Riddle me this.

Riddle me this: what is black and white and incomparably adorable all over? If you guessed Morty and I dressed as 2 of the 101 Dalmatians, you’d be both unremarkably perceptive and absolutely correct (points are also awarded if you said Shamu or Snoopy cause those two are just precious). We were a few days behind, but our team hosted a costume party the weekend following Halloween. Zipped up securely in our spotted onesies, a conservative application of face paint was all it took to transform Mort and I into loveable pups. Bri played the evil Cruella Deville to our Dalmatians, and she nailed it. Feel free to feign surprise here, but the 3 of us won for best costume as voted by our peers. But who’s kidding who (whom? ah, WHO cares)—put me and Mort in a onesie and we’ll pretty much win any competition…am I right? I’m right. The party came after our game against Halle, which much like my black and white face paint, began brilliantly but turned ugly once I started sweating ten minutes in.

Boy did this game start promising. I mean, if ever there was a first quarter so outrageously unreliable, so fallaciously indicative of the remaining three quarters, our first quarter against Halle would really top that list. Our team would really dominate a league of only first quarters, I tell you what. Someday. How it’s possible to play so drastically dissimilar from quarter to quarter—so good and then just bad, just really, really bad—I will never understand. Needless to say, despite not playing up to our potential the remainder of the game, we lost by just two.  I had 16 points, 5 assists and 5 steals, most of which came in the first half, unfortunately.

Freiburg was next and a win at Freiburg is always particularly rewarding because of the absurd distance it seems to be from everywhere else. I promise it doesn’t matter where you are in Germany, you are always 7 hours from Freiburg, at least. We took a charter bus with a kitchen built into the back, that’s how intense this journey is. I hate these alleged “luxury” buses. I’m onto them; they are just spacious enough to promote relaxation, but ultimately still too crammed to ever produce legitimate comfort. It’s trickery, and it’s shameful. It took us 8 hours to get there and I assure you no 8 hours have ever felt longer. We also traveled with a pack of our most devoted fans, which was a new experience. That, along with a couple other things, made this trip unique.

First of all, speaking of unique, the Freiburg coach was sporting a Mohawk. I kid you not. Now I am not one to judge, but it certainly merits mentioning. I can’t imagine playing Oregon or USC in college, for instance, and Paul Westhead or Michael Cooper rolling in the gym with a Mohawk. Although perhaps if they had more people woulda come to games. Kidding…sorta. Seriously though, are Mohawks even a thing anymore? Who does he think he is, Mr. T? Anyways, much like the Halle game, we started the Freiburg game well. Determined to not repeat our previous performance with disappointing 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th quarters, we were able to sustain our effort and focus and play 40 minutes of pretty good basketball. What is the result when we do that? A 13-point win. I had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Our starting 5 player, Ieva, had 20 and 11 and was huuuuge for us inside and really made the difference. If our posts produce consistently, we’ll be pretty tough to beat.

Our luxury bus transformed into a party bus on the way back, thanks to the win and thanks to our enthusiastic fans that, apparently, travel with cases of beer and lots of food. No complaints here, although I could have gone without the bad karaoke, but what’s a party without pitchy Germans screaming, “We are the champions”! That’s no party at all. We got back to the Wolf at 5:30am completely delirious and ready to sleep for 3 days. Too bad we only get Sunday.

We’re back at home this weekend against Osnabruck. Sure would be nice to string together a few consecutive wins here and build some momentum going into Christmas break. Our next Pokal game is December 8^th against a Div 2 team in Opladen.

Vlasti's real birthday was last week also, and to commemorate it we made him a gigantic cake...out of beers. It was quite the spectacle. We surprised him by hiding in the gym with the lights out and his cake at center court. We also got him a new pair of chucks since he has worn the same ones every day for the last decade. 

Happy Veterans Day. God bless!!