Bartzokas keeps lid on growing expect- ations

ATHENS (The Friday Eurovision) - If there’s one certainty about Greek basketball right now, it’s that there’s no danger of Maroussi’s players getting carried away with their success.

Their coach, Georgios Bartzokas, will not let it happen.

After an unbeaten January in Greece’s top flight, and an early February run that included victories over Panathinaikos in the Euroleague Top 16 and Olympiacos on the domestic scene, Maroussi were at it again on Thursday night.

They knocked off in-form Partizan Belgrade, 57-49.

It’s no shocker there is an excellent chance of an Athens club in Group E playing in the Euroleague Quarter-Finals.

But it is a surprise that Maroussi is the Athens club within touching distance of the last eight, and not Panathinaikos.

Pana, the defending champions, lost to Barcelona on Thursday and are now 0-3 in the group.
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Maroussi, Partizan and Barcelona are each 2-1.

Bartzokas is like most coaches in that he worries about planning practices and coming up with ways to beat the next opponent.

But now he has other concerns.

He’s in a battle to keep the lid on the hype surrounding his team.

“The most important thing is to stay calm and humble, not to get crazy because of the successes,” he said after the win over Partizan.

“It is very dangerous to feel that you are a star and I don’t want to have such a situation."

The trouble is, this could be a fight Bartzokas will lose, and we’re not just talking about the attention that will be showered on his players should they advance.

The 44-year-old coach is, whether he likes it or not, also a star in the making.

As a player, he wasn’t well known.

Bartzokas once played for Maroussi, but when it was a lower-league club.

It’s interesting that Bartzokas’ boss at Maroussi is club president Aris Vovos, a construction mogul who is also a professional rally driver.

As there are twists and turns in both sports, Vovos, who won the Akropolis Rally in 1995, must be having fun watching Bartzokas drive his team.

It’s been a rapid ascent for Bartzokas because in the 2005-06 campaign, he was a nobody, the fourth assistant on the bench of Panagiotis Yannakis at Maroussi.

Now look at him.

After three years as the head coach at Olimpia Larissa, he’s back at Maroussi and beating some of Europe’s giants.

Bartzokas followed in the footsteps of Yannakis by coaching Maroussi.

Maybe one day he’ll do it again and, as Yannakis has done, coach Greece.

We’ll have to wait and see if that happens, or if Maroussi can reach the Quarter-Finals in Europe.

“Now we have two wins and one loss, but it is too early to think about the future,” Bartzokas said.

Jeff Taylor