Final Four - Ettore Messina: "I'm really excited"

Ettore Messina, CSKA Moscow

by: Frank Lawlor, Euroleague.net

To properly understand his importance to basketball history, consider this: if CSKA Moscow wins its semifinal in London, the legendary Ettore Messina will reach his 10th title game, more than any other head coach in the 55 years to date that European club crowns have been awarded. And that is despite not having Euroleague teams in eight seasons since he first became a head coach in 1989. All told, Messina has coached 16 Euroleague seasons with four different clubs - Virtus Bologna, Benetton Treviso, CSKA and Real Madrid - and made the final game nine times so far, or 66% of the time. Indeed, Messina has never lost a semifinal. It is a record of excellence that speaks for itself, but after spending three years without setting foot at one, the most excited person going to this Final Four might be the person who has been to more of them than anyone else. "I'm really excited," Messina told Euroleague.net. "It's been four years since my last Final Four and every time I go to a Final Four, there is this little thought that this one might be the last one. You never know if you will be back. So to be going there again is an incredible feeling."

Congratulations on a great season, Ettore. What has been the most challenging part of coming back to CSKA and bringing this team all the way to the Final Four again?

"More than a challenge, I'd say it has been a great pleasure, and a feeling of satisfaction. CSKA changed a lot this year. We had critical roster changes in the summer. To be in the Final Four again means that we took the right decisions, and that the players we chose showed that they deserved the trust of the club. That's most important and everybody here should be happy for this. The great challenge was to get to the Final Four, and once you're there, as we know, anybody can win. They will be very balanced semifinals. These four teams survived the difficult Euroleague season ever, with a Top 16 that lasted 14 games and three-and-a-half months for the first time. So it's not a challenge now as much as a great feeling to be back."

How do you advise your guys to deal with the high expectations that always surround CSKA?

"The expectations are always there, not only in CSKA, but for Barcelona, Olympiacos and Real Madrid. And for sure, the expectations are always high. I am fortunate because I think that the club management has always shown leadership and patience, even in the difficult moments that every team, as we did, will have during a season. And I don't see any other way to face the highest expectations without the support of the club and the fans. But all four teams carry expectations to the Final Four, because all four of the jerseys there carry the same tradition and ambitions."

You've been in a lot of rematches: How much of a shadow will be cast by last season's final on this semifinal coming up with Olympiacos?

"It's a good question, one that everyone is throwing at me. What I think is that no one can really know what shadow will be on the minds of the players from last year. I can only say that I am new and fresh and didn't go through the difficult night that some of my players did in that game. We need to give our support and stay by the side of the players who suffered that loss last year. We need to make them feel that we are on their side and will do whatever we can to help them. Nothing more than that. I don't think those memories can be erased. It's part of life, and they can live with it and deal with the bad memories if they are surrounded by support. Apart from that, we need to treat this as just another game."

Is there something for your team - or any team - to learn from the way Olympiacos won last year, first stopping Barcelona cold and then the great comeback against CSKA?

"I am more focused on another thing they've done, this year. They are one of the few teams since the Euroleague was started in 2000 that has made it back to the Final Four after winning the title. Kinder did it in 2002, Maccabi in 2005 and 2005, CSKA in 2007 and 2009, and then last year Panathinaikos did it. Only a few have managed that, and it tells you a lot about the resilience of this Olympiacos team. The fact that they are coming back says a lot about their character and their quality."

Everyone says to stop Olympiacos you have to stop Vassilis Spanoulis. Anadolu Efes didn't do a bad job on him, but still lost. Do you believe stopping Spanoulis is the key?

"You can't stop a great player like him or any great player in a Final Four like this. You might slow them down, you might make life difficult for them. You need them somehow to be below par or less of a factor than usual. But many of these games are decided in the end by individual plays or performances. If a team can play with calm and respect the game plan and put itself in the right position, individual performance can change the outcome. We are just here to help these great players perform at the highest possible level. So I don't see the game as a chess match, if we can stop Spanoulis or not. We will try to do a good job on him, as we always try, just as they will try to do the same against our top scorers. And in the end it will be up to the players to decide it."

Is there a tendency to focus too much on Spanoulis to maybe underestimate the other Olympiacos players?

"I personally don't underestimate anyone, so wrong question to the wrong man. Especially when we are talking about a Final Four team. Maybe in the regular season you might find a team that depends on a couple players, because it's short on personnel and needs to depend on them to have a chance to win. But when it comes to the Final Four, every team is deep and you can't allow yourself to underestimate anybody. You have to know every possible little thing about every opposing player that can help your team win."

You have a size advantage and have applied it well for much of the season. Is it a priority to take advantage of that against Olympiacos?

"The first mismatch in history was David vs. Goliath, so after that I don't think too much about size. Size might become an advantage if you use good ball movement and the players do what they have to do in a coordinated way. But if our size means standing under the basket and lobbing inside, it's not going to work. Good and quick defenders will always prevail. We need to combine our size, as we have this season, with the movement of our players to be more dangerous. For sure, rebounding will be a big factor, the same as protecting the ball, and whatever teams do those things will have a big advantage. If you can win the possession game it's important because shooting percentages tend not to be so high in the Final Four."

CSKA has a lot of experience but depends also on Final Four newcomers like Sonny Weems, Vlado Micov and Aaron Jackson. How can everyone else's experience get them adjusted quickly once the ball goes up in London?

"I feel we need to help them. They will surely be excited, and need to be careful not to get overexcited. When you go to a Final Four for the first time, it might be a little difficult. You need to adjust to the atmosphere of celebration that goes on at a Final Four. You have to be ready to deal with that atmosphere, otherwise there are too many distractions from people, fans, media and just being under the spotlight there. We need to make sure they take some moments to go to their rooms, get away, concentrate and just not waste mental energy they will need for the games."

After all the years and all your successes, how do you feel this challenge of trying to win another Final Four as you get ready to go to London?

"I'm really excited. It's been four years since my last Final Four and every time I go to a Final Four, there is this little thought that this one might be the last one. You never know if you will be back. So to be going there again is an incredible feeling, especially with the new team we have, and to do it with this club, our staff and the players. I am grateful to all these people, because it's thanks to them that I am back again at the Final Four."