Big Cup Win in Afula... Some Interesting Experiences

Sorry for the day delay, but I didn't have a lot of time at my computer yesterday.  Two nights ago we were able to shake off a really pesky second division team in Afula by about 12 points.  This was not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, as we were down by 8 at one point late in the 3rd quarter.  Personally, this was a good game for me because I played a lot of minutes.  I knocked down and three, and hit some free throws for my scoring, but early in the 4th quarter something happened to me on the court that has never happened to me before.  A guard for their team, a veteran who spent some time in the first division earlier this season, purposely tangled himself up with me, trying to instigate something... When I didn't respond except for holding my ground, and bumping him off me a bit, he fell to the ground, and as he got up, grabbed me in my lower male body region.  After he grabbed my right testicle (I'm trying to be as PC as possible here) I stormed over to the ref, pleading to him what the hell just happened, but he didn't seem to care all that much.  I was pretty furious, but the guy who grabbed me received a technical about a minute later for his 5th foul, and he was out of the game.  

Like I said, we ended up winning by 12, and now we are headed to Tel Aviv for the 'Cup Final Four' which takes place in Mid- February.  It will be a pretty cool experience, and we are looking forward to it.

Next game is tomorrow night, at home, against Bnei Hasharon.  This will be our 11th game of the season, therefore meaning, we have reached the halfway point.  

My parents are on their way to Israel as we speak, so it will be pretty awesome to have them over here, and at a few games.  I don't know what we have planned in terms of sight-seeing, but I am sure they will want to do something!!

Up 1 after the 3rd quarter... Unable to Hang on Against Tel Aviv

Last night we were on the road against Maccabi Tel Aviv.  It was a game that would decide who was in sole possession of second place from this point forward as we were both 7-2 going into the game.  There was a lot on the line, and you could tell by the atmosphere in the arena.  Maccabi TA plays in the Nokia Center which seats about 10 to 11 thousand people.  It definitely wasn't full, but I would guess there was between 7 to 8 thousand people there, and it was veryyyyy loud. 

We got off to a great start leading by 6 at the end of the first quarter, and showing Maccabi TA that we were ready to go, and that we were not going to lay down for them.  The second quarter went back and forth, and I got an opportunity to check in the game with a minute left until half-time.  This was a pretty neat experience because right when I got in, I had the assignment to guard Carlos Arroyo.  For those of you who don't know who he is, he had a 7-year NBA career before deciding to sign in Israel for 3 million untaxed dollars a year.  Anyway, he missed a shot, they got the offensive rebound back, and got the ball back to him, and he tried to isolate me one on one from the top of the key.  After he gave me a quick cross-over move, I was able to stay close enough to contest his shot, and he ended up missing front rim, a big win for me hahahahah.  I also got an open look from 3 on the other end, which I missed back-rim.  I'm still mad at myself for missing that shot, but not much I can do now!!

We went into half-time down 5, and played great in the 3rd quarter to take a 1 point lead going into the 4th.  In the 4th we just ran out of gas, and were not able to hit shots when we needed them.  We ended up losing by 11, but it was a 4 point game with 1:30 minutes to go, basically way closer than the final score indicated.  

We are obviously very disappointed we weren't able to take advantage of a great opportunity, but now we can't wait to get a shot at them in our own gym late in the season.

The week ahead is big for us, we have a cup game Wednesday, and we play Bnei Hasharon next Saturday.  Not to mention, Scott and Gale Golden will be making their touchdown to the homeland Saturday morning before the Bnei game.  

I will update everyone after the 'Cup Game', because if we win that we are in the Cup Final Four.  Hope everyone had a great weekend, and I will be back soon!

Big Game Tomorrow Against Maccabi Tel Aviv...

What's up everyone? I hope you had a real good week... After our solid win against Ashkelon last weekend, we have our biggest test of the season, followed by a pretty wild week.  Tomorrow (Sunday) we play Maccabi Tel Aviv in their home arena, the Nokia Center.  If you know anything about European basketball you know Maccabi Tel Aviv is often one of the best teams in all of Europe, and usually dominates the competition in their home country, Israel.  Well this year, they have already taken two losses in the Israeli League (to Jerusalem and Bnei Hasharon), and they have been proven to be beatable.  We head into the game after a long week of practices in an ice box of a gym, but when warm-ups get going, I am pretty sure everyone on our team will be ready to go.  Maccabi Tel Aviv's top players are Carlos Arroyo who spent a number of years with the Pistons, Magic, and Jazz in the NBA, as well as Marcus Fizer who was a top 5 draft pick of the Chicago Bulls almost ten years ago.  They have two real good young Israeli players also named Lior Eliyahu and Omri Casspi, both young slashing type forwards who have high ceilings.  Hopefully we can catch them on an off night, which could prove to be all we need to sneak a victory against them.

As for other things going on in Israel, the war in the south is still in full force, and it is somewhere in the ballpark of day 20.  On Thursday I believe, there were also some rockets shot from the north in Lebanon, and landed in a town in the very northeast portion of Israel.  Haifa, where I am, is located in the northwest, and the closest anything has come to us was when a few rockets landed in Nahariya which is about 45 minutes straight north from us.

That's all I got for right now, but I will update pretty quickly after the Tel Aviv game.  

Big ups to my alma mater, Saint Mary's College (CA)... they are currently 16-1, and chillin' in the top 25.

Beat Ashkelon...now 7-2 and tied for 2nd place...

Last night we hosted Ashkelon in our gym for the Monday night game of the week.  I really had no idea how we were going to play because we were still a little banged up, and had never really put it together in our previous week of practice.  Fortunately for us, Ashkelon was dealing with the same issues.  They have the leading scorer in the league, and for some reason he didn't start, nor did he play with the same scoring tenacity that he had on the film we watched.  Regardless, we played very good defensively in the second half, and after spreading it to a double digit lead early in the 2nd half, it never got close the rest of the way.  

This leaves us at 7-2, and tied with Maccabi Tel Aviv for 2nd place behind Jerusalem.  Next week we have the very tough task of heading down to Tel Aviv and playing them in their home gym, the 10k seat gym of Nokia Center.  It should be pretty cool playing against Maccabi Tel Aviv for the first time.  They are the New York Yankees of Israeli basketball, always playing in EuroLeague competition, as well as always having a much bigger budget than the rest of the league.  Either way, it will be a real good test for us, so we can see how we measure up.

As for the non-basketball, everything is safe and sound here in Haifa.  The only minor scare we had was the one instance where rockets were fired from the north and landed in Nahariya (40 mins away, a city we have played in before).  Fortunately, it seems as if that North attack was a one time thing, and seems to be nothing to worry about in the future.  Obviously the stuff in Gaza is still going on, but one report on the TV over here said Israel is close to hitting all of their targets, which means it might not be lasting that much longer.  Although I would rather not see any war at all, it has been very interesting being over here during this time, and seeing the back and forths between Israeli leaders and Palestinian leaders, and being here while it is all going on.  

That is all I got for now, but I will be back later in the week for another update.  Hope all is well with everyone!

Happy New Year to All... I'm Backkkk

First off, I want to wish everyone a safe and happy new year!  Hopefully everyone had a great time on NYE and made it home safely.  We kept it pretty low key in Haifa, as most of the guys from the team met at a restaurant for dinner, and to ring in the New Year.  It was good to be with the guys as they are my 'family' over here.  

If you are wondering where the blogs have been, they have been in hibernation, as I was in the states for a good two weeks.  It was awesome being back home, spending time both in the Bay Area, and Phoenix.  To see all my friends and family was great, it had been tough being away from them all for 3 and a half months!!!  But all good things come to an end, and it was time to get back to my 'job' so back to Israel I headed.  I have been back since the 26th, but it has taken me awhile to get acclimated again, and get back on the time here.  Now that I am back settled, and I finally have done my grocery shopping, I figured I would send an update out.

On the basketball front, we were supposed to play this Sunday,  the 4th, but due to the fighting going on down in Gaza they had to change the date because Ashkelon was supposed to have a home game, but they do not want to host because it is so close to the fighting.  Therefore, to keep it fair, they are pushing all the games back.  So now, we don't play again until either the 11th or 12th, I'm not sure.  We came back, and started practicing fully off the bat, and that was a problem for some of the guys who weren't ready for it.  We are a little banged up right now, but we should be ready to go for our games. 

Lastly, here is a little update on the Gaza situation.  Today is the 6th day that the fighting has taken place, and there doesn't seem to be an end anytime soon.  For the longest time, Hamas continued to send these man-made rockets over to Israel crashing into southern Israeli cities.  While these rockets are very small in size, they are obviously deadly.  Israel was very patient, and continually told Hamas to stop with the rockets, or else Israel would have to retaliate.  Well, Hamas did not stop, and Israel was tired of their kids being worried about playing at school, and people being scared of leaving there houses in the south, so Israel retaliated...like they should have.  Fortunately for me, my team and city is in the far north, so we are not in danger, but still, we obviously would love to see this fighting stop.

That is all for now, we have a friendly scrimmage against the defending champions Hapoel Holon, so I will send an update after that to let you all know how it goessss.