Trent and not Varese, Nenad Jakovljevic doesn’t care: his focus toward playoffs

Virtus Bologna completes the championship with first place in the Serie A, thus preparing to face Trento in the first round of the playoffs. Moreover, the ‘Black Vu’ contributed to the qualification of their next opponents precisely by beating Varese in the last game of the regular season, a result that allowed Aquila Basket to overtake the Lombardi in the standings. A reversal in front of which, however, Nenad Jakovljevic shrugged.

In a press conference, in fact, the Virtus Bologna coach was asked if he would rather face Trento in the playoffs than Varese. “What I prefer is to coach my team in the best way possible,” Jakovljevic cut him short.

We just want to represent Virtus at its best, always playing with great pride for a team of great importance at the national and international level.”

Leading up to the challenge with Trento, then, Jakovljevic emphasized the aspect he thought was most important about the game with Varese that would move little for his team’s ranking. “Mathematically we were already first,” the Virtus Bologna coach recalled, “but our concentration was not on that. Two figures prove it, the 54 rebounds and 25 assists. I want the team to learn the importance of the little things that can be seen on the court, always playing as a team. That is why I congratulate them for the approach they had all week until tonight.”

The victory over Openjobmetis thus handed Virtus Bologna a final haul of 46 points in the standings, four more than second-place Germani Brescia. Trento, for its part, earned access to the postseason by beating Olimpia Milano 84-74 in the last round, with 14 points from Bayehe for the Trentini and 18 from Brooks for the meneghini, a result that proved useless for the Lombardi’s qualification. Varese’s 104-85 defeat in the home of Virtus, despite Nkamouha’s 30 points, did the rest: by virtue of favorable head-to-head matchups, it was Aquila Basket that celebrated playoff access, ousting Openjobmetis.

The path to the scudetto for the ‘Black Vu’ will officially kick off on May 17 at PalaDozza, with game 2 scheduled for May 19. The series will then move to Trento for the eventual games 3 and 4, on May 22 and 24 respectively, with the eventual bella set for May 26 in Bologna. In the event of passage of the round, Virtus would face in the semifinals the winner of the series between Reyer Venezia and Bertram Tortona, which will compete starting May 17.

It is worth mentioning that Jakovljevic’s tenure on the Bologna bench is still a relatively recent one: the Serbian coach took over the team’s reins last March 31, after Dusko Ivanovic’s dismissal following the derby loss to Reggio Emilia. As explained at the time by general manager Paolo Ronci, the choice to promote Jakovljevic fell on continuity: “He has already been working with us for several years, and has developed excellent experiences both with Banchi and with Ivanovic himself.” From then on, the new coach was able to imprint the team with a precise identity, based on collective play and defensive discipline, values that were reflected plastically in the numbers in the last regular season game against Varese.