Dimitris Itoudis: For us nothing is granted

Cska Moscow head coach Dimitris Itoudis talked with Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoops.

ON CSKA

«You might say ‘OK, CSKA is the favorite today, this year they will go to the Final Four, this year they’ll go all the way.’ Which is respected. But for us who are living the daily routine and the things we are facing on a daily basis, nothing is granted»

ON MIKE JAMES

«This is what going on in our job and coaches’ job. You need to have a daily structure affect on what you are evaluating and how you are evaluating your players daily. When you are feeling that your team is ready to do the next step and when you are feeling that your team can really support things. Or, at the same time, when you have a feeling that the team has certain difficulties because of certain circumstances, you need to take actions.

My team is obviously showing good basketball and breathing healthy. I don’t know if we are going to bring results. Nobody knows, because as I said, nothing is granted. But if somebody isn’t feeling that he belongs there, then he’s not going to belong there. The certain changes that we did are based on what we witnessed daily. All coaches. We witnessed that the team can really perform. That first game (the win over Zenit) after Unics Kazan (when the incident with Mike James happened) in VTB League was very crucial for us to see. Believe me, I can tell you know knowing the result but it’s not about knowing the result. Our players, you could see it in their eye and the determination they had to go in and really compete. Because they felt it, they witnessed what was going on with the club. All these adversities, the unfair situation, the problems we had to face.

So they came out very determined and very decisive. I was very proud with my assistant coaches and management to watch them compete in that first game».