His team has reeled off five straight wins to put itself back in playoff contention
Not even Coach Messina expected Milan’s terrific turnaround
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Regular Season
Round 14 of 34
Group Regular Season
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EA7 Emporio Armani Milan has gone from being one of the worst teams in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague to one of the hottest, yet not even head coach Ettore Messina envisaged this great change from his team, with the Italian side beating LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on Friday night for a fifth straight win.
Milan fought off ASVEL 92-84 at home to improve to 8-6 with seven victories in the last eight games following a dismal 1-5 start to the season.
"It would be stupid to say that anybody expected that," Messina admitted to EuroLeague TV after the game. "But I saw them coming to practice every day even in the darkest days very seriously. Usually when you work with togetherness and without pointing fingers and you take responsibility, good things happen."
Milan shot a poor 45.2% on two-pointers but still found a way to score at least 91 points for the sixth time in the last eight games. They made 40.0% percent on three-pointers to go with a magnificent 34 of 35 (97.1%) on free throws.
"It’s a very, very important win because we probably didn’t play our best game, but we managed to stay there with the exception of a couple of minutes," Messina added. "We kept playing, we were disciplined. We still scored 90 points even on a night when we didn’t score so brilliantly as the game before (a 101-86 win over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade). But this was a very important victory in the process of becoming a very good team."
Milan’s veteran guard Fabien Causeur insisted the players must keep their feet on the ground.
"We have turned around our season, but as I said the other day, we have to stay humble and keep working," said Causeur, who played a great all-around game with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a career-high 6 steals.
"I am just trying to help our guys. But we are winning and it’s always more fun when you win."
The game was special for two other reasons for Causeur as the Frenchman’s 9 points saw him join the 2,500-point club. He also improved to a personal 9-0 all-time record against ASVEL.
"It was hard until the end. We knew they are a team that plays with confidence," noted the 37-year-old. "They really gave us problems until the end. Even when we went up by 11, they came back after some stupid turnovers. But, okay, we secured the win in the end and are happy."