The Sad Tale of Luddenscheid

Last Saturday is one to forget. Not the most memorable game we have had this year. All in all it was a struggle both against the other team and for me again against the officials.

Background:

Luddenscheid was tied for fourth in our league and has two league losses. They lost the first two games of the season and have been on a winning streak since then. They have a very good American, which Matt and I played against earlier this summer at a Showcase, and lots of experience from their other players. Their two big guys may be close to seven feet tall and pushing 300+ bills. We were playing without Matt for the most part and at an uphill struggle right from the beginning. Matt is currently going home until January to heal his foot and we have a new guy coming by the name of Tom Conboy, yes the same Conboy that played for Macalester. I'm excited about it.

The Game:

We came out of the gates slow falling into a double digit deficit early. We fought hard during the first half and at one point cut the lead to 3 or 4. Matt actually played for a few minutes in the first half He played an old man game. He couldn't really run so he hobbled from three point line to three point line and actually hit back to back threes. I thought he might go off after that happened.

The story of the game was not our offense being unable to score. We really could score at will but our defense was SOOOOO bad. My humble opinion is that we need everyone to come to practice. It is so different over here. If guys are nicked up at all they take a day off and we have one guy that literally misses all the practices until friday, the day before the game. Its no wonder our defense is bad, we never play together. They were just getting easy bucket after easy bucket. Not to mention they were on fire from three. I think they probably made ten threes in the first half. We helped them on this aspect by leaving shooters wide open.

Honestly, it was embarrassing to get beat down this bad. We have no attitude to stop people on defense and no chemistry. I can't honestly say that if I get beat I know there will be someone there to get my back. I play with different guys every day in practice and sometimes we don't even have 10 guys at practice.

I think that is the beauty of college. You get to play with the same guys for 2-3-4 years and you know them as well as you know yourself, if not better. I know where guys are going to be and I know I can count on them to be there.

Alright, I am going to get off my soap box and try and calm down a bit. The entire second half was us fighting from a 10-20 point deficit never really getting close enough to taste anything. We ended up losing the game 82-104. I can't say I am immune to all this that is happening. My defense definitely has to get better and I can honestly say I have gotten a little lazy on the defensive end since I have been here. Maybe its because I don't have Flommer or Drinks yelling in my ear. I can't say I always took the best shots in the game either. Sometimes frustration and desperation can cloud one's thinking.

The Officials:

Quick note about the officials. I really wish I could stop talking about them but every game something new happens. I picked up three fouls in the first half. All three just playing aggressive defense and I didn't do anything stupid. I really think that if an official doesn't know who to call it on and they see me in the crowd it automatically goes to me. My fourth foul: a guy was going in for a lay-up and I was standing underneath the hoop. I actually said to myself don't pick up a foul just jump straight up and contest. That is what I did, the offensive guy proceeded to hit me in the face with his arm and I get called for the foul. Now wait for my fifth foul, this one is the best. So we got called for some bogus travels. I at this point was getting really upset because we are getting pounded. One of the Luddenscheids big men clearly does the same thing we got called for and got fouled. No travel he actually gets to shoot two shots. This next part was intentional. The ref was standing next to coach. I walk over to coach and start questioning the call saying we got called for that exact same thing three times down there why wasn't that a travel. The ref then turns to me and gives me a technical. No swear words, no direct talking to the ref. 5th foul, see ya.

Well now that I got myself all worked up I am headed to the weight room. Time to put in some work. Sorry this wasn't the happiest post in the world and probably extremely biased but since I am the writer I get to write what I get to be as biased as I want! :)

Ciao

TJW