Marko Guduric: “I had never seen anything like Sarunas Jasikevicius’ preparation”

“Saras watched basketball all day”

Marko Guduric, now with Olimpia Milano, spoke to Sport Klub about the working methods of Sarunas Jasikevicius, his former coach at Fenerbahce.

“My most recent memories are related to Saras. Before every game, the preparation would last two or three days. At the end of every practice, he was already in front of the computer. We would stay on the court shooting, while he would watch basketball all day.”

The A4 notebook

Jasikevicius would study every opponent in detail, trying to identify how Fenerbahce could attack them and what the team needed to do defensively.

“He would study the opponent, try to understand where we could attack them, how we should defend and what we needed to do. He wrote everything down. He always had an A4-sized notebook with him, filled with incredibly small handwriting for every single game. It probably served as a reminder during the preparation.”

He prepared the same way for every opponent

What impressed Guduric most was that Jasikevicius approached every game with exactly the same level of preparation, regardless of the opponent.

“Many coaches work this way, but what impressed me most was that Saras did exactly the same even before a Turkish League game against the team at the bottom of the standings. Even then, his A4 sheet was written from the first line to the last.”

“He never underestimated anyone”

Guduric admitted that he had never seen anything quite like it.

“It’s incredible. I had never seen anything like it. He approached every game in the same way and never underestimated anyone.”

“He knew that he had given everything and done his job to the fullest. At that point, naturally, it was up to us.”

“That’s why he is so emotional during games”

According to Guduric, Jasikevicius’ intense emotions on the sideline are also connected to the enormous amount of work he puts into preparation.

“That’s also why he is so emotional and behaves that way during games. He knows how much energy he has invested and that he has done everything possible.”

“When we made a mistake or lost concentration on something he had repeated a hundred times, he was inevitably disappointed.”