Jiménez encourages his players /
Iñaki Jiménez dresses as Simeone and focuses on “each game” although this week he has two major clashes: Palma and Prat
It is not a week of vertigo. Iñaki Jiménez, Juaristi Iraurgi coach, is not licking his wounds because he has little time to savor his latest win against Alicante and is ready to extend that streak tomorrow at the Azpeitia sports center against Palma (8:30 p.m.). «Since we have started in this League, every week is about motivation and so is this week. Looking at the classification, it could be an important game (tomorrow’s) but they all are and in this League it has been shown that anyone can defeat any team.
His good friend Lolo Encinas could not do him a favor and Palma defeated Acunsa GBC, so the Balearic Islands arrive with a loaded backpack of morale. No less so is the Urolatarra team, which has eight victories in its locker, three more than its rival tomorrow. “What happens this week is not going to be definitive,” recalls Jiménez. Juaristi’s coach supports himself to say this because «Palma is a new team. He has signed five players, all of them of great quality, especially Van Beek and Elijah Brown.
Jiménez is clear that “we are having a regular year, we are improving little by little and we have to continue like this”. In addition to the proper names that are shining this year such as Savkov, Hanzlik, Ansorregi or Hevia, the San Sebastian coach likes that «the whole team is contributing. Last day against Alicante we played with five players in the third quarter and another five in the last.”
Juaristi Iraurgi is one win away from Almansa and Valladolid and is tied with Prat, so it is very close to putting a small margin on the relegation places. “The classification that is important is the last day,” says the coach of the Gipuzkoan team. “It would be nice if there were more teams involved in those relegation places, but what has to matter is our work.”
Jiménez had words of praise for Ierai Aizpitarte, who had his best game of the year. «With those two triples and that basket at the end that Ierai put in, he managed to break the game. He is a boy who is always willing to lend a hand and with the long team that we have it is difficult to satisfy everyone with minutes. His attitude, whether he plays or not, is commendable and every minute he plays is because he deserved it».