By Stathis Trapezanlidis/ info@eurohoops.net
Dimitris Itoudis spoke to Eurohoops in Berlin after his Euroleague debut as a head coach about the challenge of being in charge of a powerhouse like CSKA Moscow. Read what he had to say about the recent past of the team, his philosophy and of course the leader of the team, Milos Teodosic
– Against Alba Berlin you made your debut in Euroleague as a head coach, but in people’s minds you are already considered a very experienced coach ready for the highest level in Europe. How do you feel about that?
“Thank you for your kind words. Experience is gained during the work on the court. I am really grateful for the cooperation I had so far at high level with PAOK, Panionios, Panathinaikos – 13 years, essentially a lifetime – and Banvit last season. During my adaptation in Moscow my colleagues – all CSKA Moscow‘s stuff – help me a lot. For us, coaches, the most important thing is to have a court, balls and hoops. This is our daily life”.
– What can we expect to be different this season from CSKA Moscow? It seems like you want to run more than last season.
“First of all we want to see our complete roster available. We have some absences which are very important such as Nando’s (De Colo), Victor’s (Khryapa) and Demetris’ (Nichols). They are still facing injury problems some of them caused during their playing for their national teams and some from last season When we will have our complete roster, we will need time to work together. As you said it is significant to run, but if we want to run, first we need to defend and get the rebound. If you get the rebounds and also force turnovers, because we have a team that can do that, we can run. We have big bodies in our roster and this is something that permit us to use switches on screens and push the opponent to turnovers. If we create these conditions,then we can run in fast break otherwise we can’t run just to say we do it”.
– In your interview in official site of Euroleague you closed with this phrase “we prefer to work in silence and let the success to make the noise”. However, how easy is to keep out of your team people’s opinion about CSKA’s roster, the huge budget and the necessity for winning the Euroleague?
“We just played our first game in Europe. We thank all those who believe us but we need to stay with our feet on the ground. We do not sleepwalking, we know where we are. I constantly repeat to my players that we are a new team, which is created this season and we need to forget the past. Obviously, we know in which team we are and what are the expectations from our fans and the president and that’s what we will try to do. But we will try to do it as it should be done, step by step, always looking to the next training session, the next practice. This is my temperament and this should be the temperament of my team too. We need to see every opponent with respect. We have to set up things as we plan in our team and then we will have the time to mark and reach our targets”.
– Psychology may be the most important thing in basketball. How can you make your players forget their past failures in Euroleague?
“Every day you learn things. Every day, step by step we learn things. The tape of the game never lies. When we sat down and we understood that we can lose for example to Lokomotiv after a period of six minutes and 38 seconds without scoring. It was a bad sign for us, we worked on this and we reacted against Alba Berlin. So during the season, the games and the trainings are going to teach us a lot. We are going to reach our conclusions and we will try to learn from our mistakes. As times go by, our team will be created. We will try to give birth to new ideas and create the chemistry we need as a team. If we don’t find our chemistry, we can’t talk for anything more”.
– This is a good pass for me to ask you about the level of VTB league. This season the league may be more competitive than ever with three teams almost in the same level (Lokomotiv Kuban, Unics Kazan the other two).
“In my opinion VTB, Turkish TBL and Spanish Liga Endesa are the top quality leagues in Europe, of course after Euroleague which is the top competition. These teams you mentioned are really good but there are also more teams, which can beat you if you don’t have the appropriate concentration on the game. For example, next week we will have three games (on Monday, Thursday and Sunday) and it’s not easy for everyone to manage this kind of schedule. The next thing we need to think during our flight home is our next opponent”.
– Milos Teodosic is a key player for CSKA Moscow. How can you manage his talent and the pressure he may have after being criticized during last seasons for his performances in Euroleague’s Final Four?
“To reach the crucial game you must win and manage all the previous games like today. You need to manage correctly all the games throughout the season. The correct management leads to the best preparation spiritually and physically for the crucial games. I think Milos is in a very mature age. We are talking a lot with Milos not only for basketball but in general for life too. He had a great World Cup but now he has to separate in his mind – and he already knows it – that the World Cup is like a sprint race, while a league is like a marathon. I think that when we will be all together and he finds the chemistry with the other guards and generally with the team, we will be in a good position”.
– So you were always a fan of Milos Teodosic’s game?
“Of course. Milos was a member of all the junior national teams of Serbia, so it wasn’t a secret that we were watching him. He is one of the biggest talents in Europe”.