“Do you know I’ve never tried this before?” chuckles Denzel Valentine talking about the leaping pass under his legs that made it 67-40 when Jarrod Uthoff put it against the glass.
Harlem Globetrotters stuff, which few can say they have seen live in a top European basketball championship. We will talk about the 67-40 basket for a long time, but how did we get to 65-40? With another no-look assist behind Valentine’s head for Brown’s triple, you might say. Very fair, but then how did we get to 62-40?
Strange to say in a match characterized by spectacle and high pace, but the difference to open up that margin of advantage came largely from the forward department: Uthoff, Johnson, Brooks and Candussi were the authors of a very high level performance in all those aspects of the game for which this game that ended 107-81 will not be remembered.
Coach Christian explains: “I don’t like adapting to other people’s strategies: do you want to send a small quintet onto the pitch? Alright, we’ll bounce over you!”
In fact, it is precisely between the second and third quarters that Trieste takes off thanks to the presence under the basket of Brooks and Johnson, who transform their teammates’ errors into points, giving way – together with Uthoff’s bombs – to a partial 19-2. The result of those five minutes is a lead of over twenty points that the guests will never really be able to question.
On the surface it all seems very simple, yet it is not: creating a situation of that type is only possible for high-level teams, not in terms of individual talent, but in all those aspects that cannot really be touched or measured.
Unity of purpose, willingness to sacrifice, mutual support.
Varese is lethal in transition, so it was essential that everyone, especially the big players, returned with great discipline and promptness to avoid easy baskets; not only that, Varese had many perimeter players on the pitch, which meant more space to cover in defense and therefore a greater effort to contest shots and not be beaten by the dribble.
These were the indispensable conditions to allow the big men to make the difference in their own way: attacking all the rebounds to take away the pace of the guests’ frenetic attack. Mission accomplished, with 26 total rebounds for Brooks, Johnson, Candussi and Uthoff alone, just a few less than the 32 achieved by the entire opposing team; to these must be added the fundamental 9 of Valentine, who like the other wingers covered the backs – by the way, Brown’s usual blocker – of his big men called upon to defend further from the basket.
More than the raw number of rebounds grabbed by the red and whites, the percentage of offensive rebounds captured compared to the total rebounds available on that side of the court is representative: well over 30% ended up in the hands of one of Johnson or Brooks, a figure impressive and which puts in black and white what was said a few paragraphs ago regarding the partial that split the match.
All these factors meant that it was the Trieste attack, led for large stretches by the mulo Ruzzier in a complicated evening for Ross, running like clockwork, scoring every player on the pitch and allowing space for the creativity of all Coach Christian’s boys.
Perhaps the secret of this team is precisely this: they are ready to do all the dirty work needed to be able to have fun and entertain the public with assists like Valentine’s, the one above Ruzzier’s head for Candussi’s triple, Brown’s dunk and Uthoff’s nine-meter triples.
