Dusan Alimpijevic: The man behind Cinderella story of Bursa / News - Basketnews.com
Credit IMAGO/nordphoto GmbH / Hafner-Scanpix It's money time in European basketball. This is where the competition escalates and reaches its climax, with the cups and titles being won or lost. You will see it almost everywhere, and the 7DAYS EuroCup is no exception. It is the semi-finals already.
Points this season
48%83,0Points made:83,0Accuracy:48,0%Place in standings:8Record max:103Record min:65Best scorer:Andrew AndrewsTeamEuroCupStatisticsScheduleAnd like every season, EuroCup delivers some big surprises.
The memories from last season are fresh: Virtus Bologna, the utmost favourites of the competition, failed to make it to the final despite being loaded with a quality roster and extravagance outlook.
Instead, it was Monaco, a rather unlikely contender, that made their way to EuroLeague by winning the title.
And if the resemblances of that story with this season's Frutti Extra Bursaspor do not catch your eye, I don't know what will. Finishing the regular season in the 7th place in their group, they beat all odds to win two games away and punched the ticket to the semi-final.
The glory
The main builder of this overwhelming success, Dusan Alimjipevic, still has the goosebumps from those victorious nights in Ljubljana and Belgrade but is trying to get his team ready for the next challenge, Andorra in the semis.
"I'm feeling great, excellent," the Serbian coach said sincerely.
"It is more emotional when you have some success like this because, in Turkey, people are emotional. They know to celebrate, they know how to enjoy things like this. Here, people are really similar about that to Serbian people. Enjoying life in some similar ways, culturally. In Serbia, living for sport and in Turkey, that is the same," he adds.
Their most recent triumph was stamped by a breathtaking moment in the very last possession of the game.
Against one of the most in-form teams in the EuroCup, Cedevita Olimpia never found a chance to control the game until the 4th quarter. But finally,Jacob Pullensomehow sent an off-balance 3-pointer for the lead, and the 14,000 Stozice Crowd went awry.
Frutti Extra Bursa / Schedule
Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana Frutti Extra Bursa83-85 MoraBanc Andorra Frutti Extra Bursa68-85But the question remained: Did he manage to throw the ball before the buzzer?
"Of course, you get a little bit nervous in these situations," the Alimpijevic admits.
"You know, it's always a possibility that there is some detail that you did not get to catch. The referees were checking the video replay, and I thought, maybe they can see something better than me at that moment,” as he reflects on the moment of anxiety.
"But I have to say, I had a really good angle of that shot and at the same time. And so red light is on the glass, and I saw the ball is in his hands. So I was pretty sure that he was out of time," the coach added.
Indeed, coach Alimpijevic was correct. It was the first time that Cedevita lost a game in their last ten in EuroCup. That covers a span of three months.
But it was not the first time Frutti Extra Bursaspor won an epic battle away from their home at the last breath. Not many people were expecting them to come over against a rejuvenated Partizan led by the legendary Zeljko Obradovic.
But yet, coach Alimpijevic managed to disperse the thick cloud of disbelief, despite a crowd of 20,000 in the Stark Arena.
"I think it is still too early to explain what we did there," Alimpijevic admits. "My mind and brain still cannot accept what we did so far because the competition is still running."
"Maybe when it finishes, there will be some good time to sit somewhere and to settle down all these emotional things. Maybe then, I will be able to explain it to myself, and it will be much easier for me to explain to the others well,” he adds.
But he has every right to be emotional and not ready to share his accomplishment to the full extent because of his background.
One should remember that Stark Arena was the very same place where Alimpijevic became the head coach of a EuroLeague team, Crvena Zvezda, at a relatively young age.
That is where he got his first taste of big stage basketball on the bench. It was perhaps a full circle closing for him to start another, maybe an even bigger circle.
"Obviously, winning in Belgrade against Partizan and Zeljko Obradovic this season is particularly special. They were one of the biggest candidates for winning this competition and gaining access to the EuroLeague. They really sought to make their roads to the Euroleague through EuroCup, and it was like a huge project for both Partizan and Serbia as well."
"On top of all, they have the best coach in EuroLeague of European basketball history. There is no doubt about that. That was a huge thing,” Alimpijevic says.
"When I watched the game after, it had so many flashbacks of what we did, how we played, behaved, or how seriously we responded to the tough situations like a mature team. How did we react to the fans. You know, it's very difficult to explain to anyone what that means to play in front of 20,000 fans.
So, I have this joke: We are like the Circus Colorado. We come to these courts, bring everyone in, and the next day, we leave," says the Serbian coach.
"In Ljubljana, it was also a full-packed stadium, and I think only after 10 years, Stoize Arena was sold out. We come, we have a full gym, and we play our game. Then, they move on to the next gym with a packed crowd.
But that Partizan game created the effect of some kind of sedatives on us, I might say. It's like when you go to the dentist, take the anesthesia, and then you are just fine with what they will do with you. So now we are under anesthesia. So, I will need some time to explain to myself what we did so far," Alimpijevic continues in detail.
The Partizan game became almost like a classic if you still have not heard about it. Who can forget the John "The Pitbull" Holland shot after the timeout, which tied the game?
But it was not the ultimate action of the game. Partizan still had one more ball and plenty of time left on the clock.
"Everybody remembers that Holland shot which made the score equal, but the defense that came afterward from his side was equally important," coach Alimpijevic makes us remember.
"Kevin Punter is the best player on their team and the guy who lead them to that point to be in the playoffs. If I were the opponent's coach, I would have wanted him to take this shot," Alimpijevic explains that last defensive stop.
"I was actually expecting something out of the sets from Punter, but then they decided just to give him a ball and to play one-on-one," he adds.
It was also another defensive stop that clinched the game for Bursa against Cedevita. Alimpijevic gives credit to Onuralp Bitim, who missed a potential game-winner.
"After a few seconds, we all realized that they were going for a 3-point shot, not a 2-pointer for overtime. Holland followed his instincts to double up and made the initial shot impossible.
As a result, the ball went to Pullen. At that point, Onuralp Bitim made a crucial move to show up and made a jump. That jump stole a second from him. Pulled had to make a fake. And it was done," Alimpijevic says.
For a team that lost many games in the last possessions in the first part of the season, these were strong signs of growing up.
Despite coming back from double digits, Bursaspor lost against Virtus Bologna in the last seconds, and it was a similar story against Fenerbahce Beko in the Turkish League (BSL)
"I will add more to that list," the coach intervened. "We had a Turk Telekom in the away game, and we had Besiktas games both home and away. We had the Anadolu Efes games where they went for the overtime, in both of the games!"
"But my philosophy is: when you lose on one possession against big teams like Fenerbahce, Efes, or Bologna, it is important to understand that we did.
We managed to push those big teams to the ropes and made them a little bit nervous to let them wonder: 'Can we make use of the last ball to win the game or not?'"
"This is a big thing, and I try to explain this to my players. Of course, everybody wanted to win these games, but it is not sad that we didn't. We knew that our hard work would pay off. We knew that our time would come at some point," he says.
The Format
After so many favorite teams got shocking losses in the very early stages of the knock-out rounds, the debate about the format came to the fore.
How do early upsets, like Partizan, Joventut, and Gran Canaria getting knocked out early in the competition after a single night, affects the EuroCup?
Or, from another strand, is that an ideal situation for the teams like Bursaspor, who found their form relatively late in the season and, as a result, are deprived of a crucial boost of a home crowd in the most important stages of the competition?
"This format is good for the teams who do not have a big budget and want to make a surprise," Alimpijevic says. "You have one game, and that is it. It is actually giving you a chance even if you did not have title desires at the beginning of the season. You may not have a good position in the regular season, but now, you can dream of something big."
"We are a team that is playing in front of big crowds at home. Our fans are creating a really unbelievable atmosphere in our games. It helped us a lot. Everybody is coming to support us to show respect for everything you're doing right now.
Our fans are giving all their emotions to the games, really making us feel at home. Our fans made life hard against our opponents in Bursa and especially for foreigners, as they don't understand what they are talking about," he adds.
The Recovery
Frutti Extra Bursaspor are currently thriving, as they won 16 of their last 22 games. In the process, they made it to the EuroCup semis and punched their playoff ticket in the domestic league. They are currently one of the hottest teams in Europe.
But it was not always like that.
They won only 8 of their first 20 games, and they had only 3 EuroCup wins until mid-March.
During the season, there was a roster reshuffle. The club parted ways with Dragan Milosaljvevic and Anthony Brown. Turkish center Egemen Guven was traded to Anadolu Efes, in return with Tolga Gecim.
Besides, they had to say goodbye to their leading scorer Allerik Freeman, who joined CSKA to fulfill his EuroLeague dreams.
In the post-Freeman era, Andrew Andrews made a big step forwards. He had only one game with double-digit scoring in the first two months of EuroCup.
His last 10 games? 20.6 points, 4.5 assists per game with 45% 3-pointers. Among all, his 26 points game against Partizan, 27 points performance against Venezia, and 37-point show against Virtus were on a different level.
The Turkish NT player Onuralp Bitim's rising form was also immensely helpful. Apart from the scoring contributions (15.6 points per game in the last 10 games), the energy boost for the team was something else.
"It's not very smart to say that we started to play better when Freeman left,” Alimpijevic shrugged off the strange correlation of Bursaspor getting more wins once their primary ball-handler left.
"Maybe the guys who were in the shadow of him started to take a little more responsibility. When Allerik was with us, we knew that there was a lot of talent in this team beyond him.
But somehow, they were in his shadow. That's why they had problems finding their rhythm and other things as well," the Serbian continues.
The coach points to two factors: the mutual trust between him and the club as well as… FIBA windows. Yes, THE FIBA windows, which everybody complains about.
"I have this special relationship with people from the club; the president, sponsors. GM (Nedim Yucel) and all management. After I came (in November 2020), we got our first wins in EuroCup, but we also won the 3 games out of the remaining 4.
Also, we won against Fenerbahce at home last year. We did not only remain in the top division but also missed the playoffs with one game and got the ticket for EuroCup. These were all historical achievements for the club," Alimpijevic says.
"The GM already knew that my system was not enough to implement overnight. It is a complicated system that I use, but they showed trust in me and decided to sign a 3-years contract with me.
I'm really grateful for that because this is something really rare. It is important for a coach to have this peaceful thing in his mind about his job security," he continues.
It was the same last year when I came first. We struggled to win in the beginning, but then the FIBA Windows came. We had almost two weeks to practice.
All together with players, we worked hard like crazy. In that process, I think the players understood the system and their roles in that system better. Once this was settled, we started to win much more often. So FIBA Windows proved very useful for us," the coach admits.
The Playbook
Frutti Extra Bursaspor is a tenacious team, but that is not their only virtue. Certainly, there is a lot of pure passion and emotion in their approach. Still, they are also very methodical, operating like a well-oiled machine and putting down a mesmerizing basketball on the court with their offensive fluidity and variety.
Currently, they sit at the top of offensive efficiency ratings. It is a well-designed factory.
"EuroCup presents us as one of the best offenses in the entire history of Eurocup," the coach remarks. "They have different categories to calculate these. For sure, we are not on the top regarding the points per game. But their calculation takes a lot of different qualitative factors into account, like how many open shots we have from the sets. Things like this."
"Our playbook has almost 50 sets," coach Alimpijevic reveals.
"We can have more than five options for each set. But every coach can make 50 or 100 sets. However, the thing that makes the difference is to pay attention to a lot of spacing and timing."
We are working really hard with those sets," Alimpijevic continues. "We are pushing them to adopt different defenses again and again, and again. We make those countless repetitions until the action itself becomes very normal."
"So I'm really paying a lot of attention to spacing and timing, which I think in modern basketball is the most important thing. I always emphasize to my players the time of reaction.
Because being able to respond to the surprises coming from the opponent is the real thing that determines our level of execution and level of offensive efficiency.
We cannot go with the simple sets because then it will degrade everything into an individual level. Then you give the player one screen, and then he will go off, he takes the ball, and then one-on-one will start.
I think we have really talented players, and when you have good individuals as we have currently and when you give them something complicated with a lot of motions and a good flow in offense, then they can have the ball with all their talent, and they can be in a situation to shoot. Then all these culminate into growing confidence," Alimpijevic reveals.
City of Bursa
Bursa is the 4th biggest city in Turkey, with more than 3 million people living in its metropolitan area. But still, it is not as big as Istanbul.
Bursa people are by no means strangers to sports passion as the other great club of the city Tofas, which is already a household name in the Turkish league as a former champion (1999 and 2000) and European circles as an ex-Korac Cup finalist (1997).
The football team also won the Turkish Super League in 2010, becoming only the second club to win the league other than Trabzonspor, not being based in Istanbul. Currently, they are in the second division.
"For a successful season, a big city like Istanbul is not a requirement. It can be any city," Alimpijevic says. "Actually, the city of Bursa can help me more than a big city like Istanbul."
"Maybe it sounds crazy what I am saying, but during the season, I am not a guy who is looking for good life outside the gym.
I have my family here, and they even suffer because usually, I'm in the gym. We have at least one practice per day and sometimes two, and for me, it is not only the practice itself. I come to the gym before two hours and leave only a couple of hours after the practice finishes. Also, we have the preparation of the game ahead with my staff."
"People in Bursa are really nice. They accept us here as one of their own. The club is trying to make me happy here in all sorts of ways possible. We have the Uludag mountain, 45 minutes drive from my home, we have the seaside as well, 15-20 minutes.
It is big enough, you have everything. But also you don't have to suffer and lose time in the traffic as you do in Istanbul. I'm enjoying the city from the first day.
I try to taste everything in Turkish cuisine, but there are a couple of things that I cannot say no to. I have to practice too much from my side because I cannot control myself not eating much here.
Everything is so delicious, especially the desserts. Oh, it is terrible for me, I have to do so many extra workouts for that!" Alimpijevic admits in a detailed comment.
But Frutti Extra Bursaspor is not only an underdog story, but it is something more than that.
Suddenly, they found themselves building a cult. It is a cult of a remaking the sports history of a city with all its components: the players, the coach, the city, and the fans.
As coach Alimpijevic emphasizes, Frutti Extra Bursaspor is taking one step at a time, clinching their spot in the Turkish League playoffs over the weekend.
Next goal? To climb the top of the Pyrenees, semi-finals against Andorra. It will be fun to watch where this story ends. For now, the sky is the limit for them.
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