Sito Alonso: “Humility is not at odds with ambition”

Sito Alonso was born in Madrid 48 years ago and when he was four his family moved to Zaragoza. There he would begin his career on the bench when he was only 11 years old and with the help of his father, a professional coach. Everything was quick: from the first opportunity in Monzón to learning from maestro Aíto García-Reneses and directing Joventut, Baskonia and Barcelona before landing in Murcia in 2019. At UCAM he has made history by eliminating Valencia in the quarterfinals and Unicaja Málaga in the ACB semi-finals, winning all five away games. Today (8:30 p.m., Movistar), Sito begins to play in his first league final, against Real Madrid at WiZink in the first match of a best-of-five series. The Murcian team, which debuted in the elite in 1990, has a budget of 4.3 million and 4,100 subscribers, and with nine additions and five withdrawals last summer, it has reached the sky. And he wants more.

Ask. What is the secret?

Answer. The cohesion of the group. They are players who in their career had not had the opportunities they expected, or had not found people who trusted them. That has made our group very special, that they have a unity that is difficult to find in a team. They are enthusiasm and ambition, but all together.

Q. Did you discover that special character when your mother died in August?

R. Yes, because they worked in a way that made it easier to live with a very complicated moment in life for me. The coach has to intervene in problems, every three days you have a test. And this group has never had a problem. They have always put the team first. I had lost the most important person in my life along with my partner and my daughter and they made it much easier for me.

Q. What was your mother like?

R. Many people think of my father, because he was a professional basketball coach. The work ethic, of how to become a person and a coach, I inherited from him. But my mother has always had a special character, an unusual resilience, a desire to live and communicate, to have enthusiasm for people, to be very loved. And that part is fundamental in a profession in which you have to wake up from moments of loneliness, from wondering who you are. Before the fifth game in Malaga I told the players about how they had helped me since my mother died. He talked to her about how he saw the team, he told her that they fought in a special way almost without knowing each other, so be careful with them.

Q. How did you start training at 11 years old?

R. I played until the old EBA League, the next category to the ACB, but my father gave me personal training and invited me to train from a very young age so that I would have a position of responsibility and know how to be an example for the kids. I developed as a person from the position of coach, that changed my life.

Q. What did you learn from Aíto?

R. I have had several fathers besides mine. Guillermo Huguet welcomed me in Monzón, he gave me an EBA League team at 23 years old and let me do things that are difficult at that age. And then I trained with the best Spanish coach of all time, Aíto García-Reneses, the best trainer of people and players. Being with him was essential to understand that I had to train myself globally, give my culture another dimension.

Q. At 30 years old you trained players older than you at Joventut…

R. It has always happened to me, from a very young age. At 23 I was already training 30-year-old players, going to press conferences, directing in front of thousands of people… that helped me handle the pressure.

Q. And the year at Barcelona?

R. The sporting memory is not very good. The situation in Catalonia then was very turbulent to have the family there. Very grateful to Barça for betting on me. Results cannot tarnish the experience of coaching a big club.

Q. Does this UCAM Murcia defend by attacking?

R. Yes, it is our characteristic. Many times when a team takes a lead, and it has happened to me for example with Baskonia against Madrid in a Cup semi-final, they defend it instead of attacking it again. This team continues to attack instead of defend. To defend your income, it is better to attack. He doesn’t know how to defend her. It is better that we seek to win more, and if we do not achieve it, we will fall with our style.

Q. Don’t you always win from defense?

R. No, that is not true, what happens is that defense is part of something non-negotiable. When you are not successful in attack, you either have a higher defensive percentage than normal or you cannot compete for something that is not mediocre. The attack sets the style, and UCAM Murcia has it, although if you only depend on your attack, you have a problem. The defense has given us a lot.

Q. Is it also a team that shares the ball a lot instead of seeking personal brilliance?

R. We have learned that. When we share the ball, we are a better team. That is difficult, because there are players who had a role as offensive specialists who have had to adapt and be more defensive, knowing that the attraction on them can benefit the rest.

Q. Unicaja triples their budget…

R. Now there are those who think that we have more budget than before, and that is not the case. We are a humble team, but humility is not at odds with ambition or enthusiasm or seriousness. We have hit the table that I hope will serve to get everyone to support us and not only UCAM to support us.

Q. How do you see the final?

R. Madrid has something that we don’t have, the vital experience of winning. They know how to win, they know how to handle pressure better than anyone. They have world champions, Euroleague champions, players who have been through the NBA… We are not going to find the experience in this game and we must compensate for it with much more intensity. And above all, believe in ourselves.

Q. What would you do if you weren’t a coach?

R. Something related to psychology. I like to teach, help people on a mental level. He would have been a basketball coach anyway. In Monzón he had the keys to the pavilion and was very happy.

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