Alexandar Trifunovic:
I'm not a magician

Lithuanian Zalgiris is on the warpath again! After a bad start this season, the club from Kaunas gradually found its game as it gained three wins in a row in the New Year and came close to the playoffs of VTB United League championship. And in the coming Saturday, in case of successful match against Russian Nizhniy Novgorod, the champion of Lithuania will be able to move into the third place in Group A.

Transformation of Zalgiris during the season many experts associate with Alexandar Trifunovic. Serbian expert, who became the leader of the team in late October last year, did a great job with the team. The team already got good results (a wonderful example is a strong-willed victory over reigning VTB United League  champion Khimki!).

About changes in the team game, tasks for the season, reputation of anti-crisis coach, feelings during the matches on Zalgiris-arena and the dynamics of growth of VTB United League - in the interview with the head coach of Zalgiris Alexandar Trifunovic.

- First of all, congratulations on the victory over Russian Khimki and Kazakhstan Astana. This success has greatly increased the chances of Zalgiris to get to playoffs of VTB United League.
- Thank you. These victories are really brilliant and important for us, indicating the
correctness of the chosen course. I hope that we will manage to be as competitive as possible and it will bring us to the position of the playoff and compete for a ticket to the "Final Four".

- Of course it wouldn’t be easy as Zalgiris will oppose to two Russian giants - Khimki and UNICS ...
- I am not the fan of long time positions because you know one momentum, one injury or some kind of unexpected or unplanned thing can change your predictions. I am just the kind of person who is going through the small goals on the road to the big goal. We have to think about winning game by game one after another, once we come to the point, we will think of our rivals.

- Unsuccessful start of the season did not break down Zalgiris – the goals and objectives of the club are the same, aren’t they?
- Yes, they are the same - to try to win in all competitions in which we participate. We knew that the first part of the season we had to travel a lot, and we had to play a lot, although we are not finding excuses of those things in a kind of losses we didn’t planed or we didn’t expect. Our game was not set enough to some objective reasons such as make gathering of the team, changing of coaches and a lot of games in between which were not allowing normal procedure of building a game and building chemistry inside the team.

- After you came to Zalgiris the game of the team gradually changed for the better. How did you manage to do that?
-I'm not a magician – this is the work of the team and the club. We had much time behind us, we changed our attitude and approach to the work, we were working well but we were not enough focusing, concentrating on the things. A group of players has the big quality inside of them, big talent inside but we see we were not enough team. I am not telling that we are right now the team that we want to be because I think we have a lot of space inside of us, for the future period we are going to try to come to the point.

- You mentioned a busy schedule of games this season. Will the players have enough forces for the ending, where traditionally the team is waiting for the most difficult battles?
- Our tight schedule is the subject of many discussions and questions. I can say that we are the team that is loaded in so many competitions. Zalgiris and ritas are generally two most loaded teams in the competition. We are in normal physical shape and we are trying to take care of our physical condition and I am very satisfied with how the physical coach is working , trying to be smart and to react in a certain moments depending on the loading of the games and practices.

- What do you feel when 15 thousand of basketball fans support the team on the home arena?
- This kind of support from the fans is something that is pretty much unique. Having such a big number of fans in the games and not just being there, being the part of the game is really nice.

- What do you feel on Zalgiris-arena when the situation is not the best for the team?
- I feel support. And this is not only about the fans but the whole team. It should be noted there is a close cooperation between management and the team. There is Mutual support  and exchanging information and all those things that are slightly moving ahead to the direction we all want to be and the trust and belief inside of those things are getting bigger and bigger which is generally much better for the development of the team.

- Did you ever have moments when you came to regret for having chosen your profession?
- Not at all. This is my ninth year as a coach. I started in 2002. I am trying permanently to develop, educate and put the new challenges and new things inside of me. Different circumstances are giving me a space to improve myself as a person and to improve myself as a coach.

- Last season you also participated in VTB United League championship with Lietuvos Rytas. What can you say about the level of this club competition, bringing together the strongest clubs of Eastern Europe?
- Yes, there are too different teams in the league and the level of VTB competition is increasing. The levels of the teams which are inside are high as there are Euroleague teams and there are teams which are on the level of Euroleague at least if we cannot speak that they are Euroleague teams by paper. So it means that almost the half of the league is on the biggest European level, those facts are saying by its own. The level of competition is high, it’s a young league and also there is a lot of space for improving, the level of competition on the way of organization and all those things. So I think it is a very competitive and very challenging league.