Before the playoffs start, Rui, point guard of the first team and tremendous 3pt shooter, was kind enough to answer us a few questions on his 3rd season with BSM, the future of the team and their philosophy

Hello Rui, congratulations on joining the playoffs! What are the  concrete goals now for this last part of the season?

Thanks a lot!

Our goal is to finish at the top of the standings! The playoffs are the greatest thing in basketball. That’s why you go through 18 games, so you can be in the playoffs.
It would be great if it was the reverse, if you could play fewer games to get into the playoffs. But it’s not that way…the playoffs are a time when you have to be absolutely
focused and dedicated to play. That’s why we want to win the first seven games to make sure that we occupy and secure one of the first two spots in order to promote to Nat1.
How do you want to reach these goals? Anything special in the team, characteristics, tactics, emotions?

We want to reach our goals by playing both ends of the floor but especially defense which we can then convert into offense and easy points.

One of the things I have heard repeated many times is that offense wins games but defense wins championships.

Everyone makes mistakes but only few people can realize their mistakes and they don’t want to repeat those mistakes again…we as a team don’t want to repeat the mistakes we did in the qualification round which meant 3 tough losses. We had some ups and downs and we will have to play together as a unit and execute our systems if we want to win these last ten games. All in all I think that we played a good brand of basketball in the qualification round and I’m confident for the playoffs that we can secure the first or second spot if we play basketball the way we’re capable of playing.

How will Black Star do next year?

It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future. (Berra, Yogi)

I hope that Black Star Mersch will be playing at the highest level in Luxembourg at that time and that we can get some quality players to come to Mersch so that we can compete with the best teams and fight for a playoff spot in the DBBL.

What do you think of your last couple of years in Mersch?

Since I was a kid my personal goal was to play one day Nat1. In Mersch, I had the chance to compete against the best teams in the country.

The last three years I have spent in Mersch have helped me become a better and much more complete basketball player.  I have improved a lot on defense, have a better feel for the game now and learned a lot on playing the Point- and Shooting Guard positions.

How does the team fit together with the new players, foreign players, and young players?

I think that we have a very talented squad. Our EU-player is the only new face in Mersch and he is a good fit as he has proven to be. On the other foreigner spot we still have one of the best, if not the best American playing in Luxembourg: Billy McDaniel. Our young guys are not quite ready yet to make an impact during games but they do come to practice and have improved a lot this season in order to make that next step.

Finally we all hope to get Jérôme back, who quit due to personal reasons, as he was a big part of what we are trying to accomplish.

Thank you Rui and good luck for the rest of the season!