Marco Ramondino doesn’t hide his emotion: “It’s an honor, but I would have preferred to avoid it.”

Italy defeated Croatia 103-91 in its first friendly match in preparation for the 2027 World Cup qualifiers. Led from the sidelines by Marco Ramondino, who served as interim head coach in the absence of Luca Banchi due to family matters, the national team got key points from Tommaso Baldasso, the game’s top scorer and MVP with 29 points, and a more-than-decent contribution from Matteo Spagnolo (who had 19 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds), Stefano Tonut (11 points), and Davide Casarin (7 points, 10 assists, and 6 rebounds).

After the final buzzer, speaking to Sky Sport, Ramondino did not hide his emotion over his victorious “debut,” though he did not forget to acknowledge the work done by Banchi, who was forced by circumstances beyond his control to miss this summer international window: “It’s a tremendous honor for me to take on this role, but given the circumstances under which it came about, I obviously would have preferred to avoid it,” he stated.

“Right now, we’re trying to keep our focus sharp because we need to come together as a team as quickly as possible,” he added. “It’s not easy, because all the players have different backgrounds, and this group in particular hasn’t played together before. However, the intensity of our training sessions is very high; we need to refine our game, but we still have a few days left to try to improve.”

“I believe that at the level we’re about to compete at, we can’t afford not to play hard, play physically, and try—despite the toughness and intensity—to stick to our game plan,” continued the coach from Irpinia. We’ll face teams like Iceland, which has years of experience playing together, and Lithuania, which has a strong physical presence. So, for various reasons, we need to execute our plays at a higher level than we did tonight.”

“It’s essential that everyone be willing to pay attention and fine-tune aspects of their individual game. The fact that players coming from Milan and Venice are accustomed to meeting significant demands on short notice—given how packed their schedules are—allows us to look forward to the coming days with confidence,” Ramondino concluded. Italy will return to the court on Saturday, the 27th, in Celje against Slovenia, ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Iceland in Reykjavik on July 2 and Lithuania in Bologna on July 5.