Blogger Conor Morgan of Joventut Badalona fills us in on what's going through his mind as his team heads on the road to play Nanterre 92 on Tuesday with a 7DAYS EuroCup Playoffs spot hanging in the balance.
Conor Morgan, Joventut: 'It's going to be a battle'
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We come off a home loss against Unicaja Malaga, which means we will have to keep fighting for a playoffs spot against Nanterre. Unicaja was playing for pride and it's a historic team in Spain and the EuroCup, as well. It's a team that you can't take lightly. I mean, any team in the Top 16 of the EuroCup, if you don't show up to play, you're not going to win. And I think that was kind of the case for us last week. Not really not showing up to play. I just don't think we were fully there and Unicaja beat us. All credit to them, they are a very good team and it was a tough game. I'm still a little bit upset about it, but we've got to move forward and beat Nanterre.
We played against Nanterre already and won 95-90, so we can afford to lose by 5 points and still qualify. But they have great players on that team. Isaia Cordinier has the keys to their team. He can take risks that other players can't. That, for them and for him individually, is a very strong point. That game we played in Badalona against them was a war. So this game in France is going to be just as hard, if not harder. It's on their home floor. They got my good friend Johnny Berhanemeskel on the team. I was just playing during the national team window with him, so I know they are motivated. They are ready to play. It's really going to be a final. We have to wake up and play like we can. It is not going to be easy, for sure, but we have to believe that we can do it – and I think we can.
"We have to believe that we can do it."
I follow all the Canadians in European basketball. Kevin Pangos is having a great year with Zenit St Petersburg. I saw his highlights against ALBA. He is a really good friend of mine actually. He was in Barcelona for the past two seasons, so I got to know him a little bit more. And yes, Johnny B. and the Canadians, we are definitely going to come up in European baseball. I talked about that a little bit last time on the blog, but it is exciting. Hopefully, Johnny doesn't make a lot of his shots against us, but he can play really well and is playing well right now.
Nanterre has a lot of talented players. For instance, Ivan Fevrier was very good but the guy that sticks out for me the most, I think, is Tyler Stone. He plays at my position and had a really good game against us. So it will be up to me and Vlady Brodzianskiy and our 'four' men, maybe Joel Parra, to slow him down and stay in front of him in Nanterre. Whoever wakes up ready to play and ready to compete – I'm sure both teams will; that's not going to be a problem – will win.
Congratulations to Monaco for getting first place in our group. They have a bunch of really good players out there. Their defense is very good, too. When we were in Monaco, they forced maybe 16 or 17 turnovers on us. It's always hard to win when the other team is shooting that much more than you. Mathias Lessort is very good for them in the one-five ball screens. He is a very aggressive, active 'five' man, which really helps them. And I think overall they don't overthink things too much. Every player on that team has that confidence that they can go out and have 20, 25 points. That's very hard to play against, especially when you're playing in Monaco in a huge game to try and clinch first place. So they had a great game against us.
"I'm in the best place right now."
It has been a privilege to play so many games with Joventut, 34 or 35 games now this season with the EuroCup and Spanish League combined. It has been awesome. I had a lot of time to think about that during the recent break and came back with a really fresh mindset that I'm in the best place right now. Moving forward, a lot of those guys won't even get a chance to have these big pressure games in the EuroCup this year, or maybe even in their careers. So I am really excited to play. I and my teammates will be ready. We'll see what happens and let the pieces fall as they may.
We don't want to think too much about it, but if we qualify, we will play against Virtus Bologna. I would be really, really excited to get an opportunity to play in that series against Milos Teodosic and Marco Belinelli, two big-time names that I grew up watching. They are a big reason why the game is where it is today. It could be a great series, real fun. But obviously, we have to get there. We've got to take it game by game before we start thinking about that, but it would be great for us and great for basketball.
A final message for all Joventut fans out there. We talk about it every day in the locker room. We miss our fans so much! It's so much better having you there, encouraging us, and we really do miss you a lot. So we really hope that you will keep supporting us, watching our games and being active on social media. We hope we can get you back in our stadium, in our gym, soon. That's because we miss you a lot and it has really been tough this year without you. Som-hi Penya!