Big Win in Nahariya, Back to 4-2 in League

Last night we were on the road in Nahariya, trying to get things back on track.  We had lost our previous two league games, so this was definitely a game we needed to win, or else we would have been in some serious trouble.  It was obviously not a great situation to be in because it is very difficult to win games on the road, no matter what the level of basketball.  Early on we started out pretty slowly, and had some tough stretches that lead to a 9 point deficit at half-time.  It looked like it was going to be the same story as the last two league games, but we were able to right the ship in the second half.  As usual, the turnaround started with defense.  The truth of the it is we have not been playing well offensively for about a month, so we really needed to get defensive stops to give ourselves a good chance to win, and that is what we did in the second half.  We allowed only 20 points in the second half, which was a very impressive effort.  We hit some big shots to extend the lead, and it never got closer than 8 in the last 5 minutes.  We needed this win to have a chance moving forward, so it is a very good thing we were able to get it done.

After the game, I went to Tel Aviv with five of my teammates (the American dudes and Moshe Mizrahi).  It was the first time I had been out and about in Tel Aviv.  I had a good time hanging with the guys for sure, but since it was a Saturday night (basically like Sunday night in the states, because the Israeli workweek starts Sunday morning) there was not a whole lot going on.  We ate at this cool little spot in the city, and checked out a couple bars.  It was a good first night in Tel Aviv, not too crazy, but not too boring either.  This week should be pretty relaxed, because there is not a whole lot going on.  

What I am really excited about is come Monday, it will be two weeks on the dot from the time I will be getting to the BAY.  Can't wait to go home for a bit.  I'll be back later this week, hope yall enjoy your Sunday!

Sorry For the Delay... It's Been a Busy Week

First off, before I start, I wanna wish my sister a happy 21st birthday!  Tate turned 21 on Tuesday, and celebrated by going out to the bars for the first time...legally.  This week has been pretty hectic, and as you know during hectic weeks time flies.  It all started with the fashion show on Monday.  To see pictures from that, click the link at the bottom of this blog.  They are pretty cool, so check 'em out.  After that, Tuesday brought me two tough practices.  I was pretty sure tough practices were on their way after two league losses in a row, and in all truthfulness we needed them.  We had become a little content, and we needed a fire lit under our respective asses to get going again.  We practiced much harder, and with more intensity this week, and I really think we will be ready to go come Saturday night (our next league game, against Nahariya).  On Wednesday, I went over to Ido's house for dinner with Doron, and Ido's wife (who is a realllllly good cook) made us some real good soup, salad, and chicken schnitzel.  Thursday brought Thanksgiving, and I was fortunate enough to be invited over to Ben's apartment by him and his family to celebrate the holiday with them.  His parents are over here visiting for the first time, and wanted to spend the holiday with him.  They were nice enough to include me in the festivities, and my hat goes off to Ben's parents because (with limited resources) they made one hell of a meal.  Salad, stuffing, potatoes, Chicken (they don't sell turkeys over here) and gravy, along with some unbelievable pumpkin pie made by Ben's mom Sally.  It was a damn good substitute for not being able to be home, and I want to thank them again for including me.  Last night I went to Tal's house for Shabbat dinner (like usual), and this morning we had shootaround for tonight's game, and then after that went with Tal to his little cousin's bar mitzvah party! Mazel Tov (haha, that's all I really could bring to the table with celebratory phrases).  Now I am sittin' at home, relaxin', gettin' ready to take a nap before the game tonight.  Tonight I think I am going to make my first trip to Tel Aviv with some of the guys, so I am pretty excited for that.  I promise to update you by Monday morning on the result of our game tonight... hopefully I get some run.

That's all I got for now, hope all is well back in the states!  16 days until I will be back in the YAY Area!

Tough One Against Jerusalem, 3-2 now in League

Sunday night we had the opportunity to put ourselves in a great spot in the league.  Before Sunday's games, there were six teams all tied with the same, best record (3-1).  All six of those teams played each other on that night, so with a win, we would at least be in the top 3 in the league.  We played a very good team in Jerusalem who was fresh off laying a beat down on Maccabi Tel Aviv a few days before.  This was a game that was easy to get excited for because of the ramifications of both a win or a loss.  The crowd was unbelievable, even ten minutes before game time, and the atmosphere was wonderful.  We started out the game going back and forth with them, basically all the way through the first half.  We had some opportunities to extend, but like most good teams, Jerusalem didn't let us.  We went into half time a bit stagnant, and trailing by two.  The story was the same in the third quarter, back and forth, back and forth.  Jerusalem's 3-man, this 6'9'' guy who plays a lot like Peja Stoyakovic for those of you who are NBA fans, got it going a little bit, but we kept it close and were only trailing by 6 or so after 3 quarters.  When it was time to grind, we tried our best, but a lot of the guys who have been playing are logging A LOT of minutes, and I am pretty sure they were fatigued.  They extended it to about 12 points, and we started making a late run, cut it to 5 or so, but just didn't have enough in the tank to finish it out.  Now we have lost our last two league games, so we have to soul-search a little bit, and get back to our winning ways.  The final of the Jerusalem game was 80-73.  

If you are wondering why I haven't been talking at all about how I'm playing it's because I'm not really playing at all.  I get spot minutes (actually seconds) every now and then at the end of quarters, but I am working hard to change that daily in practice.  Once I start gettin' more burn I will be sure to inform you all haha.  

Lastly, the fashion show was tonight, and it was a big success.  I will post pictures, and write a brief blog on it tomorrow!  Hope you all have a real cool Monday.

A Win is a Win

As I had mentioned yesterday we played the same team last night that we played last weekend in the 'cup', Galil-Gilboa.  They didn't have their American 4 man, a dude who went to Illinois, but they still played pretty well.  They really don't run any sets besides high pick and rolls, and we still weren't able to stop it, until we nutted-up in the fourth quarter when we needed to.  We were down 2 at half, and they came out blazing in the second half, taking a 14 point lead at one point.  We really just lacked energy, and it was a weird feeling in the gym, but Davon Jefferson really got us going, and we made some big shots down the stretch.  This means that we will now play our next cup game on January 4th. 

Our next game is this Sunday against Jerusalem.  I would say that they have been the best team in our league up to this point, especially after they waxed Maccabi Tel Aviv last night, at one point, they were even leading by 30 points!!  We need to bring a better effort Sunday night compared to the last few games, or we will be in some serious trouble.

Good news on the holiday front! Our coach told us we would be able to stay in the states for Christmas, and catch a flight back the 26th.  Couldn't be any happier about that!

That's it for now, I will let you all know how we do Sunday!

Cup Game #2 Preview: Galil-Gilboa

Tonight (Thursday night) we play the 2nd game of the 'Cup Tournament'.  Our first game was a month or so ago, against a second division team named 'Hapoel Be'eri'.  We won that game real easily, and it set us up for this game tonight.  We are playing the same team that beat us in overtime last weekend, so it will be nice to see how we do now that we get them in our own gym.  We spent a lot of time over the past few days working on stopping a few of their offensive sets that they absolutely murdered us with.  I feel like the coaches did a good job of changing up the game plan to counter their sets, so I think we will be more than ready.  This is going to be a big four days for us because after tonight, we get Jerusalem at home on Sunday.  If we can win both these games it would be a big statement to the rest of the league that we are a legit contender.  I'll be back tomorrow, and let you all know how it went down.  Have a good thursday... only one more day 'til the weekend!

Big Ben's Dilemma, Fashion Show Fitting

Today was the day that my teammates and I went to 'Springfields', the store that is sponsoring the fashion show to try on our outfits.  Ben and I got there at the same time, and we were both pretty interested in seeing what kind of options we would get to rock on the runway.  Ben had a little better foresight than I did, as he was worried that they wouldn't be able to find any clothes to fit his near 7 foot frame.  Obviously this wasn't a concern for me, finding stuff for a 6'2'' guy is not nearly as difficult.  When we got to the store, our teammate Moshe was already trying on some gear, and the lady began helping Ben and I.  The lady gave me a pair of jeans, a nice little red button up, and a black jacket to wear over it.  I went and tried it on, and after trading the jacket for a bigger size, I was ready to go, in and out in no more than 10 minutes.  Well, for Ben, it wasn't that simple.  The first outfit the lady gave him looked like it would have been small for even ME, so you can only imagine what it looked like on him.  The second outfit was much better as she traded a button up for a screen t-shirt, but one problem remained...the jeans.  Ben offered to wear a pair of his own to the show, but the lady said he had to wear something from 'Springfields' since they were the sponsor.  After trying to wear them normal, then trying to roll up the bottoms and go with the 'high-water' look, then simply sagging, we came to the conclusion that Ben might look a little goofy on the runway.  I reassured him, 'bro, don't worry about it... no one from home is going to see you in these clothes... until I post them on facebook HAH!'  Hopefully the ladies working at the store appreciated Ben's attitude, because I know a lot of people who would not been nearly as flexible in that situation.  

As a reminder, we play Galil-Gilboa again, in a cup game, this Thursday at home.  Hopefully we can get a few things straightened out, and then we will be ready to go.

I will update the blog after that game, and let you know how we did.

Game Four: Our First L, to Galil Galboa

Tonight we had the Saturday Night game of the week against Galil Galboa, a team that is located about an hour northeast of Haifa.  They are a guard-heavy squad, and run the crap out of the high pick and roll.  We didn't play our best game, but we put ourselves in a great position to win the game as we were up 5 points with 1:15 to go.  A couple bad lapses on the defensive boards allowed them to tie the game with 28 seconds to go in regulation.  We still were in a great position, ball in hand, tie game, and we got to take the last shot.  Our point guard, Doron, took it strong to the rack, got hit a couple times en route, powered through, but missed a little 10 foot float piece that went in and out.  In overtime they took control, and they extended the lead, and really put us in a hole when their big man hit a step back 3 pointer as the shot clock expired.  They really just wore us down with the high pick and roll, and took advantage of the fact that our guys had piled up a lot of minutes in regulation.  As for myself, I played 4 minutes in the first half, and didn't get any action in the 2nd half, or in overtime.  We are now 3-1, and we are either in 3rd or 4th place now, I'm not sure.  We play Galil Galboa again on Thursday night, this time in a 'cup' game.  Fortunately for us, we get them in our gym, so we can have a lil' homecourt advantage this time around.  Following that, we play Jerusalem on Sunday, so we have two tough games coming up that we need to get ready for.  Hopefully we learn from this, and don't let it effect us in the next game Thursday.

Fashion Day with the Haifa Heat

Today started off as any other Tuesday would... 11am shooting practice, and then straight home to go back to bed.  What made it different from the other Tuesdays was the fact myself and six of my teammates had to go to a local mall to get fitted for a fashion show that we will be participating in a few weeks from now.  None of us had any idea what was going on, so we just went with the flow and showed up.  When we got there, we got fitted for our outfits we will be wearing at the show (and keeping after its over!).  After the fitting, we got introduced to the twenty girls who will be doing the show with us... unfortunately, all these girls are between the ages of 15-18, and I just can't talk myself into talking to an eighteen year old girl, even though it is supposedly 'legal'.  It was actually pretty fun, and all us guys had to practice our runway walks, and our poses at the end of the runway... as you can imagine, we were all very awkward at it.  It's pretty entertaining watching a group of guys who look so fluid and coordinated on a basketball court look so goofy walking in a straight line.  Anyhow, we have a meeting set up to try on our clothes next week so we will surely be ready to walk the runway on the 24th of November, the actually date of the show.  

Back to basketball, we are getting ready for a HUGE stretch in our schedule... we have 3 games in 8 days starting Saturday (two league games, and one cup game).  We play Galil-Galboa on Saturday at their place, and if we can win this one, we will be sitting veryyyy pretty.  Pretty excited for this weekend, it will be another good test for our team to see how strong we really are.

Lastly, a kid who is like a little brother to me, Brandon 'Beezer' Burnam went into the ICU real early this morning.  He is having some really bad problems with his asthma, which has really been a problem for him in his past.  I'm pretty positive he will be all good, but if you could keep him in your thoughts right now it would be much appreciated.  Thanks a lot, and have a great Wednesday!

3-0 Start

Last night we had our first home game of the regular season against the defending champions of the league, Hapoel Holon.  I was pretty excited because everyone had been building up how wild it got at our home games, and they had compared it to college games back in the states.  That made expectations pretty damn high for me because it got crackin' at SMC's McKeon Pavilion.  Just like big games in college, the crowd had already started to arrive, and a buzz was going through the gym an hour before game time.  What's crazy is they let you bring in all types of artificial noisemakers into the game like air horns, drums, and those old school megaphone type things (I don't even know what they are called).  As for the game, we played real well in the first half, and took a 12 point lead into half-time.  It was looking good in terms of 2nd half playing time for me, until we had a real slow start at the beginning of the second half, even giving up the lead for a little bit after they started the half on a 13-0 run.  It went back and forth for a little bit, but once again we pulled away late in the fourth quarter, and ended up winning pretty big.  Right now we are sittin' pretty nicely at 3-0, and we are atop the standings.  The only other undefeated team are the Yankees of Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv.  We can't look ahead though, because we got a tough game next week on the road, and we gotta try to keep this train rollin'.

Season Gam 3 Preview: Defending Champs Hapoel Holon

Hope everyone is doing well... we have a very important league game tonight, as we host our first league game against the defending champions of the league, Hapoel Holon.  Hapoel Holon beat Maccabi Tel Aviv for the Israeli Championship last year in a huge upset.  Although they don't really return anyone off that championship team, we have seen them on film, and they are pretty good.  They are a real quick, undersized team, who can hurt you by taking you out of your offensive sets, and really trying to get the game going at an uncomfortable pace.  They have quick feet and quick hands, and they utilize those strengths by trapping pick and rolls, and pressuring the ball.  Fortunately for us, we have a bunch of different guys who can handle defensive pressure, so I don't think it will give us as much trouble as it has the other teams.  They are 2-0 in league as well, so whoever wins tonight will be in a first place tie with Maccabi Tel Aviv after the weekend.  It's a late start tonight 8:30pm Israeli time, so I probably won't post an update about the final until tomorrow.  If you want to watch the game, they have video online available at www.trianglefs.com.  The only thing is the game won't be shown until 8 hours after the start time, so on the east coast it will start at 9:30pm, Arizona will be 7:30pm, and Cali will be 6:30pm.  The reason why they do that is because they don't want to compete with NFL games.  Alright, well, I will be back tomorrow with an update, hopefully tellin' you all how we knocked 'em off, and are sittin' on top of the league standings. 

Friday Night Out with the Boss

Usually my Friday nights are pretty consistent.  I will occasionally go out with my teammates for a bit, knowing I have all day Saturday to sleep in, but last night (Friday night) was different.  After our morning practice on Friday our team's owner, Jeff Rosen, asked Ben Strong and I if we had any plans for the evening.  Since both of us aren't exactly 'busy' guys, we didn't have anything planned, so Jeff set up a dinner for all of us, along with Joe Almodovar (the team's GM) later that night.  Ben and I ended up meeting them at 'Dante's'  in Haifa, a very nice Italian restaurant right in the center of the city.  It was a great opportunity for everyone involved because Ben and I were able to ask Jeff questions that we had, and he talked with us about different ways to market the team, and we brainstormed ways to get the word out, all over some really good food.  It is really assuring that the owner of our team actually cares about our personal successes and growth, along with the success of the team.  After the dinner the four of us went down the street to the bar in Haifa we attend the most often named, 'Levinsky's'.  Techno night made it difficult to hear each other talk, but at the bar we continued conversating about the team, and about the experiences we had in Haifa to this point.  It was a very cool night, and Ben and I really appreciated the effort Jeff and Joe put out to make us feel welcome and comfortable within the organization.  Tomorrow night we play the defending champions of Israel, Hapoel Holon, and I will write a quick little preview for that game tomorrow.  

Don't Sleep on Those Suns

I followed the first half of the Suns vs. Pacers game on ESPN GameCast last night, and after the first quarter was pretty disappointed.  The whole idea Terry Porter (the new coach) was hanging his hat on was changing the teams concentration to the defensive end.  He figured with top flight offensive talents like Amare, and the real 'Stevie Franchise', that the team would always be able to score enough to win, it was just whether or not they would be able to stop the other team from scoring.  Well, after the first quarter last night the Suns 'O' looked good as they scored 27..but their defensive... well, they gave up 38 points. 38!!! Where was the D Terry?? It was nowhere to be found in the first half, as they were down 7 at the half, but they turned it around, and kept the Pacers pretty quiet in the 2nd half, which allowed the Suns to extend their lead, and win pretty easily.  Although they were AWFUL defensively in the first half, their great OFFENSE saved them.  It wasn't the way Terry Porter wants to win, but I know he will take any W he can get in his first year with the Suns.  

The difference about last night's games from all the others was the absence of Matt Barnes.  He apparently had a family issue, so he didn't play, but it showed how much the Suns rely on him to guard.  Danny Granger, the 3-man for the Pacers, lit the Suns up for 23.  Granger is a very very good player, but his night was made a lot easier having Grant Hill trying to stick him.  Also, it affected the Suns depth.  The depth of the new Suns is the main reason I really think they can compete this year, and Barnes is really the 'x-factor' in that department.  Still relatively young, he can play a lot of minutes, and give more rest to older guys like Raja and Hill.  

Regardless, the Suns have started the year 4-1, and have a good shot to keep this thing rolling.  Now we just got to cross our fingers, and hope that the 'Diesel', 'Stat', and 'Stevie Franchise' can stay healthy.

Outnumbered... by a lot!

I was sitting in the lounge area of our locker room yesterday when one of the members of the management asked me a simple question, 'McCain or Obama?'  I answered, 'McCain', and he echoed my response into the telephone he was on.  After that he asked my other American teammates who all answered, 'Obama'.  That wasn't a huge shock because all but one of my other American teammates are African American dudes, and the one who isn't is half white, half Native American!  So, when he hung up the phone he started laughing pretty hard, and he says, 'Todd, you are the only American in the league that votes for McCain!'  That caught me a little off guard... 'I'm the only American that votes for McCain... wow'.  After thinking about it, it's not THAT surprising.  Looking at the demographic of Americans in this league, I estimate there is 50 Americans in the top division over here, and only 5 of them are White guys.  It's just interesting to think about the election in terms of race.  Using the league as a sample, it seems as if White people are much more willing to vote for Obama, than Black people for McCain.  Not saying either is right or wrong, and I think that is fairly parallel to how the general public feels.  All I know is I will be staying up very very late tonight, hopefully late enough to see who is named the next President of the United States of America.

Obama up 3 with a minute to go...

As for a quick weekend recap, my teams went nearly undefeated.  Obviously Maccabi Haifa beat Rishon Le'Zion on Saturday, the Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Jailblazers on friday night, my North Dakota State Bison won on Saturday (big ups Coop), and the Arizona Cardinals dominated the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.  Only loss on the weekend came by the way of the Oregon State Beavers as they beat the Arizona State football team.  Overall, my squads went 4-1 on the weekend... I will gladly walk away from it with a .800 winning percentage.  This week my lazy day was Sunday instead of today because we played Saturday.  I did the usual which includes laundry and grocery shopping.  The unusual thing that occurred was the viewing of four episodes of the Showtime show 'Dexter'.  I have to add it to my list of favorite shows, it's pretty damn good,  and very very addicting.  Anyhow, while there are elections going on in Israel right now as well, the election I have been following the closest is the presidential election of the US.  I am, by no means, a knowledgeable person when it comes to politics, BUT I have been watching a lot of Fox News and CNBC (the two American news stations I get on the cable package here) so I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what's going on.  I really can't give an educated opinion on the different policies, or the whole 'spread the wealth' argument, but something is happening in the race that can very easily be analogized to a sporting event.   Picture this... an up and coming team who is pretty good, but doesn't yet know how good they are is currently beating an old, veteran team who, with one more loss, will be considered past their prime.  The younger team is executing better, is more athletic, and is clicking on all cylinders in the first half, and takes a big 15 point half-time lead.  In the third quarter, it's the same story, but the older, veteran team keeps hanging around, making shots when they need to, basically just doing enough to stay in the game, and the veteran team then manages to cut the lead to 10 points by the end of the third quarter.  Well, now it's the fourth quarter, and it's  crunch time, and the young, exciting team is 'playing not to lose' the game, instead of doing what they had been the previous three quarters, which was being aggressive, and looking to score, and now they are sitting back on their heels, hoping that something goes their way.  Meanwhile, the old veteran team who has been there before, knew that if they played their game the whole way, they would have a shot to win down the stretch, because they had been through the battle before, and they know what it takes to win.  

That's my personal 'basketball' opinion on the US Presidential election right now... Barack Obama is up 3 points with 1 minute to go... but John McCain has the ball, and if he get's a quick bucket, it's anybody's election to win on Tuesday.   

Hopefully that makes sense to you all, because it makes really good sense in my head! HAHA.  Anyway, I hope you all had a great weekend, and I'll hit you up soon.

Game 2 Review: Big Win on the Road

Like I said in one of my recent blogs we had a real good week of practice, and that translated onto the court Saturday night.  Before the game even started, our coach was stressing to us just how good of a start it would be to start the regular season with two road wins.  It made sense, getting two road wins in this short 24 game season is huge, it gives you a leg up in the standings because it's way more difficult to win on the road than at home, and our guys responded very well to his message. 

Unlike the first regular season game, we started out great.  We were executing pretty well offensively, but that's not what was doing it for us.  The way we were playing defensively, and the way we were controlling the glass is what took us out to our huge lead.  We are a very big team, and when motivated, we don't get rebounded on.  We were limiting them to one shot every time, and it was usually a bad one.  Because of our great rebounding and defense we extended the lead early, and never looked back.  We pushed the lead to twenty at half-time, and even had it to thirty at some stages of the third and fourth quarter.  D-Jeff and BJ McKie led us in scoring with 20 points each, and Ido had a real nice game with 15.  I got some time tonight, but most of it came in the second half when the game was already decided.  Anyhow, I got my first two regular season points from the line in the 4th quarter, and I found my buddy Tal (the young dude) leakin' out late for a lay-up for his first bucket.  Our backup PG Amit Ben-David did a real nice job tonight runnin' the show and filling in for Doron who didn't play that much, mainly because we were out to such an early lead, but also because he's still recovering from that accident earlier in the week.  

Next week we play the defending champions for our home season opener.  I have to imagine it's going to be pretty wild in there due to our very good start.  That's all I got for now, and I will leave you with the final score from the gym last night.  

Maccabi Haifa 81, Rishon Le'Zion 54