The Knee

This morning I went to the doctor to have my knee examined. As you may recall, I came down funny off of a rebound and it just gave way. I finished the game, but I was noticeably favoring it. There wasn't any swelling until the next morning; but once it happened, well, it happened. 

The doctor is always a special experience, but it is especially so over here.  I wish there was a hidden camera because I am sure our attempts to break through language barrier were entertaining. I know the nurses who were sitting in had a good time. 

The Doc twisted, pressed, pulled, poked, prodded, and pushed on everything conceiveable in, on, and around my knee. I guess the best way to check ligaments is to see if you can rip them with your bare hands. Turns out I had no damage there...other than the bruising he may have caused himself. 

He prescribed some kind of cream stuff and some kind of pill; both to help with the inflammation. When I asked him what the pill was for, he responded, "I hope you don't have stomach problems." That's cool, right? I had to look up the name of the medicine online before I took that one, haha. 

Wellps, that's about it. I am out of commision until my checkup on Friday. Hopefully it goes well and I will get cleared to play. 

P.S.- anyone see Slumdog Millionaire? I guess I should put that on my list.

Battle for #1

So, this past weekend was "the big game". We played the first place team for sole possession of the top league spot. Usually, there isn't great fan support when we play in Berlin; but yesterday roughly 100 fans made the 2 hour trek to support us. Between the drums, chants, and horns this was the most exciting atmosphere that I've played in since Amherst/Williams and the NCAA playoffs. 

The game started in exciting fashion as both teams put up 10 or so points in the first minute. In the first 5 minutes, I had 7 points off of a pull up jumper, a layup, and an "and 1" step back jumper- then I got hurt. I am not sure how I landed exactly, but my knee gave out and I had to ask for a substitution. There was no trainor on hand, so I had to do my best self-assessment. I went out into the hallway and figured out the most effective way to mask my gimp and returned back to the gym. My coach let me play for about a minute, but he subbed me out to stay safe. It was the worst sitting there and seeing the opponents' lead swell. They were up as many as 16, but we cut it to 10 by halftime.

I was allowed to start the second half but I could tell I was on a tight leash. Fortunately, I made two quick 3's so my coach was too distracted to be worried about my knee. We really came out strong in the third quarter. I think Nick and I scored around 20 points combined to cut the lead down to 1 heading into the fourth. 

The game's intensity didn't waiver. We actually took the lead on a monstrous leaning tomohawk dunk by Nick. We ballooned the margin to as many as 6, but back-to-back threes quickly knotted the score. With 19 seconds to go, we had the ball for last shot. One dribble. Two dribbles. Then our shooting guard dribbles the ball off his foot and it rolls straight out of bounds. They have ball for last shot with 9 seconds to go but we played good defense and forced overtime. 

Much like the beginning of the game, the beginning of OT was a crazy scoring fest. I think I had 8 or 10 points in the first 5 minutes but so did the other team's guards. A banked elbow jumpshot by some donkey on the other team tied the game with around 3 minutes to go. Both teams struggled to find a rhythm in the end. Though I am trying hard not to be bitter, I don't know why my coach stopped giving me the ball towards the end of OT. Nevertheless, we have the ball with 10 seconds to go, game tied, for the last shot. Obvioulsy we lose the ball, because things never go right at the end of close games, and our point guard tries to recover it with 4 seconds left. 

He realizes that he can't get the ball, and decides to karate chop the guy. Let me make a few things clear. Not only were we on our side of the court, and  had guys sprinting back to defend  with 3.1 seconds left, but we were also in the double bonus. That means every non-offensive foul gets two free throws. The very last thing to do in that situation is foul. 

The story gets a little better. We have one timeout left, and the rule is if youuse one in the 4th quarter or later, you can advance the ball to half court. Instead of doing that, our coach calls it before the guy shoots any freethrows. The player makes both freethrows and we have to take a shot just over half court. It doesn't go in and we lose.  Cool. 

We now need Hermsdorf to lose two out of the 5 games they have left, in order to win the league. It could happen, but beating them would have made things much simpler. I finished with 30 points and 15ish rebounds. 

Victory!

As the title insinuates, yesterday (Saturday, February 14) we successfully defended our home court  in the first game played there in over 2 months. It wasn't very pretty, especially in the beginning, but at this point in the season all that really matters is the end result. 

The game was the highest stakes game that I've played in since last year's NCAA tournament. If we won, we'd be playing the following week for first place and the right to move up a league; If TuS Lichterfelde (TuSLi) lost, they would be forced to move down a league. Finally, we were playing for something we could actually see on the horizon. 

TuSLi signed two American import players recently to help them stay afloat: a 6'4 guard and a 7'0" center. The 6'4" guard walked into our gym and onto our floor in street clothes, took a ball that we were using to warm up, shot on our basket as we warmed up, and ignored our not-so-polite requests for him to keep it moving. I didn't know much about his playing style but his demeanor told me it'd be an interesting game one way or another. 

The first half wasn't my best work. We were down 3 points and I had only scored 3 points. Nick kept us in the game well with 20 pts in the first half, but other than him, no one really scored very well. Our offense was stagnant mostly because the 7-footer did a pretty good job early in challenging shots.

The second half was much better. A couple of offensive rebounds got me going and a few post isolations helped me to find my rhythm again. I had 16 points in the second half  including a stretch of 4 or 5 straight scores. The American guard decided to defend me in the 4th quarter and ended up getting two quick fouls. He responded by storming off the court and into the lockerroom for the rest of the game. There was no shaking of hands for him at the contest's end. 

I finished with 19 and 15ish. The best part is that the first place team, Hermsdorf, lost in overtime. This means that if we win the rest of our games, we will the league outright. No needing to score by a certain point margin or anything. Woo!!

Shout out the the 'Herst boys for holding down their homecourt on Sr. Day. I'm proud of them.

Up and running

My other Blog is now up and running! You should check her out if you get a chance. I appreciate it.

Hi there...

How are things? It feels like forever since I have posted. Almost an entire month later, I can finally give an update on basketball related events. I'll start there.

On Saturday, February 7, we traveled to Berlin to play the 4th place team our league. Even though we beat them by 30 at home, we knew it would be a tough game because we'd only have 6 eligible players. Between injuries and people deciding that practice was optional, I knew I wouldn't really have a viable substitute and would have to log 36+ (out of 40) minutes.

Just as advertised, the game was even the entire way. With :23 seconds remaining the other team was down 3 with the ball. We bore down defensively and corralled a long rebound as time expired to secure the win. In 37 minutes of play, I had 19 points and 10ish rebounds. I was prepared for bad officiating, so I wasn't super surprised that I didn't get the calls that I should've gotten. My numbers weren't spectacular, but I was satisfied with my play because I made some tough shots down the stretch. Nick finished with about 12 points and 8 rebounds.

The first place team lost last weekend so we have a chance to win the league without any outside help. I'll mention more about the particulars of that when the time comes; but for now, the focus is winning next week in our (insert triumphant music here) home debut of the new year.

In other news....

I am now an independent business owner. It was just a little investment and my short term goal is only to make some extra change to help with student loans, but other people have been able to retire after 5 years. I am going to start another blog that will go into more detail and I will link it to this one.

Oh yeah.....
GOOOOOOOO STEEELERS