Slovenian fans react to the loss: 'We were promised Itoudis, we got a clown' / News - Basketnews.com

Slovenian fans blamed their players and their coach after the loss to Poland, while others created various comparisons and stories to describe their feelings. Even fans from other countries joined in.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Poland shocked the basketball world yesterday by upsetting Slovenia to advance to the semifinal of EuroBasket 2022.

Player of the Game EFF 40 Mateusz Ponitka Points 26 Accuracy 8-17 Rebounds 16 Assists 10

Both during the match and after the game, Slovenian fans took out their anger on social media in hopes of minimizing the pain they felt they endured watching their favorite team lose to an overwhelming underdog.

Some viewers described their feelings through the lens of other situations.

"My neighbor makes sounds as if someone is operating on him without anesthesia. This is my basketball," one fan wrote on Twitter. "I propose a European tournament of (former) champions in Stozice: Slovenia, Serbia, Greece," another one added.

Slovenian journalist Mirko Mayer was more direct with his approach, noting the on-paper difference between the teams and their players.

"Let's just say that Luka Doncic has nothing to be angry about with the referees," he wrote. "In 10 minutes, we made up -19. And in the last minute, almost -9. This means that with a serious approach, the Poles were ripe for defeat with a difference of around +20. We will get over the defeat but not with the attitude of the first half."

One fan got even more creative than the others and made up a story of his possible future visit to the doctor's office.

"Examination by a cardiologist in 2042. 'Somewhere around 20 years ago, you had a minor heart attack. Do you know the reason?' 'Yes. Layups and three-pointers in the EuroBasket 2022 quarterfinals'."

Even Serbian fans chimed in, alluding to the loss their national team suffered in the Round of 16 against Italy.

"I thought that we Serbs were the biggest idiots, but tonight I saw Slovenia and I bit my tongue," the fan wrote. "It's no consolation, but those people lost to Poland not in volleyball but in basketball. [They lost] everything with Doncic and Dragic. Unreal."

Poland / Schedule

Serbia Poland96-69 Ukraine Poland86-94 Slovenia Poland87-90 Poland FranceFri15:15

The fieriest reactions came after the first half when Slovenia was down by 19 and Luka Doncic was shown visibly limping multiple times, heading to the locker room holding his lower back.

"All I want to see in the 2nd half is a fight to the end... at least 3-4 players with 5 personal [fouls], and a couple more sent off for technicals, whatever... just not that kind of apathy," one fan tweeted.

Little did he know that the only player that either fouled out or received a technical foul was the undisputed leader Luka Doncic, and he did both. After Mateusz Ponitka's pump fake, Doncic received his fifth foul with three minutes to go in the fourth quarter, leaving Slovenia to fight without him.

Coaches are often blamed after painful losses. This time was no exception, as Aleksander Sekulic was the centerpiece of many reactions.

"Sekulic shouldn't be a coach at all. I really don't know what they are doing," a fan wrote. "After Radenko [Trifunovic], we were promised Itoudis and got another Harlequin from the Commedia dell'arte."

"Has Sekulic already packed his bags?" another one added. "You have three days to prepare the team, and this disgrace enters the court."

However, some fans did not put all the weight of the loss on the coach. Instead, they paid more attention to the players' motivation on the court.

"This is not up to the coach today but the players," a fan tweeted. "Such a quality difference should practically solve it by itself. But not with a focus on the level of 3v3 basketball on Saturday morning."

In the end, one fan managed to get something positive out of a loss that shocked the basketball world yesterday:"Let's look at the positives…. At least we won't be nervous for two more games."

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