Marco Ramondino talks to Tuttosport in the week that takes his Bertram Derthona to the playoff semi-finals with Virtus Bologna.
ABOUT THE COACH OF THE YEAR AWARD
“Apart from the prize itself, the fact that there is a large part of professionals in the voting panel is pleasing. Because they know the difficulties. But the prizes always come from the team, from the working groups”.
ABOUT THE TEAM
“It’s a different team, with very strong players that the club has made available to us. Christon played a great season, then Severini’s growth is evident. Harper is willing to be excellent support for Christon. Radosevic accepted and embraced a substitution role, albeit in a lower-level team than the ones he was used to. Thanks to the spirit of sacrifice, we have achieved results”.
ABOUT VIRTUS
“Derthona and Virtus are very different teams, with different identities and hierarchies. I think it’s about finding the right compromise between playing your own basketball and looking for adjustments to limit the potential of others. When you play for Virtus and Milan, you also need to be focused on playing your best version of basketball. We have to work on ourselves and be able to choose 4-5 priority things. Ironically against these big names you have to do less. Virtus has singles that force you into a defensive play for them. If, for example, Teodosic plays the pick and roll, it’s different”.
ABOUT EUROPE
“The pressure shouldn’t come from making the cup or from having a bigger budget. I think it should be born from the ambition of those who must and want to improve and from the courage to question themselves, to get out of comfort”.