Kastritis: “We had two different halves”

Giannis Kastritis spoke about the performance of Aris in defense and attack against Tsedevita and the way he wants his players to compete, he spoke about the problems of Giuzelis and Lazevski and the longer time that De Julius and Toliopoulos had to play, he compared the match with the Slovenians with it against Turk Telekom, he did not want to refer to Banks’ lack of time and focused on the psychological management of his players after Wednesday’s result.

In detail: “I think we saw two different games in the first and second half. In the first half, both defensively and offensively, we showed many characteristics of the way we want to play and we were very close to the level we would like.

Unfortunately, for another game, we were faced with an unexpected injury, that of Guizeli. We knew Laszewski wasn’t ready to play for many minutes and that cost us a lot in the second half rotation. As a result, important players for us, such as Toliopoulos and De Julius, played for more than 30′. Unfortunately, this situation led to us not having a clear mind and not making the right decisions defensively and offensively. It was obvious that we were tired and that Cedevita took advantage of that, taking the victory.”

On the two different faces the team showed and whether there is a similarity between today’s game and the one against Turk Telekom: “In the first half, we played really nice basketball on both sides of the court, very close to what we want to show throughout the match. I think that in both games the common denominator is the same and it is fatigue.

The mind gets “blurred”, the legs get “heavy” and you saw that we also lost several duels in the defensive part. We had a rebound even after the opponent missed shots. The difference between the two games is that back then we weren’t strong mentally, we were finding our footing as a team and it was a little easier to disengage when things got tough.

Today I don’t think that happened. The children had a very big ‘I want’. They really wanted the victory, in the second half the game didn’t go as we wanted and that’s where their disappointment showed. Today, we really knew what we had to do, we were coming off a very good performance against Prometheus and we were sure that we would have an upward trajectory. Unfortunately, this only happened for one half. I don’t know if that sounds like an excuse, but it’s not, that’s the reality. The kids got tired, it’s not easy for the regionals to go up, compete in the ‘four’ and fill a gap.

Also, we must not forget which team we had against us. Our opponent is of a very high level, they were 3-1 and now they are on four wins. Really, I’m very optimistic because I see the team and what they can do. When he looks like this in one half, it means that when we find our balance then the team will play and be at the level they need to achieve the goals in the year which is very long. The important thing for me is that the children are not disappointed, again they were upset now. They made a great effort today and I want to congratulate them.”

On Banks’ reduced playing time in today’s game: “It was a tactical decision and I don’t think we need to elaborate on it further. There are no main players and no bench players. We are a team that plays both in the EuroCup and in the Greek league. We have many games during the season and we need 12 fit players. The minutes are distributed to everyone, the one who is in the best condition is also the one who plays and in every game, the coach, for better or worse, is the one who makes such decisions.

Of course, it doesn’t mean anything that Banks played less minutes today, I’m sure there will be another game where Banks will play a lot more. There are no essentials or non-essentials in our team.”

On whether he is troubled by the team’s psychological management: “Maybe it worries me a little, but I have confidence in the children. We have personalities in the locker room who can help with that part. As disappointed as we are, we go back to the next training session and the next game, wanting to win to get back to the good performances. So, I’m almost sure it will happen in the next game against Kolossos.”