ABA TV: Ivanović - “I’ll try to ignore my feelings for Podgorica”

Saturday, 12. March 2016 at 11:00

In the interview for the ABA League TV, Mega Leks point guard Nikola Ivanović spoke about the forthcoming semi-final series against his former team Budućnost VOLI. Take a look at the video interview and find out what he had to say about it.

In the interview for the ABA League TV, Mega Leks point guard Nikola Ivanović spoke about the forthcoming semi-final series against his former team Budućnost VOLI. Take a look at the video interview and find out what he had to say about it.

Did you expect that you could reach the Playoffs this season before it started?

"Since the very beginning of the season, head coach Dejan Milojević was trying to set our mentality the way that we could belive that we can achieve a lot. Since the beginning of the season the atmosphere where we believed in our work was therefore created. As a team we have proven that we are capable of playing at a very high level. We have clinched our Playoffs spot a month or two ahead of the end of the regular season. Also, winning the Serbian National Cup meant a whole lot to us, so let"s wait and see what awaits us in the semi-finals.”

You will start the Playoffs on the road in Morača. Especially you personally are aware of the atmosphere that you will face there. What exactly do you expect from the first game?

"Budućnost VOLI is the best team in the ABA League this season. Convincingly. They are under lots of pressure this season. They have been in the hunt for the top and the Euroleague spot for years now. So the pressure upon them will be high. However, they are a team composed of truly top level and experienced players, that have played numerous games like that in their careers, so they will be able to cope with it. We have to play better games than our last two against Krka and Metalac Farmakom were, since serious teams like Budućnost VOLI will punish us if we don"t give our best, especially on the defensive end.”

You have mentioned pressure. How do you expect your young team to react to it?

"We will for sure be more relaxed than Budućnost VOLI at this game. Since we do not have anything to lose. We have achieved a fantastic success during the first half of the season. However, it would not be right if we would be satisfied with this and that we would play bad as a consequence. We have to be maximally focused and have to play this game on a high level, which will be difficult in every aspect.”

You are left without two key players - guard Ognjen Jaramaz and center Alpha Kaba - both are injured. How difficult does this make the preparations for the forthcoming games for you?

"Throughout the past week we have struggled to find 10 players for a practice. This represents a huge problem to us, since lots of players need to play in the positions that they are not used to playing at, so we are having difficulties to prepare ourselves adequately both in defensive and offensive sense. Alpha and Ognjen are important members of our team, but we will have to find a way to play well without them on board. We have had lots of injury problems this season, but we have proven that after these problems we always stand up even stronger.”

What does the fact that you will return to Podgorica, where you have spent some nice moments of your career, mean to you? You will play against your friends and will have to try to beat them…

"I fall under the influence of adrenaline when I think of that. Morača was truly the second home for me for as long as three years. I have gotten used to Podgorica and have good relationships with the people there. I will do my best to ignore those feelings and to be calm and focused during the game, because I believe that this is the only possible way.”
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