National Team 2013 - Phase 2 - Day 8 in Russia

Day 8 has come and gone. Last day of preliminary pool play here in Kazan.

Started with an early wake up and then breakfast. Today it was "omelet" with bacon inside (not good at all), meat rolls, fried potatoes and a potato cake like a fish cake. Also tried curd pudding. Not sure what to expect but it had cocoa in it and other mystery pieces. It was phenomenal. Cup of coffee to go and back to the room.

Before practice we had arranged with our attache to get a big bottle of Pepsi as a birthday present for one of our coaches who loves it. The village is totally Coke. She arranged it plus a birthday cake. We presented him with it on the bus and he was happy. We even managed to sneak it back in to the village when we returned.  We had to leave at 10:55 for our noon practice. Practice was OK. We covered some things and did a little shooting. Felt OK about our prep. 

We then came back to the village and we got prepped for our video session. We showed them a lot of stuff on Taipei and discussed how we would guard them. I thought we were well prepared for the game. 

It was about 3:30 when I decided to head over for lunch. Baked potato (not great), pork and veggies in some sauce with cheese on top. Almost like lasagna but not quite. A cabbage roll but no meat inside or rice, just veggies. Quite good actually.A piece of pork with it and lunch was done. 

After lunch I sent a few emails and then decided it was time for a siesta. Slept hard for about an hour and it felt great. Got up and got ready for the game. We got there early and watched most of the 2nd half of the Ukraine Vs Japan game. We knew we were behind the 8 ball so to speak so we cheered quietly for Japan. If they won, no matter if we won or lost, we would move to the medal round. The girls had no idea and we didn't tell them. It was a good game to watch and Ukraine took the lead in the last 2 minutes then fate shone upon us and Japan beat them. 

Now on to Taipei. We came out of the gate flying and were leading 8-2. Then the floodgates opened and we were swimming to save our lives. They were leading after the first quarter and then were up 19 at half. They hit all kinds of shots and we couldn't. They were attacking the rim and we couldn't stop them at all. Changed defenses and tried a lot of things but nothing was working. I challenged them at halftime to step up and chip away. To not give up. We came out and were playing better but still couldn't get over the hump. With 5 minutes gone in the 3rd we got down 28. One of our coaches suggested that we rest players and get some others playing time. Pardon my french but in a nice way I said "fuck that". I can't give up on this group and I wanted to see if we could battle. I called timeout, discussed some adjustments and then watched the next 15 minutes play out We battled hard and within 10 minutes had it to 15. Not quite close enough but within striking distance. Then we kept battling. We had it under 10 then a flurry of activity. We hit a few free throws and inched closer. They would hit a shot and we would hit one then in the last minute and a half we hit three 3 point shots and had it within 3. We had to foul in the last 10 seconds and they took the lead 72-67 and sealed it. We battled hard but it was too big of a hole early and we just couldn't dig out of it. 

I told the girls afterward that I was proud of their efforts and then I told them we were in the medal round. Not sure they were happy or just tired. But regardless, we play Australia on Friday at 6. A monumental task but why not battle on and see what we can do. We will be guaranteed a top 8 finish so that is a good step. 

Tomorrow we have a sleep in for the girls but not us. There is video to be done and prep work to discuss. I have opted to not have practice tomorrow. Let the girls sleep and rest. We will have meetings with each player and then a team meeting for film and strategy later. 

I know I probably missed something from today but my head is spinning right now. It is time to sleep and get rested up for film and prep tomorrow.

Until then...........