steppin

played an exhibition mini tourney that our team hosted. brought in 3 other guys teams from aarhus, alborg and veilje. played twice. the first game was against alborg, we ended up losing by 8. then we played veilje and lost by 2(tough game to lose after a nice comeback). we had some nice moments and some not so much, but tis to be expected i guess early on. i didn't check the scoresheets but i'd say i had around 15-20 pts each game. the second game was tough, we were down ten all game, made a nice run in the last minute to close within one then the zebras worked their magic. trying to stop the clock and send a guy to the line i close out and start slapping away trying to get the whistle, they swallow it, dude drives by and i grab his jersey and get called for an intentional, trying to stop the clock at the end. no crying over spilled milk, but me and refs will never see eye to eye. frustration.com. took alot for me to bite my tounge. other than that i played decent i guess considering i'm at about 75 percent with my foot. couldn't shoot the ball from downtown today, so there was alot of drives. trying to get that explosiveness back. had some good tips, reverses, dishes. got punched in the face(by a teamate going for a loose ball) that led to me drinking blood for 2 quarters, poked in the eye(can't focus now), add it to my chart doctor. its hard working through the injuries cuz its caused me to miss so much practice time and indiv training sessions in favor of rest. enough about that though.

i'm not gonna lie, i got cake on my face once though. dude spun baseline and i went to block it, caught my hand in the net on the way and he flushed on the other side... right over my help defense that never came. as far as consequences and reprecussions go, i caught him with a little "utep two-step" at the top of the key next time down on a little move with designs of payback but in and outted the ensuing three.

we still have serious issues with turnovers and running our offense with precision. these dudes don't seem to see the damage that each bad decision leads to. usually a 4 point swing, because then the rest of the team hangs their heads, are slow to get back in transition defense and it turns into a layup drill or worse yet, frustration fouls. thats the only reason we really lost, that and a few injuries. i mean i don't try to be negative, we did do some good things but i gotta keep that standard high. we did look crisper than the last game on tuesday though. so hopefully it continues in a positive direction. last year they lost every preseason game then came in and blew out the best team in the league by 30 in the opener.

because of my size and versatility, i'm usually matched up with the opposing team's main import on defense, so i never really get a chance to rest because i'm required on offense to be a catalyst as well. i gotta get my wind back cuz its hard to give your best on both ends for extended periods, but it'll come i just have to be patient(not my most notorious virtue i'm afraid). i relish the challenge of matching up with an american D1 product everytime... only gonna make me better.... and if i'm doing a decent job now, when i get healthy i should be able to ruben patterson some cats. i just feel more comfortable on D this year for some reason and i've been able to play my guy without getting into foul trouble. that is important to me since in the past its been a bit of an achilles heal.