Raise your hand if you’ve won your last two games… anyone?
Just me, huh? (I am waving my hand ferociously in the air right now.) Two
weekends ago we beat Marburg at home, a good team that beat us by 20 at their
gym, and this weekend we beat Donau-Ries, also a solid team, though we did beat
them the first time around. I know most of you can’t watch my games because of
the time difference or whole “better things to do” conundrum, but one of our friends/fans
from out here made a little highlight of my Marburg game (I finally played
decent again), so I have attached the link.
Both the games were tough games in which we had to overcome
deficits, which made the wins even more satisfying. We play at home against
Saarlouis this weekend who we beat last time and have to beat this time again
since they are sitting in last place.
Lately, I just can’t catch a break. It all started like a
week ago or so when I jammed my finger in our game, the same finger I broke in
college. X-Ray showed it wasn’t broken, so just a bad jam, but still,
frustrating. But a jammed finger isn’t so terrible by itself. Unfortunately, my
pesky troubles would continue to mount. Monday morning I was in a car accident. After staying at our friends house for their super bowl party (the game started 12:30am our time) he gave us a ride home that morning. Simply a case of wrong place-wrong time because this truck cut us off from the opposite direction and we slammed into it. It’s
amazing how a moment so ephemeral can seem so huge, so altering.
Nothing had really changed, of course, but I felt so impacted in the moments after
the accident. That's when I realized the airbag deployed. Naturally, I was in the front seat--why must I be so good at calling shot-gun! I have never been in an accident where the
air bags diffused, so I didn’t know that being struck by the bag would in fact
be the most disturbing part. First of all, it sounds like a shotgun going off in
your head—I swear I was temporarily deaf and then really confused because I was certain I left my gun at home. I’d like to tell you that the sound is the worst
part, but I’d be lying. Can’t they toss a pillow out
of the dashboard, or one
of those tempur-pedic mattresses that absorb everything so comfortably without waking a soul? No, instead they hurdle what I can only assume is a 200-pound bag of sand. Fortunately for
me, I was blessed with fantastic reflexes (and I anticipated the accident
happening) so I was able to brace myself. Unfortunately I did this bracing with
my hands, so they caught the bag of sand and all it’s power. Aside from achy
wrists and some sausage fingers, I am fine and so were the other two in the
car. The car however was totaled. The entire front was destroyed—I couldn’t
even get out of the car from my side. The truck we hit had the tiniest of
dents. We were truly outmatched, and incredibly lucky. Bet you think that was the worst thing to happen to me this week. Wrong. This morning I stubbed my toe against the corner of a wall! I
know right? You thought the car accident was bad, I could lose a toenail! Just keeps getting worse. Seriously though, it’s all bruised and I
can barely walk. I can't catch a break.
I was informed the other day that I have not spent much time
discussing my team in the blog—the players, our style and team dynamic, what
place we are in etc. Well, now I’m gonna, but ONLY cause I have nothing else to
write about and not because I am some patsy. I do recall mentioning a few things
about my team a while back, but since our roster and coach has changed since
then, it seems valid that I revisit this. Let’s talk about the players first.
Including me, there are 3
Americans—Cherise and MJ are the other two. MJ is our small forward, our
leading scorer and our best player. She went to Oakland and is my age. She
played on this team last year. She is averaging 18ppg.
Cherise was brought in
to replace Sidney as our back-up PG. She has been a valuable addition for us.
We have one 5 player, our 6-5 Serbian. Unfortunately she has been nursing some
ailments since she got here, so she can’t play extended minutes generally,
which means typically we play undersized. Undersized is really the wrong word.
We have size, they just prefer to play on the wings and shoot or penetrate.
That’s Euro-hoops for ya. We have a lot of really capable players, all of whom can produce for us any given game. With our former coach and roster, we looked to run
and fast break a lot. Now, we are very much a half-court team: we rarely get
transition buckets and almost always run our set plays… our 3 set plays. That’s
right, we just have the 3, but we make them work. We generally score one of two
ways: MJ driving and getting a lay-up, or someone cutting and getting a shot
off a pass. Every so often one of us will hit a 3, but that is less frequent.
The last 2 games I haven’t started at PG, which has been nice. Up till now I
have not been an offensive force really, but I am 3
rd in our league
in assists per game. We have 6 games left, 6 very winnable games. Our only
chance at making play-offs requires that we win all of them. Here we go.
Both the games were tough games in which we had to overcome
deficits, which made the wins even more satisfying. We play at home against
Saarlouis this weekend who we beat last time and have to beat this time again
since they are sitting in last place. 
Lately, I just can’t catch a break. It all started like a
week ago or so when I jammed my finger in our game, the same finger I broke in
college. X-Ray showed it wasn’t broken, so just a bad jam, but still,
frustrating. But a jammed finger isn’t so terrible by itself. Unfortunately, my
pesky troubles would continue to mount. Monday morning I was in a car accident. After staying at our friends house for their super bowl party (the game started 12:30am our time) he gave us a ride home that morning. Simply a case of wrong place-wrong time because this truck cut us off from the opposite direction and we slammed into it. It’s
amazing how a moment so ephemeral can seem so huge, so altering.
Nothing had really changed, of course, but I felt so impacted in the moments after
the accident. That's when I realized the airbag deployed. Naturally, I was in the front seat--why must I be so good at calling shot-gun! I have never been in an accident where the
air bags diffused, so I didn’t know that being struck by the bag would in fact
be the most disturbing part. First of all, it sounds like a shotgun going off in
your head—I swear I was temporarily deaf and then really confused because I was certain I left my gun at home. I’d like to tell you that the sound is the worst
part, but I’d be lying. Can’t they toss a pillow out 
of the dashboard, or one
of those tempur-pedic mattresses that absorb everything so comfortably without waking a soul? No, instead they hurdle what I can only assume is a 200-pound bag of sand. Fortunately for
me, I was blessed with fantastic reflexes (and I anticipated the accident
happening) so I was able to brace myself. Unfortunately I did this bracing with
my hands, so they caught the bag of sand and all it’s power. Aside from achy
wrists and some sausage fingers, I am fine and so were the other two in the
car. The car however was totaled. The entire front was destroyed—I couldn’t
even get out of the car from my side. The truck we hit had the tiniest of
dents. We were truly outmatched, and incredibly lucky. Bet you think that was the worst thing to happen to me this week. Wrong. This morning I stubbed my toe against the corner of a wall! I
know right? You thought the car accident was bad, I could lose a toenail! Just keeps getting worse. Seriously though, it’s all bruised and I
can barely walk. I can't catch a break. 
I was informed the other day that I have not spent much time
discussing my team in the blog—the players, our style and team dynamic, what
place we are in etc. Well, now I’m gonna, but ONLY cause I have nothing else to
write about and not because I am some patsy. I do recall mentioning a few things
about my team a while back, but since our roster and coach has changed since
then, it seems valid that I revisit this. Let’s talk about the players first.
Including me, there are 3
Americans—Cherise and MJ are the other two. MJ is our small forward, our
leading scorer and our best player. She went to Oakland and is my age. She
played on this team last year. She is averaging 18ppg. 
Cherise was brought in
to replace Sidney as our back-up PG. She has been a valuable addition for us.
We have one 5 player, our 6-5 Serbian. Unfortunately she has been nursing some
ailments since she got here, so she can’t play extended minutes generally,
which means typically we play undersized. Undersized is really the wrong word.
We have size, they just prefer to play on the wings and shoot or penetrate.
That’s Euro-hoops for ya. We have a lot of really capable players, all of whom can produce for us any given game. With our former coach and roster, we looked to run
and fast break a lot. Now, we are very much a half-court team: we rarely get
transition buckets and almost always run our set plays… our 3 set plays. That’s
right, we just have the 3, but we make them work. We generally score one of two
ways: MJ driving and getting a lay-up, or someone cutting and getting a shot
off a pass. Every so often one of us will hit a 3, but that is less frequent.
The last 2 games I haven’t started at PG, which has been nice. Up till now I
have not been an offensive force really, but I am 3rd in our league
in assists per game. We have 6 games left, 6 very winnable games. Our only
chance at making play-offs requires that we win all of them. Here we go.
bullet points
ReplyDelete• Organization is important, so before you make fun of my bullet points, remember that without organization, we'd just be monkeys swinging in the trees and flinging our poop at each other.
• Back to back wins! Woooooo! And you redeemed yourselves against Marburg. (Marburg has an infectious disease named after them BTW)
• The black uniforms are cool. Can I have the trunks when you're done? How many people here have German pro ball trunks? None. that's how many.
• Injuries. That poor finger. You realize when you're 70 you're going have a troll finger that scares small children. Finger jams are the worst.
• Game stuff. Thanks to whoever prodded you into better coverage.
I'm still deciphering what it all means, but it's interesting.
And finally, my suggestions for your next 3 injuries-
Shin (Bang it into a coffee table at night while getting up to pee. Classic)
Funny bone
Bruise a rib (it hurts when you laugh. Lot's o fun)
Das ist allest.
Tchuss!
Auf weiner-zhen.