Computer CRASH

There must be something about our flat and computers. Matt's computer crashed last month and now mine has been on the fritz lately and finally said "I WILL NOT START WINDOWS" not literally but in computer language. Luckily, Matt and Tremaine's work has an IT department so it has been incapacitated for the past two weeks. I guess the lady has been having all sorts of troubles with it so that is why its taking so long. I plan to get back to my blogging ways here soon. I have a lot to write about so check in in the next couple days to see if anything has happened. That is if my computer returns today.

Update

Hey Everyone! Its been awhile since I have written a blurp so I decided since my fingers are not quite at frost bite stage that I will pound out a few keys. Nothing exciting has been happening here since we haven't had any games. During the next three weeks all the schools are on holiday so since we use their gyms we don't really have games. Coach does plan to play a few exhibition games next week to keep our rhythm as he likes to call it.

The last week has just been military training. We rarely touch a ball until the end of practice. Today we did agility drills for an hour and a half. I guess he feels that some people on our team are a little out of shape. I can't really disagree with him but I would love to touch a ball every once in awhile, this is basketball right?

Currently we are practicing in this dinky gym that doesn't even have three point lines. I don't even think the hoops are ten feet as we can adjust them at will with the crank on the wall. One of the hoops we always put down to four feet so Coach's little kid Marko can shoot. He is one of the coolest little kids I know. He loves basketball and comes to almost every practice.

Yesterday we had to opportunity to scrimmage against a pro A team called FC Shalke. The crazy thing is Brady Brink who played at Saint Johns is playing for them. We actually guarded each other for a majority of the time and i was able to catch up with him a bit before and after the scrimmage. He seems to be really liking it there and we plan to meet up again when both of our scedules allow it.

It was alot of fun to play against a team that was a few levels higher than us. It really taught us about our team. Shalke all-around had much better athletes which is understandable because they had five + ?? foreign players on thier team. There is no limit on foreign players in pro A. They also had much more basketball knowledge than many of the players on our team which makes sense because much of thier guys are older. I feel talent wise though I could definately play with these guys. I didn't feel out of my league at all. For whatever that is worth.

Well my hands are now frost bitten and I am going inside before my computer freezes. Off to Amsterdam!!

Tschuss
TJW

Cup Game # 2

First off, I made it to Espana safe and sound. The flight was uneventful but I got off the city bus a little early so I had a long hike to my hotel. At least in Spain I can somewhat understand things and am at least able to order at a restaurant. The walk wasn't bad I got to walk along the beach and it was really nice. Germany must follow me everywhere because it was raining here when I got off the plane. I guess the good Lord just wanted me to feel at home. At least I didn't have to wear my winter jacket and a stocking cap.

I should probably start today by explaining the cup system. Cup games do not count toward our regular season record but is rather just a massive tournament between all the teams in our area of Germany in all divisions. Our first two cup games were against teams in leagues lower than us and we won both. Now we will most likely play teams in leagues higher than us and if we keep winning possibly a bundesliga team or pro A team, who knows. I believe coach said we are in the quarterfinals now of our cup games. I think then the winner of each are will then play each other for an overall Germany champion. I believe that is how it works but am now quite sure. If I find out any more information I wll let you know.

Back to the game. the gym we played in was very cool. Slightly bigger than some we have played in at the fans sat way up off the court probably 15 ft or so. The floor wasn't so nice, not yet played on nor seen a wood floor in Germany. The rims though were so soft that if the ball touched the rim it would drop about 2 inches. Good for shooters and we took full advantage.

I can't even remember the name of the team that we played but they were in a league below us and I guess fairly dominate and want to move up into our league.

TV Werne 03 did not come out to play like we should. We just played hard enough to stay within a few points of them. Honestly I never thought we were going to lose the game at any point, even when we were down 8 or 9 points in the second half. This team was slightly older and reminded me of like a city men's league team. As always they were very good shooters and they had some trees inside. Our starting center was sick and one of our back-up centers was injured so my boy Marko had to play serious time under the basket.

We were able to run whenever we wanted and our athleticism was by far superior but they made three after three after three and that is what kept them in it. It wasn't until the fourth quarter when we made a huge run and took the life out of them to go up by 20. Our pressure defense is what really fueled the run and we knocked down a few shots and thats really what did it for us.

We ended up winning the game 98-80 something. All of us just wanted to get out of there and get on with our lives. The whole game was a mental battle but we made it through and moved on with our lives.

Funny Story: The refs continue to talk to us in German thinking we will understand. We have away jerseys that are slightly small. That meanst that our tops come untucked frequently. The refs over here insist that our jerseys are always tucked in. One time the ref was inbounding the ball and everyone on our team had our jerseys untucked. Right now we have 3 americans and 1 serbian on the who don't speak or understand a lick of German. The refs continue to talk to us in German with us responding "we do not understand, we do not speak German." This seemed to have no affect on them and maybe if they talked more German to us we might finally understand, so they continued to talk to us in German. We continue to give them blank stares and finally after at least a couple minutes of this they start demonstrating how to tuck in a jersey and the light bulb kicks on in all our heads. I don't know what it is but when we speak english to the officials it means we don't know German, they obviously think we still do. I don't know.

Adios de Espana
TJW

P.S.
I just want to give a public thanks to J for letting me stay at his house, for waking up to take me to the airport at 4 in the morning and hopefully pick me up from the airport on monday. Thanks J, now get some sleep.

Game 3 vs Munster - Recap

I never really know what to expect going into a game. Coach had been talking about his game for two weeks and we had been preparing for this team for two weeks now so I knew it was a big game. I don't think I was prepared for the physicality this game was going to present. This team looked just like everyone else except this team had a little swagger too them. Many times by looking at how a team warms-up one can tell whether they are decent or not. To add more flavor to the game Munster has already declared that they want to move up to the 1.Regionallia league (we are currently in the 2.Regionallia league). I guess to do this they have beefed up their team a bit with players from higher leagues and some foreign players. The only way to move up is to win the league.

I should probably take a moment to explain the league system in Germany. It is much different than the U.S. Here in Germany basketball is not affiliated with schools like in the States. Here there are club teams. 4 or 5 club teams can all exist in the same city. The league breakdown over here from top to bottom is Budesliga, Pro A, Pro B, 1.Regionallia, 2.Regionallia, Oberliga ect... I guess there are like 6 or 7 different levels. This system is all interconnected. Usually the top team in each league will move up to the next higher league and teams that are last in one league will be bumped down a league. Each league has its own rules on foreign players. Basketball is not as popular in Germany as it is in the U.S. A Bundesliga game (the highest level in Germany) I have been told only attracts around 5000 people a game. Nothing like the huge NBA areas we see.

One thing that I am going to start doing throughout my blogs is add pictures to spice things out and add links to make it easier for the you the reader to get the full experience. I don't know if any of you have ventured to our team website but here is the picture of our team. To the right of me is Matt Goldsmith one of the guys I live with and next to him is Marko my roomate and the black guy in the front row is Tremaine Aaron the other American that lives with us. Our coach Ivan is on the far right of the picture. Our team gets along really well and plays well together. Not only do we see each other during practice but hang out on the weekends together as well. The guys are all really cool. I also really like the guys I live with which makes living over here alot easier.



Ok, now to get to the actual game. Back to Munster. The gym was packed and fans in Germany take cheering to a whole new level. Drums, confetti, horns, basically anything that makes noise was brought into the gym. From the first possesion I knew this was going to be a battle. This may have been the most physical game I have ever played in. For those you that really know me know that I have played in some physical games throughout high school and college (think: pipestone section championship game or any game in the MIAC during the playoffs) NOW multiple that by two. This game resembles an American Football game. I like to refer to this team as simply a bunch of thugs. They were all a bunch of bruisers who just wanted to push people around. They were not small either. I bet most of their guys were pushing 220. I hit the ground probably ten or more times which is unusual even for me. I had guys pinching me when I posted up and blatantly just shoving in my back on rebounds. Even after one secured a rebound he would have to endure a few slaps before he had the ball secured.

1st Half:
The craziest half of my life. I managed to pick up four fouls in the first half (actually I had five but they forgot to count one of my first ones :) ) At least three of the fouls were absolute ludacris. I feel like european officials have never experienced athleticism before and all blocks were fouls. I was getting called for touchy fouls when I was getting "taken out behind the wood shed for a beat down" on drives and rebounds. After my fourth foul my boy Matt just started screaming at me to get out of the game. Coach then decided it would be a good idea to take me out of the game. I really wasn't complaining because I didn't want to sit on the bench. Well eventhough our offense struggled throughout the first half our defense was good enough to keep us within three.

Side note: I could not make a free throw to save my life, but I was not alone in our team struggled from the line and shot under 40% for the game. If we would have made free throws we could of run away with the game.

I don't know what it was about the first half but everyone from both teams was a little hot. I got into squabbles with the other team on a few different occasions. It was actually kind of amusing because they would try and talk smart in english and it really does work well for one to trash talk in a second language.


2nd Half:
Ivan makes a smart coaching decision and had me sit for the entire third quarter. The team really battled in the third quarter and kept the game close. They played great defense and hit big shots when they needed to. We had a lot young guys step up and make plays for us which was awesome. As long as the game was close I was ok with sitting on the bench. At the beginning of the fourth I got to return to the game. We started to open up a substantial lead, maybe eight or so but this team was extremely dangerous especially from behind the three point line. Inevitably I picked up my fifth foul with about two and a half minutes on a charge about 15 meters from the hoop. Terrible call (of course right? :) )

Side Note: Officials over here LOVE LOVE charges. I have never seen so many offensive fouls in my life. They also love the travel. Everything is a travel. When someone passes to me as I am running I must slap the ball to the ground so that I don't get called for traveling. I can't catch and dribble I have to slap it to the ground. I think they love calling traveling on Americans too. :) Actually I think they love calling everything on Americans. Maybe I am just biased.

Funny Story: After one of our games Tremaine went to one of the officials and asked why the open step was a travel. An open step is when I have the ball with a left foot pivot. I can't go to my right leading with my right foot and dribble as my right foot contacts the ground. I must cross over my left foot with my right and dribble to my left. The ref explained this to Tremaine as unfair to the defender. Basically he is saying people are too slow to stop the open step. The open step is legal in the states and is a great move that works really well. Treamaine and I thought this was amusing that he would say its unfair to the defender.

Back to the game: We struggled with free throws down the stretch and they hit a couple threes to put them within one. Matt sealed the game with his two missed free throws and rebound which can be seen here. (Click on the word here to go to the link; if you ever see an underlined and discolored word click on it because its a link to somewhere). In the previous video you also get to see the crazy celebration we do after each win with our fans. Words do not give justice to this celebration.

The newspaper website also has the article of the game and also pictures along with some video from the game.

Recap: We played subpar but our effort is what really made the difference. We had young guys step up and play really well for us. Our defense is what won the game for us. That was our first test and now we have a couple weeks off of league games and come back with Hagan the other team wanting to move up leagues. We do have a Cup game (I will explain cup games at another time) on Wednesday but I will try and write about that one from Alicante, Spain. I am headed to visit Anna for the weekend. Relax on the beach for a while.

T'schoos from Germany

Game 3 vs Munster

Awesome Game. This team is really good. I get four garbage fouls in the first half. I foul out of the game with 2 and half minutes left. We WIN by won 81-80. Defense was awesome. Offense couldn't hit anything. Biggest win of the season!! More details to come. Too much oktoberfest to celebrate.