Another Win!!!!!! Video Blog

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Coaching Playoff Loss

Today I coached my 16U team in a home playoff game against one of the top teams in Germany. We lost 64-58 but we had several chances to win. We made a couple "silly" mistakes down the stretch of the game that we shouldn't have made. Our next game is against Cologne of western Germany.

The whole season our team played either up to the level of competition or down to it. We were almost beaten by the worst team, 0-15, in our league and we beat the best team in our league, 14-1. We've lost to a couple teams we should have beaten, but its our own fault. When we lose it's not cause the other team is better than us its because we make "silly" "dumb" "simple" mistakes that hurt us. Here are a couple examples of what I am talking about. We beat a team by 55points one game then the next time we played we were losing the whole game until the last 3 min and won by 6 and they had the same team both games. No new players. Here's another example. We beat a team by 18points holding them to only 11 second half points (9pts 3rd qtr and 2pts 4th qtr) and we lose the next game by 14. Again, same team with no new players. Third example. We lose to one of the best teams by 3 and then get beat by one of the worst teams and have 33 turnovers and about 25 of those turnovers were unforced. Meaning we just threw the ball to the other team or dribbled off our foot. It's little things like that that have cost us the season. we are now playing in the "losers" bracket sort of speak; meaning the next three games are meaningless for us.

These kids are a GREAT "TEAM", when they play together on offense and defense. When they don't however, anyone can beat them because they are not great individual players, yet. I hope we can with the last three games of the season and end the season on a high note. They have a tournament in Vienna, Austria at the end of the month that will be very exciting.

I hope we can get it together this week and get focused.

Thanks to Jens Scholz who took the pictures of our game today.

3rd win in a row!!!!

Today we played a home game against BG Magdeburg from Northern Germany. The first time we played them they beat us in overtime 90-93 at their place. However, the circumstances were a little different then because we had several player out with injury and we have added some new guys since then. Max (captain 13ppg) was out with injury, Jan Both (6'11 center) was out with injury, Tobias Schmidt (broken finger), Kevin (new American) wasn't signed yet, Nico (20U German national team) wasn't signed yet, Robert Dill (6'9 1st league player) wasn't signed yet, and we had to bring up a NBBL (18U youth league) player to fill a roster spot.

Today's game we had a full roster and the "swagger" of winning the last 3 out of 4 games. We started the game trying to play fast and up tempo but Magdeburg was well prepared for out fast break offense at the beginning. The first quarter was poorly played by both teams, with both teams missing easy layups and easy shots. The first quarter reminded me of a boxing fight with both teams trying to feel the other team out and trying to see how each other played. The first quarter ended with Magdeburg leading 16-14. The second quarter continued the same way the first did with both teams struggling to get into a rhythm and a groove. I picked up my second foul with 9:23 remaining in the second and I had to sit the rest of the quarter to be safe I didn't get a 3rd foul. During the second we struggle to get into an offense and we played a lot of one-on-one, which hurts us because we begin to be more selfish than think about the team. By halftime we were down 11points 37-26 and we had played awful and not as a team. I had 4points at the half.

The third quarter I decided I was going to be a lot more aggressive offensively than I had been in the first half. I decided to try and put the team on my back and maybe that will get US going for the second half. I hit a couple jumpers and free throws and began to warm up shooting wise. By the end of the third quarter we had taken the lead 48-54, which is a 17point swing in our favor. I scored 14points int he 3rd quarter.

The fourth quarter had them looking tired and we began to get our "swagger" and confidence back. We controlled the whole fourth quarter defensively and offensively. We scored almost every time down the court and we held them to one shot on defense. We began to play as a team on offense and defense with every one sacrificing for the betterment of the team. We all wanted to win and we could taste it.

We won the game 65-78 which makes 4 out of the last 5 games we've won. We are playing very well as a team and we are enjoying ourselves. I finished the game with 25pts, 5ast, 2rbs, 2TO while shooting 7-13 from the field and 8-8 from the FT line to lead us. Max scored 13points and Kevin and Robert both had double figure rebounds (Kevin 12, Robert 10). We held their 2 Americans to a combined 23points.

Our next game is away against Rostock, which is a nice 6.5hr drive.

Tomorrow my 16u team plays in the playoffs against one of the best teams in Germany.

Thanks to Jens Scholz for the pictures again.

Please keep me and my family in your prayers.