Day 3 is in the books
Had a great sleep last night and got up around 7AM. Spent a
little bit of time checking emails and reading newspapers online. A quick
shower afterwards and it was on to breakfast.
Had an omelet with cheese, mushrooms and corn. A unique
combination but it was good. Had some bacon, a few hash browns and a slice of
nice bread they have here. Every meal has what they call “grilled chicken
lumps” so you have to try a few of those. I also picked up what was called
“chef’s special”, a small rice ball with who knows what inside. I bit into it
and it had the consistency almost of a meat ball but it wasn’t a meat ball.
Instantaneously I wanted to throw up. I spit it out as quick as I could but the
taste lingered. It was ROTTEN. Some kind of minced together fish ball but
tasted like it had sat in the sun for 3 days. I shudder thinking about it.
We departed at 9:15 for our 10AM practice. Traffic is crazy
so it takes a while to get there. We had a very good session and the girls were
very “dialed in” so we were quite pleased with it. I forgot to mention that is
was sunny when we woke up this morning so that meant HEAT. When we stepped
outside to the bus on the way to the gym and on the way back, we were greeted
with stifling heat. What else is new I guess. On the bus we asked our
interpreter if it was going to rain and she said no. Jeff said to her that he
thought it would rain at 3pm so she checked the forecast and sure enough it
said rain at 3pm.
Lunch was at 12:30 today with onion soup, pasta, chicken
lumps, rice and a breaded fish bite. Like nuggets almost. There were a bunch of
other things but I didn’t venture too far off the path after the morning chef
special. Each meal they ask us if we want one of 2 choices for an entrée. I chose
grilled chicken in Japanese style sauce. It was a nice piece of grill chicken
with a unique seasoning and then a white type sauce.
After lunch I had a quick shower to get ready for the game.
We hit the bus at 2:45 for our 5 pm game. We arrived at the gym at 3:30 and
watched almost 3 quarters of Japan vs Korea – our next two opponents.
We started the game with a bang. We were playing smoothly
and scoring well. Our defense wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad. We were
rebounding like crazy and had a 29-15 first quarter lead. The 2nd quarter
wasn’t so great as they jumped all over us forcing turnovers throughout the
first part of the quarter. Some turnovers were legit turnovers while others
were simply bad mistakes by us. We eventually settled down and took the lead
42-28 at half. I talked about some adjustments with the girls at half and hoped
it would be a great 2nd half. It wasn’t. We played almost even with
them and then they started pressuring us more and we were turning the ball over
even more. They cut the lead down and I believe it was 8 at the 3rd quarter
break. In the 4th we went up a bit again then they came storming
back. They began playing zone defense and for a bit it had us stifled. We were
turning it over while our defense wasn’t doing us any favours. They cut the
lead to 2 at one point but we built it back up to 8 or 10 and managed to steal
a 70-63 win. A really nice feeling to get the win and it was good that we were pushed
so hard. We probably could have won by 20 or more but that wouldn’t have given
us the lessons we got today.
Following the game we had opening ceremonies which was very quick and a nice touch to the tournament. Following it I was whisked away to the media room. I figured it would be a reporter asking questions. Nope. Since the game was on TV here (I was miked up for the game) , apparently it is a big deal. I walked into the media room with a few of the players and there was a big table set up with cameras and reporters in the room. I had to take questions from different reporters and use the interpreter to help. I have been involved with reporters and media for a long time but never anything like this.
Tomorrow we play at 3pm vs Japan and they will be
a very tough opponent. It will be interesting to see how the girls come back in
that game.
Once we arrived back at the hotel we headed to dinner and it
was almost the exact same as lunch. Good but disappointing. As coaches always
do, we just watched film of Japan to get ready for them. And now I am
completely exhausted. I will probably be asleep 10 minutes after this post.
Until tomorrow……
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