Martin Schiller: 'We are optimistic about Mudiay'

After Zalgiris Kaunas lost their second straight Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game, coach Martin Schiller talked about the team's struggles on both ends of the court, praised Zalgiris fans, and discussed Emmanuel Mudiay's difficulties adjusting to the European game.

Player of the Game
	EFF 19
Jordan Loyd
Points	19
Accuracy	7-11
Rebounds	0
Assists	1

"First of all, congratulations to Coach Pascual. I think defensively, we wanted to take care of certain things on the ball movement end, and I thought we did so. Still, it wasn't easy to find offense, which was difficult.

Loyd came through strongly at the end of the game, where you could just feel that a quality player like him takes over. The guy is a good player and made some tough plays at the end."

Schiller gave a lot of credit to over 10 thousand fans that supported Zalgiris against Zenit St. Petersburg: "A lot of respect to the guys for the fight. I have to really credit the fans. I thought they were fantastic. They're a massive sixth man, and we need them."

The Austrian specialist didn't believe his team was bad on defense but acknowledged that there's room for improvement, especially with recent defensive adjustments.

"I don't know if we're lacking anything defensively. We only allowed 30 points in the second half. I think we need to get better at what we're doing, but we made massive defensive changes pretty late in the pre-season. We felt like we needed to adjust due to certain reasons. So I feel we will be fine on that end.

The biggest thing for us is one-on-one and closeout defense. At the end of the day, whatever pick-and-roll defense you have, you must be able to guard one on one. For us, it means being very diligent with matchups and scouting reports."

When asked if the team defense needs to improve because of some players' weak one-on-one defensive abilities, coach Schiller agreed.

"I think we have to shrink the floor a lot in isolated situations. Again, we made massive changes defensively in our pick and roll coverage because we felt like we needed to protect certain matchups."

Lastly, the coach said that the team would be patient with Mudiay, who only scored 4 points in 12 minutes against Zenit.

"I said earlier that I think Mudiay will adjust by December. I think one has to have patience. Having said that, his strength, his getting into the paint, and so far, it hasn't been utilized.

We haven't really seen it consistently. Obviously, there have been games where he showed a lot. But we need him to be more consistent, and I'm optimistic that we'll get there."

Zalgiris GM Paulius Motiejunas mentioned yesterday that the team may welcome some roster reinforcements. However, coach Schiller declined to comment on this topic.