Meridian Sport<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cEveryone is touching the ball\u201d<\/h3>\n
Despite the final defeat, Izundu was encouraged by what he saw from Zvezda.<\/p>\n
Navarro\u2019s philosophy of involving everyone in the game has particularly impressed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like what I see. We move the ball better, we run, everyone is touching the ball, everyone feels involved both offensively and defensively, which is good. We just have to continue playing together and everything will fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve only been with the team for three or four days\u201d<\/h3>\n
The Nigerian big man explained how difficult it was to quickly integrate into the team after spending the summer with his national team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have time. Like I said, I\u2019ve only been with the team for three or four days, so I was immediately thrown into all of this and I\u2019m trying to pick things up. But it\u2019s going pretty well. I\u2019m catching up, I still have a few questions, but over time everything will be fine. I just have to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Izundu praises Ibon Navarro<\/h3>\n
Izundu has also developed a positive relationship with the new head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a great relationship. He\u2019s a great person and an exceptional coach. I see his vision and I think it\u2019s really good for our team and what we\u2019re trying to accomplish. Everyone is accepting what he wants us to do and we\u2019re definitely in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Navarro has emphasized playing together, playing fast and maintaining intensity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe insists that we play together, play fast, be smart and play with intensity. We play for 40 minutes, because sometimes we go up and down, up and down. If we can maintain consistency for all 40 minutes, we\u2019ll beat anybody. That\u2019s what he\u2019s trying to instill in us and what he insists on. And we\u2019re trying to put it into practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s still early. We have a few more weeks to prepare before the first game and we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMotley is a great player\u201d<\/h3>\n
Izundu and Johnathan Motley are expected to form the core of Crvena Zvezda\u2019s center rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great player and a great guy. I like what he brings to the team. He gives us a different dimension, especially with his passing, and with his big body he can box players out, establish position and grab rebounds. He does that very well, so we just have to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his own game, Izundu already knows what he wants to improve.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows what I do from last season. I just want to improve some things, a little here, a little there, not commit so many fouls and try to stay on the floor longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal: make the playoffs in every competition<\/h3>\n
Izundu does not want to set specific targets such as the quarterfinals or Final Four. He prefers to take things one step at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want it to be like last season and say something like the quarterfinals, then the Final Four. We have goals that each individual wants to accomplish, as well as goals we have as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to make the playoffs in every league we play in \u2014 all four of them. That\u2019s my goal. And then from there, we\u2019ll take it game by game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Crvena Zvezda big man is looking to return to last season\u2019s level after missing much of the preseason with Nigeria: \u201cI just have to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":514467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,199,297],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-514468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aba-liga","category-euroleague","category-serbia"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/09\/2025mcer30set179.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514468"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=514468"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=514468"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=514468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}