The controversy jumped to the field of peephole last year due to the problem with a possession cube located on one of the baskets during Breogán’s visit. the game had to be postponed and almost 500 displaced Lugo fans were left with the desire. Now the rings have been readjusted. The previous ones were not flexible enough when it came to dunking and players complained that they caused back problems. “It was a mechanical problem”, highlights Ponsarnau, who also alludes to other routines that have brought the squad out of shape these months: “The change of the ball from the ACB to the one from the Champions League influences a lot, we noticed it after a month’s absence”, he sums up, while stressing that “basketball is a sport of fighting and contacts, but also of precision, and trust is important”.
Bilbao Basket receives Joventut tomorrow at the start of the second round of the regular season. The Cup chances vanished between Girona and the Palau Blaugrana. The Champions League emerges as an illusion, but it’s time to park the visit to Murcia on Tuesday and focus on the League. La Penya right now has Ribas and Kraag out, and Tomic and Busquets are limping. This does not stop, although they promise not to lose focus on the domestic league. “For a coach, in addition to taking time out of our lives, it is something very intense that we do at ease. As a team we have the challenge of doing our best in this new dynamic. Now we have to learn more things in less time. The subconscious relieves us by being in a quiet area on the table, it is something that we cannot deny, but we must make the effort not to stop. The teams at the bottom will improve, the ones at the top, too, and we can do it too. That’s where the challenge is”, highlights Ponsarnau, who clings to the cholisto cliché that “the best recipe is to go game by game”.
Fortunately, the problems with injuries are beginning to be left behind. Even Goudelock is close to returning to Spain, with the idea of playing something in this Top 16 of the BCL. “The energy of twelve players clearly helps us, although there are games in which not all of them play, it is a proven fact. Now I have the illusion that this will last as long as possible, for which we have to try to manage the workloads well and what we can control”.
Howard terminated his contract in Badalona and Brodziansky will return to Olímpic. “They play basketball very well, they are creative and have a dynamic proposal. It will be difficult for whoever wins this match to do so scoring less than 80 points”, values Ponsarnau. Both teams met in the season opener, and although many things have changed, the spirit is the same: “We have varied not so much in proposal, but in nuances. We have grown in our way of playing. Before we clung more to Adam Smith, something we do now too, but in a more dynamic way. We have found a better balance between coaching and scoring by Ludde Hakanson, we have made progress in the search for our pivots, although we do not always find them… They have also advanced from the importance that both Guillem Vives and Andrés Feliz have in the point guard position, but they have another game distributor in Ante Tomic, which measures what it measures is based on everything it generates and the flow of games that go through it. Also, lately they haven’t been able to count on Ribas and the shooter game is focused on Guy”, details the coach from Tàrrega.
Vives told his club’s media this Friday that his team wants to start the second round “very well” this Saturday on the Surne Bilbao track, a rival that the green and black point guard described as “very tough” that he already won in Badalona. “At the beginning of the season, no one thought that Surne Bilbao would be fighting for the playoffs, but they are playing a beautiful game with Ponsarnau taking the team to where he wants,” said the international player.
The Joventut player highlighted that Hakanson is going through an “impressive” moment as well as Smith, author of 16 points, with a 4 of 7 in triples, in the last day against Barça. Regarding the progress of the team, which has lost three of its last four games in the Endesa League, Guillem acknowledged that “it is not at its highest level peak”, but that every three days “we have an opportunity to raise it”. “The team is motivated for the start of this second round”, highlighted the game director, who on a personal level considers that the years of experience “make it always very stable no matter how the games go” on the individual field.