The team captain reflects on the season to this point, the club’s goals in these last two regular-season games and what playing in the playoffs represents.
Patrick Richard, Cluj: 'May the best team win!'
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First things first, we made it to the BKT EuroCup Playoffs – everybody at U-BT Cluj-Napoca is buzzing! We’re all pretty excited right now, but we’re not satisfied just yet. Obviously we reached the playoffs – that was our goal since the start of the season – but now the closest thing possible is trying to get one of those top two spots and see if we can get the bye to the quarterfinals. We have to keep going what we did until now, taking it one game at a time and just continue to try to improve and try to play our best basketball at the best time, which is at the end of the season going into the playoffs.
Coach Mihai Silvasan and I have been here for five years and the winning mentality has been there. It has always been about just trying to win, albeit at a different level now than five years ago. This is the first time that we have been at this level but the mentality is the same. We want to become winners and keep improving. And now that we are on this level, we never thought that we couldn't keep it going. It's just about getting the right personnel and getting the right players to combine together and then seeing the results. But we literally have taken it one game at a time all season. Literally even now, with us winning the last three or four games, we’re just thinking about the next game. Obviously it's a big one against Dreamland Gran Canaria, but it's just the next one. That's how we look at it.
"It has always been about just trying to win, albeit at a different level now than five years ago."
We were excited to face Dolomiti Energia Trento last week. They are fighting to get into the playoffs, but we are fighting to go straight to the quarterfinals, plus it was our last home game of the regular season and we wanted to try to give our fans the best show possible. We knew it was going to be a tough game after getting an easy win in Trento. We saw them win some tough games, like on the road against Gran Canaria, and also at home against different teams. So they were playing well and we just tried to go in there with confidence that we can win. We knew we were down a man as well – we were without D.J. Seeley – so we had a lot of factors going in to that one. But we were definitely focused on just trying to get the win and we knew that it would come, but we were ready.
And now, it is a big battle for second place against Gran Canaria. It is definitely unique to face them, especially going over there. It's a tough trip and those guys are a very experienced team. They have been together for a while and were the champions last season, so until somebody knocks them off and knocks them out, they're still the team to beat. And of course, if you want to be the team, you have to beat that team, so we are looking forward to it. We are excited about it. We just want to go there and just play our brand of basketball and definitely play better than we did the first time we played against then. They came to our home and kind of kicked us out, but they were pretty good, especially in that fourth quarter. They ran away from us in the game, but we are just going to go there and give our best and try to play Cluj basketball and then just see where the chips fall from there. It's a long trip but we are looking forward to that good weather, because over here it's just been constant snow and rain every day.
One of the reasons why we are doing so well this season is that our two centers, Andrija Stipanovic and Emanuel Cate, are playing really well. They are two completely different players but also different guys. Stipanovic has a family, a wife and two kids, so he is more a father whenever we are outside of basketball. Our kids actually go to school together, they are in the same class, so we have been here together for years. We have a pretty good relationship – our wives are also friends and we get together sometimes. Cate is more of younger guy who is finally back in Romania after being in Spain since he was 14. It definitely was a different thing for him last year. But now, being his second year here, I think he's a little more comfortable, a little more used to the city, and just being back at home in Romania. Emi is from Bucharest so it's easy for him to see his family more. After being on his own in Madrid and other places in Spain since he was 14, I guess he's probably more comfortable being back in this country. They are both great guys and completely different types of personalities, but they definitely both help us a lot, for sure. On the court, they hold down the paint as good as possible for us because they are our two main bigs.
We are already taking a look at potential opponents. It's human nature, of course – you are going to look. I keep saying that we’re taking it one game at a time. Of course we are going to do that from our end but also, even last week, I was watching all the games from our group and the other group because of the possible matchups and different teams that we could possibly play. So yes, I am definitely looking at all the games but focusing on us; we are the main focus, for sure. I feel like if we play our brand of basketball and be the best that we can possibly be, we could play with anyone. So I think we’ve got the team for it. I think we’ve got the players, the experience, so we will see. There are two regular-season games left. We will focus on these last two, then go to the playoffs and may the best team win.
"If we play our brand of basketball and be the best that we can possibly be, we could play with anyone."
One thing is for sure: we earned the right to play at least one playoff game at home. It is amazing. You have to know where the club has come from, and then in the last four or five years, what it took us for us to host a home playoff game in the EuroCup. There are some things that you can't explain. It's definitely something we are looking forward to after these two games, of course, but it will be amazing to sell out, get 10,000 fans in there and just continue to show Europe what Cluj is about: the project, the club, the history and trajectory that the club is going in. It's just about trying to keep moving up each year and I'm glad to be a part of it.