“SLICE” AND “POINT” SETS - FIBA.com

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one-on-one
Rudy Fernandez had taken his game to a
new level at this summer's Olympics and
had proven that especially during the
thrilling Final with the USA.
Earlier in the tournament he gave an interview
after the game against USA and
ahead of the quarter- final against Croatia.
Here is what he had to say.
FIBA: Rudy, how difficult was it for Spain to
bounce back from the humiliating defeat to
Team USA?
RUDY: Without a doubt, that result affects
you psychologically. Team USA is a very
good team and they really came out determined
to beat us. But I thought the result
was unjust, not in terms of play because
they beat us easily but had we played better,
they would not have beaten us by such
a huge margin.
FIBA: What does Spain take from that
game?
RUDY: t's difficult to compete against a
team like USA. It has served us to learn
from the mistakes we made during the
game and we will try to make sure that we
don't repeat them again. In a hypothetical
page 44 | 34 2008 | Fiba Assist Magazine
RUDY: “PEPU AND AITO
ARE SIMILAR COACHES
BUT THEY SEE BASKETBALL
in A DIFFERENT WAY”
final against Team USA, we will give everything.
FIBA: Aside from the defeat to Team USA,
what positives and negatives does Spain
take from the group stages, where you
have won three games and lost one?
RUDY: I think the positive aspect is that at
no time has this team collapsed mentally.
We've had bad games, especially against
Team USA, but we have always supported
each other as a team and that is good. On
the negative side, we have struggled to
play well in the first half and maybe against
teams like Angola you can afford to do
that but certainly not against Croatia.
FIBA: Spain had to adapt to the arrival of
coach Aito Garcia Reneses following the
sacking of Pepu Hernandez not long before
the Olympics. Aito is a coach you
know well, having played under him at
DKV Joventut. But how difficult has the
transition been for your and the other
Spain players?
RUDY: Pepu and Aito are similar coaches
but they see basketball maybe a different
way. I think Aito has tried to bring new
ideas in the limited time, ideas he also implemented
at DKV Joventut. We still
haven't been able to adapt to those but we
are slowly adapting to how he wants us to
play. This is a long tournament and now
the good part comes along. We have to
compete and if we win the quarter-final,
we are within reach of our aim which is to
get a medal.
FIBA: One thing that has surprised us about
Aito is the number of rotations that he
makes during a game. We have seen players
unhappy to leave the court. Is this one
of Aito's techniques?
RUDY: Aito's rotations, I have seen them at
DKV Joventut. What he wants is the players
who are on the court to give 100%. This
is why he makes so many changes so that
at no time you see tiredness on the court
from his players. It's true that this is not
DKV Joventut and that in this national team
you have very good players who can play
many minutes. But the team needs to get
accustomed to Aito's philosophy and I believe
that we are, little by little, doing it.
FIBA: Next up for Spain is Croatia. How do