Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Season Is Finished
The season is officially over for us. We played well towards the end of the year, but ended up losing in a close Game 5 in the playoffs. It was a great year here in Brazil. My wife and I truly loved it. The weather was unbelievable, the culture was fun, food was tasty, and we saw so many amazing things during our half a year stay in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. We will definitely miss living here but are also excited to go home to see our family and friends once again. I will post some more pictures later on, but for now I say goodbye from Brazil!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Series is now at 2-1
We picked up a big win to go ahead in the series 2-1. Our last game was a tough one as both teams played very well. It was back and forth the whole way through. We were even down with a couple minutes to go, but pulled ahead to win 80-78. We are at home on Sunday, April 17 looking to close out the series.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Roof Is On Fire....Literally
Playoffs began well for our team as we won the first game of the best of 5 series against Joinville. We played well and were up by 15 points at halftime. Joinville came back strong but we held them off to win the game 83-81. I ended the night shooting 100% from the field which felt good. Our second game was on the road. Both teams were playing tough playoff defense and neither team could get going offensively. We went into halftime down 27-33. After our halftime talk in the lockerroom, we came back out onto the court where the arena was filled with smoke. It smelled as though the building was on fire. We looked up and realized that it actually was!! One of the lights had overheated and caught fire. I found it kind of amussing though that nobody left there seat. Everyone simply stayed seated and watch as the roof burned. No fire alarm, and no sprinklers went off. After about 30 minutes of waiting (apparentely for the fire to run its course), the fire department showed up. They didn't feel like it was necessary to put the fire out though and said it would eventually burn out. Sparks were falling to the floor and the entire building was filled with a thick metallic smoke. It finally did burn out and a couple short minutes later we started the second half. It seemed a bit dangerous to play underneath a light fixture that was just sparking and emitting a 3 foot fire, but play resumed anyway. The second half started well for the home team as they made a few 3's and got the crowd behind them. Add after a few technical fouls from our team for complaining about calls and no-calls, we found ourselves down 15 with 5 minutes to go. We gave a final push to draw within 4 with just over a minute to go, but after being forced to foul, Joinville made their free throws and we lost by a final score of 77-84. The series is at 1-1. Two more wins needed to advance.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
End of Regular Season
We just finished out our regular season. After getting on a winning streak and beating some very good teams, we ended up dropping a few in a row to put us back in the middle of the league standings. Our last weekend of regular season games was a good one though as we went on the road and played very well. This included a 28 point road win where we looked very good as a team. So now on to post-season play. There are 15 teams in our league and the top 12 made playoffs. Like I said before, we ended the regular season in the middle of the league with a record around .500. The playoffs will be interesting as we have seen each team play well against any other given apponent. We, for instance, have beaten the top 3 seeds but also have had tough games against the lower seeds. So it will come down to whoever plays well. We will see...
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
5 Straight Wins
We just picked up another road win today. That makes it 5 straight wins to bring us to 11-7 overall. This game was tough though. We were down the entire game and dug in on defense to give us a chance to win in the end: 73-71. I know earlier I said I was only going to update my blog every few weeks, and since I said that the other day I have already posted 3 times. So, I guess that means I will post updates when I have a chance but don't be surprised if I go 2 or 3 weeks between postings. Well, I better go now...we have the afternoon off here in Vitoria and I am looking out my window at the beach calling my name....Ciao!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Road Trip

OK... I know I said I wasn't going to update my blog for a while yet, but we are on a road trip and I have some free time so I thought I would write a quick update on our last couple games. We are playing well together at the moment as we have piled together a nice little 4 game winning streak. We are now standing with 10 wins and 7 losses. We are in Vitoria this weekend staying on the beach. As you can see from the photo it is a beautiful scenic place. Our hotel is in the bottom right side of the picture. It is fun to be traveling and seeing different unique cities like this while playing ball. I feel blessed. I just need to be careful...my Minnesota skin can't handle too much of this Brazilian summer sun!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Update
Hey everyone. I know it has been a long time since I have updated you all on here, but I decided that I wouldn't make as many frequent posts this year. I still am going to be posting updates occasionally but likely it will be every few weeks now. If you want more frequent notes on how things are going down here in the Southern Hemisphere then you can always write me a message and I will get back to you through Facebook or e-mail.
Things are still going great down here. We are loving the living lifestyle and I gotta say...it is nice to miss the deep freeze that is taking over the Midwest. I actaully am not only just in warmer weather, but I actually am skipping winter all-together. (If you didn't catch on yet: It is summer down here while it is winter back home).
But that is enough about the weather. You have already seen photos on my last posts. The basketball is going pretty well too. Our team has some great talent, but we are having some ups and downs. At times we are playing really well and winning, and others we just can't find rhythm to get the W's. But we are coming off two great wins in a row and looking to keep that momentum going.
Just last night we played against one of the better teams in our league and had a battle down to the wire. We ended up going to two overtimes after both teams hit tough shots to keep the game going. But we showed great character and chemistry as we stuck it out to win by 4 after 50 hard fought minutes. I ended with a season high in rebounds, 14, to go along with my 17 points. We had several guys step up big though on both ends of the court to get a great team win.
We have now collected 8 wins and 7 losses. Like I said, we are up and down and looking for some consistancy, but I am enjoying myself both on and off the court. I have great teammates to hang with in the gym and a great wife to spend time with at home afterwards.
I hope all of you back home stay warm, and don't worry...spring is around the corner.
God bless!
Things are still going great down here. We are loving the living lifestyle and I gotta say...it is nice to miss the deep freeze that is taking over the Midwest. I actaully am not only just in warmer weather, but I actually am skipping winter all-together. (If you didn't catch on yet: It is summer down here while it is winter back home).
But that is enough about the weather. You have already seen photos on my last posts. The basketball is going pretty well too. Our team has some great talent, but we are having some ups and downs. At times we are playing really well and winning, and others we just can't find rhythm to get the W's. But we are coming off two great wins in a row and looking to keep that momentum going.
Just last night we played against one of the better teams in our league and had a battle down to the wire. We ended up going to two overtimes after both teams hit tough shots to keep the game going. But we showed great character and chemistry as we stuck it out to win by 4 after 50 hard fought minutes. I ended with a season high in rebounds, 14, to go along with my 17 points. We had several guys step up big though on both ends of the court to get a great team win.
We have now collected 8 wins and 7 losses. Like I said, we are up and down and looking for some consistancy, but I am enjoying myself both on and off the court. I have great teammates to hang with in the gym and a great wife to spend time with at home afterwards.
I hope all of you back home stay warm, and don't worry...spring is around the corner.
God bless!
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