Swiss Cup and Meyrin

Ok. So I know it has been a long time since my last post but there has been a ton of things going on and I hope to fill you in soon. Since my last post we have played 3 games, had 3 different sets of visitors, made an awesome trip to Zurich, changed our head coach and picked up our first LNBA road win. It has been pretty hectic. I'll start off though with the Swiss Cup.

The Swiss Cup is a tournament with all of the basketball teams in Switzerland. It is a one game elimination format. Switzerland actually has 4 different leagues and the lower leagues have been playing in the Swiss Cup for two months now. Those teams battled it out to have a chance to play against the LNBA (top Swiss league) teams. So, for our first round Swiss Cup game we drew Swiss Central Basket located in Lucerne, Switzerland. They are a League B team and one of the better ones at that. The game was supposed to be an easy win for us so we played the game in Lucerne.

It actually was an easy win. It was kind of nice to watch the game from the bench for a little bit. Ross played a cool 32 minutes and put in work. Vinz also played very well. One complaint I had with the game though was the officiating. By far the worst I have ever seen in Switzerland. I was called for 3 travels after not having 1 in our first 4 games. It was unbelievable. Oh well, I guess the refs felt sorry for them since we whooped up on them pretty bad.

It seemed like we were on a roll and prepared for Meyrin on Sunday. That statement couldn't have been farther from the truth. This was a game we were supposed to win. Meyrin was coming into the game with zero wins and sitting in last place. We were also playing the game at home. Well, the game was kind of at home. It was in Massagno but not at the gym we usually play at. We couldn't play in Palamondo because there was a hockey tournament going on there for the weekend and apparently they has priority. The gym was pretty awful and kind of embarrassing to be playing a "professional" basketball game in. I'm pretty sure that the gym at Mohawk Elementary School in Macomb, Michigan is nicer. Besides the point, we were supposed to win the game.

An added bonus for me was playing against my friend and former teammate Karon Bradley. I played with Karon for 2 years at Marquette before he transferred to Wichita State where he had a successful college career. Playing against a friend is a bit of a strange experience. You want to beat them so you can hold the bragging rights over them. So, I wanted to beat Karon for this reason.

We started the game strong. Our offense was scorching but the same couldn't be said for our defense. Dan came out and had 14 points in the 1st quarter. He was perfect and every shot was falling. All of their shots were falling too. It was pathetic. They were driving at will and nailing 3 pointers. We would have help but there would be no secondary help. The game continued like this for 3 more quarters and we lost 95-87. It was bad. I ended the game with 15 and 11 but I would have rather had the win.

Apparently our coach would have rather had the win too because on Monday after the game he quit the team. He felt that he had lost control over the team and it was a lost cause. I can understand what he was saying but he never tried to re gain control. I really like Coach Fabrizio but I know he is not professional and if he felt like it was too much then I can understand that.

We do have a new coach but I will talk about that in another post.

I really wanted to take a picture with Karon after the game. It's not very often that you play against a friend and former teammate so I wanted to capture the moment a little bit. This is after the game. Notice the huge smile on my face after the defeat. Maybe we will be able to take a better one later but if not then I will have to settle for this. Oh well.

Until next time.........