Virtus Bologna collapses at home, Jakovljevic: "So many things" need to be corrected;
An ugly home defeat for Virtus Bologna, beaten 103-82 by Paris Basketball at PalaDozza in the first game with Jakovljevic as head coach. The Black VUs cashed in their 21st Euroleague defeat, the fifth consecutive, and is joined in the standings by the very Parisian team.
Bologna didn’t need just 16 points from Diouf and Morgan, the top scorer being Hifi with 20 points and 5 rebounds. Thus coach Nenad Jakovljevic: “We failed to play with the physicality we wanted, and we suffered a lot from Paris’ physicality and athleticism. They play at a high tempo, we failed to adapt. This game makes us understand how we should play, defensively and offensively.”
“It’s not easy to talk having lost by more than 20 points, but this game should help us understand the physical level of Euroleague basketball, and also of the Italian league. We have to understand it and start playing physically and with mental readiness, it has to be our DNA starting in training. My feelings? I won’t hide that I felt a lot of enthusiasm and strong emotions, difficult to describe. But I know the environment, the players and the situation. I tried to change few things and give more importance to the players. This game showed me and the players that there are many things to be done, starting from individuals, from every single player.”
The collapse in the third quarter: “Already in the second quarter we had some dark moments, we conceded 54 points, and that’s a lot. We made mistakes, not only technical, talking to the referees and not understanding where we are. Let’s start from that, let’s move forward correcting this stuff here. Will it be easy? No, not at all, but we have to be honest. I don’t know how but I can assure you that I will do everything I can to find the solution and get the team fired up again.”
