Brindisi, Frank Vitucci expects immediate reaction

Frank Vitucci’s words on the eve of New Basket Brindisi-Donar Groningen

The eve of the FIBA Europe Cup fifth round is already an in/out for Happy Casa Brindisi.

After Sunday night’s clear home misstep against Pesaro, coach Frank Vitucci’s team is called for a quick reaction on the court. Play, win and convince in order to forget quickly and leave behind hours of reflection, constructive criticism and analysis first individual and then collective as requested by the Biancoazzurro coach himself in the championship postgame.

The situation in Group F with two days to go is extremely intricate for qualification to the next round. What is quite clear is that Happy Casa will only have to rely on its own strengths with only one goal: win at home against Groningen and do the same on the road the following week in Estonia. A double victory is necessary to overturn the very thin balance between the contenders in the group expected by direct clashes with the flavor of real playoffs.

Wednesday night at the PalaPentassuglia will arrive the Dutch of Donar, tail-end still stuck at zero European victories and without the Latvian wing Butjankovs just landed in the Italian league in Scafati that in the first match on Dutch soil starred in a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds. Game won by Happy Casa 65-87 thanks to a powerful last quarter 23-9 partial dragged by Reed’s 24 points and Burnell’s 22.

“I want to see an immediate reaction in a game that is mandatory for us,” comments coach Frank Vitucci, “in which the only possible outcome is victory. There is no better response we can give right now, we all expect something quite different from the last unsatisfactory performance.”