VS. Brackwede

Hallo again from Deutschland!

This past weekend TV Werne 03 picked up their fifth win of the season by taking down Brackwede at their place. We had our biggest scoring output of the year scoring 109 points but on the other side we gave up 96 points. This is a great formula on how to make coach mad. We managed this scoring hallabalooza even without Matt who's future is right now undetermined. He has been having some intense pain in his foot and recently got an MRI that was not good. It looks like her may be out a minimum of 4 weeks. The orthopedist has yet to comment so hopefully its just nothing because he is a major asset to our team.

Brackwede could be the nicest gym we have played in so far. Besides the Boise State floor (dark blue) and black lines which were very difficult to see, the floor was very springy and they had 10-15 rows of pull-out bleachers. Although this is very common in the U.S., this is something I have yet to see in Germany. For being last place in our league they sure had a nice gym. Remember, nice for Germany has no comparison to nice in the United States. A nice gym in Germany is a glorified elementary school in the United States.

Brackwede gets an A+ for warm-up music. Probably the best warm-up music I have heard over here. The music was all old school house music (there is a difference between house music and techno but we Americans would just call it techno; for an in-depth conversation about house vs. techno music please visit the Amherst Boy's Blog) and then at the end they put Infinity 2008 on repeat. Infinity 2008 is a HIT I mean HIT in our house. The song really gets you amped. Even Marco started dunking in warm-ups when he heard it.
We were definitely ready for this game with the echo of Infinity ringing in our ears; more like flowing in our blood. We jumped out to a 13 point lead right away. T was on fire from long-range and so were the rest of our guards. I may not have gotten past half-court for the first 5 minutes of the game. I would get the rebound toss a long outlet pass to someone who would either shoot a three or make one more pass for a three point shot. We managed to get their big guy, best player, into foul trouble early in the first half so that was a big help to us. We managed to keep a 10-15 point lead most of the first half and went into halftime with a 13 point lead. Now, we simply need to bury this team. Guess what happen! No seriously stop what you are doing and guess!


Ok, now you can continue reading.



The second half was a slightly different story. Like always, we enjoy giving teams a glimpse of victory then ripping it away from them. Simply put, we let Brackwede get to within 3 points of us. This game was actually quite comical at times in terms of the officiating.

A few thoughts on the officiating:
1) They constantly make us tuck our shirts in eventhough the second we start playing they come out. Our away tops are just too small to fit comfortably in our jerseys.

2) It felt like they wanted to keep Brackwede in the game. All of sudden we would just starting getting called for travels, offensive fouls, and they were getting everything. At the end of the third quarter they got a foul and I thought we may be in bonus. I look up and to my surprise that was their 2nd foul of the quarter while we had at least 10. Interesting discrepancy.

3) Refs hate Americans. So, a guy from the other team shot a three and I just put a hand up and touched his arm after he had released the ball. I then proceeded to run back on defense but ended up tripping over the guy who had fallen underneath me. The guy must have stepped wrong or stepped on my foot but he sprained his ankle. I stood next to the guy as he was rolling on the ground in pain. The ref was standing there too and looks at me and says in English "you know what you did." I was like "what are you talking about" but he continued to say "you know what you did." The guy on the ground that hurt his ankle then proceeded to say I didn't do it on purpose and it wasn't my fault. The ref continued to look at me and say "you know what you did" I simply looked at the ref and said "ask him" but obviously the ref didn't know very good English because he continued to repeat his phrase. The ref was then on a vendetta against us for awhile.

4) Anything cool, quick, and athletic is somehow forbidden in Germany. A guy was going up for a lay-up and I came up behind him and smashed the ball, pinning it against the backboard. I guess this is a goal tend in Germany, two points for them. Marko at one point tried to block a shot and slapped the backboard. The ball airballed off the other side of the rim and didn't even touch the backboard. Goaltending, two points. WHAT!!!!!!!

Well we had a game on our hands for the third quarter. The game was close for most of the second half. It wasn't until late fourth quarter where we pulled away and won by 13 or so. Coach was furious at us for keeping the game so close because this was the worst team in our league. They played a 1-3-1 zone that we struggled to get good shots against, not to mention our two best big guys fouled out in the third quarter and I had to play at the 4 position (something I haven't done since college).

Sometimes you just have to say a win is a win and move on. It doesn't matter whether you win by 1 or 50 it still counts as a win. Granted we should have pounded this team by 50 put we put on a good show for the fans and really now that is what the game is all about, entertainment.

As for me, I played well. I had 28 points with a handful of blocks, rebounds and assists but the man of the hour was Tremaine who netted 34 with 5 three pointers (see below). We are both going to need really big games and a solid team effort to win this weekend as Ludenscheid rolls into Werne. They are currently fourth in the league and playing very well.


It should be an exciting weekend!

Adios
TJW