Pitino: 'The effort was there, but the game wasn't' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

After his team lost in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament final to the Czech Republic, Rick Pitino announced about the end of his contract as Greece NT head coach. The American specialists also spoke about the loss and future of Greek basketball.

Player of the Game EFF 28 Jan Vesely Points 16 Accuracy 7-9 Rebounds 8 Assists 5

"What hurt us the most, besides the brilliance of Czech Republic, was the back-to-back games without a day of preparation. We are a big preparation team, and they're the veteran team that took advantage of us.

They dominated us on the glass; our leading rebounder was a 20-year-old who's hardly played. The effort was there, but the game wasn't.

We've accomplished a lot over these few days, but we run into a team that, on back-to-back situations, knows how to play. A lot has to improve in Greece with the developmental stages of young basketball players, so they become PG (Georgios Papagiannis), so they become Spanuolis (Vassilis Spanoulis)."

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