Ukraine national team head coach Ainars Bagatskis shared his thoughts with the FBU press service following the close friendly against Angola (92:93), and also discussed the upcoming second friendly match against Lithuania.
“Before the Angola game, we decided not to use Kovlyar to avoid any risks. This also limited the minutes for Mykhailiuk. However, it was a good test for all the other players.
Some aspects of our game worked very well, but others were simply terrible. Angola is a truly aggressive, even somewhat wild team. They are physically strong, sometimes they just jumped at us, setting traps all over the court, and at times we began to doubt ourselves. We had 18 turnovers, and they grabbed 21 rebounds on our rim, yet we lost by only one point. This shows we have great potential.
Playing with only one ball-handler, Lukashov, was not easy. I tried to limit his minutes, but when the young players came on, it felt like they lacked not talent, but fight. They need to be more aggressive and battle harder. For most of these youngsters, this was their first match of this kind ever, plus many haven’t played much at their clubs and were not in peak shape. But the most important thing in basketball is to fight. That is something I, as a coach, cannot control. So this was a very valuable lesson for us, especially for the young players.
Our next game is against Lithuania. Of course, they are more talented than Angola, less aggressive, but still tough enough. My experience playing and coaching in Lithuania has given me a clear understanding that Lithuanian basketball players only respond to toughness and aggression. So that’s where we need to start in this match.”
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