Vovoras: “In the Men’s National Team there is enormous will, know-how and a thirst for something good”

THE George Vovoras was hosted on EOK Web Radio about what he expects to see from her National in the Olympic tournament but also for the great difficulty of the organization.

At the same time, he did not fail to comment on his presence on her bench Neptune but also his goals ahead of the new season with the Lithuanian team.

He said in detail:

For the Men’s National Team’s friendly loss to Serbia: “All results, all games can help you see things, whether positive or negative. I think that surely the lack of Calathes was very important for this game, but facing such a great opponent at home we saw what we will face in the Olympiad. We are talking about the most difficult tournament. There are 12 teams, 5 of them are from Europe and have been on the podium for the last few years. If you see the groups one by one, you get scared. The first 8 teams are very high level. Plus we have fallen into the most difficult group, which certainly makes our task very difficult. However, there is a huge will, know-how and “thirst” for something good and this good is “built” with small steps. I think we are on the right track.”

For the performance of the national team: “Certainly the difficult tests are ahead of us. In the Pre-Olympics there was a huge must, but on the other hand there was a huge will, we were playing at home and had a very short period of preparation. It seemed from the first moment that there was a plan to utilize Giannis, but also for Giannis to be part of the team. This worked very well in the Pre-Olympic tournament. The next circuit, this group, is huge and that’s where it will really show how much this philosophy that they’ve spent the last 20-35 days working on will be able to pay off in more difficult races.”

For the very difficult group: “Canada, if you look at their roster, it scares you. It has everything. He is even better than last year. Last year’s Mundobasket was an important lesson for them. For this difficult group that we have, I think, as I said, that there is a huge amount of know-how from the entire coaching team. They know that we have to approach each game individually. It will be a mistake to think from now on what will happen in the three games, how we can get to the top three. The only way to move forward is to think only about the game on Saturday (27/07).”

For the zone against the National Team: “I think that in some short periods we may see a classic zone with closed spaces, but for the longer duration of the game, when Giannis has the ball, the spaces will be like a zone. All the teams will take risks, they will close the venues”.

For the Lithuanian league: “Lithuanian is a league that is evolving, developing a lot. This year’s LKL will be played with 10 teams instead of 12 last year. The minimum budget has gone up a lot and it’s not easy for all teams to cope, but on the other hand, there will be four rounds. Without the play-offs we will play about 50 games, a huge number. It’s a growing league. It is very important that we play a lot of games. Teams are entitled to 5 foreigners, but no team gets 5 foreigners, because they want to have the Lithuanians play. There are many games and that’s why the Lithuanians are developing.”

For the Neptune target: “We lost the 2 best Lithuanians who had an excellent season and signed to Ritas with very good contracts. My goal is the next training session and then I will think about the next game. I never set long-term goals, because over the years a season has so many changes. I think our goal is to become a family, to become a team and to be able to overcome the difficulties we will face during the season and improve. To “build” on this part that we want, to be a team and that’s how we will succeed, I think we should take the step above. Last year we finished in 6th place and I believe we have every guarantee to play in Europe. The aim of the organization is to return to Europe little by little. We are “building” it and there is patience for this “building”.

For sports in Lithuania: “I have the pleasure of being in Lithuania where it is a small country of 2.5 million people, but, if we look at their facilities, their sports culture is very much and they bring children close to sports, because they consider sports to be part of culture and that’s why they have all these facilities.”

For the camp he is in in Ikaria: “We try to combine vacations and I’m actually in beautiful Ikaria, which is becoming a very nice camp. It is a camp that has been held for 9 years and I see something very beautiful. It has 200 children from Ikaria and the surrounding islands with very good organization and love for what they do.”