Grepl about the approaching derby, the state of the squad, the winter and the discipline of Walton

Tomáš Grepl, coach of BK ARMEX Děčín, knows very well that his team is facing a very tough opponent. “Our matches against each other this year don’t matter. This will be something else entirely. I don’t care about Ústí, my goal is to prepare my players as best as possible,” he said clearly in an interview with Deník.

Coach, how did you absorb the news that you will meet Ústí nad Labem in the semi-finals?
The fact that Ostrava eliminated the defending champions from Opava is a big surprise. Of course I watched it with one eye. Having Ústí in the semifinals has its advantages and disadvantages. I take it as a fact that it turned out this way. We will try to influence things that we can. But I didn’t deal with it in any particular way.

Is Sluneta an “easier” opponent for you than Nymburk?
First of all, I wanted to say that we are very happy to be in the semi-finals. The quarter final was not easy at all. We are now at a stage where you simply cannot choose your opponent. Each of them has a certain quality. We just go to Ústí, that’s it.

Let’s go to the quarter-finals, in which you beat Brno 4:0 for matches.
The first two home games were a huge school for us. We were very nervous in the first one, which I did not expect much. The whole first half we shook off the “newbie” fear. Brno played very well. We focused a lot on non-basketball things in the home games. Then it cost us our nerves in the endings. It helped that we narrowly managed it twice at home. It gave us a huge springboard. During the matches in Brno, we took care of basketball and it already looked different. I consider the fact that we scored more than 90 points three times to be above standard. However, we cannot think that it will be like this for us in the semi-finals. Our defense didn’t work the way it should have. We know where we are lacking and where the shoe is pushing us. We have to work on that. We want to carry this positive into the semi-finals and be the toughest opponent for Ústí.

Title? Walton believes in him. He revealed who hangs out at his house

Recently, there was talk about the possibility of playing the semi-finals in winter stadiums. What do you think?
I didn’t care at all. If Lukáš Houser (GM Děčína) came to me and asked if he wanted it, I certainly wouldn’t say no. Otherwise, I tried to avoid the various speculations. I took it in the way that I have to prepare the team as best as possible. And I didn’t care if it was in our hall or in the cold room.

You met Ústí five times in the season, winning three times. What awaits you as an opponent?
Ústí has ​​a very talented line-up of foreigners who can do well on the pitch. Pecka, who complements it, fits in well. In addition, they have skilled Czech players there. In my opinion, the mutual balance does not play any role. These matches will be different than in the regular season. The current form and details will be decisive. For example, which player will be the x-factor. But I don’t care about Ústí, I care about my players. We want to be as prepared as possible.

How is your squad currently doing?
At the moment, we have the pain points from the last games of the superstructure and the quarter-finals. On the other hand, we managed to eliminate Brno unexpectedly quickly, so there was more time to heal all the wounds. I have to knock it, but we are currently at full lineup. So on Thursday, we will play against Ústí in full formation.

Finally, I would like to return to the series from Brno. What did you say to Walton after his “blink” in Game 2 that got him ejected?
AJ is known for feeling wronged at certain moments, even when it’s not necessary. Then he is very undisciplined. It was a new situation for us. We keep an eye on him on the pitch and when we sense there might be a problem, we pull him off. Against Brno, however, he attacked from behind when he ran onto the field from the bench (laughs). He paid for it absolutely correctly by being expelled. In addition, he had already been sent off before, so he got a stoppage for the third game. That really hurt us. Of course we discussed it with him, he is aware of it. It’s not 100 percent, but he knows it. We have to try so that it doesn’t happen again, we just have to keep an eye on him even on the bench.