National Team 2013 - Phase 2 - Day 3 in Russia

Well Day 3 is in the books. A nice warm day with a bit of a breeze but still warm.

Woke up to an early morning breakfast and a day full or surprises. Breakfast was not bad with a few different selections. A meat and potato bun, some potato balls like hash browns, bacon that was cooked very floppy, scrambled eggs with peas mixed in ( an interesting but tasty choice), a meat roll/ball/oval which was nice and then a very interesting choice. Cheese pancakes. They were about 1/2 inch thick and about as round as the top of a Ragu Pasta sauce bottle. One bite and I was done. They were made with curds and they tasted EXACTLY like Curds Buns we have at Easter time. I could have eaten 25 of them but I went with 3. Holy cow were they good. It is actually quite interesting to see and taste lots of the different foods here. Growing up we heard mom talk about the foods her mom cooked and then we would have the traditional foods Mom made. I can actually see them here in front of me or at least stuff that is exactly like what she made or talked about. I find that very cool as our grandmother would have come to Canada about 100 years ago and these things came with her. Really neat.

So after breakfast we were trying to find out if we were going to scrimmage vs. Brazil. They arrived yesterday and we had made previous arrangements to play. So we come back to get ready and we are told that they looked at a wrong schedule and were gone to practice at their original time. Oh well, we are used to that in these type of events where you are trying to organize scrimmages before the actual games. So we decide to go to our practice as scheduled for 1pm to work on some things. Just before we left we get a call that Brazil is finished their practice and are one their way to meet us at the gym to play for an hour. The girls were excited to get another game instead of practice.

We get to the gym and our men are practicing before us. They were gracious enough to let the coaches watch practice. I love watching practices especially when they are run by former NBA coach Jay Triano. I picked up some good things from him in the 30 min we watched. About 15 minutes before our practice we get a call that Brazil is too tired and will not be coming. Oh well, lucky I planned practice I guess. We practiced hard for an hour and I pushed them harder than usual. We needed a little wake up call and it was provided. The girls adjusted eventually and worked hard and I think we made progress.

We headed back to the village, or "willage" as the locals call it, and arrived for a late lunch. Headed to the meal hall. It seemed as though there was lots of food but limited choices. Lots of bizarre combinations and then lots of duck and lamb. I am not a duck fan but I do like lamb just wasn't feeling it today. I opted for a few potatoes, a small patty like beef substance, and bow tie pasta with "hunter sauce". I am not sure what exactly hunter sauce is but I assume whatever the hunter caught went into the sauce. It actually wasn't too bad.

We left there after 4pm and headed back to the dorm and the girls got ready to go to a Team Canada reception downtown. I stayed behind to work on our meeting for tonight. I prepped a bunch of things and then Jeff and I walked over to the International Building to see if the gift shop was open. "Closed", poop :(
Came back and had an 8:30 meeting scheduled. The girls made it back at 8:45 so luckily there was nobody using the film room. I took them through an exercise where we identified the potential distractions and which ones were in our control. I then talked with them about what focus is and how to work on maintaining your focus to avoid distraction. I also took them through an identification of a mistake response and how to build the proper one for each individual. I think the session was very valuable even if only 1 or 2 people got the message.

After that we headed over to the meal hall for a late dinner. Before we leave though I get the chance to meet Coach Triano who coaches our men (former head coach of the Raptors and now an asst coach with Portland) It was an honour to meet him and I told Jeff afterwards that in situations like this I start to twitch. I want to ask a million questions about how to defend certain situations or how to execute a certain skill. I can't shake this game from my veins LOL

Some interesting choices again for supper. Went with rice first although I have to learn what small amount means is in Russian. The girl heaped the rice and big chunks of beef in a red sauce on my plate. I only wanted a third of what she put on the plate. I also grabbed a few potatoes and a chicken skewer. Not bad overall and the rice turned out to be good. Didn't eat it all though. Afterwards we were sitting there chatting and we watched a bunch of teams going into a stand up cooler where they stored yogurt and they were coming out with what looked like yogurt tubes. One of the coaches wondered what they were so I said there was only one way to find out. I go over and they are labelled as curd bars. Well when in Russia I guess...so I open it and it is covered in chocolate. I bite into and I think I almost lost my mind. Picture a bar about half the size of a mars bar. Curds but like a paste almost exactly like cheesecake but tasted better with a rich caramel sauce in the middle and covered in rich chocolate and then chilled but not frozen. Needless to say I will stop by there again. WOW they were good.

After the meal we headed back to our dorm and here I am typing at 12:10 pm. A long full day. Tomorrow is the "day off" before opening ceremonies and the gyms and buses are shut down but apparently we were still able to work our way into a gym for a scrimmage at noon. If there are no changes, we play the gold medal favourite USA at noon in a scrimmage. Get my helmet on for that one. Actually I can't wait to let our girls get tested vs. them. It will be a fantastic test and a great practice opportunity for us. We then have a full day off and begin playing on the 8th.

July 8th - vs Japan
July 9th - vs Ukraine
July 10 - vs Chinese Taipei
July 11 - Day off
July 12 - Game - opponent determined by how we finish
July 13 - Game - opponent determined by how we finish
July 14 - Day Off
July 15 - Final game
July 16 Day Off
July 17 Fly Home to Canada
July 18 Arrive at 1:35AM.....Capers Mini Basketball Camp at 9AM WOOOOHOOOO

So now I am off to bed. Another long day perhaps coming tomorrow and then we prep for the real stuff. I know I probably missed a few things but I will add some more tomorrow perhaps. Now it is bedtime.

I did see a Kerfuffle by the tennis centre behind our dorm. People were in an uproar and I thought I could see Archie Neil and Terrence running away...no doubt Molly McLaughlin was in the middle of it.


Until tomorrow..............