What better opportunity to bounce back from the disappointment of midweek defeat than The Battle of the Hoops at The Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.
"This is a fantastic group," the Serb said. "I'm so happy to work with these young men. And I'm proud of what we have done so far.
"But we have to keep improving as a team and keep maturing.
"I don't want players to think about what has happened. We have to recover from the mistake, refocus, and concentrate on the next action, seek the next opportunity.
"And we have to look to our next game, as always. As we always say, the next game is our most important game.
"These next three games will see this cluster of nine games we identified come to an end, so now we've got to get results.
"We've got to prepare the guys in the best possible manner, recover, replenish and get ready for QPR.
"We have to keep believing in what we have shown so far - playing good football, getting the ball on the ground and looking to affect the game in the final third with our creativity, our talent and our ideas.
"I want my team to be mature, to absorb the mistakes we make and the disappointment of defeat, and then come back and win the game. I want my team to come back when we are down.
"So we have one day to celebrate or cry over a result. Then the next morning, you have to lift your spirit, heal your wounds, stay positive and believe.
"Because we have shown everyone we can be a hell of a good team."