100th Post

I just noticed before I started writing that today is my 100th post.  So, I guess its happy century mark to my blog.  I dont think there is a better way to celebrate this special occasion than talking about a long overdue game, which I should have talked about two days ago.  Better late thán never right? I knew zou would agree with me.

Basketball:

Playing with Children

TV Werne (TVW) took the floor tonight with little resistance.  Paderborn Baskets jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead.  This would be the only lead Paderborn would have as TVW exploded on an 18-0 run to put the game finishing the first quarter with a 28-14 lead at the end.  After the first there was no looking back for TVW who subsequentially used extensive bench play throughout the rest of the game.  Werne's aggressive guard play was the catalyst to the 90:66 victory.  Paderborn's guards were simply too young and inexperienced to handle the suffocating Werne pressure.  Five players scored in double figures on the night for TVW.  Wittwer lead all scorers with 20, followed by Haywood and Aaron with 15 and 14 respectively, and finally Niehüser and Freienstein with 11 and 10. 

This was a good team win.  The younger players were able to see significant minutes and display their improvment for the less than stellar crowd. "I love when we can get those guys that work hard for us everyday in practice some time to shine, they deserve it," said Wittwer.  Werne definitely came and took care of business early and without remorse.  They hope to repeat that performance tomorrow when they travel to Ibbenburen who currently sits in fifth place in the conference.  Ibbenburen has proven to be a difficult place to play for TVW in previous years.  Just last year TV Werne went down to the wire but were saved by the magic fingers of beloved TVW alum Matt Goldsmith with a last second tip-in.  TVW will finish up their week of practice tonight and are looking forward to the road test on Saturday evening. -TjW-   

My Comments:

It was honestly like playing with children.  This team was very young as this is the second team for thier Bundesliga game.  The paper said they left a few of their guys at home as well.  Whatever excuse you might want to make the bottom line is that we went on an 18-0 run in the first quarter and then it was game over.  The starters played limited minutes and the young guys got some time to shine.  I was a little dissappointed with the crowd but it was expected we were going to win by a substantial margin.  And we did not disappoint.

The game itself was pretty boring, but it was good to get a good run in.  Our pressure is what gave us such a lead.  Their guards were simply too young, too inexperienced, and lacked proper fundamentals to break out pressure.  We simply exploited this with our quickness which lead to a lot of easy buckets.

Tramaine did throw a very nice alley-oop to me of which the aftermath can be see below. 

TJW 

In case you are practicing your German here are newspaper article links:

WA

Ruhr

TV Werne: 83 Dortmund: 64

Professionalish Sounding Quick Game Recap

Coastmode
TV Werne came out to a fast start in the first quarter but then cooled towards the end allowing Dortmund a two point lead at the end of the first.  The second quarter was the turning point of the game as TV Werne outscored Dortmund 29:12.  The second half was nothing short of mediocre as TV Werne maintained its lead built by an explosive second quarter.  TVW coasted to a cool 19 point victory in its final game of the first half of the season to remain unbeaten and on top of the league.  TVW simply had too many weapons for Dortmund to stop with four players scoring in double figures.

My Comments/Extremely Biased Game Recap

After about the second quarter every one into coast mode and maintained a comfortable lead.  They simply were not very good.  The best part about playing over here is that some coaches have the audacity to say ignorant and almost idiotic things in the paper that not only made themselves look bad but completely discredit anything they may do as a coach.

Before I get into the fun part of this blog, I'll just throw out a few comments about the game.  After watching the film we did not play that well.  We played well enough to win but anywhere close to our potential.  You could definately tell we were content with a 20 point lead in the second half.  Everyone had their moments but it wasn't even close to a consistent 40 minutes of focused effort, maybe 20 and I think that is even being generous.  The be honest the game was over at halftime.     

Back to the fun part.  Here is a quick synopsis of what the Dortmund coach decided to say after the game.  He basically said that our pressure was disrespectful to the word "press." He also stated that Recklinghausen and Hagen were better teams than us.     

This is why I try not to read the paper because of idiotic and senseless comments which can not be rationalized by any factual information.  My good Sir, here is my questions to you "did you even watch the game?"

My letter to the coach:

Dear Mr. Dortmund Coach 

I advise you to watch the game or even the game film before you decide to make comments about the game.  I think it would be agreeable if you decided to coach your own team instead of attempting to disregard a team that just pounded you by a convincing 20 points.  And might I add, would have been a lot more had we not had any sportmanship and kept the game reasonable, which I am finding to be a significant shortcoming in many coaches I run into. 

If our press was so dispicable, what does that say about your team's excessive turnovers (if I had to venture a guess 20+) and offensive execution.  Bigger problems may exist with your own team but sure, blame your poor offensive production and "forced" turnovers on our inability to run a press and play defense. I do, although, thank you for allowing me to re-live my football days as a cornerback intercepting passes and taking them to the house. 

How about taking responsibility for your own team and possible lack of preparation instead of demeaning your opponent.  As well, I find it very difficult to say that Team B and C are better than team A when Team A has beaten both Teams B and C.  If I am missing something in my math, please let me know. 

In the end, it is indeed "a game."  After you played tag with some children and were unable to catch them would you rationalize this by saying "I could not catch them because they were too slow and it doesn't matter because Freddy and Jimmy are faster anyways even after Freddy and Jimmy lost in a race to the other children.  Then follow up with a few demeaning comments, maybe about their mothers." Come on, have a little class, shake hands with your opponent, but if you continue to sulk on the side and force players to come to you that is your image.  Also, when you get pounded, look to help your team and try to refrain from demeaning your opponent on a public forum which in essence is demeaing your own team.  I am looking forward to us meeting again.

Good Day.
TJW

P.S. If you do continue to dimish the affects of your losses and attack the opponent, at least do it in a way that does not weaken the integrity or amplify the weaknesses of your own team.

Newspaper Blog: Christmas in the Airport or at Home?

I figured you need a little Christmas cheer so here is one of the articles I did for the newspaper right before Christmas or right after.  I don't remember.

I hope you ventured out into the cold to throw a snowball or two at the neighbors during the first real snowfall. I know a few of connected with friends. I do hope it stays through the week because “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” for you, because it’s almost guaranteed in Minnesota.

Wow, what an eventful last couple days. I began to contemplate this article sitting and observing at Amsterdam Airport. I had a lot of time on my hands as I was waiting for planes to never arrive. Unfortunately, I have to finish in a Holiday Inn instead of my home. I still love snow nonetheless.

Stress causes people to do crazy things

As I sat in the airport I was able to indulge in a favorite pastime of mine, people watching. One thing that really struck me was how stress causes people to do crazy things. I saw on multiple occasions people fight, argue, and push. Civilized manner was thrown to the curb and people resorted to truly animalistic behavior. Right before I was ready to give up on all civilization I was the recipient of a random act of kindness that kept me from writing off humans during Christmas time forever.

So there I was, seated next to a garbage can looking like a homeless guy talking to a computer. Mind you, I was actually talking to my mother on the internet but at a glance I probably did look a little crazy. I was telling her I hoped to be home by Christmas time but had no idea when I would leave the airport. After I finished talking a lady approached me. She told me, if I could not get home for Christmas I must call her and come to her home. She had a couple boys my age and I was not going to celebrate Christmas alone.

Amazing act of kindness for a complete stranger

This was a complete stranger inviting another complete stranger into her home for Christmas. She had no idea who I was but she knew I might not get home for Christmas and she would not allow it. What an amazing act of kindness for a complete stranger. I was at a loss for words but managed to squeak out a “Thank You.”

The holidays and travel is a recipe for stress. Don’t let a few moments of stress cloud the real meaning of Christmas time: selflessness, love, and peace. Nothing brightens someone’s day more than a random act of kindness. Give it a try.

Have a very Merry Chrismas!
TJW

CARL, its good to see you

Hello, my name is Trevor.  Its been too long so I felt like I should introduce myself again just in case anyone forgot.  I'm sorry that I had not written sooner but here are my pathetic reasons why I was too lazy to do so.

1.  Like a genius I forgot my computer in Aberdeen, SD of all places.  South Dakota is also prone to snowstorms so delivery was extremely delayed.  I do have some reservations with the delivery system though.  I think an illerate monkey could fly a hot air balloon around the world in the time it took my computer to go across the state of Minnesota.  What ever happened to the ruggedness of the mailman, through wind, snow and rain anyone?  You have become weak Mr. Mailman.  You and your posh UGG boots.

2.  Because of jet "lag" we have been coming into work a little late and so the percentage of "me" time (blog, facebook, random internet surfing etc...) has greatly shifted to "them" time (work, random google seraching, pulling my hair out etc...).  I have not found the time out of pure laziness to fit it into my schedule yet.  Facebook messages took precidence, sorry.

This is why I write you today with such vigor.  My time away has shown me how much I missed you.  Now what have you missed in the meantime?

Tangent:  Sometimes I am very inefficient and do a bunch of things at one time.  Like right now I went away from writing for over a half and hour to check scores I forget to check earlier.  Every blue moon my tactics pay off and today was one of them.  I had completely forgotten that GAC played UST last night and I started to get sweaty palms like a little school girl going to the first day of class.  When I finally navigated to the website my knocking knees turned into shear jubliation when when I read the score 56-51.  Great stuff.  On top of the conference baby, its almost like I never left.  I worked out with a couple of the guys this summer and I know the preparation they put into this upcoming season and I love it when those kind of people reap big rewards.  They deserve it. GAC, GAC, GAC!!

Well I am starting to get short on time and since my computer will arrive later this week I am going to give a buck shot approach on new happenings.

1.  It took me around 28 hours without including the time change to get all the way to Werne from Minneapolis.  I had a nice surprise when I got to London.  "Sir, your flight is cancelled."  My thoughts, "well at least I made it to Europe."  This was then followed with "Well, the next flight is at 4 this afternoon and we cannot guarantee it wont be cancelled, just watch the screens." My thoughts, "Im hungry but at least I am in Europe. Wait did she say 4 in the afternoon, what the H am I going to do in the London airport for 8 hours." Hello Tipping Point.  Good book by the way.

Fun Surprise:  As I was boarding the plane I saw a familiar black man and voila it was Tramaine.  That was nice. 

2.   I missed practice Saturday evening because of my late arrival.  Then on Sunday had to play a game against Recklinghausen, a team we had just beaten before I left but probably the best team we had played all year.  Taking into account all our foreign players arrived on Saturday, jet leg, and numerous other factors, we played alright.  We came back from an 18 point deficit in the second half to cut it to 2 but simply did not have enough power to get over the hump.  Fouls and desparate heaves by us late pushed the score back to 15 as a final.  The last couple minutes of the game got pretty chippy.  Recklinhausen doesnt ever want to shut their mouth so naturally a few altercations occurred.

Word to the wise:  If you are winning by a considerable amount and have the ability to run the clock out,  DO NOT try and score in the last couple seconds of the game or you will get  hammered!  Why will you get hammered? Because its disrespectful!

Case and point:  A guy tried to score with a few seconds left in the game and I hammered him.  There is no way I will be disrespected on our home court.  SORRY BUD!  It was my fifth foul and a flagrant so I willingly took a seat after a lengthy conversation with one of their players.

3.  I hurt my back in the game.  I am currently on high doses of ibprofuen and muscle relaxants and I have been limited in practice all week.  We will see what this weekend brings. 

4.  I have so many crazy stories about this game but they will have to wait for another time.  I have a meeting to attend.

Good to have you back,
Trevor