All these complete craziness happening and now I get my fourteen cents in.
I decided that I would rock my Landon Donovan jersey just like I did last World Cup. Apparently, people didn't know that he wore #21 before he switched to #10. Thanks for the support and hopping on the bandwagon. The bandwagon was hot and heavy this World Cup for some reason. But people soon forget about Cobi Jones, Tab Ramos, Ernie Stewart, and all the former "stars" of the US National Team.
The US Soccer Federation idea of "Project 2010," where it's goal was to win this World Cup. Obviously, that didn't happen. The plan was a good one and certainly produced some decent players but not enough "starpower" to score goals on a consistent basis. The US still doesn't have enough players playing in the top divisions in Europe. You can only get better playing in the English Premier League or La Liga (Spain's top division).
Jurgen Klinsman made a great point about the soccer in the US. He said that parents pay a bunch of money in order to earn scholarships while in other countries kids that don't have any money are the ones playing on the street from the time they are young. Basically what he is saying there shouldn't be a pay for play system. That system just helps the wealthy because their families can afford to send their kids on these teams and pay all the entry fees. This is a very white collar system while other countries' systems designed for blue collar people and below. I certainly see his point but the problem is that those same lower income families see basketball and football as a way out not soccer. Kids dream about playing in the NBA and NFL not the EPL. Could that change? It remains to be seen.
I think the US games have been great to watch and a lot of the reason for fans hopping on the bandwagon could be off all the controversial calls made throughout the tournament. The US has been screwed over by two terrible calls throughout the tourney. People must think you can't mess the US like that, so all of a sudden they become fans with their US Soccer gear.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Greek Tales
Looking back on Greece, it was a great experience and something that I will never forget. The history there is just amazing and to be able to spend it with my "Minnesota family" made it even better. I'm just going to go over a bunch of observations that I made while being there for a week.
- The Greek people are very similar to people in NYC. Things can get a little confrontational and that's the norm. No one gets offended by it. That's just the way it is.
- Many of the people there can speak and understand English. They have learned it from the time they were in elementary school. It's too bad that isn't the case in the US with languages.
- The Greek people like to strike and protest. Is it because they are lazy? Levon Kendall said that when we were talking to him before our game. He had been there for three years, he would have a better grasp of things then I would.
- Just like many big cities, if you act like a tourist people will target you whether it be to buy goods, stealing something from you, or mugging you.
- Athens was very crowded. Even more so than in NYC (with the exception of Times Square). People are in cars, trucks, four wheelers, motorcycles, and scooters. It's not unusual to see people on scooters on the sidewalks.
- Prices are sneakers were much higher. I'll give an example. The Nike Air Max 360 is $160 here in the States. It is priced at 170 Euros there. Essentially, the shoe is over $200. I wouldn't even go that high to buy a pair.
- The double line on the road doesn't mean anything. The slower car just gets to the right more and lets you go past. It seemed to be an understanding that the car coming from the opposite direction knows to get over as well. There were many times there were two cars and our bus hitting the same area at the same time.
- People are just plan skinnier there. Serving size is a lot smaller than it is here in the States (obviously there are exceptions).
- The Greeks are trying to restore a lot of the archeological sites to their original state. I do understand this but I would've rather have seen just the ruins instead of all this new stuff.
Basketball Stuff
- Three steps are the norm when getting to the rim. It took our guys a while to get use to this.
- They let the bigs play. Any hand check by the guards will be called.
- It's called a little different as far as pivoting goes. Even if you have established a pivot foot you can't extend to get to the rim. You have to dribble before any movement to the basket.
- Defense seemed to be an option for the players. If they wanted to play it great, if they didn't, no big deal. I think that is reason why we scored a lot and won all of our games.
- The wider lane forces some of our sets to a change a little but it help our guys with others.
- Starting in October, FIBA is changing to the NBA lane line (a foot wider on each side compared to the college game) and extending the three point line to get it closer to the NBA line. Right now the lane is trapezoidal and the three point line is a little shorter than the men's college three.
That's all that I can think of now. Overall, it was a great trip and for the first time ever I can say that I'm happy to be back in Minnesota.
- The Greek people are very similar to people in NYC. Things can get a little confrontational and that's the norm. No one gets offended by it. That's just the way it is.
- Many of the people there can speak and understand English. They have learned it from the time they were in elementary school. It's too bad that isn't the case in the US with languages.
- The Greek people like to strike and protest. Is it because they are lazy? Levon Kendall said that when we were talking to him before our game. He had been there for three years, he would have a better grasp of things then I would.
- Just like many big cities, if you act like a tourist people will target you whether it be to buy goods, stealing something from you, or mugging you.
- Athens was very crowded. Even more so than in NYC (with the exception of Times Square). People are in cars, trucks, four wheelers, motorcycles, and scooters. It's not unusual to see people on scooters on the sidewalks.
- Prices are sneakers were much higher. I'll give an example. The Nike Air Max 360 is $160 here in the States. It is priced at 170 Euros there. Essentially, the shoe is over $200. I wouldn't even go that high to buy a pair.
- The double line on the road doesn't mean anything. The slower car just gets to the right more and lets you go past. It seemed to be an understanding that the car coming from the opposite direction knows to get over as well. There were many times there were two cars and our bus hitting the same area at the same time.
- People are just plan skinnier there. Serving size is a lot smaller than it is here in the States (obviously there are exceptions).
- The Greeks are trying to restore a lot of the archeological sites to their original state. I do understand this but I would've rather have seen just the ruins instead of all this new stuff.
Basketball Stuff
- Three steps are the norm when getting to the rim. It took our guys a while to get use to this.
- They let the bigs play. Any hand check by the guards will be called.
- It's called a little different as far as pivoting goes. Even if you have established a pivot foot you can't extend to get to the rim. You have to dribble before any movement to the basket.
- Defense seemed to be an option for the players. If they wanted to play it great, if they didn't, no big deal. I think that is reason why we scored a lot and won all of our games.
- The wider lane forces some of our sets to a change a little but it help our guys with others.
- Starting in October, FIBA is changing to the NBA lane line (a foot wider on each side compared to the college game) and extending the three point line to get it closer to the NBA line. Right now the lane is trapezoidal and the three point line is a little shorter than the men's college three.
That's all that I can think of now. Overall, it was a great trip and for the first time ever I can say that I'm happy to be back in Minnesota.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Last Day in Greece, Game vs. Argonaut BC
This morning we headed over to the National Museum. This place was flat out history. I've never so many artifacts in my life. They had huge marble statues and a bunch of bronze statues as well. The artistry for everything was amazing. Once again, the pictures will be up once I get back.
On to our game vs. Argonaut Basketball Club. This squad was just promoted from the 4th Division to the 3rd Division and kind of had a rag tag group of players. Many of them were students, a couple of them worked full time, and another one was in Greek Navy Seal program. This guy actually played in the 1st Division for a couple of years but his career is winding down and his waistline is bulging out.
Once again we started off pretty well and clearly was the better team. At the end of the first quarter we got the turnover bug and ended up blowing a nine point lead to go up by two at the end of the first, 21-19. We started to push the tempo and really get after it starting the 2nd quarter. We ended up outscoring them 27-13 in the 2nd and really took control of the game.
Our second half started off terrible as our leaded dwindled pretty quickly. One of the players, #7, scored their first 13 points. We really didn't have an answer for him. They got as close to seven points before we finally decided to start getting back in transition. We pulled away in the 4th with some great 3 point shooting from Christian Taber and Brandon Rieg. We won 85-70. We were led in scoring by Carl Hipp with 16. Christian Taber had 15 on five 3's. Brandon Rieg also reached double figures with 12. Andy Voigt was our final double digit scorer with 11. Four guys also had six points (Noah Aguirre, Charlie Choiniere, Victor Easter, and Dan Andersen).
We finished the tour 4-0 and played much better in spurts. Our next step to control the other team's spurts and control the game. Part of this is being young and part of it is still lacking the strength to sustain for long stretches. I believe that our team MVP for the trip was Brandon Rieg. He really gave us a spark off the bench and provided great pressure on defense and he really showed us something.
This trip clearly gave us a head start to next year and hopefully our incoming guys will buy in to what we want to do.
I guess the film will be up later.
On to our game vs. Argonaut Basketball Club. This squad was just promoted from the 4th Division to the 3rd Division and kind of had a rag tag group of players. Many of them were students, a couple of them worked full time, and another one was in Greek Navy Seal program. This guy actually played in the 1st Division for a couple of years but his career is winding down and his waistline is bulging out.
Once again we started off pretty well and clearly was the better team. At the end of the first quarter we got the turnover bug and ended up blowing a nine point lead to go up by two at the end of the first, 21-19. We started to push the tempo and really get after it starting the 2nd quarter. We ended up outscoring them 27-13 in the 2nd and really took control of the game.
Our second half started off terrible as our leaded dwindled pretty quickly. One of the players, #7, scored their first 13 points. We really didn't have an answer for him. They got as close to seven points before we finally decided to start getting back in transition. We pulled away in the 4th with some great 3 point shooting from Christian Taber and Brandon Rieg. We won 85-70. We were led in scoring by Carl Hipp with 16. Christian Taber had 15 on five 3's. Brandon Rieg also reached double figures with 12. Andy Voigt was our final double digit scorer with 11. Four guys also had six points (Noah Aguirre, Charlie Choiniere, Victor Easter, and Dan Andersen).
We finished the tour 4-0 and played much better in spurts. Our next step to control the other team's spurts and control the game. Part of this is being young and part of it is still lacking the strength to sustain for long stretches. I believe that our team MVP for the trip was Brandon Rieg. He really gave us a spark off the bench and provided great pressure on defense and he really showed us something.
This trip clearly gave us a head start to next year and hopefully our incoming guys will buy in to what we want to do.
I guess the film will be up later.
Game Videos
Here are clips of the three games that we have played so far. Again, the first game is super sloppy, so don't be surprised by that.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Day 9 and Game vs. Ilissiakos BC
Today consisted of us taking a two hour bus ride to head to Epidaurus, the site of the popular Sanctuary of Asclepius. It is a huge theater with unbelievable acoustics. A couple of our guys headed all the way to the top of the theater and could hear our tour guide drop a coin on the ground as well as her tearing a newspaper. It was quite amazing.
After this we headed to a ruin in the countryside. It was here where Greece's first capital was located. They built a castle that many of it's original pieces where still there. The views from this area were great. We also got to see a "cave" that the Greeks developed not far from the castle. It is just unreal to think how these ancient people could move that amount of rock all over the place. I couldn't imagine to view the Pyramids in Egypt in person.
After catching a quick lunch we heading over for our game versus Ilissiakos Basketball Club. We were under the impression that this was going to be our easiest game of the tour. When we walk into the gym, we once again see 6'8" and 6'9" again and these guys look young. Not only were they that big, they were very skilled as well. Not exactly what I was hoping for in my coaching debut. These guys definitely passed the look test with their height and length. I was told from our tour guide, Yanni, that one of guys that is playing against us played on the U18 and U20 Greek National Team last summer. The same kid also plays on the pro team and makes a significant amount of money. We were in for a big time challenge.
I was able to speak to their head coach and he was a great guy. He was raised in Manhattan and attending Jersey City State for college. His whole family is over here and he has bounced back and forth since college. He told us that he is the pro team's assistant as well as the director of player development (for their younger players). He was coaching today because the pro team's head coach resigned and he is basically holding everything together.
Once the game started our guys really went after them. We challenged them at the rim and with our defense. We still had a bunch of mental lapses but are playing better for longer stretches than we have previously. I was really impressed once again with Brandon Rieg's play. He really got after defensively for the second day in a row and he really got our guys going. We made a push towards the end of the first half to push our lead to 13 after 20 minutes of play.
The second half started off with a bang as we really got after it and started finishing more than we did in the first. We are starting to make adjustments to the European game even though the three step non travel still frustrates us while we get called for traveling while catching on the run. We really started putting it on their team with a barrage of 3's and got our lead up to as many as 22. They called a timeout and then proceeded to go on an 11-0 run to cut the lead in half. Dan Andersen came in and hit three straight 3's and got our lead back up to 20 very quickly.
We ended up winning 84-62 against a very talented team (thought they didn't play as a team). I am not sure who lead us in scoring but as I said Brandon Rieg played really well. Dan Andersen and Christian Taber both hit a bunch of 3's and we got our usual double-double from Carl Hipp. Our guys really responded to the challenge today. I keep forgetting that we have six guys that just got done with their freshmen season. We are certainly making strides but we need to keep working.
Tomorrow we are heading to the National Musuem and getting a little free time before our game at 6pm. I am hoping to get some videos on the blog soon. Two are now uploaded on the youtube under my channel, hamlinembb. Check them out when you get a chance.
After this we headed to a ruin in the countryside. It was here where Greece's first capital was located. They built a castle that many of it's original pieces where still there. The views from this area were great. We also got to see a "cave" that the Greeks developed not far from the castle. It is just unreal to think how these ancient people could move that amount of rock all over the place. I couldn't imagine to view the Pyramids in Egypt in person.
After catching a quick lunch we heading over for our game versus Ilissiakos Basketball Club. We were under the impression that this was going to be our easiest game of the tour. When we walk into the gym, we once again see 6'8" and 6'9" again and these guys look young. Not only were they that big, they were very skilled as well. Not exactly what I was hoping for in my coaching debut. These guys definitely passed the look test with their height and length. I was told from our tour guide, Yanni, that one of guys that is playing against us played on the U18 and U20 Greek National Team last summer. The same kid also plays on the pro team and makes a significant amount of money. We were in for a big time challenge.
I was able to speak to their head coach and he was a great guy. He was raised in Manhattan and attending Jersey City State for college. His whole family is over here and he has bounced back and forth since college. He told us that he is the pro team's assistant as well as the director of player development (for their younger players). He was coaching today because the pro team's head coach resigned and he is basically holding everything together.
Once the game started our guys really went after them. We challenged them at the rim and with our defense. We still had a bunch of mental lapses but are playing better for longer stretches than we have previously. I was really impressed once again with Brandon Rieg's play. He really got after defensively for the second day in a row and he really got our guys going. We made a push towards the end of the first half to push our lead to 13 after 20 minutes of play.
The second half started off with a bang as we really got after it and started finishing more than we did in the first. We are starting to make adjustments to the European game even though the three step non travel still frustrates us while we get called for traveling while catching on the run. We really started putting it on their team with a barrage of 3's and got our lead up to as many as 22. They called a timeout and then proceeded to go on an 11-0 run to cut the lead in half. Dan Andersen came in and hit three straight 3's and got our lead back up to 20 very quickly.
We ended up winning 84-62 against a very talented team (thought they didn't play as a team). I am not sure who lead us in scoring but as I said Brandon Rieg played really well. Dan Andersen and Christian Taber both hit a bunch of 3's and we got our usual double-double from Carl Hipp. Our guys really responded to the challenge today. I keep forgetting that we have six guys that just got done with their freshmen season. We are certainly making strides but we need to keep working.
Tomorrow we are heading to the National Musuem and getting a little free time before our game at 6pm. I am hoping to get some videos on the blog soon. Two are now uploaded on the youtube under my channel, hamlinembb. Check them out when you get a chance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)