Eight.

Eight. Ocho. Acht. The number generates a variety of images and associations. An 8 ball. Spiders. Eight days of Hanukkah. Eight maids a milking. Eight is Enough. 8 Mile. Kobe. Jon and Kate plus 8. V8 juice. 8 tracks (bless you if you are old enough to remember these). The atomic number for Oxygen. Maybe your lucky number is 8. Your anniversary could be the 8^th. Perhaps you run an 8 minute mile—good for you. You might have 8 tattoos. Maybe you’ve broken 8 bones, in which case, you should chill out. Or maybe, you had 8 turnovers in your season opener last weekend. Anyone? No? Just me, huh. I used to really like 8. Now that number just pisses me the hell off. 8 turnovers. 8 times I gave the ball to the other team. 8 times I basically scored for them. After 8 weeks of preseason practices and games, I was 8 times worse than anyone else. I’ve totally moved on though.  

Some losses hurt more than others. Buzzer beaters, blow-outs, losing to teams that shouldn’t even be able to put their shoes on in the same gym as you. And then there is the worst kind: the kind that's your fault; the kind that you let get away. Our first game of the season started out ideally. We jumped out to a 12-4 lead, forced a time out by their coach and were executing pretty well. They quickly subbed and suddenly we forget how to dribble, how to pass. Down 7 at half, we had easily accumulated 20 turnovers already. Our starting PG (that’d be me) probably had 4. Just when we started to make our run, I got casual with the ball—stripped at half court, stolen pass to my post. I played 35 minutes, but my team may have been better served if I had only played the first 8.  We didn’t quit though. After being down by as much as 14, we ended up losing by 8. Eight.

 

Fortunately Ryan was here for season opener. Poor guy had to not only see my awful game, but he also sat and watched about 3-4 other games. I was literally napping at the gym I was there for so long. When we weren’t in the gym we were eating lots of food at lots of restaurants, walking around Chemnitz or playing my guitar. It was such a treat having someone from back home to talk to, sorta got home sick when he left. Can’t thank him enough for taking the time to visit me.

Season opening, despite the 8 point loss and 8 turnovers, was a unique experience. The basketball community, particularly in our division, is very close. A lot of the girls have played together at one point during their careers in Europe, so off the court the teams are very friendly, which is odd. In college I never liked my opponents. I mean even when I was nice to them at the banquets it was fake. But the girls here take pictures together and hug and hang out during the other games. They even go out and celebrate together after. It’s bizarre. I can pretend with the best of them, but to genuinely like these girls when all I want to do is beat them, well, I am just not equipped for that nonsense.

All jokes aside, 8 turnovers is ridiculous. But I didn’t come all this way to suck. Just as easily could've done that in Ventura. And I didn’t come all this way to sulk, so this pity party is over, but thanks for coming. We play again Saturday. Alls I know is I won’t be writing about no 8 next week.

 You can view my games online live at http://www.dbbl.de/cms/, you just have to click the link of the home team. We play Wolfenbuttel this weekend so you would click their home link. You can watch it live or go back and download the game after since I realize 8 is a little early for some people on a Saturday. See, no one likes 8.