Ramunas Klimavicius · @ramklim
25th Mar 2018 from TwitLonger
Vytautas coach Seskus press conference after 03/25 loss to 9th Kedainiai Nevezis (video source https://youtu.be/c2CQr1MZAFg):
"Maybe its my opinion, but people in arena said the same - today Kedainiai wanted to win more. Today maybe 2 or 3 of our players played fired up, while all their team was like that. Obviously, the main reason is one - we lost 16 rebounds under our basket with them scoring 14 second chance points. Just imagine. We lost rebounding in the first half, in 2nd half we got outrebounded tragically. And this while we were shooting 52% from three... I dont know what to say. I see things are hard in practice as well, huge lack of execution of our combinations. In the game its the same - everyone standing around and not knowing what to do. We dont have a playmaker who could decide things on his own."
Q: Lamelo can decide things on his own very well.
A: Listen, dont escalate this thing. Broadus made a few mistakes, and the kid who did not play much lately, I put him in for a few minutes. He took that shot of his, we lost that stretch by 4 points, but it was similar for everyone. How many layups did Dimsa miss? Broadus lost the ball after 20 seconds, missed from near the basket. If we would look for things to pick on, we would find. Yes, LaMelo cannot play, but he went out and did, made a steal. Sometimes it happens that a player explodes in those two minutes.
Q: You state that your team was not fired up to win, even though this was one of the most important games of the season. How can that be?
A: I dont know. There are many reasons, you see there are too many people on the team, a competition for minutes, there are people sitting on the bench unhappy who believe they would play better.
Q: Is it possible that players buried this season with their unhappiness towards Balls?
A: No, we talked and everyone understood that we need to fight for victory. Beginning of the game showed this, we were fighting for the win. When substitutions started, there were many people who did not help from the bench. We can look at stats. Maceina went out with a certain task and played a bit more than LaMelo, what did he do? Edvin (Seskus) was not ready after being ill for a while. I tried Linkevicius, Miniotas... I talked to him I dont know what is with him. Sinica went on court, got a threepointer from his opponent, emotions right away... Dimsa, Zukauskas, LiAngelo, Bristol played, thats it, we found out everything.
Q: Your season is burning away, what is your further plan?
A: I dont know maybe we will try to play a different style now. I never had a team that would not keep up to the plan like this one. We used to make a lot of trick combinations and earned 12-14 points with them. Now nothing works.
Q: You show your emotions often, but you never were as angry as today against one referee. Why was that?
A: I will be honest with you - such an important game, I said nothing. All Lithuanian coaches know that referee, he spends half a game watching sidelines and trying to get at you. I dont think it was fair. You know... I am very very tired, both team and me. I react strongly to everyting, with these results you want to win, you look at team. LiAngelo scored a lot of points, but it was in vain... with few minutes left we trail by a few points, Broadus bam throws the ball away. I believe there were mine mistakes as well, in training process, everywhere. Its very tough, we prepared maybe at 60% level for this game.
Q: Lavar Ball always has what to say. What is your relationship with him now?
A: Its normal. Listen, I try not to pay attention to what people say. Only a person who lacks understanding can say that LiAngelo did not improve. Relationship isnt bad. Telling you, look at LiAngelo, the progress is obvious. I would not let him play if he would play bad. So what are we talking about? LiAngelo said in an interview yesterday that he feels that he improved in Lithuania. LaMelo and LiAngelo have to be in the team and the father somewhere else. Then we can fix the game. LaVar gives a lot of advice, which do not match words of the coach and its hard for the kids.
Q: Does not this remind you of a high school league where parents try to tell coaches how to play?
A: No it does not. You see, he tries very hard for his kids. He thinks he is right, I do as well. After every game some kind of politics is made out of this. Believe me, I have fog in my head for a while, you walk for a bit with your head above the fog and then you get back into it.
Q: Its obvious that players protest against this situation. Dimsa look every time LaMelo takes his shots is a clear protest.
A: Damn, ok then... I dont know.
Q: You talk about exhaustion. This is not only exhaustion from losing, all backstage business also adds to it?
A: You see, this story is going for a long time, I talk to Tomas he says everything is good, I share the ball. What can you do? LiAngelo dropped 28 points, how can you point to this thing now? Sure, with court vision he is not as good, but with working hard and explaining everything he can play ideally (points to boxscore), 6 out of 8 from three guys. Its bad this attitude (note: towards Balls). From the very beginning, do you remember what kind of shots he was taking? Many tough shots from near the basket, but he makes those kind of shots. There is some forcing the issue from him in moments like last week in Alytus, but there is no time to fix things like that now. This attitude of some people. Someone said in the beginning very well that when player protests start, you need to fire one or two people to show everyone to stop with these things.