Xavi Pascual: "In a sport, "if" doesn't exist"

During the post-match press conference, Zenit's head coach Xavi Pascual commented on the home victory over MBA-MAI (73:50). The meeting with the Moscow team was held as part of the 28th round of the VTB United League regular season.

— First of all, to say thank you to all the fans that were here. Second, to wish all the best to MBA and all the players and coaches. To wish all the best until the end of the season. One game that we finished the game in the first 20 minutes. We played a solid game, defensive and offensive. And the second part of the game, despite the fact that more or less we were serious defensively, offensively we were not effective, we were not in a good level. But we closed the game with one victory. We have to finish.

— Alexey Shved made his debut for Zenit today. How would you rate his performance and what do you expect from him?

— He is one of the players that all my life I dreamed to coach. So, it's one player that is coming to help a lot. He will give us one part of the game that we were missing. And we are extremely happy that he is with us. Of course, we need to care for him. Of course, we need to help him. It's just the beginning for him with us. Still, he needs time. But I think it's going to be very nice for the fans, for the supporters of basketball, and for everyone that he's with us.

— Please rate today's game of Pavel Zemskiy and Egor Ryzhov.

— They are helping every time that they come to the court, always they are ready to help, they work hard in all the practice, I'm very happy with both of them. Ryzhov is more time with us, now Pasha is with the first team. I'm very happy with both of them, they have a great future in front and they are ready every time that we put them on the court, they help to team.

— Is the Shved ready for the VTB United League regular season after returning from China?

— He knows better himself, but he was more than one month without playing basketball, so he needs time. So, still, he's not even in the middle of his potential.

— How much time do you need to fit Alexey into your basketball philosophy, new combinations, new interactions?

— No, he understands everything. He is one player that immediately understands everything. So he needs more time to start to have the right shape, but not to understand the coach. I think my relation with him is going to be easy from the beginning until the end. And to have Russian players always, you know, in all my history in Barcelona, in Panathinaikos and over here, to have success you need local players to play in a good level and to help a lot the team. And now we have one group of Russians that they are working very well, that they are improving their game, like Zhora over here, Vorontsevich, Karasev, Shcherbenev, Zakharov and the young kids. All of them, they are helping every day more, and this is very important to have success at the end.

— Throughout the match, the team led the score. But despite this, Poythress and Bacon had two technical fouls in the fourth quarter. For you, as a coach, it's more of a plus that even in a situation where the result is achieved, the player cares and they release emotions, or is this unacceptable?

— Yes, of course. We try to be one serious team from the first until the last second, always. And today we were. We were in focus and we tried to make our best, but sometimes players are players, players are persons.

— When will Okaro White arrive?

— We are waiting but we need the player immediately. Already the last game of Spelman was 11th January and we are 28th January and still we are waiting. We need the player.

— There is not a single foreign player in the opposing team. If Zenit had such a situation, could you expect to get into the top four?

— In a sport, “if” doesn't exist. Reality is reality. Moments are moments. I'm over here. I cannot say if Moon was not injured, if this doesn't exist, at the end just the only through it's going to be the result. It's going to be one team that will win and all the rest we can say a lot of “if” but that doesn't work.