“We are not going to play basketball against Unicaja, we are going to fight.”
Massimo Cancellieri (Teramo, 1972) – national team coach SIG Strasbourg, Unicaja’s opponent on Tuesday, the third day of the tournament 1/8 finals belonging Basketball Champions League. A coach with a long career, he has already faced Ibon Navarro and his players last season when he then coached LimogesV Basketball Champions League. It was at the same stage of the competition, and Unicaja managed to win both games comfortably (67-84 there and 99-88 here). Now he returns to face the Malaga team led by Strasbourg.
The coach is not having a very pleasant season. His team passed the first stage solvently first in the group, but then began to fall, losing the first two games (though away) in the 1/8 finals. French League He is in tenth position with a record of 10 wins and 12 losses. In their last match played last Saturday they lost Le Portel from 96 to 77, which drew criticism. “We will rise up as we always do when we fall into a ditch, build the ladder again and come back with more and more enthusiasm. We watched the game together as soon as we returned to Strasbourg. We talk about defense because that was the main problem in the game against Portal, especially the third quarter problem. Whenever a player on the opposing team wanted to get to the hoop, he would reach for it. Plus, there was a complete lack of trust. After such a trip we don’t have time to properly prepare for the game. We will have to be competitive. We are not going to play basketball against Unicaja, we are going to fight,” the coach said as a declaration of intent.
“Unicaja is a quality team. This is almost the same team as last year. They have the same coach, the same systems, and they are even stronger. They are very strong. Centers shoot threes, at three they play with their backs to the basket, point guards attack, defend and shoot. They have shooters on the bench…” he embellished the qualities of his opponent. Cancellieri, which stated what would be the key to winning the match: “We should be happy to play against Unicaja because we deserve it. We’ve come this far, so our job is to show that we can beat them. In Italian culture, when I lose, I get sick while playing. 48 hours. For me it’s win or die. “I want us to win both games this week and we will do everything we can to achieve that.”