Basketball nights return with the Uruguayan Basketball League On Monday, October 25, in a tournament that does not seem easy at all, where there will be very even teams and two debutants who have had a hard time getting here, so the 14 will give their all for this season that begins.
Leonardo Zylbersztein (National coach) Diego Cal (coach of the current champion Biguá), Pablo Lopez (Peñarol), Esteban Yaquinta (who leads the recently promoted and only non-Montevideo team, Urupan de Pando) and Gonzalo fernandez (DT of Olivol Mundial, the other debutant team) told Ovation how they live the days before the start of the maximum basketball championship in Uruguay.
Some already have their cards closed, others are still shaping the squad, but all remain focused, aware of the level of the tournament that awaits them this year.
Leonardo Zylbersztein – National
How does the team prepare for the start of the tournament?
The preparation is only now in order because we have all the players, those who were playing in the Metro and also the foreigners, so we have 10 days left to finish some things and arrive in the best way for the debut. In the friendlies we had, we saw the team very well in terms of spirit and performance, with great intensity. Always the beginnings of any preparation before the tournament are the most enjoyable, then we have to try to do it during the season, but I think we are going to get there well for the beginning. Regarding the lack of players like Dominique Morrison and Carlos Cabezas, we have to make up for them with others, that’s why we try to hire players who give us the possibility of having at least similar characteristics to those of the players we had and therefore the foreign chips.
As for the first date, I do not look at that much, the reality is that we are busy with ours. The classic one fantasizes about him playing at the beginning, but whenever it is when it is for us it is a pleasure to be able to play it and we are going to prepare 12 dates to get to that game.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges you will face?
The biggest challenge we have is to keep Nacional in the privileged position it has today. We have already been playing the semifinals, we played one last final and that is the great challenge: to be the protagonists again and take another step, which would mean being champions. We want to be in the fight, knowing that there are powerful rivals who have strengthened in great shape and that it is going to be a very difficult tournament.
What virtue will the team have to use to empower itself?
The greatest virtue of the team we believe will be the rotation, our rhythm of play, the intensity, defensively being clear to be able to defend and minimize the rival and on offense to find the advantages from the players we have. I think that will be our cover letter.
What expectations does the Uruguayan League generate for you?
The expectations are the best because it is a new challenge, a new year and we will try to give everything.
Diego Cal – Biguá
How does the team prepare for the start of the tournament?
We are progressively preparing, refining details about the collective idea and adjusting the team to the idea to get the best possible product and the greatest potential. We are waiting for the third foreigner to finish defining what will be the campus with which we are going to start.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges you will face?
I think that the fact that it is played on each team’s court is going to assume a greater challenge than the previous tournament. Being the champion team may make the rival come out with a different attitude every night and that is why we have to be ready. We are aware of that.
What virtue will the team have to use to empower itself?
We have the potential to be good from all aspects of the game. We want to achieve a team game, marking from where we are going to generate the advantages and from whom we are going to play. We can achieve a defensive intensity that allows us to run the court. We potentially have a team to accomplish several things. We know that we have a nice responsibility to do a good job because high quality players remain from last year. I also face it as an opportunity to be in a place that will allow us to fight for the championship. This is how I live it and try to work on it on a day-to-day basis to transmit it to the team, collaborate in whatever way I can and be ready for the important moment. Having Nicolás Mazzarino as an assistant is really a luxury for me. Being the coach is being an incredible experience on a day-to-day basis and it is largely because of being able to share it with him, with the experience he has as a player, sharing information, managing the team. For me it is really an honor and a privilege to be able to count on him.
What expectations does the Uruguayan League generate for you?
The expectations are to repeat the championship, but we know that it will be a very long road, every night the rivals will face the champion team and we cannot relax because everyone has tools and weapons. We have to be ready, especially for the moment of definitions.
Esteban Yaquinta – Urupan
How does the team prepare for the start of the tournament?
Personally, I live this moment with great joy after having arrived at the club in 2019 to try for a promotion in the DTA. That in a few months we are in the League seems like a dream. In the city and at the club they await him with great expectations, it shows in the friendly matches that we have played at home, but also institutionally with a great effort from the leaders and friends to have everything we need and be able to compete in these instances. With the professionalization that is taking place, plus the infrastructure carried out, I believe that Urupan has already gained a lot.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges you will face?
The first challenge is to achieve a functioning and a chemistry between all the members of the campus, that is essential to achieve good results, despite the fact that many of the boys are just reaching us after their participation in the Metro.
Another challenge is to face such tough competition with a lot of youth in the squad, which is precisely a bet that the club makes to boys and we have no doubts that they are going to establish themselves to be very important players.
What virtue will the team have to use to empower itself?
In recent days we have been emphasizing that in order to reach the instances we want, we have to become one of the best defenders of the tournament and this, added to the dynamics of the youth of the team, has to give us and be a supportive team in both sides, but playing without selfishness in attack and always thinking about the extra pass can be part of the recipe.
What expectations does the Uruguayan League generate for you?
We know that we have an extra burden that is to represent the only interior team in the competition and as a lover of the League and basketball in general, hopefully we will do well to infect other teams outside of Montevideo to make the bet. There is a city and a leadership that have made a great effort and I have no doubts that we are going to give everything of ourselves so that this project is consolidated and is an important place in the Uruguayan League.
Pablo López – Peñarol
How does the team prepare for the start of the tournament?
The preparation was the best we could have, luckily the whole team is together, we are almost all healthy so we are very happy to be able to practice this week all together and trying to obtain the best possible synergy for the tournament.
In terms of performance, players at this time are looking for and finding their place within the team, accommodating roles and seeing the trends that the team needs from each one at all times.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges you will face and what virtue will the team have to use to empower itself?
Our idea is to be a consistent team, especially defensively, with the greatest intensity we can, taking advantage of the depth of the team and that will allow us to be malleable and according to each rival to attack their weaknesses in order to enhance our strengths. Being an intelligent team in close endings, taking the ball with the advantage of the correct player and having the defensive capacity to be forcing the other team to shoot with low-percentage players in incorrect situations in order to control the rhythm of the game.
Undoubtedly, to achieve this, the expectation we have is to consolidate our defense both in quality and intensity.
What expectations does the Uruguayan League generate for you?
First of all we look for the team’s performance, trying to be on the first wheel in the greatest possible development of performance, getting the results that appear to us, so that in the second wheel we are better than in the first and get to the Play -Off being a team as solid as possible according to our sporting possibilities.
What is not in our hands we let go so this was the fixture that we touched, we embraced it as it comes and we try to be up to the task. Regarding the theme of the classic it is not something that depends on us so we do not see it in any way, neither as an advantage nor as a disadvantage, let’s hope for that moment to be a much better team than at the beginning.
Gonzalo Fernández – Olivol Mundial
How does the team prepare for the start of the tournament?
The team prepares in a good way with exhausted average times because we are going to have 15 training sessions, which is not ideal, but, on the other hand, the players who come from playing the Metro are in physical and basketball shape, so I think that’s why side we will have some advantage. The people of Olivol She is very excited to play her first Uruguayan League, we hope to meet her expectations.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges you will face?
The biggest challenge for the club is going to be competitive and to be able to achieve the category, those are the big goals that we are going to have this year.
The greatest virtue is that we will be a young, athletic team that will be able to defend extended and create problems for rivals, that will be our best weapon and try to counteract the centimeters of less that we will surely have with intensity, desire and athleticism.
What expectations does the Uruguayan League generate for you?
The expectations are to be competitive and if we achieve that quality, I think we will be much closer to the goal, which is to save ourselves from relegation.
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