Maccabi Tel Aviv qualified for the quarterfinals of the Israeli Basketball League. Coach Oded Ketch says he will always want Lorenzo Brown on his side.
"Basketball is a team game made up of individuals, and we have to find the way to play correctly," Ketch says. "The average basketball fan expects certain things from his coach. That he puts on a show, screams at the players, makes movements toward the stands, and doesn't do any of these things. "The players, the team, and I have not lost faith in him," adds Ketch, "and we feel that he is getting back to his rhythm. "It is a privilege to coach him. We trust him. He is good enough to get himself out of situations I was a player too. "He is not only a basketball genius, but also a person with a high level of emotional intelligence." Ketch's playing career was short, but he managed to spend it with some of the best basketball and psychology minds out there. The coach realized that without his center back in the good old form, his team would soon encounter a glass ceiling. He played on the walk, became a crossing pass in defense, missed shots that in the not-so-distant past he would have scored with his eyes closed. His deterioration was rapid and painful. But Ketch didn't give up; Even when he paid a price for it during games, even when the talkbackists and commentators tore him that he was "fixed." But he had a goal: to do everything for Brown to come back, at least partially. And at least for one evening, it worked. What worked, exploded. At halftime, he was down with a season high of five three-pointers. He finished the entire game with 7 of 8 beyond the arc. And this is already a record at a historical level. Only once did a Maccabi Tel Aviv player score more.