After the eighteenth round of the regular season, the basketball players of BK REDSTONE Olomouc had only three wins on their account and they played host to Slavia. If they lost, they would drop to last place in the table. They broke the season in Prague and recorded nine wins in the next 13 matches and advanced 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.
Olomouc advanced to the elimination phase for the first time. Do you see it as a success?
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 are very motivated to extend the season as much as possible.
The team also had a bad season. Didn’t you think that after a streak of nine defeats in ten games at the end of last year, the club’s management might change the position of coach?
I wasn’t afraid at all because I knew why these defeats happened. It would be unfortunate if management did not acknowledge this. Fortunately, they understood that we didn’t have a true center on the roster from October to early January, and you lost your most productive player, Marcus Shaver, to injury in early December. The replacement didn’t arrive until the end of January. But we fought in all the matches and did not lose faith that it would break. We knew that when the line-up was complete, it would be much better.
The season was long, the team also played in the Czech Cup and the Alpe Adria Cup. Will he have enough power at the end of the league?
First of all, it is great that we managed to advance to the final tournaments in both cup competitions. Regarding fatigue, we believe coach Bob Knigh’s statement that the ratio of mental to physical wear and tear is four to one. It has to do with a lot of things, in our case the sign that if we think we are tired, we will be. If we don’t, we won’t. We don’t have the biggest budget or the biggest roster, but we have mentally tough players who fight and have heart.
Key players regularly play over thirty minutes in each match. Is this the optimal load?
That’s relative. Probably not at Real Madrid, but it is optimal for us this season. Nobody plays more than thirty-five minutes, over thirty-three players. Eight regularly gets double-digit minutes, and that’s enough.
In the preliminary round, you will face Kolín or USK Prague. Which opponent would you like?
You cannot choose from 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.
