Repesa sounds the'alarm

Coach Repesa began by celebrating the halftime celebration, “Congratulations and best wishes for all those who celebrated their 80th birthday. I am proud to have been a part of this ceremony and I wish all those involved good luck for a long life ahead of them.” Making the match more difficult is an already problematic injury situation that worsened during the match: “We are in a huge emergency, I congratulate the boys who managed to win amid so many difficulties. It would have been bad to spoil the party. Kalnietis got hurt at the beginning of the game, Magro got pulled yesterday in practice, Cerella didn’t even warm up, and that’s why it was important to win, despite playing badly.”

Going to analyze the match there was the obvious lack of continuity in performance: “We were unresponsive physically and mentally, also because of the obvious roster difficulty we have. After the Pistoia trip we had so many games with few players available and this is reflected at every opportunity more and more.” The red and white coach now has as his biggest worry the near future: “I am worried because I don’t know how to coach and I have to think first about how to recover all the injured.

Despite this we are the only team in Europe that has not lost a single game after the cups, “The guys are great professionals, helpful and that’s why we managed to be the only team ever without defeat after the cup break.” Closing still concerns the celebration and the possible distraction it would have generated: “We were not distracted by the festive atmosphere, because it was there for our opponents as well. We were prepared and went to the gym to stay warm during the break and resume the game on the ball. They are a playoffs team in terms of talent and roster, so that’s why they gave us a hard time.”

The 80th birthday celebration obviously took center stage and overshadowed a bit the important return of captain Gentile, after a month and a half: “I felt pretty good – his words – although obviously it will take a few games to get reacquainted with the court. The game was a difficult one, resolved only in overtime, perhaps a bit conditioned by the celebratory environment: “It certainly was special, a very long halftime, although that should not be an excuse. The celebration was very emotional. A club like Olimpia deserves such a day, to honor those who made the history of the club.”

In collaboration with basketissimo.com