Virtus, Jakovljević: "We respect fan's decision, it will give us extra motivation to find solutions"
Virtus Bologna is still searching for its first win under Nenad Jakovljević, suffering its eighth consecutive defeat with a 72–82 home loss against Baskonia. After the game, the Serbian coach spoke in the press conference: “We lost another game, trying to do our best. The way we started the game was not good enough; we struggled on defense and allowed 28 points in the first 10 minutes. After that, we did our best to try to take control of the game, and at times we managed to do so. But we didn’t have enough energy to play 40 minutes and win the game.”
There were also some protests from the crowd at the Virtus Arena. Jakovljević addressed the situation: “Am I worried? As far as the fans are concerned, we have the best fans in Italy. I come from a country where fans are very vocal, and I can say our fans are the best, and they absolutely have the right and duty to express their opinions and judgments publicly. Of course, we don’t like it. It makes us feel bad. But we respect their decision. And this will not make us take a step back; instead, it will give us extra motivation to find solutions, even if they require more time. The turnovers are due to the fact that we are playing without a point guard, without someone who manages the team on the court and controls the tempo. In these games, we’ve tried to help players get into our sets in different ways to create space and alternative solutions inside and outside. But I struggle to define the reasons for the turnovers: if I were the opposing coach, I would also pressure the players on the court.”
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