Week 1 of the Big 3 -- Insert Hagen-Haspe

So I lied the other day about putting the game summary up on Wednesday.  If you haven't figured out I make a lot of empty claims you have not been reading long enough.  No worries you will figure it out soon enough.  I do have a good reason but I dont like to make excuses for my sins.  I will throughly make up for it if I get around to putting together some insider video I shot before the game. If I don't get it up I will not make up for it.

As I forshadowed brilliantly in the title this was the first game of the big 3 in December.  Basically we play the top 3 teams, excluding ourselves (in case there was any confusion) during December.  Everyone has been talking about these games before I even came to Germany.  To be honest, I have had children, yes children, messaging me on facebook to inform me how important these games are.  Nothing like a little pressure.  That brings me back to the old adage an old college buddy used to proclaim,

"Cole turns to diamonds under pressure"

Since my names is indeed not Cole nor am I made of coal I like to stick to another saying,

"Pressure either breaks pipes or builds diamonds."

Although I am not a huge diamond lover, cue Blood Diamond here, I am more opposed to breaking pipes so I guess by default I like diamonds, end Blood Diamond here.

The pressure forunately built a fine diamond as we won in convincing fashion 87-76.

We had control of the game right from the tip.  Our lead flucuated between 2-10 points a few times but there was never any real doubt that we might lose the game.  At least from a players standpoint there wasnt, I can not speak for the fans or the coach.

Because of the specialness (yes specialness) of this game we decided to fill up the rest of our team bus with fans.  By we, I am speaking of the management which does not include me so insert they.  But, I was on the bus so I could be included, insert whichever you want.  We were subsequently serenaded for a majority of the 1 hour ride with songs and chants.   All is well for a nice showing of TV Werne faithful in Hagen.  To be honest it really felt like a home game because by my rough estimate I would say the ratio was about 3 to 1 TV Werne fans to Hagen fans. 

I really wanted to get the stats done for this game but because bringing my computer to work all of sudden is  frowned upon, time to work on my laptop is scarce.  Especially when it takes me 12 hours to convert the WHOLE game into DVD format so I can watch it on a screen bigger than 3 x 3.  I emphasized whole because I forgot the second quarter on the two subsequent four hour conversions.  The village idiot may post full stats later.

Our goal for this game was to pound the ball inside, get some easy buckets early and put their posts in foul trouble.  We did a great job of this in addition to shooting the lights out in the first quarter.  No seriously they had to replace all the lights in the gym because everyone had been shot out.  There was a short break in the game.  We scored over 30 points in the first quarter.   Thats over 3 points a minute.  Phenomenal points per minute for all you statisticians out there. 

For Brensley's first game in one and a half years he played really well.  He cáme out of the gates smokin and really helped us build a lead early.  He continues to learn the ins and outs of  playing point guard for our team and also getting used to the European game.  It definiately takes some getting used to and I was very impressed with his first outing.  I think he finished with 16.

Tramaine played a great game for us at the point guard position (when he is not sick I relenquish my dominance at the point to him) eventhough he struggled with the German officiating and fouled out late in the game.  He finished with 28 on a very good shooting performance. 

I, for once, did not have any trouble with the officials and only finished with 3 fouls.  I spent the majority of my night at the free throw line.  I may have shot close to 20 free throws.  I finished the game with 31.  To be honest, I made a living at the line and its a good thing too because my legs for some reason didnt have any bounce or energy at all.  I think the lack of sun out here is really hampering my ability to recover from workouts, seriously.  I have not had good sunshine since I have been out here.  May have to start hitting the tanning bed .

All in all the team played very well defensively.  We kept one of their Americans in check the whole game and didnt let any of the Germans beat us.  Great way to start off the Big 3.

Its mid-week now and we are getting ramped up for our next big game against Luddenscheid this Saturday.  It is home and I've been told lots of sponsors will be attending so a good show is mandatory.  Diamonds.
Next up is the newspaper blog for the week.  Will probably post that tomorrow.  Dont want to put up too much content in one day because this post is ridiculously too long.

Peace, Love, Harmony, Sun and Diamonds.................and SNOW to everyone back home

Trevor

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