Final Post of the Year

Hey everyone. I know I haven't updated the blog in a long long long time and I apologize for that. I want to give you a final blog post of this year and let you know how we finished up. We ended up losing in the Semi-Finals to Cholet (champions last year). We didn't have our best defensive series which really hurt us. It was a great season for us and I am happy our team did. I want to thank the fans of BCM for their support throughout the season. It was an honor to play in front of you. I also want to thank my teammates for a wonderful year. It was great being able to play with you guys and I really enjoyed your company. As for me I am heading back to USA on Sunday. I plan on taking some time off to let the body heal (even though it is extremely hard for me to do that), and then I am going to get right back into the gym and get better. I plan on doing some golfing in the next couple of days and seeing my family. I hope you enjoyed following the blog this year even though I was below average at posting haha. I hope everyone has a great summer and until next time... au revoir (goodbye). God Bless, Joshua 1:9

EuroChallenge Awards, Final 2 games

Hey everyone.. We are down to 2 regular season games this year. We play tomorrow night vs Limoges and next Tuesday at home vs. Nancy. We are trying to finish out the regular season strong. We are currently 19-9 tied for 2nd with two other teams. We have been playing really well together on the offensive end and also defensively. I have struggled the past two games. Last game I had 3 points (0-4 2FG, 1-5 3FG), 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. But thats the game of basketball and I am happy that I get another chance to go out and play tomorrow night. More importantly is that we are continuing to win and we are getting it done on the defensive end. Hopefully we can continue that way for the rest of the season and finish strong.

I know a lot of you voted for me for the MVP of EuroChallenge and I appreciate the votes. Below I copied a link that you can check out and see the final awards of the EuroChallenge. It has been an exciting season both in the French League and the EuroChallenge. I am looking forward to playing these last 2 games and see what seed we get for the playoffs. I will keep you updated on how things are going. FYI- Its been 70-80 degrees most days here in France.. Loving the sun!!! Take care and God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

http://www.eurobasket.com/EuroChallenge/basketball.asp?NewsID=224973

Update , Update

Hello everyone! I want to update you on how things are going over here in France. We are currently 17-9 in the standings and tied with 3 teams for third place. Coming off of back to back road losses we had a game last night at home vs Paris and we played extremely well. It was a game in which we needed to get our defense back and be efficient on offense at the same time. We lead from the start to finish never relinquishing the lead. We had 5 guys in double figures. Juby lead the way with 17 points, Jeff Greer had 16, Dounia had 14, and Mo 12. I had 15 points (5-7 2FG, 1-6 3FG), 14 assists, 5 steals, and 3 rebounds. It was a solid game for us and hopefully we can continue it onto next weekend. We play Le Mans on the road next Saturday. We have 4 games remaining in the regular season and then playoffs start.

Everything else is wonderful over here in France, it has been very nice with temperatures ranging between 60-80. Tonight is looking like a great night to grill, sun is shining and it is beautiful out. Not trying to rub it in to people back home haha but I hope the weather starts getting nice for you guys! Gotta get out on those golf courses! Have a great day. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

15-7

Good afternoon! We had a game last night against Strasburg at home and we came away with a 71-69 victory. Our record stands at 15-7 and tied for 3rd place. It was a hard fought game by both teams and it came down to shooting free throws at the end. I made 1-2 FT with 14 seconds left putting the score at 71-69. Then they came down and we fouled, however there player missed the first free throw. He missed the 2nd free throw on purpose, the ball was tipped around and eventually the clock ran out. We had 4 players in double figures. Mo had 12 points, Jeff Greer had 11, and Cyril had 10. I had 21 points (8-11 2FG, 1-3 3FG, 2-4 FT), 9 assists, and 3 rebounds. Yannick Bokolo is out with a hamstring injury right now so it was extremely nice to see guys set up and contribute in his absence. We play again on Tuesday in the EuroChallenge Final 8 vs a very good Russian team. Should be an interesting game and I will let you know how it goes. Time for me to check out these NCAA games! God Bless you all! Joshua 1:9

Long time, No Post

Well, well, well it has been quite a long time since I have posted on the blog. We have had quite a few games since I last posted so I am going to give you a summary of what's been going on. We are currently 14-7 in French League play with a loss last Saturday down in Pau. We are tied for 4th place with Roanne and we have a game tomorrow vs Strasburg at home. Hopefully we can play some good basketball and come away with a win. Last Tuesday we played in a French Cup game at home vs. Asvel which we ended up also losing the game 74-70 (so we have no more French Cup games, lose and your done). We are on a 2 game losing skid right now but hopefully that will change on Saturday. We are still playing in the EuroChallenge and we have a game next Tuesday at home. We are in the final 8 right now and we play a very good Russian team. The winner in a best of 3 series advances to the final 4. We have 9 regular season French League games remaining in our schedule. Time is sure flying by over here. Not much else is going on in the basketball world, playing a couple times a week (which I haven't been updating about, my apologies).

Other than that things have been pretty nice over here in France. Weather is nice, a couple days ago it got up to 61 degrees. Spring is right around the corner. Shout out to Lynn Jordheim for getting on my a** about updating the blog, thanks I definitely needed it I have been slacking lately on the updates haha! I will try to do a better job updating, but how can you blame me when I have such a wonderful fiance keeping me company this year. Last year I would always update because it was keeping me sane haha!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful MARCH MADNESS!! How the brackets looking? Take Care and God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Big Road Trip

Good afternoon everyone! I am finally back in Gravelines after a week of being on the road. First we played in a mid-season tournament for the Top 8 teams in our French League called the "Week of Aces." We ended up winning the tournament and I officially have my first professional championship! It was an amazing feeling celebrating on the floor after the game. We ended up playing 3 games in 4 days in order to win the tournament. We played Chalon in the championship game with the score being 79-71! We had 3 guys in double figures. Yannick Bokolo came away with the MVP scoring 23 points and 5 rebounds, Cyril had 19 points. I almost had a triple double with 17 points (4-8 2FG, 1-5 3FG, 6-6 FT), 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. It was a wonderful experience and I feel extremely blessed in winning my first championship as a pro!

After winning the championship of the Week of Aces, the next day we took and early flight to Sweden to play a game in the EuroChallenge. We ended up winning 94-87, which means that we are going to qualify for the Top 8 of EuroChallenge. We are 4-0 in our group and in 1st place. First place and second place both move on into the Top 8. It was a rough start for us at the beginning of the game. You could definitely tell that the traveling over the past 5-6 days was catching up to us. However we stuck together and pulled away in the second half. We had 4 guys scoring in double digits. Cyril had 24 points, Yannick had 12, Jeff Greer had 11. I had 21 points (3-8 2FG, 3-3 3FG, 6-8 FT) 4 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals. It was quite the road trip for us men at BCM, however it was well worth it. Coming away with a championship and qualifying for the Top 8 in EuroChallenge, definitely makes the long road trip a lot more pleasant. Time to do some relaxing! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Good road win

Happy Sunday everyone! Well I got back this morning from our road game at 7:45am. We bused back after the game and it took seven and a half hours. It was an extremely long road rip, however we came away with a win so that makes the trip a little better. It was a nice road win for us vs Vichy. Vichy has some of the best fans in the league and it is always a tough place to play. The final score was 75-61. Both our big men played great games. Mo had a double double with 15 points and 10 rebounds and Dounia Issa also had a double double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Jeff Greer was the only other player in double figures with 15 points. I struggled from the field yesterday missing lay-ups and open pull ups. I finished with 9 points (2-12 2FG, 1-3 3FG, 2-2 FT), 7 assists, and 6 rebounds. It was a great win for us putting our record at 11-6. We are currently still in 5th place.

This week we are playing in the "Week of Acres". It is a tournament which is held for the top 8 teams in the league at the half way mark. It is a three day tournament, if you win you keep playing if you lose you are done. Our first game is on Thursday vs Roanne. The tournament is being held in Pau, which is in the south of France. Thats about all I have for you now. Things are going well over here and we are staying busy. AJ's folks are coming over in 11 days and we are VERY excited to have them visit. It will be a great spending some time with them. Hope you all have a great Sunday. Superbowl! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

3-0 EuroChallenge Group

Good afternoon! We had a EuroChallenge home game on Tuesday and we came away with a 74-70 win. It was an intense game from start to finish. Our record sits at 3-0 in our group and we are in first place. Every other team in our group has a record of 1-2. Hopefully we can keep it rolling and advance into the next round. We had 4 guys in double figures. Cyril had 10, Juby had 11, Mo Sene had 15 points and 10 rebounds. I had 30 points (8-12 2FG, 2-4 3FG, 8-8FT), 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. Our next EuroChallenge game isn't for a couple weeks because we play in a tournament called the Week of Aces next Thursday.

Our next league game is Saturday down in Vichy. Vichy has some of the craziest fans in the league so it is going to be a loud and exciting atmosphere to play in. I am looking forward to it. Not much else going on, I hope that everyone is safe from the big storm and staying warm. Take care and God Bless. (Joshua 1:9)

Euro Win, League Loss

We have had a couple of games under our belt since I last updated the blog. First we played down in Portugal for a EuroChallenge game and came away with a 67-64 come back win. Our defense struggled in the first half and we found ourselves down a couple baskets. The second half was a different story. We held them to 23 points total in the second half. Our defense really stepped up which allowed us to make our comeback and eventually win the game. We had 4 guys scoring in double figures. Yannick Bokolo and Jeff Greer both had 11 points, Mo Sene had 15 points. I had 17 points (4-9 2FG, 0-1 3FG, 9-10 FT) 5 assists, and 1 rebound. We are currently 1st in our group for the EuroChallenge with a record of 2-0. We play tomorrow night again at home vs a team from Latvia.

On Saturday we had a league game on the road in Cholet. I am going to try to keep this as short as possible, because it was the most frustrating game I have ever played in. I have NEVER seen a game refereed so poorly in my life. It is going to be to hard to explain all the details that went on during the game, but basically I fouled out while only playing 15 minutes. Every time I stepped on the floor the whistle would be blowing and they would be giving me a foul. I ended with 5 points (2-4 2FG, 1-2 FT) and 5 fouls in 15 minutes of action. It was a complete joke! We had 3 guys in double figures. Yannick had 11, Cyril had 10 and Juby Johnson had 15. We were down by one with 10 seconds to go and Juby had a shot for the win but it rattled out and we ended up losing 69-68. Thats all I can write about this game because even as I am writing this little paragraph I am getting heated and I have a little sweat forming on my forehead. Our record stands at 10-6 in league and we are currently in 5th place.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Monday back home. Quick shout out to the Bison for getting that 2OT win on Saturday night. Tveidt scoring with a last second alley-oop lay up, so congrats to the Bison. Take care and God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Great Win

Good afternoon everyone! Friday night we played against Limoges and we came away with a 87-73 victory. Limoges has the top scorer in the league and they are capable of winning any game they play so it was nice to get a home win. Limoges played zone defense the entire game. They actually played a Box-in-one on me. A box-in-one is when they have a player face guard me everywhere I go on the court and deny me the ball. Basically its a defense to try and keep the ball out of my hands as much as possible. I must admit I would have never thought that a professional team would play box-in-one, usually you see that type of defense at the high school level. But, in the end it worked out best for us and we got a great win. We had 3 guys score in double figures. Juby Johnson had a great game with 24 points. Yannick and Cyril chipped in with 19 points and 12 points. I had 9 points (2-6 2FG, 1-5 3FG, 2-2 FT), 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1 turnover. Overall it was a great win for us and it puts us at 10-5 in the league now and currently still in 5th place.

We have a EuroChallenge game coming up on Tuesday in Portugal and then a French League game on the road in Cholet. It will be another big week for us and as always looking forward to playing a couple games a week! Hope everyone is doing well back home, we are thinking about you all! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

EuroChallenge Win

How is everyone doing this Thursday afternoon? Things are going pretty well over here in France. It is cloudy this afternoon however I would take that over the weather that people are getting back home right now. On Tuesday night we played a team from Sweden in the EuroChallenge Top 16. We came away with a 75-65 win. The Sweden team played really well in the first half and ended up scoring 47 points. We turned our defense on in the 2nd half and held them to 18 points. It was a nice win for us at home before we play again tomorrow night vs Limoges. We had 3 guys scoring in double digits. Cyril played well with a double double; 15 points and 12 rebounds. Yannick Bokolo had 10 points. I had 23 points (8-12 2FG, 1-3 3FG, 4-6 FT) 7 rebounds, 4 assists. I also had 5 turnovers that I wasn't very happy about. It was a good first win for us in this round of the EuroChallenge. Now we have been focusing on our game tomorrow night. As I stated before we are playing Limoges who is a very good team. They have a number of different guys that can score the ball and they play well together. It is going to be a tough and exciting game. My agent Brad Ames will be coming to check out the big city of Gravelines (joke!) and watching us play so that is another perk for the game on Friday.

I hope that everyone is staying warm back home. Shout out to my sister who broke her foot a couple weeks ago. Get better, we are thinking about you, love ya! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Winning way

Good morning! We had a game on Friday night down in Hyeres-Toulon and came away with a big road win. Toulon was one game behind us in the standings so it was great to get a win and get a little bit of separation. It was a great game defensively for us which allowed us to come away with a 91-68 win. We had 4 guys in double figures. Juby Johnson and Yannick Bokolo both had 18 points, Cyril had 12 points. I had 21 points (3-4 2FG, 3-4 3FG, 6-6 FT), 2 rebounds and 8 assists. I was impressed with our defense because Toulon is a team that likes to outscore their opponents and they have the players that can put up big numbers. Our record stands at 9-5 in league and currently in 5th place.

This week we have a EuroChallenge game on Tuesday and a French League game on Saturday. We are back to playing 2 games a week for the moment. I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Loss to Le Mans

Good evening! We had a French League home game on Saturday and suffered a defeat by Le Mans 86-91. It was a rough game for us defensively. We found ourselves making rotation errors and giving the other team some open shots which they made us pay. The entire game it was back and forth with neither team extending the lead by more than double digits. We had 3 guys scoring in double figures. Yannick Bokolo had 17 points and Ruby Jomby had 10 points. I had a double double with 26 points (5-8 2FG, 4-5 3FG, 4-5 FT), 11 assists, and 2 rebounds. It was a frustrating game defensively letting Le Mans score 91 points after last weekends performance by us when we held Paris to just 55 points. We have to get back on the defensive track and play well because on Friday we play a high powered offensive team in Hyeres-Toulon. I will keep you updated and let you know how it goes.

Congrats to the Bison Mens Bball team in getting 2 big conference wins at home this past weekend. I ask that you say some prayers for the victims families down in the Arizona shootings. What a horrible event that took place and there are people that definitely need your prayers. Well, I hear my name being called from the kitchen so it must be time to eat a wonderfully cooked meal by my fiance :):)!! I hope you all have a splendid day! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Nice Road Win

Last night we played down in Paris and we came away with a nice road win, winning 76-55. It was a close game throughout the 1st half, we found ourselves down by 1 at half. In the 2nd half our defense really put on the pressure forcing Paris to turn the ball over and allowing us to get easy baskets in transition. It was nice to see our defense hitting on all cylinders. Our record stands at 8-4 in the league. We had 4 guys in double figures last night. Yannick and Cyril both had 10 points, Jeff Greer had 16 points. I ended with 18 points (8-13 2FG, 0-1 3FG, 2-2 FT), 8 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals. I have to say thanks to our fans who traveled down to Paris to support us. It was great seeing you fans in the stands! Come support us Saturday when we play Le Mans. As I just stated our next home game is vs Le Mans, it should be another great game. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Take care and God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!! It has been pretty hectic over here France between traveling, practice, All-Star game, and traveling some more. I will give you a little insight on what has been going on lately. So AJ and I went back to the USA for 4 days during Christmas break. It was a short break however it was well worth it. We went to AJ's parents house and my family came up and visited and we all celebrated a wonderful Christmas together in Fargo. Definitely thankful for the wonderful families we have! After Christmas we boarded a plane back to Paris where we met Dimer (Mike Nelson) and Shan (Shannon) and we all took a train back to Gravelines. Dimer was also on break from his team in Switzerland and he celebrated Christmas in Paris so it was a perfect opportunity for us to get together for a few days. They stayed with us for two days up in Gravelines, and during that time I had practice both days and then I had to head back down to Paris for the All-Star game. So we all went down to Paris where us 4 went out to eat one night and enjoyed each others company. On Dec. 30th I was part of the 2010 All-Star game where the USA (foreigners) beat France. I had 7 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals in the game. They had a dunk contest and a 3 point contest during the all-star game as well. It was great opportunity to put on a show for the fans. Immediately after the game I had to go back to Gravelines with AJ because we had practice at 10am the next day. Unfortunately we didn't get back to Gravelines until 4am so the next day I was pretty tired. We had practice the next day (Dec. 31st) and then on Saturday, Jan 1st our team traveled back to Paris because TODAY (Jan. 2nd) we are playing Paris. WOW!!! and that is my hectic week in a nut shell. So currently I am sitting in a hotel room in Paris waiting to go to our game at 5pm. It should be a great game tonight and hopefully we can come out with a win. We are currently 7-4 in league games and sitting in 5th place.

I also want to mention that we made it to the Top 16 in EuroChallenge. We won't play a game for a couple more weeks, however it is nice knowing that we will be playing twice a week again in the near future. Its time for me to get some lunch before the game. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! Shout out to Dimer and Shan: thanks for visiting us, we had a great time and hopefully we can make something happen again at the end of the year! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)