Kastritis: “We are not thinking about any conquest, only PAOK”

His thought Yannis Kastritis he does not travel beyond his quarter-final tomorrow Mars with PAOK for the OPAP Final 8, as he clarified speaking before his team’s last training session at “Dyos Aorakia”. The 42-year-old coach also stressed that his team should not be affected by the result of Sunday’s derby at Nick Galis Hall. He spoke in detail about:΅

– the differences with the championship match: “It’s a very different game, it’s a different competition. The mental part will play an important role, we have to rule out any emotions that may be present from the end of the previous game. Let’s be ready for another hard battle, where we will show our identity, our character and play our defense, having a little smarter options than the previous game in attack. There will certainly be adjustments from both teams. We come from a victory and PAOK from a defeat, with all that this may entail. I think that the basic characteristics of the two teams will not be very different and whoever is closer to their image, will claim the victory with more claims.”

-if he detects extreme emotions in his team after the last big wins: “The truth is no. We have gone through a 40 day stretch where the team has gone 7/8 with very important wins in the last week. We coaches are always anxious about how we will present ourselves in the next match. I honestly would very much like to be able to have a… even an artificial crisis, but our children have shown themselves to be extremely responsive. They look hungry, very motivated and although there is a lot of fatigue, it seems that in all games, if not from the start, we react, then act and see the picture we want. I hope tomorrow will be the same. I hope we enjoy it.”

-the lack of experience of such matches by many of his players: “We don’t treat it like that. In no case! We don’t see it as a knockout game. We are not a team that thrives on bottom line motivation. For us, the main thing is to be fully prepared and to do the right thing in every possession. If we are what we should be, we have the conviction that we will have what we desire. We want to be honest with ourselves, do what we have to do, improve compared to the last match and at the end see what we have done.”

-whether the possibility of conquest has crossed his mind: “Honestly no. I’m not saying it just to say it. That’s how we’ve learned, we’ve played a lot of matches, in the league and in the Eurocup. Our thinking cannot go far, if we do we will become disoriented. Our thinking must go to the next game.”

-the ceiling of Mars this year: “We don’t have specific goals based on position or number of wins. For us, the goal is the next possession and that’s how we got here. Suddenly you look at what you have done and realize that if you are consistent, good things can happen. There is no intention to change that, we want to enjoy every moment on the court, give our best and at the end of the year see what we have achieved.”