Tomislav Mijatovic explains what he changed in Efes, names season goals / News - Basketnews.com

Mijatovic said he didn't implement much and just continued to work on the system he built together with Erdem Can. Despite the seeming lack of success this season, Efes' goals remain the highest, the coach says.

Credit: IMAGO/Seskim Photo TR Credit IMAGO/Seskim Photo TR

Since Tomislav Mijatovic took over as head coach from Erdem Can at Anadolu Efes Istanbul, the club has been on an upward trend in the EuroLeague. The newly appointed coach explained what changed in the organization.

2-pointers this season

56%21,7Points made:21,7Accuracy:56,0%Place in standings:5Record max:31Record min:12Most made 2FGs:Daniel OturuTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

Prior to losing to LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on Friday, Efes had won three of their four games in the EuroLeague. Asked to name the biggest thing he implemented that led to victories, Mijatovic didn't want to be that one-dimensional.

"It's very difficult to look at it like that. First of all, I have been an assistant to Erdem Can, who's a phenomenal coach, who's a very successful coach, and who's a coach that's implemented winning systems, he's proved to be able to do that. I've been very fortunate and very lucky that we were working together and building this system together," Mijatovic said in an interview with Tivibu Spor. "We already had a system in place. We had put a system in place. We had some very unfortunate situations with injuries that happened - that has also affected our performance on the court. That's how sports are sometimes."

The most significant thing to engrave in the players' heads was to take everything one day, one game at a time, Mijatovic says, a change that can be difficult for players who were expected to be in one of the top teams in the league.

"Once I was put in the position to be a head coach, I didn't want to make a lot of changes because our guys just needed to work, needed to continue to believe, and continue to progress. We have a great team. We have players that are winners, we have players in this system who know the system, and we have players that show every day they want to win," the coach said. "Our main philosophy and the main thing that we try to preach to our players is to take it one practice at a time. Think only next game. Don't think 10 games down the road, five games."

Anadolu Efes Istanbul / Schedule

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne Anadolu Efes Istanbul84-80 Anadolu Efes Istanbul Olympiacos PiraeusTue17:30 Anadolu Efes Istanbul ALBA BerlinThu17:30

"The only thing we can control as basketball people is our practice today and the next game that we're going to play. Everything else is going to come. We're trying to preach and implement and continue to build on that system. Our players have really done a phenomenal job. They're doing a great job day in and day out. They believe. When you have the quality of players that we do, when they believe and work hard, and, hopefully, they'll be safe from injuries - if all of this comes in place, we're very optimistic and believe in great things for our club," Mijatovic explained.

Despite the lack of success in the EuroLeague, the goals of the organization remain the highest, no matter how slim the chances of getting to the playoffs might become.

Although Efes currently have only 12 wins in 29 games in their account, they're only one victory away from 10th-placed Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, Valencia Basket, and FC Bayern Munich.

"We are Efes. I will never ever allow anybody to think that they're ahead of us in any competition. This is our culture. Due to our culture, we respect everybody. We have a tremendous amount of sports respect for the EuroLeague competition that we play in, for Basketbol Super Ligi, because we have some great teams in both competitions. We have to have our standards set high. As long as we're competing, we're always going to be competing for the highest targets," Mijatovic said. "The way we're going to compete for the highest targets is, like I told you a minute ago - it's going to be practice by practice, game by game."

"We're never going to look, 'Ah, it's March. In May, we have to be in this position.' No. In order for us to be in a high position in May, we have to fight through March and April. For us to be successful in March, we have to think about today's practice and Friday's game - that's the only way we're going to go," he explained. "But our goals and our targets as Efes are always going to be the highest. We talk about it, the players know it - this is our culture. We will not lower our standards in any position, we're always going to have our standards set at the highest mark possible."

Mijatovic works in a club that was previously headlined by head coach Ergin Ataman, who led the organization to two consecutive EuroLeague titles in 2021 and 2022. As such, tremendous pressure was put on both Erdem Can and Mijatovic when they took over the team.

Despite the seeming lack of results so far, the Croatian specialist says it's good that such an amount of pressure is there.

"The pressure has to be there. When you're the head coach of the team that's a two-time champion of Europe, that has numerous titles in Turkey, it's normal to have pressure, it's normal to put the highest targets because that brings the best out of you, it brings the best out of everybody that's surrounded with the team. It would make no sense to have other targets," he said.

"We are Efes, we have these things that are implemented in our blood, in our culture. We have to excert every possible power, system that can drive us to reach those targets. Once we do that, then we can draw the line and say, 'OK, we did everything at our best, now we finished here.' It has to be maximum, maximum, maximum highest possible standards at every single game," Mijatovic concluded.

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