Defeat of the Rastas and U.S. Stereotypes

    Going into the weekend there was a 4-way tie for first that included us and the team we were playing, Rasta Vechta. We shot 62% from the field and 50% from three and were able to fend off a late rally to seal the win. I had my season highs in points and threes so it was definitely a good bounce-back from my performance last weekend. Going into the game we knew that Rasta would press for most of the game, so Coach decided we would give them some of their own medicine, so we started the game in a press as well. This was actually pretty effective for about two minutes until everyone was gassed. I think Coach realized that with a 7-man rotation this was not a sustainable pace, so we took the press off, much to Marcus's and my delight. Unfortunately, the other two teams tied for first won as well so we are not just in a three-way tie.

     Rasta is from Berlin, so they didn't bring too many fans, but the ones they did bring were all dressed up in 80's wigs and costumes (you can see their backs in the picture below).

          I am not sure if this was a tribute to the Rasta movement or was random, but either way. it was entertaining. Sticking true to his word, Coach replaced our post-game talk with a gym cleaning session.  This seems to be an interesting long-run strategy if our goal is to get better at basketball; I think they just don't want to pay the clean-up crew. We better not lose anymore easy games or the towels and water bottles might mysteriously disappear next.

Not sure why this keeps happening to me, my pump fake is not that good.

    Things are progressing well with the little team I am coaching. I have added an assistant Coach who speaks German, so that has been all positive, well except when he told me that one of the kids was referring to me as 'the Russian'.  I really don't know what to think about this but I am pretty sure it is an insult.  I don't see how he could see me as controlling considering all we do is play knock-out and scrimmage, but I guess you can't win them all. On Monday, we only had 9 players but we scrimmaged for 30 minutes 5 vs. 4 and they didn't even notice; I guess we need to work on court awareness more.

My man in the Spurs uniform has come with a different full NBA jersey/short combo to every practice. If he just got rid of the rec-specs he would be the best dressed by far.

   This morning I went to the school I might start teaching at and sat in on some classes. There was time for a little Q & A at the end of class. The first few questions were: Does everyone in the U.S. do drugs? Are the high schools like in Mean Girls? Doesn't everyone own a gun? Do you eat fast food everyday? Are the house parties like in the movies? Do you surf? Looks like we are doing a good job promoting a positive image of the U.S. overseas.  I also got: Do you break dance? Why don't you break dance? How do people live in Hollywood with all the gangs? and Why aren't you married?

  However, I did get a little revenge when I asked them why there weren't wearing leather shorts, suspenders with a flowing white shirt, and a top hat, and if they served liters of beer in the cafeteria.

     

Williams basketball has their first game this weekend, can't tell you how much I would love to be sitting in Chandler gym on Friday night!