Our first WIN!

We beat Portugal today 53-47!!! It was such a great feeling to finally get a win. The girls played the hardest that I have ever seen them play. They were sacrificing their bodies for loose balls, they were going to the basket stronger than I have ever seen before! It was awesome! They were finally playing like the team that came back from 20 down in Estonia and the team that beat Greece in the first test game! If we can keep playing like this I really think that we still have a chance to make some noise in this tournament.

Not very Hungary

We lost again today 47 to 63 Hungary just really outplayed us, not because they were any better or did anything special, they just wanted it more than we did. Excuse the pun but they were just Hungrier than we were. They were beating us to loose balls and just out working us. It was really frustrating for everyone. We have worked way to hard to get to this point and then lose because we are being out hustled and outworked, not outplayed.

We need to find the team that was down 20 against Estonia, we need to fight like that team again.

Let the games begin

Last night all the teams gathered in town for the Opening Ceremonies of the tournament. They had some traditional Macedonian dancing and then all the teams were announced. It was pretty cool.

We ended up losing to Greece 59-71 today. They pressed us for a majority of the game, which they had not done in either of the two test games. We just did not handle the pressure the way that we should have, we got rattled at the beginning and never really recovered. It is disappointing because we had played so well against them in Thessaloniki and we were really counting on being able to beat them and start off the tournament with a win.

But there is no time to sulk about it, we play Hungary tomorrow, which will be a tough game as well. We need to move on from today and focus on tomorrow.

The Europeans at last....

Well we are finally here, all the preparation and everything we have been doing these past 4 weeks leads up to this. There are 11 teams in the Division B tournament, split into two groups.
Great Britain
Portugal
Greece
Belgium
Hungary
Austria

Romania
Slovakia
FYR of Macedonia
Netherlands
Israel

The way it works is you play everyone in your group once and the top four teams out of each group make it to the second round. In the second round you play a quarter final cross over game with someone from the other group. From there semifinals and then a final.

The two finalists get promoted to Division A. We need to win at least 2 games to give ourselves a chance to advance.

This morning there was a technical meeting where you go over everything for the tournament. There you have to present the commissioner with all of the player’s passports, FIBA player license cards, and a list from FIBA of all of the approved players. You also present your home and away kit and shooting shirt to show that it has the FIBA Europe logo sewn onto it and is the color it should be. Once you do all of that you are cleared for competition.

We then had a practice session later that night and prepared for our game against Greece the next day. It will be a tough game after we have already played them twice in the last 4 days, but our girls know that they can be beaten. They just have to do it for a second time.

Border Patrol

Well we lost our second game to the Greek U20’s 42-49. It was a really good game and the girls played really hard, but we just could not pull it out. Greece hit two back-to-back 3 pointers that sealed the win for them.

The next day we set off for Macedonia on the bus with the Greek team. This trip ended up being a lot more interesting than intended. Just to give you a bit of back round information, Greece and Macedonia do not get a long.....at all. It's a long and complicated story, but it has to do with Macedonia stealing their name from the region of Macedonia where Thessaloniki is located.

The bus ride was going just fine until we got to the border. One of our girls is from Bermuda, which is a British colony, however apparently Bermuda is not recognized as being a part of the European Union like the Untied Kingdom. So the Macedonian border patrol did not want to let her through. They said that she needed a Visa to enter the country and that we would have to go back to Thessaloniki to get the Visa. This was going to be a big problem. So after 3 hours of debating and making phone calls, they finally let her through. The Greek staff that we were traveling with got in touch with someone from the Macedonian Federation and had them call the border. We definitely owe them for that one. So 8 hours later we finally arrived in Ohrid, Macedonia…..it was quite the day!

A Husky fan in Thessaloniki

During our morning shoot around there was a young man at the gym who had a University of Washington t-shit on. Since I am originally from Seattle, I recognized it straight away. It is definitely a t-shirt you don’t see everyday, especially not in Europe, so I had to investigate. So after shoot around I went over and spoke with him and found out that University of Washington Men’s Basketball team had come there to play his team last summer and that they had given them all t-shirts as gifts. It was pretty cool and of course I had to document this encounter…..definitely a small world.

1-0 in Greece!

We are now in Thessaloniki, Greece for two test games against the Greek U20’s team. They are also staying in the same hotel as us while we are here, and we will take a bus with them to Macedonia.

Apparently we will be taking the bus with them a lot more than we thought, as we had to ride to the game today with them in the same bus. It really was not that big of a deal, but back home you would never have that happen, it would be absolutely unheard of.

We did however get a huge win 48-38. I think we really surprised them and held our composure the entire game. Great Britain traditionally has not done well against Greece, so even though the game was just a test match and did not really count for anything, it really meant a lot for our team’s moral. I really think that they are starting to get more confidence in themselves and really starting to believe that they can achieve what they have set out to achieve. Believing is half the battle and I really think they are truly starting to believe.