National Team 2013 - Phase 2 - Day 4 in Russia

Well Day 4 has come and gone. An eventful day to say the least.

Up for an early breakfast and didn't wander off path too much. Eggs, some nice bacon, those PHENOMENAL Cheese pancakes again and some potatoes like hash browns. After breakfast Jeff and I had to attend a technical meeting which started at 10. Our bus was leaving at 11:10 so I stayed until 10:30 and then headed to the dorm. Today was the day we needed to provide our official roster and those details.

We had arranged for a scrimmage at 12 noon with the USA. I thought it was going to be a very daunting task. We got to  the gym and the girls had to warm up in the hallway. The US Men had an hour and they were in the gym. Our men were following us at 1pm.
Just before our game I got to briefly meet one of the US coaches Frank Martin who is very good and then I had the opportunity to meet and speak with Coach John Beilein from the US team. I have followed him over the years and I love how he coaches and what he does. It was really neat to meet him. Of course I asked him if we could sit down at some point to chat and he said sure. He gave me his email address and I emailed him to arrange a time. Hopefully we can make it work. I would love to pick his brain. I am going to try and do that with other coaches as well.

So back to the game. The US is fairly big and quite athletic but not the most athletic team I have ever seen them bring. We start the game and our girls are fired up. We are playing well and while we are making a few mistakes on defense, our offense was putting on a clinic. We were leading and then it was back and forth throughout the whole first quarter. The US men stayed and watched and it was neat to see the reactions of their coaches when we did some of the offensive stuff we did. We were down 3 just before the break and they hit a 3 to go up 6. We cut it to 4 in the 2nd and battled back and forth but they hit a few threes and got some fast break hoops and went up 12 at half. I was pretty pleased with how we were doing. One of the things that caught us was when they went to zone defense but we are slowly getting better at it.
In the third we struggled with their defense and we tried to hang with them. Midway through they broke open the game with a few 3's and some easy fast break points. They ended up leading by 17 I believe and that is all we could play due to time constraints.
The thing that probably hurt us most of all is lack of depth. They have so many athletes in the US to pick from and we are here with 11 players. They make subs and the players coming in are just as good as the ones they are replacing. When we sub we take a dip. It is just how it is for now so we will keep pushing along. I was really pleased with the growth we displayed today and with how hard the girls played.

After we came back to the village I got changed and then waited a bit for lunch. There were some other reasons that I needed some time to cool myself off. Lunch was good with potatoes that looked like barley but they were tiny. Kind of like rice potato. I had to try the potato patty that was like a fishcake, a small chicken fillet type thing, a bun and one slice of roast beef. A nice lunch

After this Jeff and I went to the Sports Info Centre to submit some stuff then we went to the highly overpriced souvenir shop. We bought a few things and then we went in search of the other one in the village. We didn't find but apparently we were close. We will try again another time.

Came back after that and relaxed here in my room. Did some laundry and sent some emails. Tonight was the opening ceremonies for the games. I chose not to go. I wanted to watch the video of our scrimmage plus the bus was leaving at 7:00 and then you had to stand around until 9:30 for the start. Then they said you wouldn't get home until 1:30. It is not 12:20AM and nobody is here. Apparently it was going to be a great show and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was going to be there but that whole scene is not my thing. Maybe someday if it is an Olympics I will go.

Myself and Patrice (our therapist) stayed behind. He has been to 6 of these games and the Olympics so he has seen it all. Perhaps I should have gone to see it and say I experienced it but I really want to focus on doing my job here. I spent the evening watching the game film and editing it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. bizarre I know but I enjoyed it.

I took a break to go to the meal hall and there were still quite a few people here who did not go to the ceremony. I had a nice relaxing meal by myself. Time to think and figure some stuff out. I had some very nice roasted potatoes, a slice of chicken breast, a slice of pork belly and some pasta with hunter sauce again. The hunter was better today.

I cam back and finished the video and now it is ready to go for tomorrow morning at 11. Time to get better and show them what we need to do to improve. I love the video sessions and I know almost every player hates them but they are part of the game. We have practice at 3pm tomorrow so lots to get ready for. The next day is the big stage. The games count. We know nothing about Japan's team and they know nothing of ours. What I do know is that they will probably be very fast, run like crazy and shoot it from anywhere. Tough to stop but they have to stop us too. I can't wait for the challenge.

Until tomorrow