Ballineurope’s Emmet Ryan caught up with Brad Oleseon, Erazem Lorbek, Jacob Pullen, and Joey Dorsey of FC Barcelona at Thursday’s Final Four practice.
“They are a very dangerous team in transition. When they get out in transition they get confidence and make threes,” Brad Oleson told BallinEurope.com.
He made the comments at Thursday’s practice ahead of Friday’s Clasico, a Euroleague semi-final with Real Madrid. Oleson said Barcelona’s recent win over Real Madrid in ACB could play a psychological factor in the games.
“When losing, teams tend to get focussed, when winning teams tend to relax a little bit. Hopefully we didn’t relax too much these last five days,”
Erazem Lorbek said the win had given his team a mental boost ahead of Friday’s game. “It’s a big game, every year we play them many times, and it’s always difficult against Real Madrid. They have beaten us many times but we got the last win, which we wanted, hopefully it will help us,” said Lorbek.
“We are pretty confident that we can do it, we are very focused but we will see tomorrow on the court. The game will be tough.”
Despite the win in their most recent clash with Real, Joey Dorsey said there is still room for him to improve on his performance.
“Coming into the game, the guys have got confidence. The biggest thing is coming to the Final Four with a lot of confidence. I know in the last game they beat us on offensive rebounds so it’s my job to take care of that,” said Dorsey.
Jacob Pullen said working with Xavi Pascual had helped him develop his game this season. “He does a great job of teaching, he’s taught me a lot. He’s also asked a lot of me and when I wasn’t able to do as much he made sure I knew that he still believed in me,” said Pullen.
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