Let the Season begin

Hello Everyone,

I guess I have to start off by talking about the big win. We opened up the season on Saturday with a home game against a good team with a good reputation. We were a big underdog from what I understood. That is why you play games right, no one wins championships on paper.

We started off pretty slow, I think it had a lot to do with the nerves and excitement. They ran off to an early 10 point lead and kept it most of the first into the second quarter. We started a little run in the second and evened the score before they hit a last second shot to go into halftime. The second half started out much like the first were they built an early lead. We closed the gap in the fourth and it was a very entertaining fourth quarter. The lead changed hands all the way to the end of the game where they missed a game winning three from one of there best shooters. Kevin hit 2 free throws to put us up by two with three seconds left before they missed the shot.

Personally, I had a decent game. I came off the bench and picked up a foul the very first play (they made the shot too). Then I came down and airballed a floater. I was thinking it was going to be a long night, but I settled down and knocked down 2 threes in the first half. The second half was much better as I hit two more threes and scored a couple baskets along with a steal. I finished the game with 17 points. The disappointing thing was my foul shots where I was 1-3. We travel 10 hours on Tuesday to play on Wednesday. I defiantly like the start of the season where we play two games a week.

Outside of basketball it was a very good week. One of the big events of the week was playing a game with the sponsors in front of some fans. It was pretty comical to see some of these ppl try to play. I have never seen basketball look as bad as these guys made it look. My team was on the losing end of the game, but it was fun none the less.

It was also a good week for food as Armando (Greek chef) cooked another fabulous meal. I also gave an attempt at being a chef when I made some fish stuffed with spinach/cream cheese. I also cooked up some lightly fried garlic fish one night. Growing up dinner was usually homemade and it was conversation hour so I’m usually the most homesick when I sit down to these WONDERFUL meals I make;)

I also tried out two restaurants in town. An Italian place called Bella Vista and The Grill House. Bella Vista was the place we ate after the game. It was pretty good except the portion was pretty small for an Italian restaurant or maybe Maggiono’s spoiled me. Sunday the guy who picked us up from the airport (Michael) invited Drew and I to dinner and chose the grill house. This was also a really good meal of some pork steak and potatoes. I also forgot to mention that I ate at a Chinese restaurant last week that was pretty good. It was like any other Chinese restaurant you go to with out a buffet where you just hope to get the right thing. It is kind of like playing the lottery because sometimes you are going to get something you really like and the next time you may get some thing you hate.




Until next time!

This is BC gone for now

The champs are here!

Hello Everyone,

Well I have to start out by correcting the last post where I stated that it was a 14 hour trip, Coach was sure to point out to me that it was only 13 hours. Apparently he reads the blog to make sure I’m not saying anything about him. It was the longest bus trip I believe I have been on. I mean I could have flew home and been half way back. The trip was not terrible, we watched a couple movies, one called almost famous that I have never seen but was really good. When we got into Czech there were some nice views as we drove through mountains and valleys. We stayed at a “Club Tennis Hotel” which was like any other hotel only that it had like 8 clay tennis courts and a stadium court as well. I saw on the wall where they had some past winners for the Nokia cup, the only name I recognized was Martina Hingis.

The gym we played in was right down the street from the hotel. It was not a huge gym but the floor and goals were nice. The tournament had 4 teams from four different countries in it. Slovakia, Austria, us, and the host team (Czech Republic). We really never had a much of a challenge blowing out all three teams by over 20.

Friday we played the Slovakian team that had one American as there point guard. They were not on our level at all as we breezed through winning by 40 some points. I put a good game together scoring 17 points in a variety of different ways. There really is not much I can say about this game only that we are starting to really gel as a team.

Saturday we played the host team who had a decent team. I believe they had three Americans, the one most people would know is Shaun Pruitt from Illinois University. We played an even first half I believe taking a one point lead into halftime. The third quarter we came out and jumped on them and put the game away early. I believe we outscored them 25-5 in the third quarter. I got off to a fast first half again scoring nine points, but ended the game with that as well. Again I believe our defense is really going to be the key to our victories. I’m not 100% on the stats but I think only one team has scored more then 70 points against us.

We had already locked up first place in the tournament before Sunday unless the team could beat us by over 50 points. The good thing was we did not take that for granted and came out a played another well executed game winning by 21 points. I played well defensively, but the shot was a little off again in this game. I was 1-4 from three and like 2-5 from the 2 finishing with 8 points. They gave us a basket of goodies and a Vase for a trophy. It looked like they went and took it out of an old ladies house of course emptying the water and flowers first. Kevin Hamilton was the MVP also getting a basket of goodies.

Even though the teams were not on our level yet we still put together three good games together which is the perfect time as we have one of the biggest games to start the season on Saturday. The team is called Anwil and is considered to be a contender come playoffs. It is home which is good since we have traveled every weekend this preseason. If we keep playing the defense the way we have shown and play together on the offensive end I believe we can also be a contender for the title.

Until next time!

This is BC gone for now

Something is going to go right!

Hello Everyone,

Maybe some of you noticed the video tours I posted, which means I finally got internet in my apartment. I’m sure the videos would have been better without the commentary. The internet is called I-plus which is like a sprint card you plug into your computer. It is handy especially on road trips, but the down side is it is not very strong. I tried to fix this by updating it to the newer version they have out and I accidentally deleted the whole program. I do not have the software for the program so who knows how long it will take to get that back up and running so I’m back in “Crazy Park”.

The week was pretty low key, but did include a very good dinner at coach’s friend’s house. The coach, two other teammates, and I went over to the Greek chef’s house. He works on a charter boat as a chef and married a polish woman which is what brought him to Poland. He cooked us some spiced up pasta noodles with potatoes and “sweet water” fish. I guess that is how fresh water translates into English. We also had some white wine which reminded me of Loren. When he worked at Flemings he had to memorize which wines went with what. Well anyway this wine was good with the fish. For the most part I have just been cooking at home trying to save some of the money. I really miss the free meals in Sweden. The coach has mentioned something he is trying to work out where we would get like one or two meals a week either free or very cheap. I will take either!!

We traveled this weekend for some more games. The original plan was to have a tournament at our place, but the club only invited one team. The good thing would have been we could not have finished lower then second. So anyway we ended up traveling to this team’s home gym to play in a charity game on Friday night and then play them again in the morning on Saturday. The trip was about five hours, which is not terrible but it seems like we have just been living on the road. We travel to Czech Republic next weekend which is another 14 hours or so bus ride. What makes these trips even worse is Poland does not have any interstates so you’re traveling down bumpy two lane roads through town after town. If I took the interstates for granted I will not make that mistake again.

My ankle has still been giving me trouble and I think I tried to come back too early playing in the games the weekend before. I ended up sitting out both games this weekend in attempt to get the ankle at 100%. It is not something I want to battle during the season and with it rapidly approaching I thought it would be best to rest it. It is feeling much better and I will be practicing again on Monday and playing in Tuesday game against a D-2 team AT OUR GYM.

The team played very well this weekend though. We won both games pretty convincingly. We played very good defense again and played well together. There were some highlight dunks that were Sportscenter worthy. Skip had a tip dunk on two players off a missed shot and sefton (Canadian who played at central Michigan) had a steal and a crazy dunk. There is one aspect of this team that is similar to Sweden where everyone has the potential to be in double digits every game. Five guys averaged over 12 last year and I believe there is a very good chance that there will be five or six players on this team averaging that.

I’m looking forward to getting back to practicing and playing multiple games feeling 100% and actually being able to move.

Until next time!

This is BC gone for now

TOURS!

Can I stay healthy?!

Hello Everyone,

Well, I have had about a week now to get accounted with the city. It is not a huge city, but does have a nice downtown area with lots of fountains and park areas. It has a small river or a canal running through the town, and I’m assuming into the ocean. I am not 100% on that. The city has tried to forget its communist past with adding a lot of colors to the apartments and rebuilding a lot of them however there are still reminders that the communist reign had its grips here with the tall blocked shape apartments. There ugly grey color rising 14 to 20 stories in the air. From what they have told me kolozberg used to belong to Germany.

I have been spending some time in the wireless park since I’m still waiting for internet in my apartment. The park seems to attract the crazies more then the computers. I have proof to back this statement up, first starting with the lady who was walking a ferret on a leash. She was saying it did not bite in polish over and over (a polish teammate was with us). Then the next thing you know it bit Drew in the toe. She must not be a very good ferret trainer. Second incident involved four of us. A drunken guy came stumbling over to Skip and Drew on their park bench with his hands together bowing and then began to ask questions. They could not understand him very well through is broken English. Once they ignored him long enough he came over to me and the polish teammate (dawid, not spelled wrong the polish way of spelling it). He was just standing there when I said “save it”, something concerning my computer and he asked “what **** kind of word is save it”. He then asked “what the #### are you guys doing in Paris” again in broken English and a mumble. We tried our best to ignore him, but skip pulled out his video camera and started recording. We left shortly after that so the man could get to sleep on his park bench. The third incident involved alcohol again only it was like 7 in the evening when three guys came stumbling through the park. They decided to use the restroom outside, which is fine except they went behind a bench with four older ladies and were clearly visible. They said something to the men and they all started conversation. I wish I could have understood because everyone in the park was laughing including the women on the bench. Those are the only stories I have from “Crazy Park” right now, but the other odd thing was my computer was the only computer out of 7 teammates to connect to the wireless. Sometimes older is better!!

We traveled about an hour in half for a tournament this past weekend. I can’t even spell the town because I don’t have the proper letters on the keyboard. It is funny to think about that I’m at all these different cities and I could not even get back there on my own if I tried or even pronounce the names correctly. We played Friday night and drove back, then played Saturday and Sunday staying over Saturday night. I would have rather drove back on Saturday night as well due to the hotel they put us in. It was about 20 minutes from the gym we were playing at. When you first walked in you had to dodge the pool table to get to reception, then at reception it was a desk with no computer, no phone, and no drawers. I forgot my camera, but the lobby and the room were defiantly picture worthy. The room itself had four beds and a table with two plastic lawn chairs in the middle of the room. I don’t think you can actually call these beds either they were more like glorified park benches. It had a piece of wood in the middle of the bed that stuck up. Even if you could fall asleep on them we then had to listen to a wedding reception that was occurring directly below us until like 3 AM (we played at 11 am on Sunday). I think drew and I spent about 20 minutes just laughing wondering if it was a dream or if we were on the show “Punked”. The only good thing was they did have a LAN cord to get on the internet and we watched some of the college football games that were on.

As for the basketball we played five games last week. We played Sunday and Tuesday both at home winning one and ending in a tie on the other one (it was preseason so we did not play overtime). I did not play in either one, but we seemed to only play well for one half. Luckily it did not hurt us in either of these games, but it did come back to get us in the tournament this past weekend.

We played Friday night against the host team and had a rather good first half. The start of the third quarter decided the game where they started on a 12-0 run in the first four minutes and we never recovered. It was a similar situation in the second game where we played another good first half and just came off really slow in the third. It also did not help that we shot absolutely terrible both games in the second half. My game was defiantly off as I am still recovering from the ankle injury. I was a step slower and my shot was just off. I believe I shot 2-14 from 3 and like 4-11 on 2’s for all three games. My luck with injuries has also been terrible as I got kicked in the eye on Saturday night’s game and have a black eye. I would like to describe how this happened but it would just confuse you. The good thing was we blew out the team Sunday morning. We put two good halves together and played well together. Our defense has been outstanding holding team to under 65, we were just struggling shooting which I don’t feel will continue. We have about two weeks or three until the season starts which is plenty of time to work on our stuff and feel comfortable with everyone.

This week will be all practices and we are supposed to host a tournament next weekend, but they are not sure if that is a go. Monday is something they have labeled as “Ziby Day”. Ziby is our trainer and we will be getting treatments, massages, and getting in the whirlpool.

I would like to give special congratulations to my cousin who got married this weekend!

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mother and step farther as they share the same birth date! (Sep 6th) And MORGIE (Sep 9th) on her 24th. Love ya babe!

I would like to thank those who have left comments on the blog as well. It is always nice to read those!

Pictures include a teammate’s apartment balcony where he hosted a cookout, and my black eye

As soon as I get internet in my apartment I will upload the video of my apartment.

Until next time!

This is BC gone for now