Sasu Salin, Miro Little, Lauri Markkanen and Mikael Jantunen open, which made Susijeng’s direction change in the World Championships.
OKINAWA. The Finnish men’s national basketball team ended the World Cup with two victories, when Cape Verde and Venezuela fell in the lower secondary series. At the same time, Susijengi grabbed the Olympic qualifying spot for next year.
The Finnish World Championships got off to a really sticky start, even though the opponents were really tough. Medal favorites Australia and Germany beat Finland. The tournament host, Japan, came from far behind to win, past Finland.
So what happened between the initial block and the sequel series?
Distributed as many as nine basket-leading assists in the Venezuela game Miro Little highlighted the players’ winning potential.
– We understood that we had to win. Everyone has a great desire to win. It also forced us to be better together as a team, Little said.
Mikael Jantunen on the other hand, was one of Susijeng’s most cheerful performances in the tournament and the team’s best players even in the dark loss against Japan.
He was also the third advertising face of the Susijeng team in the Okinawa arena. In front of the main entrance of the hall, there were pictures of each team that played in Okinawa, with three players. From Finland, they participated by right Lauri Markkanen and Sasu Salinbut the third advertising face was Jantunen.
Earlier this summer, Jantunen, who played in the NBA’s summer league for the Golden State Warriors, highlighted one game change between the first block and the second block.
– I think we went back to our basic playing. We defended more aggressively. We used to move the ball together. We didn’t care how the opponent played. We focused on what we were doing. In the opening group, we watched a lot of what the opponent was doing. We tried to adapt to it. The rest of the time we tried to do our own thing, Jantunen described.
Lauri Markkanen also reminded that Finland started to catch up with its own way of playing.
– Of course, the opponents were different, but we got more to our own level. In the first games, the implementation was not so good. We got it fixed. We also stayed together as a team. We were not rushed. Even though the opponent made a couple of threes in a row, we kept our heads up and stayed together. That’s how we won, Markkanen described.
Every Susijeng player interviewed also mentioned Tuesday’s fan event after the Germany game as a turning point. There, it turned out that about a thousand Finns would be cheering Susijeng on the spot in Japan. Despite the game performances, the atmosphere was warm.
– I remember that after losing the game it wasn’t the best feeling to go there. After that, all 12 guys smiled. I didn’t expect that it would have raised the mood so much, Jantunen thanked the fans.
Lauri Markkanen also saw the significance of the fan event.
– The fans are a big part of this homa. It wasn’t just good riding. Although it is difficult, they helped us. We also went through the things to be fixed all together. Then I saw the result, Markkanen said.
Sasu Salini according to every player needed a fan meeting, when there had just been a loss of almost 30 points and anyway there were three losses in total.
– We were able to spend a happy moment. I heard from the Georgians that they would have been completely barked at that point. We have to appreciate what kind of fans we have, Salin said.