Hello Everyone,

Well it has been a couple weeks since the last post and I must say they were not the best couple of weeks. It has been a little frustrating as I have been battling a sickness, trying to get the knee to 100% and we lost 3 out of 4 games. There is a little good news that I played in the last 2 games meaning the knee was not as injured as we once thought. The MRI came back showing only a bone bruise and minimal cartilage damage. After hearing that news I have been rehabbing and trying hard to get it back to 100%. I will start swimming this weekend to keep up with conditioning and try to stay off it as much as possible.

Even though we lost 3 out of the last 4 we still find ourselves in 6th place with 10 games remaining. It would have been nice to get a couple wins though as we played 3 out of the 4 at home. We also lost an important game to Gothia who right now holds the tie breaker with us. We see them one more time so if we can get that one it will become a points system. We are still eagerly awaiting the return of our injured center that will help us match up better with a lot of teams. Like I mentioned earlier I have played in the last two games, but not without some pain and it only being at 80%. We play one more game on Tuesday against the top team in the league then we get a 12 day break which should be huge for us to all get healthy again.

This is usually the time when I start missing home a little bit. We get in a normal routine and not a lot is happing. I am really excited for my mother who will be coming next week. She has never been out of the country before and I think she is a little nervous. It will be a wonderful experience for her. I’m just hoping some of this snow melts away so the touring will be a little easier. I’m trying to think of a menu for her and I while she is here! We will have to go exotic sense neither one of us are picky.

hoped you enjoyed the no action photo shots to go with the no action blog post!!

Until Next Time!

This is BC gone for now

Take the good with the BAD!

Hello Everyone,

This week featured a PR visit to a school and a huge road game at Uppsala! The schools here are pretty relaxed. The school was like an elementary and middle school combined. When we first arrived there were young kids sledding down the icy hill. Right next to the brick building and metal bike racks. They did have helmets on so I guess they were kind of safe. I took a turn down the hill and it was rather fun. I’m pretty cautious after my incident back in high school (long story short I tore cartilage sledding down a 2 foot hill). Another example of how relaxed the school was over half of the students were walking the halls, while the other half had headphones in their ears. I guess it has been a while since I was in elementary and middle school, but BACK IN MY DAY that would have never went down!

We spoke to three classes and handed out tickets to the Tuesdays TV game. That is a huge game for the club as the TV station will decide if they will air any other games in Sodertalje based on the crowd. We also stayed around the school for a while signing autographs for the kids. I really enjoy that part of the job. I am pretty good with kids and enjoy them most likely due to all my little siblings. Although there was one kid that kept trying to steal all my tickets and I did want to slap him, but I figured that would be hard to explain to the club why I was in a Swedish jail after a PR trip.

The game in Uppsala was for fifth place in the league. The game was going to be extra tough without our center. I mean we are not that tall of a team anyway, our center is only 6’7” which is not very big in basketball. He is the only player we have that really likes to play with his back to the basket. It defiantly was not our best game played. We were really bad on defense, but luckily for us Uppsala did not play much better either. It was another one of those games where the refs stopped play every 5 seconds. I even picked up an intentional foul when I stripped a guy. We played much better in the second half and won by 12 or something. I had a very solid game scoring 23, and grabbing 11 rebounds with 5 assist and a steal, but it came with a price.

I ruptured a ligament in my knee. Not one of the big ones like the ACL or MCL but some other CL (don’t really know if there are any other CL’s). Anyway it looks like I will be out anywhere between 1-4 weeks which would be 3 or 4 games. It will now make it extremely tough on the team as we have lost 60 mins a game, 35-40 points a game, and 15-20 rebounds a game with the center and I out. The good thing is we have the players that can come in and step up. This could also benefit us during playoffs having a really deep bench. I seem to be a little cursed here in Sodertalje with injuries. I have had more injuries playing in this town then I have had in the previous 7 years. I am staying positive however as we have worked our way into playoff position and just need to maintain. When you play a sport for a living you know there is always a risk of injury. I just really hope I am back on the court when my mother flies over in February as that was one of the main motivators to see me play again.

I will have more time to keep perfecting my art of cooking..


In case you are wondering it is eggs with spinach and onion, bacon, cheesy potatoes, toast with jelly, pineapple juice and of course no meal is complete without the Heinz bottle!

I really just felt like bragging on myself!

Until Next Time!

This is BC gone for now

All BALL!!

Hello Everyone,

This blog is all about Ball! It was a very good week for the kings as we won two this week pushing our win streak to 3. We won on the road against a team that is in front of us by one game. The other one we won at home to the fourth place team in the league.

Tuesday was the away game about two hours from here. We hopped on the big bus and watched Napoleon Dynamite (a MTV movie if you have not heard of it). Coach was not very fond of the movie and threatened to run the guy who brought it if we did not win. I’m not saying that is why we won, but it did add some extra incentive. The game started very evenly with us trading baskets and going into the locker room with a 1 point lead. The second half was totally dominated by us and we ran away with the game winning by 19. I had another solid game scoring 19, with 8 boards and 4 steals.
Saturday was a home game against Solna. We promoted the game on Friday handing out free tickets at Astra Zeneca (the big pharmacy company) as attendance has been the worst they have seen in many years. Hopefully with the great showing we had we can bring some people back. The game started out very similar to the one on Tuesday with us trading baskets and going to the locker room up 1. Then in the third quarter we ran away with the game and ending up winning by 29! Again I had another decent game scoring 17, 5 boards and 3 steals.

When we play defense like we can and control the boards I think we can play with any team in this league. We also are a much more balanced team with 5 to 6 guys scoring in double digits every night. We did have an injury to our center on Saturday and he will most likely miss one game. We have a big game on Friday away against Uppsala. If we can win that game then we will be in 5th place which would be the highest we have been.

Until Next Time!

This is BC gone for now

PC270050.AVI

Welcome to 2010!

Hello Everyone,

These last three or four weeks have flown bye! I kind of wish I could go back and live them again, but no need for looking in the past. I got the memories in my memory bank. It started off with my trip to Prague/Slovakia to spend Christmas with Julian and finished with my fiancé visiting.

I left on the 23rd, the morning after our loss to the top team, but I will get to the games later. I arrived in Prague at 10 AM and was greeted by Julian and his dad (Big BOSS). The funniest thing about me flying to Prague was that there were like 5 other airports that were closer to Julian, but of course I went with the cheapest ticket. That would come back to bite me as I had to board a train at 4:30 in the morning on the 27th for the 7 hour trip back to Prague! (The trip was worth missing out on some sleep). Never the less I wanted to see Prague so I could put it on my list of places I have been. It was a pretty cold and drizzling on us, but we still went to the main squares. I got a good feel for the city and it was beautiful even with the bad weather. We ate these things called Langos similar to a funnel cake only without the sweet. It was the same kind of dough only they put garlic, cheese and ketchup on it (anything with ketchup I will usually love). We also had a Czech beer which was excellent. Julian swears you will not have a better beer then a draft beer in Prague. I will have to agree with him at the moment.



We then started are journey to Ruzomburek in Slovakia. It was about a 6 hour car ride that flew by as we were catching up on all things. We also picked up his brother from his in-laws on the way so he could hang with us for one night. We stayed at his grandma’s apartment that was a 2 minute drive from his parent’s place. Slovakia is like a lot of other countries in Europe that celebrate Christmas on the 24th. They don’t put up the tree until the 24th. The only job while I was there was to help put up the tree. I helped put the tree together then Julian did all the decorating of it. After the tree is up they then have dinner. They make a HUGE dinner and then eat on the leftovers for Christmas day meals. We had cabbage soup, potato salad, pork, fish, and some bread. I loved the cabbage soup!! Then on the 26th they have another big meal of duck, dumplings, soup and potatoes. My goodness they were two unbelievable meals that I’m craving again as I type this.






We really did not do anything real special, but eat and enjoy each other’s company. I watched 3 or 4 Slovakian movies that were folk tales. They show them every Christmas and they are like 50 or 60 years old. I couldn’t understand the language obviously, but Julian was pretty good about translating the important parts. I must say the movies did not crack my top 1,000 list of best movies!! We did go up to the mountain one day. Ruzomburek is surrounded by two mountains and normally has 10,000 winter skiers vacationing there, but there was no snow so that kind of hurt business a little. We also went to the water park one evening. The water is mineral water that comes straight from the ground and it was very warm!! Of course you can’t replace Christmas at home with family, but this was an excellent substitute. The Betko’s are wonderful and Great People! I’m glad they have been a part of my life!

After the great visit to Slovakia I came back to Sweden to spend New Years with Morgan. I picked her up at the airport on the 31st. She spent 9 days here and I took her back to the airport on the 9th of January. She was over here last time I was here so I didn’t really have to play tour guide or anything like that. I must say I was a little disappointed with the lack of things going on for New Years. I guess in the states it is more of a hangout with friends and family, but I don’t know enough ppl here. We just hung out and watched a couple movies then headed down to the lake for the Fireworks. They defiantly didn’t disappoint with that again. I think the fireworks here would beat many Fourth of July firework shows. They are all done by individuals here which makes it twice as dangerous. One of the fireworks misfired and sent little sparks everywhere including a teammate’s jacket. After the lake we went to a teammate’s house for a little while. We did find a pretty fun card game called monopoly deal. We played many games of this, and I was a little disappointed as I was not able to dominate like I did in UNO! After her visit I still want to marry her so I guess you can call her trip a success;)

After a long break we got back on the court for two games this week. We lost one and won one. The first one was up in Plannja which is a pretty tough place to play. They are in the top three right now. There man player is Brandon McKnight who played at Purdue. Once again we had three players on the court from Indiana!! We didn’t play all that bad, but def. had a stretch of about 5 minutes that lost the game for us. I didn’t shoot the ball as well as I would have liked esp. on their soft rims. I went 3-10 from three and 1-2 from 2. I get pretty frustrated with myself when I settle for threes too much. We are right there and we know we can beat them just have to focus in a little more.

The second game was at home, and we have now won 5 in a row at home. It was a pretty sloppy game with the refs feeling they needed to call a foul every 4 seconds on someone, but we played very well defensively and was in control the whole game. I finished with 18, and 8 boards and finally got my first dunk of the season!
We have a very important stretch of about 7 or 8 games where we need to get a lot of wins to get a little breathing room on the playoff line. Right now there are 3 teams that are 8-15 including us and one team that is 9-15 so we are right there but still need a little separation. We have a big away game against the 5th place team on Tuesday.

Until Next Time!

This is BC gone for now

3 in a ROW, and a road win!

Hello Everyone,

It’s a winter wonderland over here!! I think we have had a snow storm every day of the past week. As soon as the sidewalks get cleared the fluffy stuff starts flowing down again. I actually feel like I’m in Sweden this time. Two years ago I think it snowed more in Indiana then here.

We had our Christmas party on Saturday with the organization (all the people behind the scenes). It really didn’t feel like much of a Christmas party, I mean no music, no decorations, no secret Santa’s. They did have some food though so that usually makes everything better. They had a lot of cold salads and then cold fish (that is big around Christmas time here)! The salmon with lemon was on point though (slang for GOOD)! They had some other cold meats as well. The team had a great time just hanging out and talking.

I leave for Prague on Wednesday morning for a little vacation break. The original plan was to meet up with AJ Graves, an old teammate of mine who is playing in Poland this season. Fortunately for him he gets to go home for Christmas. Julian Betko another teammate of mine from Butler lives about 4 hours from Prague and was going to be home for Christmas. So I made plans to spend Christmas with his family. I’m pretty excited about it. When we were roommates at Butler his parents came for Christmas in the states and his mother is an excellent cook! It will be interesting to see how the Slovaks spend Christmas and should be another wonderful experience in life, I will probably only have once.

We flew to ostertund (I know I spelled this city wrong) to play Jamtland. It was like a two hour plane flight. The hotel was the same place we stayed when I played here last time. I got pretty excited to see it again because the food there was excellent. I love road trips, you get fed a lot and you just relax in a hotel room. The only difference between the college road trip and the professional road trip is you can go out after you win! We went to a small club and just enjoyed our win. We found there kebab place for our late night snack, but I must say it was not nearly as good as the Kebab House in Sodertalje. It was pretty funny as two Americans (will and I) were sitting in “Kebab City” critiquing the kebab and which place had a better one.

I have a feeling I’m going to be a good coach one day. I’m pretty sure I predicted that we were going to start winning some games and in a row! We have a 3 game win streak currently and won our first game on the road this past week. I must say we got a little lucky to come out of there with a win, but I’m not complaining at all!! We have no time to pat ourselves on the back for getting back in the playoff picture, as our next two games are away and against the first and second place teams!

I had two pretty good games again both scoring and rebounding. I have really picked up my rebounding since my injury. It is an easy way to get myself going in the game. If you can grab a couple offensive rebounds or have a couple put backs just gets your confidence up.

I will be taking a little holiday break from the blog much like the TV shows do!! I should have a lot to talk about when I return from the Christmas trip and Morgan’s visit here over New Years!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

See you in 2010

Until Next Time!

This is BC gone for now

Back on the floor!!

Hello Everyone,

No! I did not forget to write the blog last week just felt like I did not have a lot to type. I feel like the blog has been a little boring this season so far. I guess I’m just getting used to the Europe lifestyle, but it is not like Sweden is very different. When I went to Poland it was somewhat of culture shock, but after already being here one season things are pretty simple. The only thing I have noticed is the pack of dog walkers.

At night I have noticed a bunch of people together with green reflecting construction vest and a ton of dogs. I’m not sure if they are walking the elderly people’s dogs or if they just have a dog walking group. I’m thinking about trying to find out how to translate “dog walker” in Swedish and I may have my second job over here. I will just post some fliers around my apartment and see if I have any takers.

This past week I did an interview with Will (the other American) for a magazine called “Newz” I believe. I must say it was one of the most unique ones I have ever done. We ended up playing two on two against the reporters. They had jerseys made up for them and everything. Morris and Jenny were the two we played against. Morris was about 5’4” and had the head band and high socks and all. So he looked good when will dunked on him a couple times. We gave them 7 points and played to 10. Of course we couldn’t let them win but we had a lot of fun playing. They had another guy taking photos of the game and we there were some really good action shots, and we staged a couple photos. It is cool for me when people who don’t play basketball or don’t know much about it come and appreciate the skills we actually have. After the game we sat down and answered some questions but they weren’t your normal questions which was also unique. The article should be pretty cool when it comes out and I will try and get some photos of it!

This past week was also spent with a lot of treatment again. I went to see the Peter the “specialist” or “chinaman” again on the other side of Stockholm. I drove there by myself which is always an adventure. I did have a GPS but that still did not stop me from getting lost and ending up in downtown Stockholm. They have a tunnel system that runs through Stockholm and there isn’t much satellite service down there. =When I came out of the tunnel it told me I was wrong, but luckily it fixed everything for me and I ended up where I needed to be. He was someone that works with needles, but he also was a chiropractor, and he did some things he called ARP. He was really good at what he does. He spent a lot of time testing my strength in my legs and then explaining why. He may have had a little bit of a God complex as he referred to himself as Jesus, and after I was done there I would think he was like a God. I think some of the things he did helped with the leg and back BUT I don't know about GOD like. The leg is not 100 percent, but I have been playing and it continues to get better every day.

We went 2-2 over the past two weeks. The two games we lost were in overtime and on the road. We should have had both of them, but shoulda woulda coulda never gets you very far. The team has been playing a lot better and we are still in position to finish 6th or 5th in the league and make playoffs if we continue to play like this. I played in 3 of the 4 games having a double-double in two of them.
We have 3 games left until a little break for Christmas. Two of the games are against the top teams in the league. Tuesday will be a great start to get a home win against a very good team.

I had a great home cooked meal this week after our home win at our young point guard’s house “Karim”. His mother cooked up some chicken and rice that was excellent. They are a very nice and big family. He has four other brothers.

Until Next Time!

This is BC gone for now