On the eve of his team hosting Game 1 of the semifinals against Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul, forward Isiaha Mike of Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse returns to blog for EuroCupbasketball.com.
Isiaha Mike, Bourg: 'We are prepared'
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It's been a good season for us. The club did a really good job of putting together a team that really doesn't have any drop-off in terms of skill intensity. I feel like we have a roster of 12 guys that could all be starters on any given EuroCup team, and I think that's the major difference, honestly. Everybody is dynamic in their position this year as opposed to last year where we had a crazy scorer in Jordan Floyd. But then, on the flip side, his substitutions, Axel [Julien] and Frantz Massenat, who were more like distributing guards. So I feel like we are a more dynamic team, a team that is constructed to fight for 40 minutes. It's been great to get to know these guys and to get out there and fight with these guys. Everybody steps up to the challenge when it comes, and there's just no let up. It's beautiful to line up with guys that are going to go as hard as you.
Signature win, playing with Risacher
Our biggest regular season win was probably beating Gran Canaria at home. When we were in second place, there was a point in the season when we were like two or three wins behind them. They dropped a few, and the fact that we could take number one just started to get more and more real. And when we got the opportunity to play them, we beat them. When we played them in Gran Canaria, Hugo [Benitez] had just got hurt, and I think JeQuan [Lewis] was still hurt, so we weren't at full strength yet. When things like that happen throughout the season for teams, it takes a couple of games to kind of readjust to the vacuum that the injury creates, but once we saw them again in the second half of the season, we were rolling at that time. It felt really good to beat them and make a statement win, because it just feels like, even still, that there are critics out there that don't think we are the real deal. But it is what it is. We know what we are capable of.
"We have a roster of 12 guys that could all be starters on any given EuroCup team"
Our team is so strong, it makes it hard for teams to scout us. There are so many things you can try to do, but if you try to take anybody away, it's just going to open up somebody else. And we are the type of team that if we see that you are open, we are going to tell you to shoot the ball. We are very encouraging to each other, and it's beautiful, it's really beautiful. We're all out there just trying to win. We don't really care who gets to shine as long as we are the winners at the end of the day.
Of course, Zaccharie Risacher gets a lot of attention but he is a super humble kid. All he cares about is working hard and trying to be great. He is a great kid and deserves everything that's coming towards him. And he might be the number one draft pick in the in the NBA. That's crazy to me! It's super impressive to see the things he's doing, and he does them so efficiently and so consistently that I forget that he's only 18 – often – and it's like, "OK, yeah, that's that's why you are about to be a top three pick in the NBA." I'm so happy for him. I hope he can finish the season strong and solidify that first pick. Or even if it's not the first pick, he will go to a team that will build around him or put him in a position to be successful at the next level, because that kid right there, he's a hard worker.
Facing Besiktas in the semis
I am really, really looking forward to playing against Besiktas. It is going to be a big test for us. We like to fight, but I think Besiktas are probably the biggest fighters of both groups, as they have shown in the postseason so far. I didn't really get a chance to watch them much during the regular season but when we went to Turkiye to play Turk Telekom Ankara, we were in Istanbul for a little bit before, and we got a chance to watch them play Bursaspor. And they just dominated Bursaspor. They are a really tough team that crashes the offensive glass really hard and makes it hard for teams to score on them. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out: at the end of the day, it comes down to who wants to wants to win more. Defensive rebounding is going to be a big thing. Winning 50-50 balls is going to be a big thing. Whoever comes on top in those categories, in my opinion, is going to be the winner of the series.
"There are critics out there that don't think we are the real deal. But... we know what we are capable of."
I think we are prepared. Offensively we probably have the edge, as we have played against Gran Canaria and Hapoel. That's not always going to be the deciding factor in these games, so if we get the lead, we really have to fight to keep it, because what they did against Hapoel was incredible, man, like, unbelievable. It takes a lot of heart to come back and do that. But like I said, the team that shows a lot of fight will win. We've just got to show that we are bigger fighters.
I think the home-court advantage definitely gives us a little edge because we have done really well at home in the regular season. But at the same time, Besiktas has come into hostile environments and won, so hopefully we can change that narrative. Experience is the main factor that that kind of makes the critics count us out. I think that they don't realize that we also have some experience, maybe not EuroLeague or postseason EuroCup experience, but we do have guys that have won throughout their careers, whether it be in college or high school or at the pro level and some other level. We have winners, too, and we built a winning culture this season. We just got to build on our principles and stay true to what we have been doing this season and not try to play any hero basketball. Just do what we have been doing throughout the year and we will see what happens!