What a difference 2 games can make!

Hello Everyone,

LIFE

I witnessed my first handball game this week. It is a sport that is played on the gym floor on a court about 5 feet wider and 10 ft longer then a basketball court. It is played 6 on 6 not including the goalies. The object is to throw a ball smaller then a volleyball into a goal smaller then a soccer goal. If I tried to explain anymore you would just get confused. They do have penalties though and it is like hockey where they go to the penalty box and play 5 on 6. Mulhouse lost after leading pretty much the whole game.

Since the handball game was really the only thing I did all week I decided to talk a little bit about the city of Mulhouse and what I have noticed in living here for about a month in a half. I will start off with what the city has a lot of, Crosswalks and roundabouts. The crosswalks are all over the place. There is like one crosswalk every 100ft. The thing about them is they actually get used quite a bit. There are people walking all over the place. I wonder if that continues in the winter because from what I heard it gets pretty snowy and really cold here. I am actually glad they use a lot of roundabouts instead of stop signs. I’m sure it is because all the cars are stick and you don’t want to go down to 1st to 3rd every half block. They also have a lot of pizzerias. This is probably something I have just taken for granted in America, when I started thinking about all the pizza places in Indiana there are quite a few as well. I would have to vote pizza as the world’s most popular food, at least here in Europe and America. The population of Muslims is really high in the city. There are actually five on the basketball team. There are always these church bells going off at the weirdest times, like 11, 3, 5, 8, and I could never figure out why. Then I spoke with one of the teammates about when they have to do the prayer thing it just so happened those were the times (duh Brandon). An interesting thing with the Muslim religion is for forty days they can not eat or drink while the sun is up. That time is now and five of the teammates have to participate (they are allowed to eat on games days). Another thing about Mulhouse is you are never to far away from a pastry shop. In fact on my 7 minute drive to the gym I pass about 7 stand alone shops, not including the grocery stores that sell them as well. Another thing I have noticed in not only Mulhouse, but Basel and Freiberg is the city within the city. All three downtown areas have a downtown where no cars are allowed to drive thru. As I noticed yesterday when walking through Mulhouse they extend pretty far with a ton of shops. It is not just a straight shot either they go every which direction. They are some shops that are by themselves then there are some that are like a little mall. It is really interesting and easy to get lost in it. All three cities had these areas and I’m sure it is like that in a lot of European countries.


The Team

I know I was spoiled with some great teams at Butler, but this team is really frustrating right now. We play with little heart, little discipline, and little will to win. Of course when we lose everyone is mad and talking to everyone else (I’m not included because I don’t know French). The most frustrating aspect is not having much ability to change this. Of course I still play as hard as I can and lead through example, but that does not do much here. On one hand it is hard to bring 9 guys together, pay them, show them an offense and say go win, but on the other hand as a team we should at least show some of the qualities I listed above that we are lacking. If we are losing because of the offense or teams being better I could live with that a little easier, but that is not the case at all.

Of course after the paragraph above you can tell we lost again. We lost by 17 at home. We shot the three ball terrible, we did not play any defense (they shot 51%), and everyone kept talking to the refs like they were the reason we were losing. Personally, in the first half I played well defensively taking two charges, stripping the ball 3 times, and one steal. I only took three shots in the first half 0-2 from three and made one lay-up. The second half he did not start me and I sat until about three minutes left and then I sat the whole fourth until 2:30. I guess he was trying to switch it up and see if we could do anything different. I shot one more three in the second half I missed, had to force up a shot with the shot clock going off, and I shot four free throws making three. I ended with 5 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals. I am still trying to figure out how to play in the offense to be most successful. Personally, I know I need to be a little more aggressive to the basket and draw some more fouls. That is something I will be working on this week in practice. After the game my agent’s partner in France was at the game and we spoke after. He mentioned they might have interest in releasing me which he made it sound like it would be a good thing because the team needs a LOT of work. The general manager talked with me for a minute and said he would see me on Monday for practice. I guess that meant they were going to keep me for another week (at least). It is a lot easier to change your foreign player then it is your France players. What a difference a couple games can make. In preseason we were playing really well and now well who really knows. My spirits are really high because I know I have been giving everything on the court. It is a business and I understand that so again I will just go back to work this week and help this team improve as long as I am on it.

I have figured out how to post photos on the blog itself so when they upload photos from the game I will add some during the week.

Future

One of my dad’s firefighter buddies is coming over for vacation this week and is brining a package for me. I believe I will be meeting her in Basel sometime. Also, my cousins will be in Munich at the end of the week so I will be driving there on Sunday to visit.

This is BC gone for now