After the eighteenth round of the regular season, the basketball players of BK Redstone Olomouc had only three wins on their account and they were guests on the scoreboard of Slavia. If they lost, they would drop to last place in the table. In Prague, they broke the season and recorded nine wins in the next thirteen matches, and already two rounds before the end of the extension, they secured progress to the preliminary round of the play-offs. “We didn’t stop believing that it would turn around,” explained team coach Andrew Hipsher as the main reason for the turnaround.
Bailey’s basket four seconds before the end against Ostrava and the subsequent celebrations
| Video: Diary/David Kubatík
“I am very happy for the club, the city, the management and our players who have progressed to the knockout stage for the first time in the club’s history. Any time you achieve something that has never happened, it should be seen as an achievement. But it doesn’t end there for us. We have a great motivation to extend the season as much as possible,” reports the American captain of Hanák.
At the end of last year, however, things certainly did not look so optimistic. The team was not exactly having a happy season and lost nine of the ten games. Even so, Hipsher claims that he was not afraid of a possible change in his position
“I knew very well why it happened and if the management didn’t acknowledge it, it would be unfortunate. Fortunately, they understood that we didn’t have a true center on the roster from October to early January, and we lost our most productive player, Marcus Shaver, to injury in early December. The replacement did not arrive until the end of January. Even so, we fought and did not lose faith. We knew that when the line-up was complete, it would be better,” he says confidently.
But one of the things that he and the rest of the team he leads could be worried about is a possible loss of strength. In addition to the basic part and extension group, the Hanáci also completed the Czecho-Slovak Cup in Prague and the Alpe Adria Cup, including the play-off, which took place in Austria. Even here, however, the experienced overseas coach is not afraid.
It’s there! Olomouc won in Písek and is heading to the preliminary round of the playoffs
“First of all, it’s great that we managed to advance to the final tournaments in both cup competitions. Regarding fatigue, we believe coach Bob Knight’s statement that the ratio of mental to physical wear and tear is four to one. If we think we are tired, we will be. And if not, we won’t. We don’t have the biggest budget or the biggest roster, but we’re mentally resilient, we fight and we have heart,” he said, adding that he’s not bothered by the fact that key players regularly play over thirty minutes in every game
It is already certain that Olomouc’s opponent in the preliminary round of the play-off, played for two winning matches, will be one of Kolín and USK Prague. “You can’t choose between these options. Both opponents have their own quality and I recognize the coaches and players. In any case, we want to play hard and smart at the same time and we will hope for a favorable result and progress to the quarter-finals,” Andy Hipsher concluded on a positive note.
