Thanksgiving, Games, Family

Hey everyone!! Sorry I haven't written a blog in awhile but I was with my family all week enjoying their company. My family got in last Saturday and they just left today for Paris. They had a chance to catch two of my games and we also had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving together. When my family got in on Saturday we had a game vs Cholet who was at the time in first place in our league. We ended up winning the game 79-75 in a battle. It was a very intense and physical game but we manage to hold off in the end and got ourselves a big win. We started the EuroChallenge this week and we had another game on Tuesday vs Budconust (I believe they were from Montenegro). Again it was a physical game but we came out with another win beating Budcnoust 70-59. So, our French ProA record stands at 6-2 and our EuroChallenge records is 1-0. I am really enjoying playing twice a week. The more games the better. A little FYI, our game tomorrow has been cancelled because some of the other players from Vichy (team we were going to play) have the H1N1 virus. We wont have another game until next Tuesday Dec. 1st.

As I stated before my family came to visit me over the week of Thanksgiving. It was wonderful being able to see them and having them at the games this past week. I ended up taking them to Brugge, Belgium to show them around a little bit and explore Europe a bit. We didn't have too much time to be able to do much because of the two games that we had and also because of our practices that we had. We manage to be able to get out on Monday and head to Brugge. It was a great place to sightsee and check out. I had never been there before and I thought it was a great place and a place that people should check out if they get the chance to. It is called the city of lights and the whole city center is lit up by lights. It looks really neat at night. My family and I thought that it was a lot of fun and very enjoyable. For Thanksgiving we cooked (meaning my Mom) our own little feast and it was spectacular. Mom cooked some turkey, corn, and potato's. It was amazing being able to sit down at the table with my family and have a nice enjoyable supper together! I was really happy that my family got to experience the lifestyle over here in France. It was funny seeing them try to interact with people over here. I really got a laugh when we went to the grocery store and they were trying to figure out what type of food is what. It was a wonderful week with my family, Thanksgiving, and a couple basketball games. I will be praying they have a great time in Paris and safe travels home.

Again sorry I havent written a blog in awhile but now that I am back to myself at my place and some time on my hands I will be written them more frequently haha. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, there is plenty that we can be Thankful for. I will write again soon. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)!

Update, Preview of Upcoming Game

Good Afternoon! This week has gone by extremely fast and I wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going and a little preview of our next opponent. I won't have any other time to let you know how things are going so I figured I would write a quick note this afternoon. The reason I won't have much time to write tomorrow is because I am cleaning and doing some maintenance around the townhouse so it looks nice and clean for MY FAMILY!!! That's right my family will be here Saturday morning and they will be here through Thanksgiving. Now, just to let you know I am GEEKED, EXCITED, PUMPED, HAPPY, THRILLED, ANXIOUS, ETC, ETC that they will be with me for over a week. Those are just a couple words off the top of my head which describes how I'm feeling about there appearance in France. Finally, I will be coming home to my family after practices and games and will be able to communicate with them live and in person instead of via computer/skype. So thats a little bit about what I am looking forward to in the next couple days besides our game on Saturday.

Saturday we place the first place team in our league Cholet (6-1). We are currently 5-2 and in a tie for 3rd place in our league. We are at home this weekend and it should be a great game. I am looking forward to playing in front of our crazy fans again. Its always a great experience playing in front of the type of fans that we have. Hopefully we will have a sell out crowd again and the gym will be rocking. Cholet is a great team from top to bottom. They have a lot of players that have many different qualities. I am definitely looking forward to this next game. Well there is a little update about my family coming over and a little preview of our next opponent. The link below is some highlights from our last game. Again it is in French and there is more talking than highlights but that will have to do for now. Also I got the "OK" to put videos directly on my blog page but I am not so good with HTML so I am going to learn how to place a video in HTML from a staff member so you can view it directly on my blog page. I will get it eventually I promise haha. One other thing I want to ask you. I have the games that we have played on my computer and I was wondering if you would want me to put the entire game on my blog that way you can watch it??? Let me know through facebook, twitter, comments area, email. If I get enough people that would want to watch the entire game I will put them up. Take care and of course GOD BLESS. (Joshua 1:9)

http://www.bcm.deltafm.fr/index.php?id=2227

5th Win for BCM

Hello again! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday. It has been a long day for myself. I got up at 7 am and went to the airport to catch a flight to Paris. Once our team got to Paris we had another 3 hour bus ride back to Gravelines. I finally am able to relax on the couch and it is approximately 5pm. But the long road trip was well worth it after an unbelievable game last night.

We got our 5th win of the season last night vs Hyeres-Toulon to put our record at 5-2. It was a very exciting game from the start to the finish. I got in some quick foul trouble and didn't play much in the first half. We ended up being down by 10 points at halftime. Throughout the 3rd quarter it was back and forth for both teams, neither team really gaining any momentum. Finally in the 4th quarter we started to make our push and started to gain some ground. We came all the way back to within two points with a minute to go. We had the ball down by two and we ran a screen and roll play, I got double teamed but our 3 man Cyril was open in the corner and I passed the ball to him and he hit a 3 pointer with 50 seconds to go to put us up by 1 point. We got a defensive stop on the next possession and I ended up with the ball in my hands and they fouled me with about 35 seconds to go in the game. I hit both free throws and put is up by 3. The next possession we fouled one of their players on a 3 point shoot (very iffy call) with 18 seconds to go. He stepped up to the line and missed the first free throw and then made the next two. Putting our lead at 2 points. We inbounded the ball and they fouled me again with 12 seconds to go and put me at the free throw line. I made the first free throw to extend our lead to 3 points, and then I made the second free throw as well to put our lead up to 4 points and a two possession game. And that folks was pretty much the end of the ball game. We ended up winning the game 79-73. It was an incredibly exciting game especially in the 2nd half. It was a great team win for us with three guys in double figures again and a couple other players with nine points. It was a great game by both teams and we were fortunate enough to come out on top. It made this long trip a lot easier with another win under our belt. So I may be tired from all the traveling today but it was a road trip that was well worth it.

I posted some pictures from our last home game vs Asvel. I didn't get around to posting them last week so I thought I would throw some pictures up there today. I will have pictures from our exciting game last night posted up in the next couple of days. Again I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and I am looking forward to writing another post for you in a couple days. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Game vs Hyeres-Toulon

Hey everyone!! Sorry I didn't write a post earlier this week I was slacking in that area. Things have been going well over here in France. I am currently in a hotel room getting ready to go to bed. We play Hyeres-Toulon tomorrow night. They have the leading scoring in our league playing for them and I believe they have another player that is scoring in the top 10 in our league. They are a good team with the same record that we have 4-2. Today I had to take my first flight over here in France. Hyeres-Toulon is in the very south point of France which is about 10 hours from Gravelines if you were to drive. So our team hopped on a plane and flew down this afternoon. It was a smooth trip which is always nice. I am still going to be putting up pictures and a video from the previous game like I said I would. I just put it on the back burner this week but I will have time on Sunday to be able to post some pictures and videos. I want to say good luck to the NDSU Men's Basketball Team they are playing in their first game tonight vs Utah Valley, go and get the W fellas! Again I apologize for not putting up highlights and some pictures earlier this week but I will put them up when I get back to Gravelines on Sunday. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will give you all an update again on Sunday. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Victory for BCM

Good Afternoon everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful and blessed Sunday. I have had quite a busy day today. I made myself some french toast, eggs, and some hash-browns for breakfast this morning. I swept my entire lower level, did the dishes, and on my second load of laundry. I am getting a lot of things done around the place today. Right now however I am putting my feet up and relaxing for a little bit. My body definitely needs a little rest right now after the physical game that we had last night.

Well, our team won again at home this weekend. We played the defending champs from last year and came out on top with a 70-64 victory. We were up pretty much the whole game and we extended the lead in the 4th quarter to 12 points with 6 minutes to go. However, Asvel had a lot of fight in them and they cut the lead to 3 points with a minute to go. They ended up fouling us on the next possession and I made both free throws to put us up by 5 again. They came back down the court and scored again with 30 seconds to go to reduce the lead to 3 points. Asvel fouled us again so they could stop the clock. I went to the free throw line and made both free throws to put us up by 5 points again and sealing the game. We ended up winning by 6 points after they fouled us again with 4 seconds to go in the game. It was an incredibly intense game from both teams. Our fans were unbelievable last night. I believe it was close to a sell out crowd and not to mention our game was televised throughout France last night. It was an awesome feeling playing in front of our fans last night. They really do support us well so I want to say thank you to the fans for showing your support. It was another great team win for us with 3 guys scoring in double figures along with a few guys right below the double digit mark. Its always enjoyable playing for a team that has balanced scoring. Our record stands at 4-2 right now and in 3rd place in our league. Last night I suffered a deep thigh contusion to my left leg with about three minutes to go in the game. The adrenaline was pumping so I finished out the game but this morning my leg feels like someone hit my thigh about 10 times with a baseball bat, basically its REALLY SORE! I am going to stretch it out and ice it today and hopefully it will start to feel better. Other than that I am feeling great and I believe the rest of the team feels great about getting a win last night. I will post some pictures and video clips from the game in a couple days so you can check them out. Also if you have any questions for me about basketball, France, my life style, anything at all don't be afraid to ask in the comment box or hit me up via email, facebook, twitter. I hope you all have a safe and wonderful day. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Another Week

Bonjour everyone (wow my French is coming along isn't it haha)! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I wanted to write another blog giving you all a couple more updates. Things are going pretty well for me. I actually had to go to the foot doctor yesterday night because I had an ingrown toenail that was causing me a lot of pain and restricting me from being able to run, jump, cut, basically the essential things to play basketball. So I went to the doctor and she cleaned my feet and started to dig out my ingrown toenail. Now, I don't know if you have ever had to get an ingrown toenail cut out but it hurt so bad that I started sweating profusely when she was digging it out. Kind of a gross story but that was an event that went on for me this week. Today my toe feels great without any pain. Our foot doctor did a wonderful job. I went and ate supper over at J.K. Edwards (teammate) house last night with his family along with Trey Johnson (teammate) and his buddy J. Jones. He grilled some steak, samon, and had some rice as well. It was a wonderful meal that I definitely appreciated.

On Saturday we play Asvel the defending champs from last year. Tony Parker from the San Antonio Spurs is one of the executives for the team and his brother plays for the team. They are a good team with a lot of talent. I am looking forward to playing again on Saturday. The game is at home and I am hoping that we will have a packed house with a lot of CRAZY fans again! We have had a good week of practice and we are excited to be able to play another game. I actually have to go to practice in about 20 minutes. The link at the bottom is from our last Saturdays game vs Le Harve. There isn't much basketball on the link like I thought there would be. More talking than anything but if you want you can check it out. I am also still in the process of trying to get the "OK" from our team to be able to post the videos directly on the blog page. Until then there will be a link that you will have to click. Have a wonderful day and night. Hope all is well! Au revoir (I know, I know its coming along hahaha) God Bless! (Joshua 1:9)

http://www.bcm.deltafm.fr/index.php?saison=&cat=4&id=2221

Bcm vs Le Harve (Game 5 of the Season)

Good Afternoon everyone! Hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday (enjoying church and football I'm guessing). Today I went to the market here in town. I have never been to an outdoor market before so it was a very experience for me. My teammate Yannick Bokolo ended up getting some chicken at one of the stands there and I had it for lunch. It was extremely good and something that I can do on Sunday mornings if I need a little food. They had fresh fruit, vegetables, chicken, and a number of different other types of food. Now I just got down icing my feet and my knees. I am going to relax the rest of the night and get ready to watch the Vikings/Packers game. It comes on at 10:00pm over here so hopefully I can stay up late enough and watch the whole game. That is a little bit of what I did and what I'm doing today.

Last night we played Le Harve for our 5th game of the year. It was an away game for us and we haven't won on the road this year until last night. We ended up winning our first road game of the year with a score of 83-68. It put us at 3-2 in our league, tied with a number of different teams for fourth place. Again it was very balanced scoring on our teams part with 4 guys in double figures. I had 15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and a couple steals. We maintained the lead pretty much the whole game expect for the in the middle of the 3rd quarter they started to make a push and brought it within 6 points. We ended up pulling away again in the fourth quarter and to another good win for our team. I was really happy for our team to get a road win and get above .500. We really moved the ball well hence 5 guys in double figures, and it is always enjoyable playing in a game like that. That is pretty much what I have for you about the game yesterday. I will put up pictures and highlights from the game later on this week. I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon and enjoy the Vikes/Packers game. Talk to you again soon. God Bless (Joshua 1:9- Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid nor dismayed for the Lord your God is with you WHERE EVER you go!- Love it)