Polish Cup Champs!!!

It has been eons since my last update and I am long overdue but what better time than after thrilling victories against last years top two clubs, Asseco Prokom and Anwil, to bring home the Polish Cup Championship!!!

Champs!

For a little bit of background information, the Polish Cup is a tournament where all teams from Poland, including those in the lower divisions, are able to participate. It has been ongoing over the past 4 months. Our team went undefeated throughout the original stages, and then again in the group stage and advanced to the single elimination format of the quarterfinals this past Wednesday where we faced a familiar opponent in Poznan. Poznan features Coach Bogicevic who lead Polpharma to a bronze medal last year. The team also hosts several former Polpharma players. We had already met twice previously this year in the regular season and split the series, each winning on the others home court. Fortunately we were able so host Poznan on our home court and won handily the game 71-62. You can watch a highlight clip of this victory made by Lukasz Sliwa here.

Starting 5

The final four of the Polish Cup was being held at the 9 time Polish League champions gym, Asseco Prokom. Asseco Prokom is undoubtedly the powerhouse team in the Polish league and features several former NBA players and quite an impressive roster of domestic, and other European, athletes. The tournament atmosphere was fun as we watched Anwil win over Trefl prior to our tip-off. Our fans were in full force, as they always are, and with their loud cheers we felt that we had the home court advantage. Skiba sparked our offense in the first half off. Our defense was stifling and we scrapped our way to a 39-34 advantage at the intermission.

Going for the block!

The second half was a war as we battled for each rebound and each basket. Prokom was lead by newly acquired Tommy Adams, another Virginia native, who was hitting jump shot after jump shot. Just as everyone thought they would impose their will on us with a four point lead, we turned up the defense and fought back to take a lead. With less than 30 seconds remaining, Uros Mirkovich got fouled and went to the line for two free throws but unfortunately missed both and our lead remained at 1 point; 65-64. Prokom went back to their hot hand and Adams knocked down another tough mid range jumper to take the lead 66-65. After a time out and watching coach draw up a play, we took the court with only 5 seconds remaining in the game. Deonta Vaughn came off a screen, found a gap, and was able to drive to the basket to hit the go ahead bucket with only 2.7 seconds left! After an Asseco timeout, Uros Mirkovic made a huge defensive play and blocked Adam’s shot for a huge win! We were going to the Cup finals!

Headbands

The finals were the following night and we were matched with Anwil, who we faced only one week prior in a league match. The final game would look similarly to the previous match as we built a comfortable lead but saw the talented Anwil team fight back in the fourth quarter. We were determined to hold onto our lead and made several key stops on defense that gave us some breathing room. Down the stretch Skiba scored several tough baskets that stopped any chance of an Anwil miracle. As the clock expired and read 0.00 seconds we realized that we had won the Polish Cup for the first time in SKS Polpharma history!

Jump Ball

After the game we were presented the Polish Cup and Skiba was named the MVP. At first I was a bit surprised because Hassan lead the team with 19 points, but after re-watching the game today I realized that Skiba made all the big plays down stretch that lead us to our victory. He also compiled seven assists! Either could have been chosen for MVP because both former Anwil players were essential pieces to our success. I could not be more pleased for Skiba to be named MVP because he is truly a selfless player who only wants to win. He is a great point guard and leader both on and off the court.

Our MVP!!

American Kiss

As the confetti rained down and we hoisted the trophy in the air, our fans were still screaming and chanting as if the game had only just commenced. The fans made the trip by the hundreds and it was astounding how well represented Polpharma was with blue and white scarves throughout the arena. Our fans have been a HUGE asset to us throughout the season and this weekend was no different! It felt as if we were playing in Starogard and made for an amazing atmosphere to play. Thank you to all of our followers and supporters. The Cup is undoubtedly owed in large part to you! I would also like to say thank you to my family and friends back home who were able to watch the game live via the Internet! It is an amazing feeling to know I have such a large group of supporters watching even from thousands of miles away.. so, THANK YOU!

Kirk greeting the fans

SKS!!!

Prior to the Polish Cup tournament we continued our winning streak to 6 games with victories in January over Siarka, Poznan, Trefl, and Czarni; and our latest league victory over Anwil last weekend. You can see a retransmission of the match versus Anwil here where I recorded my best game to date with 16 points. Also be sure to check out Sliwa’s highlight film from the game here. We are currently 10-6 in league play with 6 remaining games.  We are on a 9 game winning streak (including the past 3 wins from the Polish Cup) and undoubtedly the hottest team in the league. With 6 remaining regular season games it is of utmost importance for us to focus on each game, as we have in the past, and not look past any opponent. We will surely get the best effort from each team and it will be difficult to sustain our momentum but surely we will take it as a challenge. With 6 weeks remaining we are hoping to continue to improve each week in preparation for playoffs. More to come soon. Thanks for following!

Polish Cup Champs 2011!!!

You can see galleries from the game against Prokom here and here, from Anwil here, here, and here. The photographers did a great job covering the events!

Almost halfway!

Last week was one of the better weeks because we had two games versus two quality opponents. Because the league only scheduled a 22 game regular season, we typically only have one game per week, usually on Saturday or Sunday. However, this week we had a Polish Cup game against Turow on Tuesday evening followed by a game on Sunday against Asseco Prokom. Any time we can have extra games to break the monotony of a full weeks practice, I’m all for it!

Tuesday night was a fun game as we faced off at home against the second place team in the league – Turow. We had previously lost to them on the road only two weeks prior so we were anxious to have another shot at them. The gym wasn’t as full as it typically is but the Polpharma fans are always loud and rowdy so it made for a great atmosphere. Our newly acquired Serbian big man, Uros, decided not to play as to let his ankle heal in preparation for our upcoming league match so I played more minutes in his spot at the power forward position. After a terrible start (I think we were down 30-10) we got rolling as I was able to make a couple of mid range jump shots and a pair of three point shots as well. We really got on a roll as we played great defense and were able to capitalize in transition on the offensive end. One play that stood out was a fast break in which Kamil Chanas passed ahead to me and I threw down a reverse dunk in the open court. This capped off a big run by our team and forced Turow to call a timeout.

At the end of the second quarter we were only down two points after trailing by as many as twenty points! We were determined to play harder in the second half without any mental lapses. Turow would not go down without a fight as the third and fourth quarter featured a back and forth battle. However, down the stretch Mike Hicks came to life and hit two characteristic deep three point shots that buried our opponents.

This was a fun game, especially for me as it was undoubtedly my best game of the year although I failed to score in the second half. I finished the game with fourteen points and felt that I was a big part of what helped our team come to life in the second quarter and fight back into the game. Unfortunately in the second half I was hit in the face as I drove to the basket and ended up breaking my nose on the play. And NO foul was called!! I was pretty mad at the time but the break isn’t too bad and I was able to get back into action soon after.

Tuesdays win was also a special one for me as it was the first time in my career I was able to beat Turow’s starting point guard Torey Thomas. Torey played at my biggest college rival, Holy Cross. I was never able to beat Holy Cross in the two seasons Torey lead their team although we lost several of the games by only one or two points. I was 0-6 previously playing against Torey but now can claim that I have one win to my name! It was good to catch up with Torey and he is having a strong campaign this year and I wish him all the luck until we face him again. He might be one of the quickest point guards in the game and is really fun pass-first point guard to watch. He has a great website with updates on his season. Check it out at here.

Sundays match was the most anticipated one of the year for me. We were facing the Polish champions from the last 8 or 9 years. Asseco Prokom has been atop the Polish league for the past decade and has proven to be one of the stronger teams all throughout Europe in the past years. This years squad features an extremely talented roster with several players with previous NBA experience. Most notably Daniel Ewing who was a super star in college at Duke University. Other players include Mike Wilks, JR Giddens, and Ratko Varda. Prokom’s talent does not end there as they have filled out their roster with some of the best Polish players.

Prokom’s gym was beautiful and I was excited immediately after entering the arena. Once again we had a great following of fans and they were cheering from the moment entering the gym. Prokom jumped out on us after grabbing consecutive offensive rebounds and muscling their way in for easy layups. However, even after a slow start, we fought back with two Deonta Vaughn three pointers, a Mike Hicks old fashioned three point play, and a couple jump shots from our captain Thomas Cielebak. While we didn’t play great defense in the first half, allowing too many easy shots and offensive rebounds, we continued our fight and executed on offense and found ourselves leading at half 47-43.

Prokom opened the second half with a different lineup featuring Ratko Varda at the center position. I have seen him play on TV but was still astonished by his size in person. Each time he received the ball in the post it looked effortless as he backed his way in for lay up after lay up. He scored 7 points in his first three minutes of the second half and put Prokom back in the lead. The second half would continue in this fashion as Prokom out muscled us for the remainder of the half. We would hang around though keeping the margin between 4-10 points but whenever we would cut the lead to 4 or 5 points Prokom would make a couple big plays and stretch the lead again.

We ended up losing 89-82 but I believe Coach and our supporters were pleased with our fight against the returning champs. I felt that we could have played better as we made some mental mistakes on defense and were out hustled by Prokom on the glass but overall we showed that we can hang with the best in the league and should not be taken lightly. Be sure to check out the photo galleries from the game here and here. The box score can be found here.

This is a big week for us as we prepare for our last regular season game marking the halfway point. We face Zastal who is currently in third position at 6-4. Zastal features Chris Burgess and Walter Hodge, from Duke/Utah and Florida. This team started out the year on fire with a 5-0 start but has posted a record of 1-4 since. This is an extremely important game for us as it would leave us with a 5-6 record and winning 5 out of the last 7 games since our coaching change. It would also leave us in a good position in the middle of the 12 team league as many teams are currently lodged at the 4-6 win position.

The snow has really been coming down lately – probably because in my last post I wished it would all melt.. just my luck. While it is really nice to look at, I still hate it and hope it will melt but I am losing hope quickly. Hopefully this doesn’t deter from our fans coming out in support for our game Saturday. It’s a huge game for us and we will need all the support we can get and hope for a loud and hostile environment! Hope to see you there!

I’m back!

So much has happened since I wrote my last post on here that I’m not even sure where to begin! First off, I want to apologize to all of those who have taken interest in my blog and for not having anything new for you to read in weeks! I did not realize until recently that I had a lot of followers on here and I pledge to do a much better job of keeping you updated on my recaps, thoughts, and opinions as the season progresses.

Where to start? Many of you know that after our first four games of the year we yielded an 0-4 start. While we had a great chance of winning at least three of the four (leading by double digit margins in each of the second halves), we simply could not break through for our first win of the year. The fans were unhappy with the constant disappointment of our losses and the club decided to part ways with our old coach. I thought our previous coach had done a great job of bringing us together as a team but unfortunately under his leadership we were not able to produce the desirable results and we were forced to take on a new leader.

Our new coach hails from Serbia and arrived only 2 days before we were to face Anwil; a team, in my opinion from preseason play, is very talented and among the top in the league. Coach Sretenovic made a few cosmetic changes to our defensive and offensive schemes before the game, most noticeably playing a few different zone defenses. I was worried about playing Anwil for several reasons; we were facing them on their home court, we had lost four in a row and our team morale was low, we were playing under a new coach who had only been with us for two days, and we were facing a very tough team with a deep roster.

We started off the game much like we had the previous four.. slow start, passive, and finding ourselves in a hole, down by double digits early. The second quarter, however, was also typical as we fought back into the game lead by the hot shooting of Kamil Chanas. His multiple three point shots combined with scrappy defense and some easy baskets and transition translated into a big lead as we went into halftime. Anwil fought back, just as we expected them to, but for the first time we held our ground and made plays, both offensively and defensively, down the stretch of the game that allowed us to come out on top 84-82.

This was a huge win for us for numerous reasons. Most importantly it was our first win of the season! It was also big for our team morale and surely gave us confidence in our new coach. This was also a huge victory as we beat a strong Anwil team on their home court. Everyone was thrilled after the win because we found a way to win and did so with our backs against the ropes.

Since that victory our team has been on a roll winning three out of the last four with an average margin of victory of 18 points! Our only defeat came on the road to Turow who is currently sitting in second place. We simply were not focused, committed too many errors, and Turow capitalized on our mistakes to get the win.

Yesterday we faced Kotwica who was one place ahead of us in the league standings. The game was on the road and was very important as a win would put us in good standing among the rest of the league. We had a great following of fans that made the five hour trip and they were loud and boisterous from the start of warm ups through our departure from the gym. We jumped out to a huge lead and never looked back as we played great team basketball and limited Kotwica’s opportunities with strong defensive rebounding. The key stat of the game in my opinion was the limited amount of offensive rebounds (6) for Kotwica. Coach had stressed the importance of limiting their second chance opportunities and we arose to the challenge with gang rebounding. Kirk Archibeque was ferocious on the boards early grabbing every loose ball. He really set the tone for the rest of the match.

After an early lead we expanded our margin in the second quarter until Deonta’s three point shot as time expired before the half boosted our lead to 19 points. We never looked back although Kotwica made a few runs behind the prolific scorer of Ted Scott. They never managed to cut into our double digit lead and we regained composure and closed the game with high fives and applause for our tremendous fans as we left the court.

Team morale is at an all time high and our record stands at 4-5 with only two games remaning for the first half of the regular season. We are only one game out of second place behind Turow who boasts a 5-3 record. Next week marks a game that I have been looking forward to since signing with  Polpharma this summer. We face Asseco Prokom who features many former NBA players and was one of the top 8 teams in all of Europe last summer. They are clearly the premier team in the league although they are struggling this year. Prokom beat the league leader, Energa Czarni, by 3 points earlier this afternoon. Czarni was 8-0 prior to their meeting and now Prokom has a record of 4-2. A win on the road this weekend would be huge entering our last game marking the halfway part of the regular season. A win against Prokom alone would be huge as they feature a stacked roster of big time players. I am really looking forward to the game, as are my teammates.

Two weeks ago marked the start of the Polish Cup. We have played two matches thus far, both against third division teams. The Cup is a tournament between all teams in Poland, not only those in the first division. Our second game was on the road against a third division team in Ostrow. This game was special for our team because it is the hometown of our captain, Thomas Cielebak. It was also special because our coach played in Ostrow for three seasons when the team was part of the first division. If I am correct, the team medaled behind coach’s leadership at the point guard position. I have heard from many people that coach was a great guard – one of the best in Europe during his prime. Before the game they had a brief ceremony honoring coach and the fans showed their appreciation with loud applause. The fans even draped a huge banner with a portrait of a younger version of our coach. You could clearly see that coach was taken back and very honored by the fans support and appreciation for his time there. The Polish Cup continues this week on Tuesday with a home match against Turow. Hopefully we can deliver some payback for our loss only one week ago.

The weather has taken a turn towards negative town recently with freezing cold temperatures and my least favorite form of precipitation..snow. The weather has been in the low teens at times and it has definitely made me walk to practice with a little more pep in my step. While I do not deny the snows aesthetic beauty, I still hate it with passion and hope it will magically melt overnight.

Below our some pictures from the past few games. Thanks for taking time to read my update and I promise to be back soon with more recaps of games, practices, and my experiences!

Family

Over 4,000 miles traveled, 50 + days of practice, 13 preseason games, and 11 new teammates – or as Coach said before tip off Saturday night; one new family.

During our preseason matches Coach had not given any “win one for the Gipper” or “rah rah” speeches before tip off. His pre game talks were pretty simple; step by step we must continue to improve, take this game as an opportunity to grow, improve our chemistry and take steps in the right direction to become a better team. No offense to Coach but none of these talks left me wanting to tear our opponents heads off or run out of the locker room screaming like an outraged lunatic on a mission.

Saturday’s pre game speech was no different in that regard. However, after 6.5 weeks of grueling practice and a long 7 month season ahead of us, he did hit on some key notes that reminded me why I fell in love with the game of basketball so many years ago.

Coach drove home the realization that if we are to succeed we must become a family. That our success depended on fighting for each other and that our team chemistry was infinitely more important than who leads the team in scoring. He told us that most importantly he wanted us to show our “heart and character” when we took the floor and for us to “work hard”. That 100 percent was not enough but from each of us he wanted 120 percent.

Each of us had chosen to leave our respective lives behind – whether hailing from the States or elsewhere in Poland, we all made a decision to sacrifice being with our family and friends to pursue a basketball dream. Coach couldn’t have said it better. “For the next 7 months, this is your family.”

Certainly not everyone was impacted as much by Coach’s speech as me but it really did remind me of why I love this sport. So many times in recent year I’ve doubted the sport of basketball; too many egos, too much selfishness, and too many kids playing for the wrong reasons. Basketball in Europe, and even Stateside too, can make you jaded. Imagine this – there are hundreds and thousands of kids leaving college each year in the states wishing to pursue a professional basketball career. Some are lucky enough to sign with agents and those even more fortunate sign with a professional club overseas. Here’s where you can quickly become jaded. Realizing that the team game of basketball soon becomes one similar to baseball – highly focused on statistics.

What do I mean by this? Well, there are a lot of agents that are telling their respective players that they need to average a certain amount of points, rebounds, assists, shooting percentages, etc in order to advance to a higher level (higher paycheck) the next year. Suddenly this beautiful team sport takes a turn towards selfish town. Suddenly you have a bunch of guys on the floor that are thinking about meeting a quota, say 14 ppg and 7 rebounds, before they are thinking about winning. Call me crazy but this is definitely a reality in pro basketball here…sad but true.

It may seem like I’m on a bit of a tangent but this reality of basketball overseas has had me second guess the sport I’ve loved for so long. The beautiful and magical sport where a team can come together sacrificing their individual talents for the greater good of the team – winning. This doesn’t happen a lot in basketball, nor in sports at all. I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of two teams where I saw this happen, during college and my year at prep school. Two teams where nobody cared who lead the team in scoring. Nobody cared who got the recognition. Nobody cared if they played horridly as long as the team won. Teams where guys stood up on the bench when their teammates came out of the game. Teams where a guy would take a charge and fall to the floor and before he ever thought about trying to get up off the floor his teammates were already offering a helping hand. This kind of chemistry, this family like feeling between the team, is unlike any other feeling in sports.

Coach’s pre game speech Saturday afternoon left me excited about the game, excited about the season, and excited about the game of basketball. More than anything, I was excited to realize I was in a position where I was playing for a coach who believed in the same family like values in a team that I do. Only time will tell if our team becomes one of a fully functional, happy, loving family; a team that mimics that of what I previously mentioned – helping teammates off the floor, jumping off the bench cheering for each other, making the extra pass for your teammate, buying into the system, disregarding personal statistics for the only statistic that matters – WINNING.

I am no way insinuating that any of my teammates here are selfish. I am merely stating that I’ve seen how selfishness can really bring a team down and knowing that our coach, the head hauncho of the whole operation, and teammates are bought in to the team concept is really encouraging and exciting for me.

Now, am I admitting that I don’t like to be the leading scorer on the team? The guy that consistently hits the game winning shot? That I don’t like to be recognized for having a great game? No.. that’s it not what I’m saying. I like to score just as much as the next guy! Surely any athlete will admit that it feels great to be accomplished, statistically or not, and I’m not denying that. I am, however, admitting that it’s an even greater feeling to be part of a team or system, where everyone is happy to see everyone succeed, especially when the end result is a win.

With all that said – I wish I could follow the aforementioned with a couple of paragraphs describing our valiant victory after Coach’s family inspired pep talk. Up until the final minute of the game I would have thought I could. Unfortunately in the wacky world of sports, strange things happen. Strange being that we gave away a 20 point lead late in the second half after a dominating third quarter.

After leading by 20 points in the third quarter our team dismantled as we gave away the game in the final minutes as our opponents, new to the PLK after being promoted from the lower division last year, rallied an impressive comeback to beat us by four on their home floor. To be truthful, it still seems like one of those twilight zone memories where you’re asking yourself, “How did that just happen?” or, “Did that really just happen?” Our lead dissipated quickly as we turned the ball over and became passive on offense while Siarka became more and more aggressive each time they scored and we didn’t.

For the majority of the game, the first 30 + minutes, our team was that of the teams I previously described. We shared the ball, found the open man, cheered for each other after big plays on both offense and defense, and even saw a good ratio of scoring as 5 players notched double-digit points. After building an 8 point advantage at the half, we all knew that we could play better, especially on the defensive end as we made too many mistakes and allowed Siarka to score 42 points.

The beginning of the third quarter started just as we had hoped. We played great defense and rebounded well limiting Siarka to one opportunity on offense. We were able to push the ball in transition and score before our opponents were able to recover on defense. Our 8 point lead jumped to 22 points and we were clicking on all cylinders. At one point both Mike and Kamil dove on the floor near our bench to save a ball from going out of bounds and our sideline erupted as they ripped the ball away from a defender and  we stormed down the court to score in transition. It was hard to imagine we could lose the game after plays like that.

Perhaps we lost focus after possessing such a large margin with another quarter to play but hopefully we will have learned our lesson from this game – basketball games are 40 minutes and playing well for 30 does not guarantee a win.

We were all disappointed after our loss. The locker room was silent and so was the long bus ride home. It was clear that we had literally given the game away and there was no excuses for losing focus and allowing Siarka to come back to beat us. After 7 weeks of practice and 12 hour bus ride the previous day, we were all hoping to jump start the season with a win and return home for our home opener with a 1-0 record.

After a long bus ride back and the day off of practice today, the realization has set in; we did in fact give up a huge lead and lose yesterday. There is no time to dwell on this loss as we must prepare for our first home game this coming Saturday. Obviously losing hurts the team morale and makes for a long 5 day practice week but I’m going to do my best to rally the guys and help regain our focus as the season is a long one and we need to take a step forward and improve each day; even after a bad loss.

So tomorrow marks the start of another long week or practice. It’s kinda like our new family has a week full of chores before a family vacation. Chores suck, and so does practice – at least in comparison to the games. But, what’s important is the mentality in which we approach practice with. We can see it as an opportunity to grow and improve, or as a duty we are obligated to do and suffer our way through it. I plan on choosing the former. Hopefully the rest of my new brothers choose to do the same.

You can see the game stats from our first match here.

The start of season is almost here!

After a long two weeks of practice and exhibition games, the preseason is finally behind us! We have won 5 out of our last 6 games and most notably won a preseason tournament this past weekend in Slupsk. While there is still much work to do,  our confidence is high and our team has improved vastly in the past weeks. It is important, however, not to be over-confident as winning a preseason tournament far from guarantees success come the regular season. While I was pleased with our tournament victory Sunday afternoon, I would not let myself focus too much on our win knowing that in only 6 days we would have a far more important game with far more important stakes.

Saturday afternoon we faced a new opponent in Kotwica. This team featured a tandem of dynamic guards and Kotwica was the aggressor in the first half putting us behind by 20 points. Nothing seemed to go right for our club as we missed open shots, failed to get to the free throw line, committed stupid fouls giving Kotwica easy points, and we turned the ball over far too many times. It was one of those halves where everyone seemed lifeless. Fortunately we were able to wake from the dead and fight back and found ourselves within 4 points after only 5 minutes of play in the third quarter. For the remainder of the half we showed flashes of the team we hope to become ALL of time; pushing the ball in transition, playing help defense and making rotations, cheering on our teammates, and cooperating together to play unselfish and fun basketball.

As the game was tied with under a minute to play I made a back door cut for a two-handed slam and put down an emphatic finish. My teammates joked that it must be the new shoes I was wearing but I like to think that I just save my best jumps for the right moments! We ended up winning the game with free throws down the stretch and headed to the finals Sunday against the home team, Slupsk. Here are some images captured by our photographer during Saturdays game.

Sunday we opened the game playing like the team from Saturday’s second half and established a comfortable double-digit lead going into the half. The third quarter, however, we began to turn the ball over and let up on defense as Slupsk surged and cut our lead to just four points. The oppositions fans were in full force, drums beating, fans blaring, and I believe it caused us to rush on offense. It was certainly a helpful factor in the opponents comeback but we were able to slow ourselves down, execute our offense, and reestablish a demanding lead and hold on for our tournament victory!

Spirits were high in the locker room after winning the tournament. Clearly winning has a positive affect and we were feeling good about ourselves. It was a good last test for us before the beginning of the regular season but now all of our focus is on our opening game this coming Saturday.

Today we had a press conference held in the Polpharma factory and it was actually quite enjoyable. One by one our team was introduced to a small audience in front of cameras and photographers as we were asked a couple of questions. Most of the press conference was spoken in Polish so I figured I would follow suit. When asked a simple question from the host I showed off my Polish tongue by answering “tak”(this simply means ‘yes’). The audience seemed to like this response as they laughed.. maybe I pronounced it wrong or maybe they were just impressed with how much I’ve learned! Coach seemed to get a rise from the audience as he made comments about the players although I have no idea what he was saying. Our photos from our calendar shoot earlier this preseason were shown on posters and they looked really great! There was a large spread of delicious food and all the Green Up drinks you could down. We shook hands, took pictures, signed some autographs, and kissed babies. Kidding, but the conference was fun and it was exciting to see the interest and enthusiasm gathered by our supporters and sponsors.

Tomorrow we go back to work. This week of practice is really important as we prepare for our first league game. We have a long trip ahead of us heading ten hours south to play Siarka and will be without our fans from Starogard. We hope to bring back our first win of the year and come back to a rowdy and anxious crowd for our first home game in less than two weeks!

Here is a video featuring highlights from our first exhibition open to the fans in Starogard. Check out my pass at the 2.00 minute mark and the three at 3.30. I hope to have much more video made available from games soon!

One long week!

Exhaustion set in and I can’t remember the last time I was this physically and mentally exhausted. Last time you heard from me we had just won against a good team in Sopot and I was highly optimistic about the way our team competed. I guess I spoke too soon because Sopot came into our gym just two days later and dismantled us and we had no answer for them. Unfortunately Anwil, the second place team from last year, did much of the same to us the next day. I don’t know how the tides changed so quickly but our defense was sluggish and our lack of effort on the defensive end translated to rushed shots, poor execution, and an absence of rhythm on offense. While both Sopot and Anwil are among the leagues best, there is never reason for lack of aggression or effort. Both games results in losses.

After a day of rest we got right back to it in practice and coach really focused our efforts on defense. For those of you that have play basketball you understand that defensive drills are not easy and physically demanding. Our morning sessions consisted of defensive slides, quickness drills, jumping to the ball, situational break downs, and running our offensive sets. Our night sessions predominately consist of 5 versus 5. After two of these rigorous practices in one day, my body and mind are spent and I typically nap in between practices and sleep soon after.

On Thursday night we had our first home exhibition match open to the public and the fans of Starogard were amazing! The atmosphere was great with loud music, the fans pouring in, the mascot and cheerleaders in attendance, and our new bright “Green Up” jerseys. After a slow start to the game we got going in the second quarter and closed our opponents early lead to just 5 or 7 points. We played a great defensive third quarter only giving up 14 points and seized the lead for good. We went on to win 90-80 and it was a great preview of the fun atmosphere that we will possess during our home games. After the game the fans lined up around the court and we ran around giving high fives to all of them. It was great to see how involved they were before, during, and even after the game. I have a feeling I’m going to love playing in Starogard. I played fairly well scoring 12 points and notching 7 rebounds. I was pleased with my performance but more pleased that our team was able to rebound from 2 bad losses the previous weekend and a tough week of practice to get a win at home for our fans!

You can view photos from our home opener here.

W!

Last night we had our first exhibition of the year against Trefl Sopot and came away victorious with an 83-78 win. Sopot finished fourth in the league last year and is said to be one of the stronger teams in the league. Like our scrimmage last week, we started the game off slowly; forgetting our offensive sets, rushing shots, making poor decisions with the ball,  not getting back in transition defense, and giving up too many open shots for our opponents. We calmed down and played better in the second quarter closing the gap on Sopot’s double digit lead to just seven points at halftime.

We really turned it on in the third and fourth quarter as we played much better defense and took our time and executed on the offensive end. After playing most of the third quarter I sat for the first 6 minutes of the fourth quarter and came in with 3 or 4 minutes remaining in the game. I went on to score some big baskets and finished the remainder of the game with 10 straight points and helped us pull ahead and hold off Sopot for the win. I was pleased that I was able to come in at the end of the game and make plays, both offensively and defensively, that helped us win the game.

I have really enjoyed playing with this group of guys thus far as everyone is very unselfish and willing to sacrifice their individual talents, at times, for the best interest of the team. It feels like we have a complete team of guys that are willing to buy into the team concept and play as a unit in order to help the team reach our full potential. Call me crazy but this is not very frequent in sports. However, when this does happen, combined with good coaching, hard work, team chemistry, and dedication – it really makes for an enjoyable experience for both the players and the fans. We play Sopot again tomorrow night at home and hopefully we can learn from out mistakes and continue to improve as a team. You can check out some photos from the game here.

Friendly

On Thursday night we had a scrimmage versus a second division Polish club – Asseco Prokom. Asseco Prokom’s first division team won the PLK last year and also competes in the Euro League. The Euro League takes place throughout the year featuring the best teams in all of Europe. I am still unsure about how the Euro League chooses each of the 32 teams from year to year but typically the top team(s) from each country will compete in the EL. Prokom made it to the elite eight in the Euro League last year and only lost 2 games during the entire Polish regular season. Needless to say, they are the premier team in our league (and apparently have a premier budget of something like 10+ million per year – far more than the rest of our league) and I am really looking forward to competing against them. Anyhow, our scrimmage started off slowly as we gave up far too many offensive rebounds and easy layups because of bad defense and poor  boxing out. However, our team got rolling as we went on a 31-0 run in the third quarter to win by 40 points. I came off the bench to score 10 points in a row on 4-4 shooting in the first quarter and finished the game with 14 points and 4 or 5 rebounds.

We continued with our long week of practice and after our Saturday morning practice it was pretty clear that everyone on the team was ecstatic about having the rest of the day off and no practice on Sunday. Coach made it mandatory after our morning practice for us to all visit the sauna and go for “regeneration”. We all sat in the sauna for 10 minutes at a time and then would get out and take a really cold shower. We did this process like 3 times. This is similar to a contrast shower (switching the shower from very hot to very cold – something I did frequently in college) and hopefully will help “regenerate” my legs after a tiring week of practice!

The entire team went to get Chinese food after practice and it was nice to chill with the guys, get some good Chinese cuisine and relax after another long week of 2 a days. I took a pretty long nap afterwards and then watched college football for the remainder of the day. It is pretty awesome being able to watch live TV from home and I really enjoyed being able to see some of the great football games on Saturday afternoon. It was nice to sleep in on Sunday morning (although I awoke at 8:30 nearly wide awake) and rest for most of the day. I ended up going to the media store and buying some surround sound speakers for my TV to spice up the apartment a little and to add a little enjoyment to staying in and watching movies/playing Xbox. I am definitely happy with my purchase and I see lots of movie watching and geeking out on Xbox in my future!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of another long week of practice but coach said it is our last week on the track running so that’s definitely something to celebrate. Tomorrow afternoon myself and two of the other American guys are getting photographed in between practices for our team calendar. I am pretty stoked about this because the calendar from last year was pretty awesome and even won some awards! Can’t wait for the finished project and to share the results!

Cześć

Welcome back everybody to my blog! It’s been a long absence for me but I am back in action coming to you from Poland! For those of you that have not heard, I recently signed a contract to play with SKS Polpharma – a basketball club in Poland that finished third last year in the top Polish league! (for those of you checking out the team webpage, if you use Google Chrome as your web browser it will automatically give you an option at the top of the screen to translate the site from Polish – English). I am very pleased to have the opportunity to play in a great Polish league and to have the chance to play on a well established club in Polpharma. I really look forward to the challenge of competing in a tougher league this year and hope to raise my level of play as to help the team be as successful as possible.

Srarogard Gdanski, Poland

The Square

Polpharma’s team is located in Starogard Gdanski, Poland. For those of you as geographically challenged in terms of Europe as I am, here is a map of Europe with a star noting Starogard’s location.
I have been in Starogard for two weeks now and I have to admit that I have already taken a liking to the city. The city of Starogard is small with a population of only 49,000. The city has an antique, rustic feel as are streets lined with old brick pavers and some of the architecture and buildings are hundreds of years old. I live right around the corner from the main square and I really love the feel of this central location and all of the neat shops that surround it. And conveniently located in the center of the square is the city’s town hall.

My Apartment

my kitchen

my bathroom

bathroom

my couch/bed

my bed/couch

I am thrilled with the size, location, and quality of my apartment this season. I am living in my own apartment, although two of my American teammates live in the two neighboring apartments, and couldn’t be happier with my living arrangement. My apartment building is new and has wooden floors throughout. The setup is similar to a studio with one large room acting both as my living room and bedroom. I have a really comfortable futon that acts as both my bed and a couch (many have asked if this is comfortable and big enough for me and it is both!). I also have a very nice television which I am really happy about as I’ll be watching plenty of movies and playing lots of Xbox! I’ll also be using the TV to watch American television as I purchased a Sling Box before I left and it allows me to watch live and recorded television from my cable box back home.. pretty awesome! The kitchen is small but I havn’t had much need for it as I’ve been eating out for nearly all of my meals except breakfast. The bathroom is small but has a brand new washer and a nice shower.

The food here is very cheap, but delicious! I have loved the food so far and especially some of the traditional Polish soups/meals. I am going to continue to try some of the more traditional Polish foods as I continue to slowly learn some of the basic of the Polish language. Fortunately, we have a restaurant beneath our apartment building with waitresses that speak good English and that have English menus. This has not been common for a lot of the different places so it is extremely convenient for us to have this option available. While going into other Polish restaurants and trying to figure out the menu in Polish is fun, it does get tiring. Also, the place is open until 11 PM so I have been eating there quite regularly. The food has been delicious plus the prices are very cheap. I can buy soup, a pasta dish with chicken, and dessert for 8 or 9 US dollars. It is not uncommon to get a meal in the $4-7 range. I’m definitely stoked about this as I’ll be able to save myself from cooking and also will be able to save a lot of money! Here are pictures – one of my favorite soups and my favorite dessert from the place downstairs.

And now, onto the reason I’m in Poland; BASKETBALL! Thus far, the basketball has been tiring, but good! We have been practicing twice a day since I got into town and the team has made great strides in that short period of time. Our team name is SKS Polpharma and plays in the PLK – top league in Poland. Our team’s number one sponsor is Polpharma Pharmaceuticals. (Hence the name) A new sponsor to jump on board this year is Green Up, an energy drink company. While I cannot find much information on the company, here is a picture of the product. We have these drinks available to us at practice and while I’ve never been a huge advocate of energy drinks, I’ve tried these and they are actually pretty good. We have been running on the track, lifting weights, doing a lot of sit ups and stretching, and working on the court to become a better team. While I was fairly sore and tired the first week, I feel more adjusted and rested this week and we have our first friendly or exhibition tomorrow evening. Our gym is nice and relatively new being built only 7 years ago. While it only seats 2,500 fans, it is apparently the rowdiest atmosphere in all of the Polish league. I am very eager to play in this atmosphere and hope it will bring us a huge home court advantage. That’s all for now but check back soon as I will continue to update on my experiences here in Poland. More to come on my teammates, the coach, our league, and more!  Let’s keep in touch!  I love to hear from you all!

Oh – and here is how you say “hello” in Polish:  cześć

Nous sommes gens juste des ordinaires

As I mentioned in my last post, we don’t have a game until the 6th of March and coach gave us Saturday and Sunday off to rest from practice. Friday afternoon Aaron and I headed into town basically just to kill time and because we were bored. I had to swing by one of the committee member’s house to pick up some DVDs of games to send to my agent and am also hoping to get some highlights up on the site soon (having trouble converting the files tho, could be a while). Aaron decided to head into H&M to see if he could find anything he liked because he had $15 store credit. I joined him with no intentions of buying anything and walked out 20 minutes later with four new articles of clothing. The spending didn’t stop there. Then we walked into a couple sunglass stores and another 20 minutes later I walked out with a pair of Oakleys. I justified all this spending because only two days earlier I found out that I’ll be in Geneva until the end of April or 1st of May playing in relegation rounds for the club. We had all heard rumors that because we were so far behind the 10th place team that they would not hold play outs and that we would leave as soon as the last regular season game ended on March 27. Guess that’s not the case. So I figured, one extra month = one extra month’s salary so might as well celebrate a little.

As we were walking around town we actually ran into 3 of the American players for one of the other teams in Switzerland. The guys had traveled into Geneva on their weekend off and they were looking for a good place to go out that night so we suggested the American bar where we spent the last two weekend and ended up meeting them out. The guys play for a team called Massagno and traveled in from the eastern (Italian) part of Switzerland. We had a good time over drinks and food talking about nearly everything; college ball, professional ball, the ins and outs of our clubs and situations, funny stories from games we had played against each other, and so on. We even started a USA chant as we watched the USA defeat Finland (I believe) in the semi-finals of the Olympic hockey game. The guys from Massagno were a lot of fun. Chris, Ross, and Dan all seemed like really good guys and they were pretty hilarious too. Maybe the best part of the night was when we all did our best to impressions of the Jamaicans from Cool Runnings. I think Dan ended up winning this one, along with the best impersonation of John Legend. As the night progressed we headed downstairs to the dance floor where there was a DJ and a reggae singer. We definitely got our fair share of looks as we basically owned the dance floor. Not to say that we were the best dancers (far from it actually, although Ross and Dan did have some nice moves, no homo) but because the five of us are all 6’7 and taller. We all had a blast just being goofballs and it was pretty cool to hang out with some other American guys.

Saturday I planned to head into France to meet my agents contact in France to watch a Pro B game. Pro B is the second division in France and definitely a step up from the first league in Switzerland. Earlier in the year we had an exhibition game against Bourg and I took a train into the city to watch them face a team from Nantes. I met my agents contact, named Miloud, and he was happy I was able to come and check out the game. I think they are going to try to push for me to play in Pro B next year and I definitely think I can play, and do well, at that level. The players were a little bigger (at the forward and center spots) and everything was crisper. Better passing, better screening, better defense, and communication. The gym, although small, was packed and it was neat to hear how involved the fans were. I’m talking drums, loud chants, fog horns, and plenty of applause. I gave Miloud some DVDs of recent games and hopefully he will be able to start plugging my name around the league. Seeing the game and the crowd support definitely made me excited about the thought of playing there next year.

Today has been a typical Sunday; slept in late, got some groceries, cleaned up the apartment and did laundry, aimlessly searched the internet and talked to family and friends on Skype. By the way, a couple random entries I’ve been meaning to put up here.

It’s pretty awesome that you can drink in public. For example, while Aaron and I were having a couple beers at his apartment before we met the Massagno guys, we realized we only had a few minutes to catch the tram and needed to leave. Chug the beer before we left? No chance, just took it with us. Heck, we could take a full one for the road  too. It felt a little weird to be on the tram drinking beer but hey, no complaints out of me.

Saturday night I rode back from the game with my coach from MGS as he was coming home from France and decided to stop and watch the game. Did you know you have to pay to use the interstate in France? I think it ended up beging like 10 euros for the trip.. I was shocked.

I love that there is no sales tax. When I have some change in my pocket and I walk into the COOP – local store – and want to buy a couple things to eat, no need to worry about if I have enough with the extra tax. Plus, no pennies!!!!

Every other week or so we’ll be walking back home from practice and we will smell something really, really sweet. I’m talking about a strong odor but a good one too. It seriously smells just like cotton candy and there’s no way you can miss it. We’ve all had theories on what causes the smell; some local factory, trees, a giant that lives in the mountain and makes cotton candy, a giant scented candle  atop of the bell tower – but nobody really knows. I have 20 swiss franks for anybody who can tell me what causes this.

That’s all for now. Another full week of practice before our game on Saturday. Will check back soon.