Paolo Moretti: “It’s always great to play in Brindisi, but we were overconfident for twenty minutes”

Turin won in Brindisi, handing the Apulians their first loss of the season. Paolo Moretti, the Piedmontese team’s coach, had this to say. “At halftime, I was particularly angry because we’d approached the game a bit too cocky, thinking we’d play an ‘easy’ game physically, competitively, and technically. We were trailing in every category at halftime—in all the stats—but above all, we’d allowed them to shoot something like 70% from the field. So thinking we could be competitive on the road in Brindisi while defending so poorly and so little was just presumptuous.”

“We adjusted a bit; we made a small change to our pick-and-roll defense that paid off as early as the third quarter. We showed a better mental attitude, followed by improved physical and technical play, which got us back in the game both in terms of the score and emotionally. We looked like a different team; we were imposing our defense, and that’s what led to the strong performance that we were ultimately able to turn into a huge victory.”

“Congratulations to the guys on their reaction; I’m very happy to come away with two points from an away game at such a strong, challenging venue—a place where it’s always great to play because the atmosphere is excellent. We need to stay humble, and at the very least, we should learn from the fact that we were overconfident in the first 20 minutes—we got carried away and perhaps settled for playing basketball that lacked humility. Our goal is always to reach 14–15 wins, and once we get there, we can start thinking about other goals—but that’s what we were built for; we’re a team that, for the third time—regardless of the win—has put in a strong performance, at least for 20 minutes, and this should convince us that we’re young, we still have a lot of work to do, even though we have good potential.”