Peñarroya, on the wire waiting to get a ticket to the Cup

Kevin Punter misses the triple and after the offensive rebound he tries it again successfully from the perimeter. Little slate, all improvisation and individual success. Barça leads by five points in Fontajau with less than two minutes remaining in which bad attacks, worse defenses, a lost ball and an unsportsmanlike foul deserved against one another occur. Joan Peñarroya remains practically silent in the last time-out, he barely asks for defense without fail from his pupils and does not make any reference to Iroegbu, author of 25 points, who ends up being the hero of last-place Girona with his final basket and executioner of the Blaugrana , maybe also from the coach.

“The locker room is screwed and the coach is at least as screwed or more so than the players. I have the support of all the people who work at the club. It is evident that there are doubts. But I am working comfortably. The people who are in the club are with the team and with the staff. We are in a moment in which we collapse, especially with these finals,” said Peñarroya after the umpteenth disappointment, third in a row in the Endesa League after losing to Real Madrid and Joventut, which leaves the Barcelona fans out of the positions of access to the Cup with two days left.

The locker room trusts the coach and is suspicious of the support of the board, who did not attend the classic or Girona

Barça must face another mess today (7pm) in the Euroleague at the home of the leader, Monaco, but winning in Gran Canaria next Sunday seems essential to speed up the cup options and keep afloat the second project led in the offices by Juan Carlos Navarro. The defeat in Girona squandered the little credit of a Peñarroya in the wire. Barça is not considering changes on the bench for now but being left out of the top eight for the first time in the club’s history would precipitate, barring a twist in the script, the dismissal of the Terrassa coach. Since the ACB was established in 1983, the Catalan club had not registered such a bad situation in the table after 15 games. You have to dust off archives from decades ago to verify that Barça, among all competitions, has more defeats than victories at this point in the season (17-19). The crisis has worsened recently with only two wins (Andorra and Fenerbahçe) in the last ten games.

Even worse than the results are the sensations on the track. The match plan, often based on individual talent, easily flies through the air in the face of difficulties presented by rivals, and competitiveness fades in tense situations, especially in tight finals like in recent weeks with Girona. , Joventut, Madrid and Estrella Roja. The Blaugrana have lost eight of the ten tight results this season. A sometimes contemplative and mismatched defense that concedes easy baskets does not help either.

Despite the team’s drift, the locker room is united and closes ranks with Peñarroya, not so much towards senior officials. The players do not feel supported by a board that had no representatives in the WiZink classic and in Fontajau. The Heurtel case further accentuated the feeling of division and helplessness in the bowels of the Palau. Meanwhile, Navarro, another sufferer in Fontajau watching helplessly as the team faltered, continues without giving any explanations.