Final Four - Georgios Bartzokas: "Maybe CSKA was the best all season, and even maybe in the final"

Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos Piraeus

by: Frank Lawlor, Euroleague.net

If, as they say, it is more difficult to defend a title than to win it the first time, one of the toughest coaching challenges in sports has to be doing the same thing as a team's new coach. Georgios Bartzokas took that challenge this season with Olympiacos Piraeus, and with just one season of Euroleague experience behind him, has completed a very difficult hurdle by getting the Reds back to the Final Four. In London, Bartzokas will be at his first Final Four as a coach, although he has travelled to several recently as a ticket-paying fan. What he brings as a head coach to the event is the conviction that he and his team have to trust in themselves and the work this season that sent them to the Final Four. ""I believe that right now, what you don't do is change anything from what you do every day before this," Bartzokas told Euroleague.net. "We'll have two meetings, two videos. We will make the exact same preparations that we made for any away game all year. This is my approach for the game. I don't want to change our habits of the whole season. For the fans, the club and of course for the players and coaches, the Final Four is a big celebration. But for us it will be the same as any away game, all season."

Hello, coach. Congratulations on making your first Final Four. How much pressure did you feel this season coaching the champions and trying to bring them back to the Final Four?

"It's not pressure only because I am the coach of the Euroleague champions. This club, Olympiacos, is probably the best club in Greece, with many fans. This is always difficult to handle, but I worked from the beginning of the season to put that kind of pressure aside, to stay positive generally, even when we had bad results or crises. And that was it. Yes, there was pressure. But if you do this job, you have to handle it always."

Compared to your previous Euroleague experience with Maroussi, how different has it been to coach a Euroleague contender like Olympiacos?

"It has been a completely different situation, even if we are not the best team in Europe. And last year, I don't think Olympiacos was the best, either; it was more of an outsider. Maybe CSKA was the best all season, and even maybe in the final. What happened this year is you convince players that, yes, we have pressure, but to handle it with hard work every day, with spirit and heart, and with mental preparation for the games. Just this. You can't make it sound different than what it is. It's not only what kind of job you do, but what kind of heart your players have. We are fortunate that we have important players who are strong mentally and have character."

Olympiacos had to battle hard, with must-win games to get through both the Top 16 and the playoffs. Does overcoming those situations make your team stronger going to the Final Four?

"Yes, you have to pass through those moments to be a better team. We had must-win games, and not just one or two. After a bad loss to Siena in the Top 16, we went to Tel Aviv and beat Maccabi without Acie Law or Josh Powell. After losing to Barcelona here, we went to Siena and won without Georgios Printezis. We beat Khimki in the last Top 16 game, also must-win. And, of course, there was Game 5 in the playoffs with Efes. Those are many crucial games. You need a strong mentality, and we had it. We have players who work well like this, with pressure. But I think we are much stronger now because of those games."

Your team was down by 15 points in Game 5 of the playoffs against Anadolu Efes, but rallied to win in the second half. What did you tell the players at halftime and during the game to make that comeback possible?

"Well, it was important that we started to come back before halftime and went to the locker room with an eight-point difference. The last 5 minutes of the second quarter, we made some threes and had some key rebounds and got there behind by only 8 points. I just tried to be positive and not to be stressed. I wanted the team to be calm and to encourage every player in that situation. I believe that if I was stressed, the players would have been the same way. I just tried to be calm."

How has being the defending champion affected the team?

"I think the situation was clear. Every team wanted to beat us, so they came on the floor with extra motivation and without pressure on them. Last year, Olympiacos was an outsider in every game. This year, we became favorites in every game, although we had very few changes on our team. This situation was good for our opponents. We had pressure all year, so it has been a big success that our players have handled this so well."

The semifinal is the first Olympiacos-CSKA Moscow game since last season's unforgettable final. Most players are still with the two teams. Will that game a year ago be on their minds?

"No, I don't think so. First of all, both CSKA and Olympiacos have new coaches and some different tactics now. CSKA has big pressure now because they are maybe the best team in Europe, with the biggest budget, experienced players, experienced coach. We are the outsider in this game again. I will try to convince my players that the same can happen now as last year, to face the game offense by offense, defense by defense, and to express their talent on the court, but not to compare this with last season. There are a lot of differences."

Do you expect a similar game this time around - a low-scoring, physical game played point by point, possession by possession?

"You never know before a game what's going to happen. The same teams can play many different games. For sure, semifinals and finals are usually very physical games with a lot of contact and fouls. I think CSKA prefers a set-up game. We prefer to run up and down. But I don't really believe it's going to be an up and down game. I think it will be a game of 64 to 67 possessions, something like this. The important thing will be the rebounds."

CSKA is a bigger team, size-wise. To you see that as a disadvantage for your team or something Olympiacos can use to its own advantage?

"It depends on how we approach the game. In some Euroleague games, we were successful rebounding; in others, no. In the Game 4 against Efes, away in Turkey, they had 13 rebounds more than us, but we lost on a tip-in at the end. The big size of CSKA – mainly Kaun and Krstic and Erceg – of course it's a problem for us. If we are smart – and I do think we are smart enough – we can make it an advantage for us by running and being fast than them. We will try and we will see if we get the advantage."

Of course, Vassilis Spanoulis is your team's undeniable floor general. How has he helped you to keep everybody in the same page this season?

"I think every team, everywhere needs a leader. Teams without leaders are not successful teams. It always depends, of course, on what kind of leader you have. Vassilis works hard in practice, coming first to the gym and leaving last. He's always motivated. He's a strong-minded guy. It's a great example for our young players and makes it easy to put them on the same page. Even new guys to the team follow Vassilis in this way. I really think that if we didn't have a leader like Vassilis, it would be difficult for us. We are not so experienced, not our young Greek guys and not our foreigners. None of them have much experience in Final Four games like this. That's why Vassilis is so very important for us."

Do you have an approach or a philosophy of how you want to prepare these Final Four games?

"I believe that right now, what you don't do is change anything from what you do every day before this. We'll have two meetings, two videos. We will make the exact same preparations that we made for any away game all year. This is my approach for the game. I don't want to change our habits of the whole season. For the fans, the club and of course for the players and coaches, the Final Four is a big celebration. But for us it will be the same as any away game, all season. Just this."

As a European coach and player before that, you must have grown up with Final Four dreams. What would it mean for you to win the Euroleague title in your first Final Four experience?

"I was many times a visitor to the Final Four: in Paris, in Berlin, in Thessaloniki and in Barcelona. I was a fan. I went to the Final Four games as a fan. Right now, I am the coach of one of these teams. Of course, it's something you dream will be true someday. I am very happy and I don't feel pressure. We did our first and most important goal by going to the Final Four. Now, I think we have to enjoy the games. Personally, it makes me very happy to be going there as a coach."