That was a cacicada and I am glad that later the rule was changed

Champion of the Copa del Rey as a player in 1996, Joan Peñarroya made his debut as a coach playing the promotion phases of the EBA with Olesa, took Andorra from LEB Plata to Europe, returned Manresa to the ‘play-offs’ and won the Champions with Burgos.

11/30/2020

On at 08:37 CET

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At 51 years old, the Egarense is one of the fashionable coaches of Spanish basketball and took advantage of the competitive break of the weekend through the ‘windows’ to chat with SPORT about the reality of Hereda San Pablo Burgos and give a review of his career .

Will the Champions League mark the whole season for Burgos?

The balance so far we could not even imagine. Winning the Champions League has been making history for a club formed five years ago that debuted in Europe. Of course that marks everything.

The Burgos team made history by winning the Champions League | TWITTER

But they continue to amaze …

The team shows personality, experience and we were in this process when we were the first victims of Covid and those two weeks without training sowed many doubts.

And they made them play!

That was a cacicada and I am glad that the rule was changed later. I still do not understand. We returned fairer than it seems physically, but people believe that it came under our noses because we are winning. We have four victories in the league plus Brindisi’s, but for example Rabaseda has been without training for a month, because he caught the virus when the others returned and two more weeks joined him for another two weeks.

What objectives do you set?

Thinking beyond next week is difficult. When I arrived there was a clear growth goal, although now with the pandemic everything is in doubt. We want to play well and fight for the play-off, to play the Copa del Rey and to do well in the Champions League, although if you analyze the squads and budgets our range would be to be between 8 and 12 and not where we are now. But this is sport, not math. 

The Hereda San Pablo Burgos, less and less relief | EFE

Why are your teams playing well?

For that the first thing is to have good players. There are many ways to be successful and there are no better or worse. I like my teams to be dynamic, happy and not corseted, especially in offensive play. In attack, it’s about providing the necessary spaces for the players and adapting yourself to them. It is a matter of work and of having a team feeling, of knowing how to accept, above all, the weaknesses of the partner. In the end it is about reaching the objectives, because you do not even achieve them, you can play well or badly because the coach goes to the street.

Does the ex-red Renfroe

Yes. Last year we had two tremendous players in the base position like Ferran Bassas and Bruno Fitipaldo with whom I worked very comfortably on a personal level and when Renfroe’s option arose I was doubtful. I had had it in Manresa, he liked it and it was very clear to me, because it fits perfectly with what we wanted. For me his figure was a priority in the conception of the team.

The ex-blue Renfroe is one of the stars of the Hereda San Pablo Burgos | EFE

And what about the Cuban Jasiel Rivero

The club signed him up and I met him when I arrived. The idea last year was to give him up because we had two non-EU citizens, but in the end we decided that he would stay so that he could understand the European game, because the difference is great. I saw a lot of potential for him, but he had weaknesses to come from much less tactical leagues in which mistakes are not punished so much. There is his merit of adapting and growing and acquiring the knowledge of how to play in Europe. It has to offer even much more and that its season is being very remarkable. Continue in that process of being a better player every day.

Let’s go back a half decade … How were your beginnings on the bench?

It is the path that I have had to follow, although one does not choose it at all. As a player, I had a good long career without being a crack and I’m proud of it. And despite having played so many years in the elite as a coach, I had to start from the bottom. Jaume Sanmartí, president of Bàsquet Olesa, convinced me to train, because he was not very clear about it. It was three years plus one in the middle of the season in Navas at the EBA and there I began to train and made the decision to be a professional in my world. Those four years were very good for me and they were very good. We played phases of promotion and that made Francesc Solana bet on me to start the Andorra project. 

A heroic San Pablo Burgos is proclaimed champion of the Champions

He took Andorra from LEB Plata to play in Europe!

That stage has a lot of merit, because except last season we were never the most powerful. And we get very big ostias, like not going up for missing two free throws with the clock timed when we were one down. One year later we went up and the next we lost to direct promotion to the ACB in Burgos in the last game. And in the play-offs Dani Pérez was injured in the first game and in the fifth, Lucentum hit us a ‘thrashing’ … It was a great disappointment, but the following year we put together a great team and went up. It’s a story of absolute growth, but not going up by two free throws is a movie. It is the hallmark of humble clubs. You receive blows, you get up again and again and only then do the results come.

Peñarroya, during his successful stage in Andorra | VALENTÍ ENRICH

And he returned to Manresa …

For me it was a complicated situation. I live in Manresa, I have all my friends there and I came from being sixth in Andorra to a team that had as one of the basic objectives not to go down. He had doubts, but the figure of President Josep Sáez was very important. I did not know him. It is the key of the club in recent seasons.

But it went very well …

It was a fantastic year, I will never forget it. Being a prophet in your land … after 21 years the club returned to play a ‘play-off’ and we touched the Copa del Rey. We took advantage of the with players who came from LEB Oro and people like Toolson or Renfroe came, who had an exit clause and went to Partizan in December. Leagues have been won at the Nou Congost, Cups have been played and there has been a Euroleague, but I have never seen it like that year. It was an unforgettable season for me and for those around me, but the option of Burgos came out with an idea of ​​growth that without being very obvious either, I thought I could have more travel and I made that decision.

Can you be friends with the players?

I believe in normality. There is not just a magic key here. Each one has its own personality and what you have to try is to be authentic, because if not, you don’t transmit. When we get to work, the level of demand has to be maximum, but that does not mean that later there are times when you can have a coffee with one or talk about the family. One thing does not remove the other. The important thing is to be oneself to face the player and not deceive him.

Peñarroya and Benite, one of the best scorers of the Burgos team | EFE

For a Catalan coach like you, is Barça a long-term goal?

No, because it is not up to me. As I played very good seasons, I was aware that my level was not that of a ‘top’ club. And as a coach I am in the process of trying … my main desire is to train in the elite, but who does not aspire to be able to coach Barça or Madrid one day? That desire I keep. Fuck, playing to win titles we would all like.

Do you like this Barça?

It is a team under construction. In the end everything is cycles. Xavi Pascual’s Barça swept through several seasons and even people believed that it was to qualify for the Final Four even though they only won one. Then came the absolute dominance of Laso’s Madrid and now this Barça gives the feeling that it can return to a winning cycle, because it has a tremendous squad and I also think that Saras gives them a very own personality. They will surely be there fighting for everything in the coming years.

Peñarroya, 22 years later

By the way, now he will watch Manresa games to follow his son Marc, right?

Peñarroya: "We came to win"

I see them whenever I can, although I see more those of Artés (subsidiary), who give them all on YouTube. He continues on his way and is looking forward to trying to be a basketball 1xbet mobile bonus player. He is a boy who does things very well, he is a good student, a good boy and I am convinced that he will have his chance. Now he is in the best possible hands, at a great club like Manresa and training with Pedro. You have to be patient. The maturing process is complicated and the most difficult years for a young player are from 18 to 22, but he is happy and enjoys playing and training at the highest level.

The accumulation of matches is beginning to take its toll on Real Madrid. And specifically, the Copa del Rey won last weekend in Malaga has already claimed the first significant victims.

Feb 19, 2020 at 10:14 pm CET

First it was Anthony Randolph who will stay for a minimum of four weeks because of the torn ligament of the thumb of the left hand. And now Sergio Llull has joined the list. The player did not join the expedition of the white team that traveled to Turkey where this Wednesday he will face Fenerbahçe because of some discomfort in the calf of his left leg.

Later, the mishap became more relevant. In the afternoon-night of yesterday, Real Madrid published a medical report that stated: "After the tests carried out today, our player Sergio Llull has been diagnosed with a muscle injury in the soleus of his left leg.