Baunoch 76 Weiden 64

Lots of people watch or hear about a game. Even people who know a lot about basketball can go and see a game and have a good idea of what went on. But the truth to what happens in a game is usually the result of what happened before the game even started. What happens in the practices leading up to the game and how mentally and physically prepared the players are, those are things that only the players and coaches know about. A fan can see if a player isn't at the game because they are sick or injured, but the fans do not know about the players that actually are playing sick and injured.

Yesterday we played Baunoch a team from Bamberg. It is a beautiful city to visit. This team is known for playing a slower style of game, using a lot of pressure defense, and really working the ball into the post. They also always have extremely good post players. This team works together as one cohesive group and all of the players know their role. Last season they beat us both times handily. However, this time we thought we were a better team, and although it would be a tough game, we thought we should go in there and win. But, as I said earlier, there were many unseen things that led up to this game, which resulted in a very, very disappointing loss for us.

Know that I am not making excuses for our team as I will explain later. We had 3 players hurt or sick including two usual starters, and thus, the roles of every player had to change. Also, we could not get a solid practice in all week because all of our team was never able to make it, so in this situation, you are never sure what to expect out on the court. To make matters worse, our best inside player and my old college teammate, Marcus Vanderheide, hurt his lower back during practice and conditioning. Obviously Marcus played and gave it everything he had, but he physically he was not 100%.

In the game we did a great job on the boards, outrebounding one of the biggest teams in the league in the first half. We played some solid defense and didn't make many stupid mistakes on defense which was a large improvement from the week before. However, offensivly we weren't clicking. We had many unforced turnovers with only one man guarding us, we didn't move enough without the ball, we didn't move the ball very well, we didn't have a strong inside presence with Marcus not 100% and our usual starting center out.

In a nutshell, when we played our game yesterday we have a very good chance to win. It was a 4 point game heading into the fourth. For how well we rebounded it was a game we needed to win. We didn't excecute at all. We played a team that we felt we were better than, however they did all the little things better than we did. The problem yesterday was not our effort and it was not that we didn't show up to play. The problem was the bad week we had in preparation for the game. Some things we couldn't control and other things we could have and but didn't. This all lead up to a disappointing loss for our team.

In case you are curious I finished the game with 30 points, but it was a struggle to score against their excellent defense.

Hopefully this week we will become healthier, get everyone together at practice and be ready for a strong game coming up because the compeition will not get any easier, it will in fact be harder.