Well it is midnight here in Montenegro. A full day whizzed by again.
Breakfast was at 9:30 and it was the same meats, cheeses, yogurt, bread, hot dogs, etc. I stuck with bread, ham and cheese today. I spread honey on the cheese (some people do it here) and it was very good. I was surprised.
After breakfast we had an 11AM practice. We were scheduled to depart at 10:50AM. When my watch hit 10:50 the doors closed and we left. Two players had to sprint through the streets of Cetinje to find the gym because they were late. They were benched for the first quarter and everyone else had to get in ahead of them before they could play. Not a big deal but I am assuming we will be earlier in the future. It only takes once to prove a point of discipline sometimes.
We start practice at 11 and we used the full 2 hours. We spent some time working on ball screen defense, transition defense, defense of various screens and some of our offensive adjustments. We went the whole 2 hours because we needed work. I turned up my intensity a little bit to help push them as well.
After practice we had lunch. Today it was tomatoes and cabbage with olives to start. Then we had a chicken breast with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was tasty and we finished up with a pastry that was filled and it was almost like a profiterole. Yum Yum Yum.
The girls had a little nap in the afternoon and I finished up the video. Our game was at 9 so the girls had a light snack at 5 and then we watched video at 5:30. I told them ahead of time to "put on their helmets" to watch this one. it wasn't pretty but we needed to see it. I showed them a lot of little details we missed and most of them were with regard to effort. I then talked to the girls about adjustments we had to make with most of it being on the effort side of things. I also told them that this was their "tryout". Every day they are showing us habits that we will put in our reports after the experience. Everyday they are trying out. They need to show us all the time that they want to be at the next level.
After the video I went and relaxed for a few minutes and made some notes on the game. We headed out at 7:45 for the 9pm game and everyone was ready for the bus at 7:40. I guess it worked :)
So we get to the game and we are slightly delayed by a handball championship that was just finishing. They changed the warmup each time. It wasn't an official warmup so we never knew if it was 20 minutes or not. There were a few fans at the game and right behind our bench there were guys smoking cigars and cigarettes. A lot of people smoke over here and they do it everywhere.
The game started and we were playing with much more energy. We still struggled to score which is a disease in our country but we defended hard. We were down 15-8 after 1 quarter but feeling much better about how we were playing.
The 2nd quarter we battled hard and they caught a few breaks. They made some timely baskets and went up 29-18 at the half. Not bad compared to where we were the day before. Playing hard but just couldn't score. Against a senior team like this, little mistakes add up quickly and we couldn't keep them from scoring timely hoops.
At half time we talked about the positives and how we had adjusted. We asked them to focus on transition defense and they did. We asked for effort and they gave it to us. We asked for better screen defense and it was better.
Our 3rd quarter was very solid and we limited them to very few easy looks. After 3 quarters we were down 43-33. We re-focused for the 4th and played hard. After 5 minutes we were closing in. With 3 minutes left we were down 6 and couldn't get it closer. Experience kicked in and then the pro versus amateur level was shown. We couldn't get key stops and they "outwomaned" us. They muscled us for rebounds and good offensive position and we couldn't stop them. I had to use 2 timeouts to get to this point and had one left. I had to use it with just under 2 minutes left when it was an 8 point game. They sealed it down the stretch for a 63-53 win. I was really proud of how hard the girls played.
We still have a long way to go and 3 games to get better. We focused on the process afterwards and where we are trying to get to. I think we could have some good games in Belgium.
We arrived back at the hotel for a late meal of pork, spinach, carrots, eggplant and zucchini. Very very tasty. The meal started with a FANTASTIC cheese pastry that was warm. A traditional food in the region and I think I could have eaten 10 of them. Finished it up with an apple and we were all good. So we are sitting around and a daughter of one of the Montenegro Basketball Federation officials comes in with their group for supper. My guess is she was about 11 or 12 and she came up to say hello. She spoke good english. She went back and sat at a table by herself nearby. I told the people at our table to watch her face closely. Of course, you can imagine what happened next. I show her a 50 cent euro coin. After a few manipulations it turns into a loonie and I put it in her hand. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, her face lit up and she said "How you do that?". I love those moments. The look on her face was priceless. If you have read my blog in other summers, you had to know this was coming :)
So now it is 12:30 and it is almost bed time. Might sleep in a little tomorrow. We have breakfast at 9:30 and then we are leaving at 11AM. We are heading to a tourist city named Budva on the Adriatic Sea. If it rains or snows I think it will be a good time. Everyone is really excited to go so it will be a great experience for the girls.
What a basketball life I lead.......
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