Tough L

Good afternoon! Its rainy and cloudy here in Gravelines for what seems to be the 20th day in a row. We haven't had the sun peek out in a long time. I better get used to it though because thats the way the winters are over here; cloudy and rainy.

On Friday we had a game down in Le Harve and came back with a 76-70 loss. The score doesn't show how bad we really played. We were down 22 at halftime. It seemed like every shot they took they were making, but thats because we let their offense get into a flow. We didn't pressure well enough and we flat out weren't playing aggressive on defense and thats how you get down 22 points by halftime. We came out in the 2nd half fighting our way back. We ended up being down 4 points with a minute to go but they made a couple more fast break points and we ended up losing the game by six. Yannick had 16 points, Jeff Greer had 11, I had 14 points (1-6 2FG, 2-7 3FG, 6-6 FT), 4 assists in 24 minutes of play. It was a tough loss for us and our record stands at 4-2 overall. We are tied for 2nd with four other teams. Hopefully we can bounce back next weekend when we play Pau.

We are heading out to Russia tomorrow morning for a EuroChallenge game. We start the EuroChallenge games this week and we play every Tuesday. So our playing schedule is every Tuesday and Saturday until Christmas. Tuesday being the EuroChallenge games and Saturday being our French League games. I am looking forward to playing twice a week. My family is coming across the pond to visit next weekend so AJ and I will enjoy their company. My shout out goes to Michael Tveidt today for getting the Bison Mens BBall team their first win of the season and going over the 1,000 point mark, so congrats to Tveidt thats a great accomplishment. Thats all for now, gotta head to practice and get better today. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Food Poisoning and a Win (4-1)

Good afternoon! We had a little schedule change this past weekend and instead of playing last Saturday we had a game last night at home vs Poitiers. Before I get to the game I wanted to tell you what has been happening over here in France leading up to the game on Tuesday. On Sunday night all of a sudden I notice that my stomach doesn't feel so good and figure I just have a normal stomach ache. I should just drink some water and head to bed. Little did I know what was about to happen the rest of the night. I was up the whole night with food poisoning! I vomited from 12am-9am all of Sunday night and into Monday morning. My body finally decided to keep things down around 10am, so the rest of Monday I laid around all day nibbling on 2 pieces of toast and drinking sips of water. Not knowing how I was going to feel on Tuesday for the game and my body was so fatigued that I feel asleep at 9pm Monday night and woke up Tuesday morning at 9am for shoot around still feeling very groggy. Tuesday afternoon comes around and I haven't really eaten anything the past 24 hours and I really don't feel like eating anything. So I basically went to the game Tuesday night on an empty stomach. When I was sitting in the locker room waiting before the game I had no energy and I was wondering how I was going to make it through this game. So I decided to say some prayers to the Lord because I always know I can go to Him.

We came away with a 94-60 win! We played well on defensive throughout most of the game except in the 2nd quarter. They made a little run in the 2nd however we stepped up our defense and came away with a great win. We are sitting at 4-1 in league right now. We had 5 guys in double figures. Cyril had 16 points, Yannick had 10 points, Jeff Greer had 14 points, Juby Johnson had 12 points. I ended the game with 28 points (9-14 TFG, 5-7 3FG, 5-7FT), and 9 assists, so back to asking the Lord for some strength, I all of a sudden felt great during the game and I felt like I could have played for days, I wonder where that strength came from, I'll let you decide that one ;)! All in all it was a great win for our team, we play again on Friday at Le Harve. I am feeling a lot better today and I am finally eating food and it tastes delicious!! Gotta jet to practice, God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

3 in a row!

Good morning everyone back home! Its a cloudy and misty day out over here in France which makes it a perfect opportunity to update the blog. Since I haven't updated the blog in awhile I am going to give you an overview of the last few games and the drama that went down in last nights game. We are currently on a 3 game winning streak after losing our first game of the season. We are sitting at 3-1 overall in the league. As you know we won our first game at home and then the following week we played Vichy where we got another home win under our belt. We ended up beating Vichy 84-48 which had us at 2-1 overall in the league. Which brings us to last nights game on the road vs Orleans.

This game was a very defensive minded game. Both teams were playing well on defense causing the other team to take tough shots. It was also a very physical game, there weren't many easy baskets to come by in this game. We jumped out to an early 10 point lead through the first quarter and a half. Orleans ended up cutting the lead to 9 by half time. Coming out of the half we were a bit sluggish and our defense wasn't clicking on all cylinders. Orleans ended up taking the lead by 5 going into the 4th quarter. We battled our way back and and were down 1 point with a 1:30 to go. We got a stop on defense and I called a screen and roll and got fouled coming off the pick. We were in the bonus so I got to shoot 2 free throws. I made both free throws and we went up by a point. We got a stop on defense, came down on offense and we hit a 2 pointer with 45 seconds to go, which put us up 3. Then we got another spot on defense, however we had a turnover immediately after that and Orleans hit a 3 pointer off the turnover to tie the game with 20+ seconds to go. We came down on offense ran a pick and roll and I passed it to one of our bigs who was right under the basket, he then passed it back out to Juby Johnson with 11 secs to go who hit the game winning 3 pointer to put us up by 3 with 10 seconds to go. Orleans missed on the offensive end and we ended up winning a dramatic game 62-59. It was a great win and a great shot by Juby to put us in the lead. Like I said before it was a defensive battle and points were hard to come by last night. Juby led the team with 13 points. I had 11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists. And Chris Owens had 11 points as well to round out the guys in double figures. It was a great win for us which puts as at 3-1 overall.

We don't play again until Tuesday Nov. 9th so we have a little bit of a stretch before our next game. We play at home vs. Poitiers who is 1-3 but capable of beating anyone at anytime. It should be another good French League game. I hope you all are having a great Halloween back home. You know I always have to give my shout out, so today I want to give a shout out to my father-in-law Dave Durick who turned 50! Believe it or not Dave I even knew about your surprise party all the way over here in France. Hope you had a great time. Take care and God Bless you all! (Joshua 1:9)

First home game, First win

We had our first regular season home game on Saturday and we came away with a big win. Our record stands at 1-1. We played the defending champions Cholet and ended up beating them 88-52. We played a great game all around (defense, rebounding, shooting, etc). It finally felt like our team came together and played well for all 4 quarters. I think that everyone on the team is starting to understand our system and it definitely showed on Saturday night. We had 3 guys in double figures and 4 guys with 6 points or more. Cyril had 20 points and Yannick had 16 points. I had 17 points (5-11 FG, 1-2 3FG, 4-5 FT), 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. It was a great effort on our teams part and a great win for us.

Next Saturday we play at home again vs. Vichy who is currently 1-1 as well. They have a good team and it should be another great game at the Sportica. I look forward to filling you in with how the game goes next week. I want to give a shout out and congratulations to the newlyweds Travis and Sara Durick who got married on Saturday, wish I could have been there but I heard it was a great time. I will post again soon. God Bless (Jeremiah 29:11)

First game, 0-1

Hey everyone.. Sorry I haven't written on my blog in a long time. I do have a legit excuse however... my fiance is over here this year so instead of spending time on the computer updating the blog all the time I am traveling around France with her. I would say that is a fair excuse.

We had our first game on Saturday and we came away with a lose to Nancy 78-70. We didn't shoot the ball well at all (5-31 3FG). We also had some turnovers that lead to fast break points for Nancy that definitely hurt us. We didn't play our transition game well at all, and I don't know how many fast break points we got but it wasn't much at all. You have to give Nancy credit they played well and they got easy baskets in transition. Yannick Bokolo lead our team with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. I had 10 points (3-7 TFG, 2-3 3FG, 2-2 FT), and 3 assists. You always want to start the year off by getting a win which we didn't do so that is kind of frustrating, but last year we started out 0-1 as well and we ended up having a pretty good year. Hopefully this year we will do the same.

Our next game is vs. Cholet on Saturday. They are the defending French Champions and it will be a tough one for us. It is at home and I am really looking forward to getting back on the court for some competition. We need to have a good week of practice for the preparation of Saturdays game. I will be updating more frequently now that the regular season has started so keep checking out the blog. Have a wonderful day and like always God Bless (Matthew 7: 7-8).

Back to Blogging

Hey!!! As you can see I am back to blogging again, which means that I am back in France. However this year is a little bit different than last year. This year I am joined by my fiance Amanda. She will be staying with me all year long even though she will go back a few times for weddings, family, etc. But, I am ever happy to have her over here this year. Yesterday we got to France early in the morning and stayed awake all day long so that we wouldn't have jet lag too bad. This morning I am feeling pretty good but we will see how I feel later this afternoon. This morning I already went in for my beginning of the year foot appointment and later on I have to take a couple medical tests. Trying to get all this medical appointments that I do ever year done as soon as possible.

Well I wanted to write you a let you know that we made it safely to France and it will be another fun filled journey this year. Looking forward to updating and connecting with people back home. I want to give a shout out to my boy Mike Nelson who is going to be heading over to Switzerland to play this year. He definitely deserves it and I know that the team will really enjoy having him around. Thats it for now, chat again soon. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Back to France.

Hey everyone, it has been a long and exciting off season for me this summer. I have been training, playing with Golden State Warriors for summer league, got engaged to my wonderful fiance and now I am returning to France for my second professional career with my team from last year Gravelines, France. I am really looking forward to getting back to France to continue my professional career. I am also looking forward to playing with my old teammates from last year (Bokz, Cyril, Juby) and also looking forward to meeting our new teammates that have joined the ride this summer.

I thought I would give you a quick update on what I am doing. I look forward to writing on my blog again this year to give you updates on games. Have a wonderful day. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)