Hello Everyone,
Well I just finished up my breakfast for dinner. I cooked up some bacon, potatoes and some pancakes that my mother sent me. If you are wondering if Sweden has pancakes they do, but I have tried to make them and they turned out terrible. I could not read the directions well, but you only had to mix water with it instead of the normal egg and milk. I’m using this time off with my injury to beef back up since I have lost so much weight in Europe. I’m also lifting really hard again and gaining back some of my strength.
My leg is progressing, but not as fast as I would like. I have been doing treatment twice a day, everyday. We started out with acupuncture which I have never had before. I’m not very good with needles to begin with. I would rather put the snoopy band-aid on and act like I got the flu shot then actually go through the 2 minutes of pain and 30 mins of soreness. It really was not that painful, but there were a couple spots where it felt like he could not get it through the skin and it was a little painful. About half way through the week we started massage once a day with acupuncture as well. The pain has been decreasing every day so that is good. We have also started trying to get strength back up in it working on a machine called a Power Plate. It vibrates while you stand on it and do squats and other exercises on it. It is actually pretty hard and I will continue to do that twice a day. The doctor is going to evaluate it on Wednesday and then we will know where we stand with everything. Right now I’m pretty confident that I will be back about 2 games before playoffs and then into the playoffs. I’m also trying my best to be patient with it so I don’t come back to early and re injure it far worse. I’m not very good with that whole patience thing especially watching the games this week I wanted to be back so bad. We will make the decision on Wednesday rather or not I can stay and get well in time for playoffs. Like I stated above I’m very confident that that can happen, but if for some reason I would not be able to the team would pick up Darryl.
Darryl is the American that was playing in France and has the same agent as myself. I picked him up from the airport on Monday night and he has been staying with me on the couch. He has the “sling box” which is the device that allows you to watch your home TV on you computer. It is a pretty cool deal and something I will def. invest in this summer before coming back over. He was in a very similar situation as me when I was in France. It is his first year out and he was the only American on the team as well and head butted with the new GM. He came here only to play a couple games just to give us another option. He played well his first game shooting 6-7 from the field and scoring 16. He will play on Tuesday for us as well and that will prob. be his last game as I will anticipate getting the clearance to start light practicing and rejoin the team.
The Team
We won both games this past weekend which put us back into the 4th position. We have basically sealed up a playoff spot even if we dropped every game from here on out (don’t see that happening). We played a struggling Jämtland team on Tuesday that just fired there head coach. We had them down 22 in the second quarter but let them back in the game and pulled out a 3 point win. It would have been a terrible loss for us if we let it slip.
Saturday we played our rival, 08 Stockholm. They are the team that is tied with us at 15-11 but we are 4th since we have beat them twice now. We dominated the game from the jump with great defensive pressure and intensity and won by 21. It was one of those games that was really fun to watch and really made me want to be back on the floor.
Jonathan (our leading scorer) did not start due to an incident during practice in which he punched our other big guy. They have been going at each other all year and I guess it just finally boiled over. He apologized to the team and we have moved on from it. I guess it kind of fired him up as he scored 30 points in only 20 minutes of play.
We play Tuesday and Friday of this week. There are 7 regular season games left and we go on the road for 4 of them. I will be going through some intense rehab this week so we can see where the leg stands.
This is BC gone for now
Feb 24, 2008
Feb 18, 2008
Welp, Life Happens
Hello Everyone,
I would like to apologize to my avid Sunday readers for not getting the blog out there on time. I hope I did not ruin anyone’s Sunday by not getting to read what’s going on in my life (only kidding). I am late because I spent the night at a teammate’s house as we waited till 2:30 AM for the NBA All-Star game.
Many of you are probably wondering why in the world I would stay up till 5 am to watch that game which would be a very logical question considering last years horrific game. This year was actually really entertaining and very competitive and I’m glad I made the choice to watch it. I am just amazed at how talented and athletic many of those players are. They have to be some of the most gifted athletes to do many of the things they do. Not sure if many of you watched the dunk contest as well (I’m sure you saw highlights all over ESPN), but it also was one of the best it has been in a while. Although there were many deserving dunks that I would give a ten to, I would have to say my favorite was when Gerald Green dunked between his legs without shoes. It is hard enough to dunk without shoes let alone through the legs, I was pretty amazed. It makes my picture of a dunk look like middle school!!!
After all the chairs, scoreboards, pads, baskets, bleachers, tables, cheerleaders, and whatever else I could dive into I have suffered my first injury that has made me miss my first games in about 4 years. Out of all injuries that could have happened, like a concussion or broken wrist it is only a torn hamstring. Which I must admit I’m relieved it is nothing more, but at the same time a little disappointed at the timing. I have been playing really well averaging 17 in the last 5 games and had gotten my three point % up to 43%. It happened when I was going for a steal at half court. I was standing on the opponents three point line when they lobbed it to half court. I sprinted over and knocked the ball out of bounds. I was sprinting so hard that I was going to wipe the small scores table with three people and the computers all out. I attempted to stop and my hamstring was not ready for that move. I initially did not think it was torn, just thought sprained. I reentered the game after a short break, and quickly realized when I tried to do a step back shot. It is very high in the muscle and I should hopefully be able to return in about a week in a half. I will be doing treatment twice a day.
Treatment consists of acupuncture and massages. I’m not real sure how effective this method is and I am a little nervous with how they handle medical issues here. They never actually gave me an MRI to see how bad the tear was only ultrasound to see how much blood was in there. I am not a professional in any medical field so I am just going to follow what they say until I realize it is working or not working. When I hope to return we will be making a final push into playoffs.
Team
On the floor it was not a good week for the kings. I got injured in the first half of our Tuesday game against Boras. I was playing really well up to that point, going 3-3 from 3. The second half was a disaster as we played with little injury or intensity, but still had a chance to win at the end. We ended up losing by 3, but still remained fourth in the league as all the teams below us also lost. Friday was a different story.
The team was in Sundsvall to play the 2nd place dragons. I did not make the trip as they thought a five hour bus ride there and back would not be a good thing for the hamstring. All I know is the game did not go as we wanted. We lost by 30 and from what I heard from the team we were lacking intensity again and also could not score. One stat that should stand out is the team shot 20-65 from the field!! That will not win you too many games at any level.
Up next for the kings are two huge home games. One against Jämtland on Tuesday, who are making a late push to stay in contention of the playoffs and a loss would really set us back. Then on Saturday we play Stockholm 08. They have moved to 4th in the league after winning on Friday. If we want any chance to go into the playoffs in 4th place we will need to win these 2 games or we will end up fighting just to get in. What a difference 2 games can make!
The team is also bringing in a replacement player for me while I try and recover. It actually just worked out where my agent had a player who was leaving France and flying back to the states. In Sweden you only have till the 28th to make any changes and if my injury were to last longer then we would need a player. He will be here for 2 weeks and hopefully can help and not disrupt the team.
My record at Butler of the “best start of a season” 23-2 fell this past weekend as Butler peat Cleveland State to move to 24-2. I can’t be too mad I guess it just means Brian and I did one heck of a job of leading last year and taught this group everything they needed;) But seriously it is defiantly nice to see the winning continue and hopefully they can take the program farther then it has ever been!
This is BC gone for now
I would like to apologize to my avid Sunday readers for not getting the blog out there on time. I hope I did not ruin anyone’s Sunday by not getting to read what’s going on in my life (only kidding). I am late because I spent the night at a teammate’s house as we waited till 2:30 AM for the NBA All-Star game.
Many of you are probably wondering why in the world I would stay up till 5 am to watch that game which would be a very logical question considering last years horrific game. This year was actually really entertaining and very competitive and I’m glad I made the choice to watch it. I am just amazed at how talented and athletic many of those players are. They have to be some of the most gifted athletes to do many of the things they do. Not sure if many of you watched the dunk contest as well (I’m sure you saw highlights all over ESPN), but it also was one of the best it has been in a while. Although there were many deserving dunks that I would give a ten to, I would have to say my favorite was when Gerald Green dunked between his legs without shoes. It is hard enough to dunk without shoes let alone through the legs, I was pretty amazed. It makes my picture of a dunk look like middle school!!!
After all the chairs, scoreboards, pads, baskets, bleachers, tables, cheerleaders, and whatever else I could dive into I have suffered my first injury that has made me miss my first games in about 4 years. Out of all injuries that could have happened, like a concussion or broken wrist it is only a torn hamstring. Which I must admit I’m relieved it is nothing more, but at the same time a little disappointed at the timing. I have been playing really well averaging 17 in the last 5 games and had gotten my three point % up to 43%. It happened when I was going for a steal at half court. I was standing on the opponents three point line when they lobbed it to half court. I sprinted over and knocked the ball out of bounds. I was sprinting so hard that I was going to wipe the small scores table with three people and the computers all out. I attempted to stop and my hamstring was not ready for that move. I initially did not think it was torn, just thought sprained. I reentered the game after a short break, and quickly realized when I tried to do a step back shot. It is very high in the muscle and I should hopefully be able to return in about a week in a half. I will be doing treatment twice a day.
Treatment consists of acupuncture and massages. I’m not real sure how effective this method is and I am a little nervous with how they handle medical issues here. They never actually gave me an MRI to see how bad the tear was only ultrasound to see how much blood was in there. I am not a professional in any medical field so I am just going to follow what they say until I realize it is working or not working. When I hope to return we will be making a final push into playoffs.
Team
On the floor it was not a good week for the kings. I got injured in the first half of our Tuesday game against Boras. I was playing really well up to that point, going 3-3 from 3. The second half was a disaster as we played with little injury or intensity, but still had a chance to win at the end. We ended up losing by 3, but still remained fourth in the league as all the teams below us also lost. Friday was a different story.
The team was in Sundsvall to play the 2nd place dragons. I did not make the trip as they thought a five hour bus ride there and back would not be a good thing for the hamstring. All I know is the game did not go as we wanted. We lost by 30 and from what I heard from the team we were lacking intensity again and also could not score. One stat that should stand out is the team shot 20-65 from the field!! That will not win you too many games at any level.
Up next for the kings are two huge home games. One against Jämtland on Tuesday, who are making a late push to stay in contention of the playoffs and a loss would really set us back. Then on Saturday we play Stockholm 08. They have moved to 4th in the league after winning on Friday. If we want any chance to go into the playoffs in 4th place we will need to win these 2 games or we will end up fighting just to get in. What a difference 2 games can make!
The team is also bringing in a replacement player for me while I try and recover. It actually just worked out where my agent had a player who was leaving France and flying back to the states. In Sweden you only have till the 28th to make any changes and if my injury were to last longer then we would need a player. He will be here for 2 weeks and hopefully can help and not disrupt the team.
My record at Butler of the “best start of a season” 23-2 fell this past weekend as Butler peat Cleveland State to move to 24-2. I can’t be too mad I guess it just means Brian and I did one heck of a job of leading last year and taught this group everything they needed;) But seriously it is defiantly nice to see the winning continue and hopefully they can take the program farther then it has ever been!
This is BC gone for now
Feb 10, 2008
Getting comfortable
Hello Everyone,
We got two big wins to extend our streak which I will talk more about in the team section, but I did suffer one loss this week at the hands of some 3rd and 4th graders. We did another PR visit where we ran a gym class for the kids. We had them do some shooting drills and play 3 on 3 a little. At the end, Johan (a teammate) and I played the 11 Boys and Girls. I brought all I had scoring our only 2 points, but it was not enough as my teammate did not come through and we fell 5-2. It was a good loss kept our heads from ballooning up because of this win streak.
We have started playing twice a week every Tuesday and Friday and it continues out this way for the next 11 games which means not a lot is going on besides trying to get the body back up and ready to play again. I did notice one thing this week as I was watching a girl’s game before one of our practices. They were around 7th and 8th graders and they were playing with a shot clock (24 seconds). This is probably the same through out Europe which made me wonder if High schools should have a shot clock. I don’t think I agree with having only 24 seconds, but I think they should put the 35 second shot clock in High school games. It will help keep the pace of games going esp. in those small town games where the score could wind up being 16-14 or something crazy like that. It would only help college freshmen to adjust easier having already played with the pressure of getting a shot up. I am interested in the opinions of some of the readers so if you would not mind voting on the poll to your right (that is not an advertisement mother!)
Not sure how many are NBA fans (prob, not many), but I watched Boston and Spurs at a teammates house tonight and I was very impressed with how both teams played defense and with a lot of intensity. Boston won the game with out Garnett and I think I like there chances for the title this year.
Team
As I mentioned we won two more games this week extending our win streak to 6 in a row and 7 out of the last 8. We have moved ourselves into fourth place and 2 games behind second. We have 11 games left before the playoffs begin, 6 at home and 5 on the road. Our greatest strength is still that we play as a team, we play defense, and we have a deep bench. We have 6 guys who are putting up double figures every game. It should be no surprise from the system I came from that I would only enhance the “TEAM” aspect, but Greg has also come from a program where they know how to play as a team and play off each other. A lot of these teams have two Americans who come in and are purely looking to score. I understand that there is pressure on the foreigners to score or go home, but I firmly believe you can do that with out gunning every time down.
Akropool was a tough game on the road, but we were able to contain there main scorer to 16 and grind out a win. There guard played really well having a triple double, but was really there only player that night. Boras was a home game in which was also a nail biter. Their big American broke his hand after attempting to block my shot and his teammate took out his legs. They have a lot of shooters and shot very well the second half.
Personally, I had my best shooting week going 6-10 from the three point line and scoring 20 points on the road on Tuesday and 19 at home on Friday. I have also been able to keep my defense up adding to my steal total and drawing a couple charges.
We play the Boras again, we played them on Friday at home, and then we head to the 2nd place team in the league (Sundsvall). We have lost to them both times this year and there is a very big match up for me. I will have to try and contain the All-star game MVP (Alex Wesby from the states). I got in foul trouble in the first match up.
Butler is now 21-2 and is two games away from tying the best start in school history which we set last year!
We got two big wins to extend our streak which I will talk more about in the team section, but I did suffer one loss this week at the hands of some 3rd and 4th graders. We did another PR visit where we ran a gym class for the kids. We had them do some shooting drills and play 3 on 3 a little. At the end, Johan (a teammate) and I played the 11 Boys and Girls. I brought all I had scoring our only 2 points, but it was not enough as my teammate did not come through and we fell 5-2. It was a good loss kept our heads from ballooning up because of this win streak.
We have started playing twice a week every Tuesday and Friday and it continues out this way for the next 11 games which means not a lot is going on besides trying to get the body back up and ready to play again. I did notice one thing this week as I was watching a girl’s game before one of our practices. They were around 7th and 8th graders and they were playing with a shot clock (24 seconds). This is probably the same through out Europe which made me wonder if High schools should have a shot clock. I don’t think I agree with having only 24 seconds, but I think they should put the 35 second shot clock in High school games. It will help keep the pace of games going esp. in those small town games where the score could wind up being 16-14 or something crazy like that. It would only help college freshmen to adjust easier having already played with the pressure of getting a shot up. I am interested in the opinions of some of the readers so if you would not mind voting on the poll to your right (that is not an advertisement mother!)
Not sure how many are NBA fans (prob, not many), but I watched Boston and Spurs at a teammates house tonight and I was very impressed with how both teams played defense and with a lot of intensity. Boston won the game with out Garnett and I think I like there chances for the title this year.
Team
As I mentioned we won two more games this week extending our win streak to 6 in a row and 7 out of the last 8. We have moved ourselves into fourth place and 2 games behind second. We have 11 games left before the playoffs begin, 6 at home and 5 on the road. Our greatest strength is still that we play as a team, we play defense, and we have a deep bench. We have 6 guys who are putting up double figures every game. It should be no surprise from the system I came from that I would only enhance the “TEAM” aspect, but Greg has also come from a program where they know how to play as a team and play off each other. A lot of these teams have two Americans who come in and are purely looking to score. I understand that there is pressure on the foreigners to score or go home, but I firmly believe you can do that with out gunning every time down.
Akropool was a tough game on the road, but we were able to contain there main scorer to 16 and grind out a win. There guard played really well having a triple double, but was really there only player that night. Boras was a home game in which was also a nail biter. Their big American broke his hand after attempting to block my shot and his teammate took out his legs. They have a lot of shooters and shot very well the second half.
Personally, I had my best shooting week going 6-10 from the three point line and scoring 20 points on the road on Tuesday and 19 at home on Friday. I have also been able to keep my defense up adding to my steal total and drawing a couple charges.
We play the Boras again, we played them on Friday at home, and then we head to the 2nd place team in the league (Sundsvall). We have lost to them both times this year and there is a very big match up for me. I will have to try and contain the All-star game MVP (Alex Wesby from the states). I got in foul trouble in the first match up.
Butler is now 21-2 and is two games away from tying the best start in school history which we set last year!
Lego turns 50 years old! some cool lego sculptures!
This is BC gone for now
Feb 3, 2008
Hot streak continues!
Hello Everyone,
The week started off with a PR visit to an elementary school. We took tickets that allowed the students and their parents to get into the game Wednesday for free. The papers were signed by different players. Greg’s autograph was a major attention getter. It almost started a fight between two kids because one did not have Greg’s. We quickly squashed that by giving him a paper with Greg’s. We were also fighting off some young girls who loved to show there skills of speaking English. I was yelled at by one of them because she kept speaking Swedish and I said I don’t understand, she then screamed “DON”T YOU SPEAK SWEDISH?” I kindly told her no and then she spoke very good English to me (It was quite comical). They followed us all the way back to the cars before running back into the playground. I really do not understand the school system here. It seems like they are never in school, and they just had kids running all around outside with no teachers around. Maybe the kids our just better mannered here (I doubt it).
I’m not exactly sure who came up with the jokes like “you know you are Blank, when Blank.) , but I was inspired to come up with a list of my own when an event happened in practice, so here goes my top five list of “you know you are in Europe when Blank”.
You know you are in Europe when you warm-up playing Soccer before basketball practice.” (I scored 2 goals, I impressed them).
You know you are in Europe when they have more Café’s then McDonalds.
You know you are in Europe when the police sirens sound like alarm clocks.
You know you are in Europe when you can find a soccer game on TV 24/7.
You know you are in Europe when 10yr olds are smoking and 17yr old are in the club.
Honorable mention: You know you are in Europe when there are 7 different languages being spoken at the dinner table.
I also could not help but notice that my picture is still up on the Butler sports page and The Frankfort times, and I also have been informed that my ad for the Farmers bank is still running. Witch it really makes me wonder why I have not been contacted for some modeling shoots or more commercials. I’m sure they just have not been able to find my number. There is my attempt at humor. I know I will not be taking my act on the road anytime soon.
The all-star game was like any other all-star game, pretty boring. I was wrong about my teammate not making the team. He was on it and actually scored 32 points (8-13 from 3). He should have been the MVP, but the Swedish team lost to The WORLD team 105-101. We also had a teammate in the 3 point contest and he reached the final. He scored 17 on the final run and the American shooter scored 21. There was a snow storm on the way to the game so it took a little longer to get into Stockholm for the game. We did not get as much snow as the Midwest has been getting.
I also visited my first IKEA when a teammate needed curtains and must say I have no idea how people find anything in that store. It took us about 20 minutes just to find out where the curtains were. It is massive 3 stories with displays everywhere. The only IKEA I know in the states is in Chicago. It is a Swedish company and they have a pretty smart layout in the store. Once you are inside there is no turning back. You take an escalator to the third floor and must go through the entire store to exit. It is a very smart strategy and I’m sure it has contributed to extra sales (I bought candles). The prices were very reasonable as well (maybe I will work on a commercial with them).
Team
We have continued are hot streak winning on Wednesday. We have now won 5 out of 6 with the only loss coming to the team tied for first by 3. We are still in fifth place with only a couple games separating 1st-6th place. We have two games this week to wrap up the second round of games. After these games we will have played all 11 teams twice. They then have a system on who travels to where in the third round, and we will play everyone again.
Öresundskraft was a spot behind us when we played them, but now have fallen to 7th. The game was never really close. We took a 9 point lead into half and in the 3rd built it to around 20. Once again we had very balanced scoring with 4 players in double figures and one with 9. We also had a very solid defensive game holding them to 60 points.
Personally, I played 18 minutes and was 4-7 with 10 points. I also added 4 boards and 2 steals, and a block.
On Tuesday we play Akropool who is a team at the bottom. They have the high scorer in the league in Gerald Riley. It will be a big assignment for me has I try to hold him way below his average of 29 pts. His agent is actually one of the partners with my agent and will be at the game to meet me and also check on Gerald. It is a big game in many ways and hopefully I can rise to the challenge.
Butler will also have a huge road test coming up with 3 straight on the road. Valparaiso will be a huge game as it is being nationally televised on ESPN 2.
I would like to send out a special THANK YOU to Mrs. Petty for the card and picture!!
This is BC gone for now
The week started off with a PR visit to an elementary school. We took tickets that allowed the students and their parents to get into the game Wednesday for free. The papers were signed by different players. Greg’s autograph was a major attention getter. It almost started a fight between two kids because one did not have Greg’s. We quickly squashed that by giving him a paper with Greg’s. We were also fighting off some young girls who loved to show there skills of speaking English. I was yelled at by one of them because she kept speaking Swedish and I said I don’t understand, she then screamed “DON”T YOU SPEAK SWEDISH?” I kindly told her no and then she spoke very good English to me (It was quite comical). They followed us all the way back to the cars before running back into the playground. I really do not understand the school system here. It seems like they are never in school, and they just had kids running all around outside with no teachers around. Maybe the kids our just better mannered here (I doubt it).
I’m not exactly sure who came up with the jokes like “you know you are Blank, when Blank.) , but I was inspired to come up with a list of my own when an event happened in practice, so here goes my top five list of “you know you are in Europe when Blank”.
You know you are in Europe when you warm-up playing Soccer before basketball practice.” (I scored 2 goals, I impressed them).
You know you are in Europe when they have more Café’s then McDonalds.
You know you are in Europe when the police sirens sound like alarm clocks.
You know you are in Europe when you can find a soccer game on TV 24/7.
You know you are in Europe when 10yr olds are smoking and 17yr old are in the club.
Honorable mention: You know you are in Europe when there are 7 different languages being spoken at the dinner table.
I also could not help but notice that my picture is still up on the Butler sports page and The Frankfort times, and I also have been informed that my ad for the Farmers bank is still running. Witch it really makes me wonder why I have not been contacted for some modeling shoots or more commercials. I’m sure they just have not been able to find my number. There is my attempt at humor. I know I will not be taking my act on the road anytime soon.
The all-star game was like any other all-star game, pretty boring. I was wrong about my teammate not making the team. He was on it and actually scored 32 points (8-13 from 3). He should have been the MVP, but the Swedish team lost to The WORLD team 105-101. We also had a teammate in the 3 point contest and he reached the final. He scored 17 on the final run and the American shooter scored 21. There was a snow storm on the way to the game so it took a little longer to get into Stockholm for the game. We did not get as much snow as the Midwest has been getting.
I also visited my first IKEA when a teammate needed curtains and must say I have no idea how people find anything in that store. It took us about 20 minutes just to find out where the curtains were. It is massive 3 stories with displays everywhere. The only IKEA I know in the states is in Chicago. It is a Swedish company and they have a pretty smart layout in the store. Once you are inside there is no turning back. You take an escalator to the third floor and must go through the entire store to exit. It is a very smart strategy and I’m sure it has contributed to extra sales (I bought candles). The prices were very reasonable as well (maybe I will work on a commercial with them).
Team
We have continued are hot streak winning on Wednesday. We have now won 5 out of 6 with the only loss coming to the team tied for first by 3. We are still in fifth place with only a couple games separating 1st-6th place. We have two games this week to wrap up the second round of games. After these games we will have played all 11 teams twice. They then have a system on who travels to where in the third round, and we will play everyone again.
Öresundskraft was a spot behind us when we played them, but now have fallen to 7th. The game was never really close. We took a 9 point lead into half and in the 3rd built it to around 20. Once again we had very balanced scoring with 4 players in double figures and one with 9. We also had a very solid defensive game holding them to 60 points.
Personally, I played 18 minutes and was 4-7 with 10 points. I also added 4 boards and 2 steals, and a block.
On Tuesday we play Akropool who is a team at the bottom. They have the high scorer in the league in Gerald Riley. It will be a big assignment for me has I try to hold him way below his average of 29 pts. His agent is actually one of the partners with my agent and will be at the game to meet me and also check on Gerald. It is a big game in many ways and hopefully I can rise to the challenge.
Butler will also have a huge road test coming up with 3 straight on the road. Valparaiso will be a huge game as it is being nationally televised on ESPN 2.
I would like to send out a special THANK YOU to Mrs. Petty for the card and picture!!
This is BC gone for now
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)