Maroussi Game

As I reported earlier we were going to play Maroussi Basketball Club. As I was told, it was going to be a tough game and we were going to play against some really talented players. As we walked into the gym, we saw a couple of 6'9" and 6'10" guys. I wasn't suprised because I knew they were good. A couple of those guys included former Pitt player Levon Kendall, former St. Joseph's player Pat Calathes, former Virginia Tech player Jamon Gordon, and former Iowa State player Jared Homan.

We talked to all of those guys and had a real good conversation with Levon Kendall. I brought up to him about being at West Virginia for a few years and the conversation started. He was a real good guy and really gave us an insight of how European basketball works. He said that the Greek league is notorious for not paying their players on time. He said he has gotten paid on-time only three out of the ten months he has been here. Each one of the guys gets a car and a house on top of their salary. Each one of the players plans on going to another club next year because Maroussi has been having a lot of finanacial problems.

After talking with these guys for a while, we were told that we were playing their junior team and not the one with the guys that we were talking to. We also found out that a couple of the players we were playing practiced with the senior team and played sparingly for them if games were out of hand. These two players got paid a little but were still considered professionals.

The game started and we were clearly the better team. We got off to great start and really were giving it to them with an eleven point lead midway through the 2nd quarter. Maroussi made a run with a slew of pick and rolls. They actually took the lead for a little bit before we started to play like we were capable of. I thought we were going to have "sea legs" for the rest of the game with the way we were playing.

As we got going, Brandon Rieg led the charge with his defensive pressure and great play at the point guard spot. Both Victor Easter and Levi Wenrich were in foul trouble and "B" played really well. Though, his numbers don't show up in the box score but he led us on a huge run that got our lead up to 20. Final score was 85-64 in our favor. Carl Hipp led us with 32 and a ton of rebounds. Jordan Schmidt rounded out the double figure scoring with 17. Charlie Choiniere rounded out our major scoring with 9.

Next up tomorrow, we are going to check out a couple of monuments to go along with our game at 6pm Greek time. We are playing Ilissiakos Basketball Club and I am making my head coaching debut. Coach Whitmore is playing the assistant coach for a game. It should be interesting for both of us and I am really looking forward to it.