admitting mistakes and wanting to keep the core of the team – Basketball – Sportacentrs.com

“Ogre” 2017/18 declared himself at the top of the Latvian basketball system in the season of 2016 and won the fourth place. This was followed by four LBL medal seasons in a row, as well as three semi-finals in the combined Latvian-Estonian league. This season, “Ogre” lost in the quarterfinals in the playoffs both in the combined league and in the Latvian league, for the first time since 2018, they did not make it to the top four of the LBL.

“In the first days, the feeling was very bad, like a moral hangover,” said the Ogres general manager. Rinald Sirsniņš. “Now the emotions are gradually calming down and with a cooler mind we can look back on what happened and what was accomplished. It is clear that everyone has to look at their own performance, including myself on how the squad was formed. Unfortunately, the result is that the season ended prematurely, much earlier than we wanted. So, yes, the disappointment is great, but no tragedy has happened either.”

“Looking back at the season as a whole (not just the LBL quarterfinals), I would say that I am satisfied with our performance in the regular tournament of the LAT-EST league,” continued Sirsniņš, assessing his team’s record of 17-13, which placed seventh in the regular season. “Perhaps a slightly more stable game was required, but it was also affected by other circumstances – injuries, we didn’t hit with the line managers. We showed a very good performance in episodes, the victories over “Prometey” and “Ventspils” showed that our team had potential this season as well. For the regular season, I am satisfied. Another thing is that we were not 100% ready for the play-off.”

“Ogre” ended the series against “Liepāja” and at the same time the whole season with the game on April 22. Although earlier than he would have liked, Sirsniņš admitted that his thoughts are gradually turning to the next season: “It is clear that right now it is still too early to predict and speculate what will happen, but the approximate vision for the next year is as follows – we will try to keep the core of the team, hit with the point guard position and continue to work with the new players. There will definitely be changes, but if they ask me if such a complete restructuring of the team is planned, then I will answer in the negative. Let’s go forward together, let’s put our ideas on the table and work for a better result.”

Does this also mean that there are no planned changes in the position of the head coach? Uldis Švede has been working in this position for “Ogre” for three seasons. “I think he will continue his work. We haven’t had a specific conversation on this topic yet, I won’t be able to comment on his own personal plans, but I think he will stay. We say ourselves that it is necessary to give opportunities to new coaches, and this season gave him a lot of experience for further development. And, as I said, Ogre had a good regular season under the leadership of the Swede, what didn’t happen was the playoffs.”

Also, Sirsniņš stated that he hopes for team leader Kristaps Dārgās to remain in the team next season as well: “I haven’t personally talked to him about basketball matters yet, but there are no two opinions here. Kristaps is the face of BK “Ogre”, a long-term team player and captain. His retention composition will be our priority.”

Another priority named by Sirsniņš is the position of linebacker, which he did not manage to stabilize this season. “It’s definitely my self-reproach that we didn’t get along with the linebackers this season,” admitted the “Ogres” manager. “The first American broke his foot in training, we didn’t have much time to wait, we decided to part ways. We put out the fire by hiring Nigel Johnson, and it was clear that he has great potential in basketball. He played 6-7 really productive games with us, sometimes even excellent ones. But His character and dedication in training became visible. I was worried that the team’s microclimate would suffer, and I offered him to other clubs. By the way, he was fired there in the course of the season, the player is released by three clubs, then the player has something to think about.”

“In January, we temporarily patched the hole in this position with Andri Mister, who can play as number one,” continued Sirsniņš. “We were generally very satisfied with Mister’s performance in this position. Then another legionnaire – Eric Day, joined. Unfortunately, he did not find his role in the team. Or maybe we did not teach him to use him properly, that is also possible. Day was used to playing simpler basketball, it took longer, for him to successfully adapt to our system, but we didn’t have time and didn’t get to the end.”

This season, reaching the semi-finals of the LBL was also more difficult for one obvious reason – the “Rīgas Zeļļu” team arrived, which increased the competition not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively. “Here I will say a huge thank you to “Zeļļļi” and the club president Edgar for entering the league. The other teams and LBS have been waiting for several years for someone to come and shake up our local duck pond, and “Zeļļļi” did it with a very loud application and a good game. This will make other clubs develop, will not allow to think that something is already guaranteed. I would like to have more such competitors.”

Sirsniņš, however, reminded that “Zeļļi” started assembling the squad for its first season very late last summer, therefore the real effect on the local player market can be better assessed only in this off-season: “When “Zeļļi” started to assemble for the season, we were basically already with ready composition, so nothing really overlapped with us. The only one we approached was “Zeļli” on the table. He chose the Riga club, because “Zeļli” was ready to give him the green light for 3×3 basketball tournaments. we took a break from it, because the situation that developed this spring was predictable. But it was only one player. This summer, the competition in the local player market will be bigger, yes, we will see. In any case, I hope that the “Zeļļu” project will continue.”

But how will the “Ogre” project continue? It is still a little too early for concrete slogans about the next season, but Sirsniņš emphasized that the goal will definitely be to return to the LBL medalists: “After the end of the season, there is a very bad aftertaste. I am sure that all the fans of BK “Ogre” have the desire to experience the rehabilitation of the club next season. Definitely let’s take a big step forward and do everything to get back to where we’ve been and where we should be!”