Sergio Scariolo: 'We hit a wall, this game was a great lesson for us' / News - Basketnews.com

Virtus Bologna returned to EuroLeague after many years but their home debut was spoiled by a great performance from Monaco. Virtus Bologna head coach Sergio Scariolo, after the game, explained that now his team knows what it means to play at this level.

Credit: ZUMAPRESS.com - Scanpix Credit ZUMAPRESS.com - Scanpix

This wasn't the type of return to EuroLeague basketball that many Virtus Bologna fans wished to see. Still, Virtus head coach Sergio Scariolo believes that now his team can understand what it really means to play in this competition.

Virtus Segafredo Bologna / Schedule

Virtus Segafredo Bologna AS Monaco66-83 Virtus Segafredo Bologna FC Bayern MunichThu18:30

After the 83-66 home loss against Monaco, the Italian head coach explained that many of his players weren't prepared for this kind of physicality.

"This game I believe it was a great lesson for us", coach Scariolo said in the post-game press conference. "We hit a wall, now we know which level of physicality is required to compete in this competition. We need to learn fast because we have many players that never played in the EuroLeague before, more than half of the team don't have that kind of experience".

"So for us, somehow, it was good to face the reality of this competition very early", coach Scariolo added. "We need to learn from our mistakes and work to grow because this is a very long competition. During the game, we did some good things too, we played well in the first quarter and in the fourth quarter, but we had a terrible third quarter".

Virtus Bologna shot only 19% from three-point in the game against Monaco, they also missed several free throws, shooting only 60% from the foul fine. These numbers have to improve drastically, according to coach Scariolo.

"We need to hit our shots, we didn't shoot the ball well from three-point", Virtus Bologna's head coach explained. "We're not a very physical team that can get to the paint every time, so we need to make our shots, we cannot make so many mistakes. We had several open shots but we just didn't make them".

Coach Scariolo also shared some updates about the physical condition of Milos Teodosic, who was absent tonight and hasn't played in any official game this season yet.

"Milos is doing better, is getting into a decent condition", coach Scariolo said. "He won't play on Sunday but my hope is that he'll be ready soon. Of course, Toko and he are two players who have a lot of EuroLeague experience so they'll add something important when they'll be back with us".

Virtus will play their second game of the competition at home against Bayern Munich on October 13.

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