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Pregame quotes, Round 23: 'Sergio Scariolo is somebody I certainly admire'

Pregame quotes, Round 23: 'Sergio Scariolo is somebody I certainly admire'

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8 Minute de lecture

Euroleague.net Staff

Pregame quotes, Round 23: 'Sergio Scariolo is somebody I certainly admire'

Check out what the coaches and players are saying ahead of Round 23 of the 2025-26 EuroLeague season

Tuesday, January 20

Olympiacos Piraeus vs. Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv (18:15 CET)

Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos head coach

"Maccabi is in good momentum. Offensively, they are one of the best teams in the EuroLeague. Defensively, they use a lot of tricks that often confuse the opponent and sometimes even themselves. So our players need to stay committed to the game plan. Offensively, they play in an unusual way, with a lot of short rolls: the centers stay on the perimeter, the power forwards move inside. [Tamir] Blatt’s playmaking is always important. Overall, they are a very distinctive and very dangerous team, especially given the good momentum they have with the way they play."

Donta Hall, Olympiacos center

"We need to keep playing the way we’ve played in the last three games. Against Maccabi, we have to apply pressure on defense for forty minutes, and the offense will take care of itself."

Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv vs. Anadolu Efes Istanbul (18:30 CET)

Pablo Laso, Efes head coach

"It will definitely be a difficult game for us. Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv is currently one of the best teams in the EuroLeague, playing with a lot of quality across their roster. They have a very strong squad, and of course, we all know [Vasilije] Micic from his time at Anadolu Efes – he creates a lot of situations for them with his size, passing and shooting, which helps them on both offense and defense. For us, it’s clear that we can’t just focus on effort. We have to focus on ourselves and on playing good basketball. This is the first message I will give my players: be concerned with how we play as a team. If we don’t play well collectively, we won’t be able to compete against a team with Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv’s quality."

Nick Weiler-Babb, Efes guard

"Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv is in a great shape and is playing good basketball right now. We need to show a response to the past week, and that starts from the beginning of the game. It’s the first game to another double week so we need to set the tone early. The game will be tough, but we are ready!"

AS Monaco vs. Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (18:45 CET)

Sasa Obradovic, Crvena Zvezda head coach

"They are now playing at a much higher level. They’re very aggressive, they know exactly what they’re doing, and they read each other well on the court—which may partly be my influence, because they run a system similar to ours. They have top-level quality at every position. That first game can serve as a partial reference for us, but the situation is different now. Their aggressiveness comes from confidence, and in that small arena they really feed off the atmosphere.

"As for us, it’s important to maintain what we showed throughout the entire game before—great desire, regardless of the score. We need to believe in ourselves and see what we can take away from the opponent. A lot depends on the start of the game; they usually open games very well. James is looking for his rhythm—I believe he’s the best EuroLeague player at his position. No matter who you put in front of him, if he shows up mentally ready—and sometimes he doesn’t, but in the EuroLeague you can always expect a great Mike James."

Donatas Motiejunas, Crvena Zvezda center

"The coach and I talked about how Monaco plays at home. From personal experience, I know they play much better in their own arena than on the road. They play much more physically and are far more aggressive. If you let them find their rhythm, they’re very hard to beat. We can’t allow that—we have to fight. Coach did a great job in the last game. He came into the locker room at halftime when we were down by 13 and helped us calm down and feel better. We have to fight from the first to the last minute. That fight paid off in the second half. Not every game will be pretty, but the most important thing is the win. We might make mistakes, but we must compete in every game."

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne vs. Zalgiris Kaunas (20:00 CET)

Tomas Masiulis, Zalgiris head coach

"This is a completely different team than the one we faced in the first game. They have new players, some guys have returned from injuries, and they’re very dangerous at home—they’ve won 6 of 11 games there. They compete evenly with everyone, they’re a very dangerous and athletic team. It’s extremely important to stop their transition game and physicality. As I mentioned, when we played them earlier, they had a lot of injured players. Nando De Colo (now of Fenerbahce) was out, Thomas Heurtel wasn’t there. Now they’ve added depth in the frontcourt, the guards are back, they have a full roster and are truly competitive."

Dustin Sleva, Zalgiris forward

"I remember in the first game, defensively we were very solid. If we're solid defensively, the offense will come. I think it's important to get stops, play fast after stops, and set up our offense. They have a bunch of good players. They're a team towards the bottom of the rankings, but they play hard. They're not a team that gives up. They're coming in with nothing to lose."

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens vs. Kosner Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (20:15 CET)

Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos head coach

"Baskonia is a dangerous team. Also yesterday in the ACB League, they scored 130 points in the game against Manresa. So we need to make a good defense, especially in [Trent] Forrest and [Timothe] Luwawu-Cabarrot, they are very active. They are very aggressive in offense, and also we play home court game. We need fast break points, we need to play an aggressive game. So we are ready to fight and of course we need the support all of our fans, to give us the home court advantage and we will fight to win the game."

Cedi Osman, Panathinaikos forward

"They are playing well offensively right now, they are a good team. Obviously, defense will be the key to getting the win. We need to be consistent for 40 minutes. It’s always good to return to our home court. They are a team that never gives up. The important thing is to stay calm and stick to the game plan."

FC Bayern Munich vs. Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade (20:30 CET)

Svetislav Pesic, Bayern head coach

"We’re heading into another intense week with many big games. The good thing is that we’re staying at home, which helps us recover better. But Partizan are always a dangerous opponent, and lately they’ve been playing significantly better away than at home. In terms of personnel, we still have injured players and won’t know until game day who can go."

Justinian Jessup, Bayern guard

"It’s great for us that we’re playing twice at home at SAP Garden in front of our fans this wee. We can feel the momentum on our side right now, and our home crowd has had a big part in that lately. These two games are a big opportunity to build even more confidence as a team and hopefully improve our position in the standings."

Joan Penarroya, Partizan head coach

"We’re facing another tough week, with two road games ahead of us. Bayern has been playing very well over the past two or three weeks, especially at home, where they’re a very dangerous team. They have several strong three-point shooters, which makes the preparation even more challenging. Obst and Jessup have been in excellent form over the past month, particularly in the final quarters, where they’ve been knocking down a lot of open shots. Bayern is a team that’s improving in different situations, and under their new coach they’re playing much more aggressively. It’s going to be a very difficult game for us, and we’ll need to compete at a higher level than we did in our previous games in Germany."

Isaac Bonga, Partizan forward

"We need to keep improving and getting better from game to game. Even though we’re not in the best position in the standings right now, we have to stay together as a team, push for the best possible results, and keep looking ahead. "

Valencia Basket vs. Paris Basketball (20:30 CET)

FC Barcelona vs. Dubai Basketball (20:30 CET)

Xavi Pascual, Barcelona head coach

"Their roster is made up of 17 top-level players, and they’ll choose 12 from that group. They’ve added [Bruno] Caboclo recently as well—so Caboclo, [Mfiondu] Kabengele, [Filip] Petrusev, [Dwayne] Bacon, [Dzanan] Musa, [Davis] Bertans, [McKinley] Wright… the list just goes on. The roster is spectacular, and they’ve shown they can beat anyone, like they did against Fenerbahçe in one of the few rounds of the EuroLeague. So we know we have to play at a very high level to win. Their physicality is a big challenge, especially with Will [Clyburn] out—at some positions they’re extremely physical compared to us. We have to make up for that with intensity, by staying connected as a team, by being very aggressive, and by getting back that confidence we had at certain points earlier in the season."

Tomas Satoransky, Barcelona guard

"It’s going to be a physical battle. I think they have players with a lot of individual talent, so we’ll need to be very solid defensively in one-on-one situations. They have a lot of talent—players like Bacon, Musa, Kabengele—guys who can do many things. So for us, it’s important to play a strong defensive game. It’s true that in the last two games our offense wasn’t very good—we didn’t have a great flow, we were missing ball movement and good decision-making. But in the EuroLeague, defense is something you simply can’t be without if you want to win games."

Real Madrid vs. EA7 Emporio Armani Milan (20:45 CET)

Sergio Scariolo, Real Madrid head coach

"Tomorrow we have an important game, one that we need to approach with great care. Milan is a much stronger opponent than their position in the standings suggests. You only have to look at their roster, with so many talented and experienced players. They are a very well-built team physically, with three-point shooting among the best in the competition. They already beat us in Milan and have been able to defeat almost all of the top teams in the league. We need to be able to rediscover the right emotional balance after two big wins and, in general, during a very positive moment for us, without letting that lead to the risk of giving in to euphoria. We have to maintain humility, while obviously keeping our ambition, but always being aware that everything we are doing is the result of work and effort.

“The level of the opponents we face is so high that the moment you drop your energy or intensity even slightly, they immediately open up a big gap. We have to understand that we can’t always count on coming back from negative runs, even though we have shown that ability, which is a very positive sign for the team. The support we are receiving from our fans will also be very important. We feel not only an increase in attendance, but also in the enthusiasm and warmth they bring us. It’s important that we can count on that tomorrow. It’s something the team notices, benefits from, appreciates, and that really plays a significant role in maintaining such a high level of performance in home games."

Mario Hezonja, Real Madrid forward

"The team has taken several steps forward, but we can’t stop here and we want to keep building on this positive momentum to move up the standings. Our goal tomorrow against EA7 Emporio Armani is to maintain the level of play we’ve shown in recent games. Milan has good players with a lot of experience, but I believe the outcome of the game will depend more on what we do. If we’re able to impose our tempo from the start, control the boards, play solid defense, be efficient and make good decisions on offense, I think we’ll have a chance to earn another home win."

Peppe Poeta, Milan head coach

"We are aware to face a very hot team which is especially tough at home where Real Madrid is showing why they deserve to be considered a top-notch contender. They have talented players and depth at every position and are well coached by Sergio Scariolo, who is somebody I certainly admire. We know it is a tough game we will play with courage, pace and intensity."