My Life Overseas

We were on the road this week in Brindisi. It is the farthest road trip of the year, but we flew so it wasn't the longest trip. Brindisi is in the southeast corner of Italy right next to the Sea. They have unbelievable fans...it was a packed house and they were filling up the gym well before we got there.

I should also mention that we signed a new American player last week to our team...Joseph Forte. Forte played at UNC a few years back before being drafted to the NBA. After a couple years in the NBA he came over to Italy to play abroad. I have gotten a chance to get to know him and he should be a great addition to our team.

The game was well played throughout. Our largest lead came in the 3rd quarter when we were up by 15 or so. Brinidisi answered though with some streaky three point shooting. Before we knew it, the game was tied. The 4th quarter went back and forth until we found ourselves down 3 with about 40 seconds to go. We got an important stop on defense to set up our offense. Forte drove and kicked the ball out to me for three. When I let it go...I 'knew' it was going in...but it rimmed in and out a couple times before somehow falling back off the rim. We were still down three and needed another defensive stop. We collected the rebound so we had another shot at it still down by three with 19 seconds left. Joe had the ball and shot a pull up three for the tie, but it hit back rim and came off. There was a scramble for the ball and I got my hands on it and tipped it back out to a teammate. Brindisi then fouled us on the floor with 3 seconds to go because we were not yet in the bonus. We had a sideline inbounds with 3 seconds left. We got the ball in to Forte at the top of the three point arc...he shot faked and threw up an off balanced shot for the tie. The ball looked like it was going in, but similar to my shot, rimmed in and out as time expired. Another tough loss to swallow. It was a well played game by both teams.