HUGE MEAL-REAL COOL

Hello Everyone,

Well last week was filled with two a day practices and everyone sharing his opinion on what we think is wrong. Whenever you lose 4 out 5 games crisis sets in a little. Injuries this week did not help anything. Our other 3 man hurt his knee, jumping up to the bleachers above for a soccer ball in the morning workout (he said he was trying to be spider-man), and Skip our starting two man fractured his thumb. I do not think it should set us back too much as we still have the pieces we need to win. I’m sure everyone will be a little tired for Tuesday’s game after the 17 hour bus trip.

YES, 17 hours! That is like traveling from Indianapolis to Daytona Beach on a bus to play one game. I could fly home and be enjoying a home cook meal in the same amount of time. We stopped about half way in a town called Lodz. They are home to the “biggest mall in Europe”. It did not seem like that though, maybe because it did not have a water park and its own roller coaster like Mall of America. It was called manufactora which I’m assuming is like manufacturing and it looked like the place used to be an old factory. It had some Christmas decorations around and an ice ring outside. We ate at some small polish restaurant in the mall, and had to get some pizza hut pizza for desert. I feel like I’m still in high school sometimes on these road trips when they preorder our food for us. They had ordered fries and chopped up chicken, of course I’m sure by now the readers could have guessed that it was chicken. I forgot the camera on the bus so no pictures of the mall sorry.

Poland is starting to get in the Christmas spirit with lights and decorations. I’m sure the lights are all going up at home as well. I was able to talk to a lot of my family on thanksgiving which was nice, but also stinks when I have to hear about the food. My thanksgiving lunch consisted of tuna salad, but I must say I do make some great tuna salad. Growing up you always feel like the world kind of stops on thanksgiving, your not suppose to work and just eat and watch football. Sometimes I wish it was still that way! I know I was one of the lucky kids whose parents were always off. I think the tradition I miss most is going to pick out a tree the day after thanksgiving. We used to go to Miller’s tree farm in Monticello and cut down our own. They had the petting zoo with the “reindeers” and the warm apple cider. It was always a great day and something I would like to carry on to my children. I have to give you an A plus for that mother!! Hopefully my house has big enough ceilings because I know we used to try and get the biggest one whether it fit or not (our family’s competitive spirit).

The Game

The game was great! The team came ready to play even though we were missing two players. The level of the team was not as high as in previous weeks, but we did not let that affect us. Kevin had a really nice game distributing the ball to everyone. He ended with 11 assists. I had my best game of the year scoring 27 points on 9-14 (4-8 threes) shooting and 5-6 from the foul line. Also adding 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal in 34 minutes of play. We ended up wining by around 20 or 30. I really needed this game for my confidence and also my percentages. Before this game I was under 55% from the foul line (very uncharacteristic) and like less then 20% from 2’s. I had not shot that many, but still those are now up to respectable levels.

After the game we had a feast at the hotel. It was actually the biggest meal we have had consisting of zurek (traditional polish soup) and salad, with some beef stroganoff. Then they brought out some chicken and potatoes as well. We went next door to the restaurant/pub/club for a little celebrating. In the basement they had a little dance floor and the DJ was singing while playing on the keyboard. They were like polish folk songs with people dancing all crazy, very comical like usual.

It was about a 7 hour bus trip the next day from Znicz to Warsaw. I slept through most of it, but I was awake when the bus drivers got lost and we ended at a place with four houses around and a small bar/store, the guy behind the counter asked “well, I bet you guys have never been to a shit hole like this before?” The whole team basically was using the restroom outside in the forest instead of the place. They had a raw fish with no plastic or anything around it in the same cooler as the ice cream treats. Just trying to give you a glimpse into the glamorous life of a polish professional basketball player!

Warsaw was a very nice time. The first night we arrived we ate at Armando’s restaurant where he took care of us.
We had a couple of pizzas as appetizers, then a portion of pasta finished with some spruced up chicken and potatoes. The restaurant is on the outside of a mall, a pretty nice mall at that with a subway, which I had to get a chicken teriyaki. Drew and Sefton had their mind made up on some ice skating, but they closed too early for them. Personally, I would have enjoyed seeing them trying to skate around the big tree that was on the inside of the ice rink.




On Monday lunch was on our own so Drew, who is very similar to me when it comes to trying new things and going to authentic places, found a small polish restaurant in the dungeon of an old building. The part of town was called “old town” and reminded me of downtown Paris with the old architecture. We got the “meal for two” again which was translated in the menu as “huge meal-REAL COOL”. It consisted of rice, salad, potatoes, sausage, chicken liver wrapped in bacon, cheese wrapped in bacon, grilled chicken, pig neck, sauerkraut and meat, and two shish kabobs. Only thing missing were the sparklers. Needless to say there was plenty of food and it only cost 80 zlotys which is like $34.



We wandered around old town after lunch and ran into some guys dressed in whatever suits (look at the pictures) holding an axe and telling us no more beer, rock-n-roll and whatever else he was saying. We gave them a few zlotys for the pictures. We wandered a little too far and had a nice walk back to the hotel (where are the bikes when you need them). We did walk through the park where the Nazis’ had the Jewish ghetto. They had some brick barriers on the ground where the territory was. Reading the sign that told of the history of the place was a very sad.

The Game

WOW! We finally came out on the right side of overtime even after shooting 46% from the free throw line. We missed the front end of two shots to go up one and they missed there final shot. Overtime was a back in forth battle with no one going up more then 2. I made two free throws with 13 seconds left to put us up one. I then had to foul there big guy who made both of his free throws to put them up 1 with 3 seconds left. We called a time out and drew up the play from half court. The guard came off the screen and hit a bank shot three pointer for the win. It was a great game where we showed a lot of character. Kevin (PG) fouled out with 6 minutes left in the fourth and we were still with out skip. We maintained our composure and handed Polonia their first loss at home for the season.

I shot well from three 3-5 but went backwards on the 2’s again shooting 0-4 and 2-4 from the foul line. I added 5 rebounds, a couple assists, and a steal. Well I guess all that complaining I was doing paid off as I played 39 minutes this game.

This was a huge road trip for us, not being at full strength and still pulling out 2 wins. We have one more home game in the first round and then starts the second round where we will play two before Christmas break. We are 8-5 and around 5th in the league.

I have been having some internet trouble so that is why this blog was so late getting posted which means I will skip this Sunday and wait till next Sunday to post the next one!

I’m getting pretty excited about coming home for 9 days! Let the countdown begin

How about those young Butler Bulldogs 5-0! They play Cleavland State tonight which should be a good one.

Until next time!


This is BC gone for now