Good morning everyone. It's 5:30 in the morning and we're still on the bus. We've been on this bus since 10:30pm and I just can't wait to get off. I believe we still have 2 hours to go. I was able to sleep for a couple of hours and I'm wide awake now so I thought I’d take the time to share the game with everyone. Some of the guys are still playing poker – which has been going on since the start of the trip. I don't know how to play poker but watching these guys all the time I think I picked up on the game - but I don't think I will ever play. They don't play with a lot of money, so it's more of a laid back fun game for them.
We played Gravelines which is located at the very top of France. So within the past week I've experienced life on France's southern coast and its northern coast. Let me tell you they are two very different climates. (Literally like being in Winona one week and Miami the next.) Gravelines is an interesting town compared to the rest of France. In Europe I'm used to seeing apartment complexes everywhere but this town was filled with tons of townhouses. Gravelines has a nice facility that had everything to go with it. What I mean by this is that not only did they have a nice basketball court/mini arena, also attached to the building was a swimming pool open to the public, a bowling alley, and a roller skating rink. I'm sure there was more but those were what I saw. In addition to that there was a shopping area right outside the facility that had plenty of shops.
Anyway about the game, well to start this game we didn't have our starting forward who is one of the top rebounders in the league. He’s been out the past month (couple more weeks before he is back) with a finger injury and also we didn't have our staring center who suffered an ankle injury last week. Our front court isn't exactly the best situation for us right now and it showed during the first half of the game. Their big man was just having his way with us, getting easy baskets and getting to the free throw line whenever he wanted. That just put a dent in us, and to go along with that they were just dropping threes from all over the place. We went into the half down 18 and guys had their heads down. There was a sense of feeling from everyone like “Oh shit”. We made some adjustments and went to a 2-3 zone defense along with 1-2-2 full court press for the second half. We were able to get ourselves back into the game and more importantly I was able to play more of my game style. I like to be able to run around on defense and create some turnovers or get steals. That leads to fast breaks which lead me to being more active on the offensive side of the game. My struggle with this team is that our offense is mainly for our 5 man so there is a lot of standing around on my part and having to wait to receive the ball. So basically I've become more of the catch and shoot type which I can do – but would rather not. There are games when I can go off hitting threes but as of late I've been struggling a little bit. During this game I was focusing on driving and getting to the basket and creating for others. With us playing more of an up-tempo style of game in the second half everything became a little easier for me. I got most of my stats in the second half and finished with 10 points, 4 steals, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Anyway we were able to get the lead back to single digits but couldn't overcome the deficit. I think we ran out of gas with our limited rotation. The final score of the game was 72-61. We have a home game next week and we'll bounce back with a win!
Well the sun is rising and we're still on the bus. I can't wait to lay down in a bed and catch up on some of the March Madness. I already missed a lot of good games but hopefully there will be more plenty more today. So far, I'm doing good with my bracket picks, hope everyone else is. Before I go I wanted to give a shout out the Warriors on another successful basketball season. I was able to follow and even watched some of the games throughout the season. You guys were close but you did great things. Keep working hard this off season and good things will happen to ya!
Everyone thanks for checking in and I will be back with more next week. God Bless!
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