The women team of T71 Dudelange has finished the regular season on the first place in the standings. While one game remains to be played, the team from the South is sure to have home-court advantage in the semi-finals and in a potential finals-series. Coach Jérôme Altmann, who has already extended his contract in Dudelange, talks about the current situation in the interview.
Jérôme Altmann, your team will finish the season as the number 1 seed. How important is that position and how do you evaluate the season so far?
We have reached one intermediate goal in finishing the season on top of the standings, we have done a good job so far. It was also important to avoid the dangerous « play-in »-game. These games will be very interesting, anything can happen in one game, expecially because multpile teams are playing on a similar level.
Gréngewald-coach Hermann Paar said in an interview with luxembourg.basketball that T71 is the (clear) favorite to win the title, do you agree?
It is a very strange quote by a coach whose team has been recruiting players the way Gréngewald has. I expect Résidence and Gréngewald to win the play-in games (both teams will face either Etzella, Esch or Amicale) and then we will have very interesting games to watch in the semi-finals. I my opinion, we will face Gréngewald in 2 weeks, anything is possible in our championship, the teams are equally strong on top of the league so that it will be a diffcult challenge for every team.
How will you watch the play-in games? Is there something specific you will be looking at?
We know the other teams extremely well, so that I will not get any new information from these games. However, it will be very interesting to watch these games because everything is possible.
In the women-league, a lot of games are extremely competitive and interesting to watch (only Sparta and Contern are not as strong because they do not have 2 professional players). How do you evaluate the current situation?
The level in the women championship has been consistently high this season with a lot of teams that are capable of beating every other opponent on a good night. There are plenty of great games to watch, it is a very interesting season so far. The Musel Pikes are playing extremely well together, Résidence has 2 amazing professional players (Cahill and Logic) that have the ability to make the Luxembourgish players better as well. Gréngewald has great individual talent, these 3 teams are very hard to play against and I would say that we are also hard to play against. All in all, 3-4 very exciting weeks are ahead of us in the women’s league.
Catherine Mreches has turned into one of the top players in the league at her age. How would you describe her evolution?
Catherine is extremely fast and athletic, she has developed into one of the top playmakers in the league, I am really proud about her evolution as a player. She also has a great attitude off the court which makes it even more impressive to watch her become better on a daily basis.
JICL MVP race in the women’s league presented by LALUX –> Women’s JICL MVP race presented by LALUX (3rd edition)
