, but I never had the opportunity to meet him more personally. But seeing him on the court, you could feel he had something more to show. A person who worked a lot. I had the highest esteem and appreciation for him before we spoke. We talked about the right things, that we have to work a lot, develop players also in the youth sector, playing with a precise identity and culture. It’s something I share too. It was easy to say that I wanted to be part of this project in Varese. Scola is a very good person, a family man, and during the working day, we have a very close relationship. It’s really a pleasure if he’s here every day. He works a lot, and it applies just like when he was playing. He has a great vision towards Varese and is giving the best of himself, giving all his heart to this project. We always talk, and we always compare: it is a beautiful, stimulating, and collaborative environment in which to work. This is important for me, for him, and for all of us here in Varese. Having Luis Scola as the leader of this project is beautiful. I’m very lucky”, the General Manager said.
Michael Arcieri, who also spoke to Eurohoops before the Federal Court’s punishment came out, had his eyes on Europe for next year, as Varese was only behind Derthona Tortona and the two EuroLeague participants Olimpia Milano and Virtus Bologna. But things weren’t clear yet, and they won’t probably change in the next few weeks.
“We haven’t decided yet”, he replied which competitions they would have liked to play “In the BCL there are fewer matches at the beginning, and it could be a quieter entry, there is the EuroCup which is a very important league, with more matches. We are studying the situation, and it would be a nice problem to deal with. We are still evaluating everything, we hope that we will have the opportunity to make a similar decision. Today we are here to train day after day. The only thing we can control is our effort and effort in training”, the Italian-American professional previously added.
After all, even though Varese was living a dream in the highest positions of the Italian league standings, Michael Arcieri agreed with Matt Brase on the competitiveness of the championship. “The level is very high, definitely. There are important players who have played everywhere: Euroleague, NBA. It’s a very high level, with a lot of quality and talent. Talent and basketball intelligence are very high. I have undoubtedly noticed that all teams have their own vision and identity well defined. We play in a different ways, but everyone has the conviction to continue with their own path. There are very good coaches, and the level is very high. Matt noticed for himself that there are coaches trained: Messina, Scariolo, Bucchi, Vitucci… The championship competition makes it very interesting. There is a very high intensity during the season, something that in the United States I have never seen: in the middle of the season certain teams understand that they are rebuilding and do not push to the maximum on the accelerator. Here this does not happen, it does not exist. This is very beautiful, it gives intensity and I like it”, the former New York Knicks Director of Basketball Strategy said.
¡TODO UN ÍDOLO! Luis Scola es el CEO y propietario del Varese Basket, de la A1 del básquet italiano. Ayer, en el día de su cumpleaños 43, su equipo venció 95-81 a Scafati. Los hinchas le cantaron el feliz cumpleaños a Luifa y ¡hasta le pidieron ir a brindar a los bares! pic.twitter.com/oCRuEuZ59f
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) May 1, 2023
What stood out from Mike Arcieri’s work, though, is mainly related to the opportunity Varese gave to under-the-radar players like Tomas Woldetensae or Justin Reyer, or to those guys who were struggling to make a name for themselves either in the NBA or in the highest European leagues, such as Tariq Owens and Jaron Johnson, but also Colbey Ross, who was playing in the Czech Republic with ERA Nymburk.
Talking about some of them, Michael Arcieri explained to Eurohoops their way of everyday scouting. “We look everywhere. The main example is Colbey Ross, who came from the Czech Republic. For us there is always the possibility to find a player with a correct profile, right and playing in places far from the limelight, but not only: in Europe, G-League, players who have made a two-way contract in the NBA but thinking about making a career around here… there are no limits in our scouting”, he said before moving his answer to the Moneyball-method. “The method is generally based on numbers and analytical data, to go deep into the characteristics of a player: draws from three but with what volume of shot? High or low? We are looking for players with high-basketball IQ, who understand what it means to play in such a system regardless of individual tasks”, Arcieri added.
The American way of thinking comes out even more as Varese’s General Manager keeps explaining the red-and-white team’s working method. “We are looking for advanced passes, who know how to put the ball on the ground, and who knows how to get the best from their teammates with flexibility and versatility. We want the other team to also adapt to a game over the rim, so Tariq Owens is perfect. We always start with a fundamental analysis for us, that of statistical data. A wing that pulls only long-two, or a long wing that knows how to make the best in situations of P&R remaining anchored to a game exclusively in the post are players that for us are not suitable. Not that it’s wrong, but he wouldn’t marry Varese well”, he said.
Finally, they not only bet on players thinking about which position they could play and how they could do it, but also on their emotions, feelings, and attitude towards the club, the city, and the fans. “We rely on numbers, but the human part is largely taken into account because we want kids to play together representing the city. Many things end up inside our analysis in the search for new players, with a group of people who are 100% dedicated. We work a lot, but scouting is not an exact recipe: you can make mistakes, but we do everything in our possession to make the right decisions”, Mike Arcieri also said.
Players like Colbey Ross are surely getting attention from bigger clubs, just like Brandon Davies, Bryant Dunston, and Aleksa Avramovic have done in the past wearing Varese’s jersey. “We are looking for players who play well and can grow to have an important career. Not that we want them to go away (he laughs, ed), but that’s about the economic reality of the team. A club like ours has to find diamonds in the rough, players that not everyone has their eye on. And above all, we take into consideration player development, which for us is fundamental. We choose players who are talented, but also those in whom we see unexpressed potential, doing everything we can to give them a chance to achieve it. If they leave Varese it is negative in a way, but it is proof that we made a wise choice, the player found himself well here and we helped him in the best way to emerge. We hope, in the future, to get into a position that will allow us to keep players in the future. We don’t know what can happen, we’ll see, but let’s make sure that list doesn’t increase much”, he jokingly added.
Taking the reference from Ted Lasso, who also jumped from America into the European basketball landscape bringing his way of seeing not only the sport but most importantly life, in the photo shared by the Italian team following the decisive Round 29 win against Scafati, in Varese’s locker room appears the sign “BELIEVE”. They had to, and they will believe in this project even more than before.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pallacanestro Varese