Basketball is played with cleated boots

It is a joyful exercise to listen once a week to the vicissitudes that occur to Inveready Gipuzkoa Basket from the mouth of its coach Mikel Odriozola. With the calmness with which he answers questions, similar to how he conducts meetings on the sideline, the coach reveals that his team is “fine.” Victories always feel good and this affects the mental and physical health of those who occupy the locker room. «The players are fine, we are encouraged. In the end you win three games in a row and, at least emotionally, you are calmer and you are fine because this is sport and that is what it has. And physically we are in a good situation right now,” says Odriozola.

He continues to defend that his team still has a lot to do, which is still under construction, but there is no doubt that the foundations are more solid if they come from beating Menorca, Morón and Ourense. “The victory gives a lot of peace of mind, comforts, gives security,” says Odriozola, although he warns how the calendar will become more complicated in the coming weeks. «Right now Obradoiro is coming to us, then we have Burgos away and then Fuenlabrada. The schedule is not the same and it is going to be a very big effort for us to win any of the three games.”

Odriozola talks about the youth of the group he has in his hands, even that he is an almost new coach. “I am worried that if we are a young team, that we have a lot of growth capacity, we will think about other things just to win a game,” he comments in relation to the great victory achieved in Ourense, undefeated leader until that moment. “We have to try to find the motivation to say, ‘damn,’ we’re doing well, but we can still do better.”

This Saturday’s match (6:00 p.m.) at the Amenabar Arena will gauge how the GBC fares against Obradoiro, one of those six teams called to fight for promotion. “They are all good,” he says about the Compostela team, recently relegated from the ACB. «If we do not set a high tone in defense, it will be very difficult, because Obradoiro has a lot of offensive talent. If you let him play comfortably, in the end that talent will shine,” predicts the coach.

The Galician team has players with ACB experience such as Rigo, Stevic or Quintela; others who are decisive in Primera FEB, in the case of Leimanis, Galán or Davis and high-quality rookies such as the enormous Stephens, 2.13, or the Serbian Micovic. “We have to make the game muddy,” Odriozola announces. «If they are able to play comfortably, we will have very little to do. “So we have to prepare things very well tactically, where we want to take them and make the game as muddy as possible.” Long cue in basketball.