National Team 2013 - Phase 2 - Day 7 in Russia

Well day 7 is almost complete. Still gotta type this blog then it is done.

Started with another early morning breakfast. A few interesting choices. Had some eggs which they called an omelet. More of a square and the eggs had a pudding texture. Had some bacon. Saltiest bacon I ever had. It was that salty there were Deer in line behind me. Some fried potatoes, a sausage, CHEESY PANCAKES MMMMMM and an onion fritter. Hmm how best to describe it. Green onion (i think) with regular onion in some sort of a "paste" and then it is cooked like a pancake. Unique taste, unique texture, unique appearance. How do you catch a unique rabbit??? Unique up on him LOL

So after breakfast I came back to get ready for the game. It wasn't far away today so less time to get there. I felt very good about our game plan and our video. The prep was done. We started the game executing well but we could not buy a basket. Meanwhile they jumped out to a 13-3 lead. From there on out it was a big time struggle. We battled hard but harder than we needed to. We managed to take a slim lead to half time but nothing was easy. We traded the lead back and forth in the 3rd and were up 5 going into the 4th. They sat in zone most of the time and we went cold. It was just the way the day was going. We struggled but hung in there. I thought we got absolutely hammered on 3 shots but the refs didn't help us but we didn't work hard enough to get those calls. They called time out with under 30 seconds left and I told our girls we needed to make 1 stop and we would have a shot to tie or win. We got the stop and then they fouled us. No bonus yet so I called time out with under 10 seconds left. There were 7.7 seconds left and I drew up a play that the girls executed perfectly. We got to the rim and got hammered. Foul. I think "great, tie it on the free throw line". Nope ref said she wasn't shooting. With no timeouts left and 3 seconds left on the baseline we ran our play and got a shot but couldn't get it to go. Lost 59-57. In those games I often think of what I could have done better but there wasn't much in this one. We just didn't win the loose balls and got out hustled. We also gave them 16 offensive rebounds. Not going to win games like that.We just had to fight and hope for anything and it didn't get done.

I was slightly pissed but at the same time I had to focus on the next step. We play Taipei tomorrow. They are GOOOD. We need to win to advance to the medal round. Hopefully we can pull it off.

Came back after the game and did some work for our 5pm practice. I then scrambled over to lunch. I met Michele, Chantal and Denise there. I grabbed some stuff and chatted with Denise. Pretty standard actually. Some chicken meat loaf or something like that, some potatoes and pasta with mystery sauce with mystery meat. It was actually pretty good. While we were sitting there it started to rain and then POUR. Absolutely POUR. The meal hall started to flood and they closed a section. In 25 minutes, there was 3 inches of water on the road way and it was running like a river.

I walked back in the rain and it wasn't cold so I enjoyed it a little. Been a while since I walked in the rain. Got back and scrambled to get dry and changed for practice. We went to a gym close by and did some shooting and worked on some things for tomorrow. Afterward we came back and prepared for our video session. We watched only clips from our game today. A few bad but mostly good. Tried to give the girls some energy after a tough defeat. I also asked them to come up with the problems we were facing. Once they identified the problems I asked them to write down their personal solution. The coaches would review with them later.

After the session we discussed some strategy for Taipei tomorrow and then went to dinner. Had a great discussion at dinner as well. Dinner was a hodge podge for me. A small piece of pork, a potato and mushroom dumpling, turkey "something" (kind of like a meatball with turkey, rice and something) and pasta with mystery sauce again. It is kind of like a cream sauce but not quite a cream sauce with a different taste and mystery "bits" floating around. The meal hall was packed tonight. I am sure a full day of competition was part of it but the other is because I believe it is Ramadan. The Muslim holiday where they cannot eat from sunrise to sunset. Very busy.

Afterwards I came back and met with some of the players to discuss their assignment and here I am. I am disappointed with my day but still understand that we got outworked on a lot of things. I could point fingers and make excuses but I am not going to. Time to go to work and try to figure out tomorrow's game. A tough challenge ahead but one we can get done perhaps if we play smart and not turn the ball over.

But now I am getting tired. I need to sleep. Gonna try and sleep in tomorrow as breakfast isn't until 10AM. Might not get to sleep that late though. Probably wake up at 6.

Until tomorrow.....