3-0!

Ok, I don't really want to write about every single game because, "A" games and places start running together even in our heads, and things can get boring. And "B", let's face it, some games I don't want to talk about, much less even remember! This game, however, was NOT one of those games, thankfully... but it did start out that way.

We travelled down to Sicily for the only remaining team on the island because my ex-team doesn't exist anymore to play against Priolo, who is known for being near impossible to beat at home for reasons that will remain unmentioned on the world wide web at this time. They have, however, already beaten one of the top three teams in the league on opening day, so they are a team to be reckoned with, especially at home. Priolo throws all kinds of defenses at each team, sometimes without any type of organization or rules, which instead of putting their team at a disadvantage, puts opponents without enough patience to find the open person in a lot of trouble. This was the first game that I didn't start (we seem to be rotating the starting 5 even though I have hit a three in each game on the first possession!) which is totally fine with me because we have so many "legit" players. I didn't really ever get comfortable in the first half, along with our team, and I went scoreless to the locker room at half time thinking this may be another bad shooting performance in Priolo (I never shoot well there... the lighting is bad or something...) I didn't start the second half (this time for good reason) but my coach just told me to shoot more "tranquillo", more relaxed, and some how I found that rhythm when I entered the game. I couldn't miss for the third quarter and the first minute or two of the fourth. I didn't score the whole rest of the game, but within that spurt, I had 19 points to lead our team in scoring. I think I went like 4/5 from three and 5/5 from the free throw line, which only adds up to 17 I know, but either I forgot something, or they gave me two extra points on our website... not sure which :) Anyways, I just wanted to recount about my little personal victory tonight, overcoming what could have easily have been an "off" night of bad shooting. Oh yeah, and we also ended up winning by 5 points even though the refereeing was borderline horrible.

This next game will be a great test for us because they just signed a WNBA star Katie Douglass, and we just need to hope that she's not ready to play for them yet!!! We are going directly to Istanbul tomorrow though, and then we play Wednesday, so that should be exciting. Say some prayers for us!

Now for the "real" part

Ok, we leave tomorrow for a game on the road at Priolo (Sicily), and Kiki is coming for sure (Yay!), not the family from Ribera because of car trouble, and maybe Simona who also played with us last year from Agrigento. The "real" part of the season starts because Euroleague starts next week, meaning in this case that we go directly from Priolo to Turkey for our first Euroleague game. Taranto has history with both teams, first of all just hating Priolo period, and then the Turkish team, Galatassaray, beat them in the EuroCup finals last year (with the help of Seimone Augustus, who is still out with a knee injury and not playing with this team anymore). Instead they have another WNBA player who should give us much to handle. My job is just to stay calm, and play. Sometimes oblivion is a player's best friend in order to not realize the pressure, and that's how I feel right now. Hopefully, it will help more than hurt.

On another note, we did a jumping test yesterday to test our strength and "hops", which I've never totally excelled at, but I'm not "grounded" either. I need to keep my legs strong to prevent further knee problems, so I lift weights pretty hard and consistently throughout the year. I also took part in a "Speedology" program this summer for a month that did a lot of jumping and running with elastic resistance that I really enjoyed and believed in (Karl Frank in Baton Rouge is the owner of it). All that, I believe, contributed to me out-jumping everyone there. The short white kid had the highest vertical. That's just crazy, and I even thoroughly surprised our strength and conditioning coach, Mimmo, that I had more power than our American post player who is a beast of an athlete. Old injuries play a part, as well as age, but who doesn't have old injuries at this point in our careers? I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing!

2 down, lots to go.

We are now 2-0!

I had a great first half hitting 3 three pointers and a lay-up to help put us up by many points at half time. Even without our true point guard, we were on our way to a blow out even though we were on the road. Our two Americans make up the the last two season Most Valuable Foreign players, one of them a real WNBA threat, who is a beast inside. The other team went to a zone, which is fantastic news for a shooter. Taranto needed more of a 3-pt. threat last year, and I am here to help!

We need work on keeping our focus and playing hard for the entire game. There were times in the second half when we all checked out for a bit (unfortunately, I was guilty as well...) because we can't concentrate on who we are playing. We have to focus on us getting "reps" in and making ourselves better.

We play against a team in Sicily this weekend, so I will get to see Kiki because she is playing with an A2 division team in Ragusa, which is very close. Hopefully I will also get to see Daniella and Fabrizio who were the amazing family we visited many times during our time in Ribera. That group of people is one of the few positives that came out of that situation.

A little extra info here. 3rd year in a row I've flown into the Pisa airport and haven't gotten a chance to see the Leaning Tower! One of these days... Also, we woke up at 4:40 this morning after our game to catch a 6:25 flight, except that we got lost on the way to the airport... We missed our flight and had to DRIVE 9 HOURS to the southern part of Italy. Do I have to tell you how a sleepy, hungry, spoiled group of professional athletes react to that??? It wasn't pretty, but we didn't complain as much as I thought we would have, knowing that our only off day of the week was completely ruined. Next week we start playing in the "Big Dog" games, the Euroleague games, so we will be playing double time. After our game in Priolo Sunday, we go directly to Turkey. I've heard about the religion and culture, and how hostile of an environment their gym can be, so it will certainly be an interesting experience. One more thing-- I did my first phone completely Italian interview with a journalist from the Taranto newspaper this afternoon when I got back. If we're talking about basketball stuff, I would say I'm pretty fluent, it's just the other areas, I still need to improve on. Still a great feeling though :)

One and "O"!!!

We won our first official Italian League game. All first games were played in Naples, so all the teams were in one place, even staying at the same hotel! Can we say social overload?!? It was still a stretch for me to be amongst 100 players, most of whom I know who they are but have never spoken to them, a small part are only acquaintances, and an even smaller part I know enough to go have a conversation with. That group is so small because all but like one player that I've played with in Ribera are no longer in Italy, or just not in the first division any more. Needless to say, awkwardness happened...

But we all got through it. Our team won by like 24 points, and since our mid-week Euroleague games don't start until the end of this month, we have a whole week of practice ahead of us! It's normal for me, but for my teammates who are used to being on an awesome team and playing in two leagues, it's like torture to practice so much. We joked that we Americans had a case of the "Mondays" yesterday AND today :)

Italian Lesson of the blog: "Bello". This can mean the obvious "beautiful" (Jodi's favorite saying is also "Ciao Bella!!!), but it can also be used in the way we use the word "nice", but not in the "she's a nice person" kind of way, but more like "it was nice to meet you" way. I bring this up because my mom saw that someone wrote on my facebook wall "Che bello vederti in tv", and she thought it was some Italian guy saying I looked beautiful on TV... Instead, it was a teammate from last year saying that it was so nice to see me on TV... Mamma mia!!! (Literally!) No more trying to translate people :)

Italian Super Cup Champs!

Ok, so I think this is a rather meaningless title as it is last year's winner of the Italian Championship (us) against the winner of the Italian Cup (Faenza), plus it's the beginning of the year, and the teams aren't exactly the same, but.... it felt great anyways :)

During warm-ups I felt more calm than I thought I would, which is so key to playing well for me. Feeling "at home" at our home gym is still in process for me, and it will be another adjustment to play in front of so many people. When we ran out of the tunnel 30 minutes before game time, the gym was already electrifying. Music was boomin', the crowd went nuts, and it was already pretty packed. There were more people that early than Ribera pulled in about 5 games (Attendance reached to 2200 last night!). Most of my teammates are already used to that, but it was an amazing feeling for me. I tried to soak it in.

I had a pretty good game according to my standards (13 points). We had injuries, like I said, so I played A LOT! We all did with such a short bench. We were winning most of the game, but it was pretty close at the end, and we won by 3 points. There was a celebration afterwards. Cameras were everywhere, kids were all around our bench asking for autographs and pictures. And since I'm new, I think I had even more of a crowd because people were wanting to meet me and tell me how awesome I was. I can totally see how stuff like this goes straight to people's heads. I almost couldn't get back to the locker room! I was trying to be the sweet, representative of Christ player that I strive to be, so I wore my smile and patience for everyone. I'd do just about anything for those sweet kids though. There was this one little boy, still in the stands with his dad right above the tunnel where I was heading, and he wanted a picture. Quick thinking told me that no good picture could be taken through bars plus me being 4 feet below. I climbed up for the picture, and they thought that was fantastic. I need to always keep in mind the amount of influence we as players have on these youngsters. When we were there, we certainly looked up to people like us.

Anyways, well, I heard that things do get ugly with the fans when things go bad. They yell and curse, and want the coach fired just like LSU fans do when they don't play well. But one can't think about shooting slumps and losing streaks. When the fear of those are present, that's when they happen for sure. But last night, they treated us like rock stars. Mamma mia, life's crazy...

There's a highlight video right now on our main website page right now. Just give it time to let it load. It's at: http://www.tarantocrasbasket.com/site/index.asp

Italian lesson of the blog: "Prego". This word is not just the name of the spaghetti sauce. Italians use it for many things including, "you're welcome", "go ahead" (as in "can I take your order" or like "after you" when holding the door). Did you say "grazie" for the lesson??? Prego :)