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The Kings

The Sydney Kings came to town this past weekend coming fresh off of an ass whipping to the Hunter Pirates. The Kings are always a good game because they are the defending Champions of the league and you always bring your “A” game. The Kings started there week off with some ass kicking of there own by defeating the Hunter Pirates in Sydney by 40+ points. So coming into out game we knew that they were in top form ready to show us why they are the three time champions. Going into a game like this is always nerve racking because you don’t know which Sydney team is going to show up let along what guys on our team might have an off night but that is life and basketball. The game started with us being introduced Chicago Bulls style which might be a regular thing this year but takes a long time to call everyone’s name out so it can get a little annoying at times. Once we got out there the crowd was bigger the pre-game entertainment was exciting and adrenaline was pumping. We knew that in order to win this game we had to come out with some intensity and set the tone of the game. We did just that with everyone following Mr.Coopers physical presence that is if you call physical with Coop’s because he is rail thin but he managed to use all of his whopping 90 kg’s to rattle CJ Bruton’s bell within the first minute of the game. This helped us erupt to a 16-0 lead before the Sydney Kings could adjust they were out of the game from start to finish. The big guns for the Kings had an off night and for reasons unknown but some might think it was our defense but I think they just had an off night. Before you start bagging me I want to add that we aren’t known for our defense but we are playing better team defense this year compared to previous seasons. I don’t know why this but some of us might have read a few books about getting out of the first round of the playoffs for once..lol

Now I must tell you about my Paul Ree’s temper tantrum at poor little Ozzie. The reason I call it the Big Fella temper is because just a week before Big Fella had yelled at me for not looking at him when subbing him out of a game in Townsville. Now it was my turn to have the temper. It was during the second half of the Kings game and I was signaling to SJ ( Asst Coach) to take me out of the game because I was tired as shit. I must have been trying to get his attention for 30 seconds and finally I did so he got me out of the game. I quickly found a seat next to Ozzie and was out of breath. Ozzie then asked me what was wrong and I turned to him and exploded just like big fella did the previous week. He just wanted to know why my leg was hurting and before I realized it I was Big Fella Jr. I sat down and then came back to reality quickly apologizing to Oz during the next time out. I told him that I didn’t know what I said because I was to consumed with the game and then told him that I ever explode like that again to please hit me.. haha

Now this week is a big game for us as we play the Taipans and a chance for them to get revenge. They probably are mad that they stayed an hour or so after the game waiting for us to come back after I hit the game winning shot a few weeks back. I can assure you one thing and that it’s going to be one hell of a game so get off of you butts and come support and Boo Cat and the Taipans.

One more thing that I want to add is that I have opened an online store for you to purchase personally signed jerseys (game worn), signed shoes and more to come. The link is www.d-rych.com/store.html I use paypal and it is secure and your credit card is kept confidential from me and paypal. Any questions please email me at dustyrychart@yahoo.com

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Deja-vu

Starting the week fresh off of a win against the Sydney Kings meant that we were due to have a rematch with the Cairns Taipans. This usually wouldn’t be a big deal but it has elevated to a great height because of the controversy surrounding the previous time we had played them in Cairns. If you have been on another planet for the last month or so when we played Cairns in Cairns Sept. 18th this is what happened, we beat them by 1 point with a instrumental buzzer beating jump shot by yours truly. The shot happened as follows; the ball left my hands as the shot clock expired and very shortly the game clock screamed as well giving us the last second game winner. That game was called game over win Adelaide but the Taipans thought differently and figured that there should be another .7 seconds remaining in the game for a chance to win but didn’t get their way. So in our second meeting with them it was going to be a battle from start to finish because I think that they have bone to pick with us or maybe just Reesy.

This is a huge game for us because as of now we are sitting pretty nice on top of the ladder and if we happen to lose that would put us in a little bit of a hole. In the back of our minds we knew that Cairns wanted revenge and teams tend to play harder, stronger and smarter when they want revenge. I was a little more nervous than usual but that tends to leave the body once the ball is jumped so that quickly left and the nerves calmed. As a player you can tell what kind of night it will be from the first minute by the signs that your body gives you. Sometimes I feel fatigued within the first few minutes of the game resulting in poor stamina and mental fatigue but this night I felt like I had enough energy to run a marathon. Too bad that didn’t result in better free throw shooting because tonight I couldn’t hit the ocean if I wanted to. This is weird for me because I usually shot at 70% and before I came to Australia I was a 80% free throw shooter so I don’t know if I should blame the Southern Hemisphere or myself for the poor performances from the line. I sit before and after practice shooting free throws usually making around 90% of them making me feel like I can rule the world but for some reason I can’t make that overlap into the games. I think that I am thinking way too much at the line and should just clear my head and shoot the ball. What is the worst thing that is going to happen? I could shoot an air ball and get a good (maybe much needed laugh from the crowd) easing the tension a little. Well I guess time will tell what my problem is but for now I am just going to try and clear the head while I shoot free throws. Now back to the game as it seemed that I wasn’t the only player missing free throws and lay-ups. Not only did I struggle making anything close to the basket but my fellow teammate Diddy had the mild case of missing lay-up as well so that made me feel a little better but you never want to see anyone especially yourself missing 2 foot gimme shots. I think that as been the tale of our team this year as we never really get on the same page working together which is scary because we are still winning games. I think we will gel better as the year goes on and that will only make us get better and tougher to beat.

Now back to the game and Melvin Thomas’s anger management problems resulting in a nice two arm shiver to Big Fella’s throat. This is ironic because Big Fella is usually on the other side of the elbow throwing but not this night as Melvin decided to square him up. Melvin has always like to be the tough guy and throwing elbows not really understanding why maybe to intimidate someone but it seems to never work. I know I have been on the receiving end of a few but it really doesn’t faze me too much but I guess it got thrown at Big Fella’s head Saturday night. The game was physical all night as most teams try to play us like that but we just spread the court out and it is must tougher to defend us. The game started good as we got a little lead then quickly lost it for a minute or two before we made our run breaking out to a 15 point lead. I would say that we were sitting comfortable throughout most of the game until the 4th quarter then Cairns made their run. Closing the gap with some great shooting by Boodnikof, Mee and Cat finally showed up in the last quarter closing on us fast. As the game was going on I was thinking this can’t be happening again. Towards the end of the 4th we managed to blow the lead looking at a 4 point deficit. Cairns started to get momentum and take charge but to our credit we battled back to get the game within 3. This is where I wanted to kill myself for missing a point blank lay-up that Brett set me up with but the slipped out of the my hands. Finally got the game within 1 point but found ourselves without the ball with 17 seconds remaining. Darnell was bringing the ball up the court being closely guarded by Willie turning him from side to side. As we all know Darnell loves to put his defender on the hip and protect the ball and I knew that, so when Willie was turning Darnell I was thinking that I should try to blindside him. Well my hunch was right and when Darnell tried to reverse spin I quickly trapped him with Willie luckily as I dove on the ground for the ball Darnell tipped the ball out of my hands. I think that everyone in the Dome gasped for air and then when the ref pointed 36er’s ball it erupted and it set the table for another deja-vu experience. I couldn’t believe that this game was going to end in the same fashion as the last one! Brett started to bring the ball up and Phil had told me in the huddle if I wanted to set a screen for Brett that I should set it close to half court giving Brett enough room to create miracles. So as I was running up the Cairns guys didn’t double team Brett this time allowing him to drive all the way to the hoops for the game winning shot! The whole dome went nuts producing some ear piercing noise that probably threw Cat’s shot off at the end. Giving us yet another nail biting win!

I have footage of both Cairns game winners on www.d-rych.com and feel free to check out my online store at www.d-rych.com/store.html

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Hunted Down Tigers/Razorbacks

This past week has been very big for us and our fans beating the Tigers and Razorbacks propelling our record to 6-1 setting us at the top of the table. Coming into this week we knew that if we could come out of this week with a split that would be good but seeing that we did more than that is even better. The Tigers are coming into Adelaide fresh off of a loss and they won’t be very polite to us and same goes with the Razorbacks with a win or die situation.

The Tigers provide a serious match up problem for us as they have arguably the deepest and most talented team in the league this year. With the addition of Chris Anstey and a newly refreshed Rashard Tucker they look to be the title favorites in my eyes. They are coming off of a loss to the Sydney Kings a few days earlier and that is scary for us because a team with so much talent they sure don’t like to loss and were looking to improve at our expense. To out credit I don’t think that many people in the league thought we would find the 36er’s at the top of the ladder 5 rounds into the season but things have worked out good for us early or should I say very lucky? We have been very blessed to be winning games by as many as a single point and winning all of our close games which could have went either way. This game wasn’t any different as we clawed and fought our way to a double digit lead going into half-time. I have to mention the rim rattling dunk that I had to start off the game surprised me more than anyone! I didn’t expect the lane to open up that much and I just kept going and found myself above the rim for a dunk and that doesn’t happen everyday so I happen to have footage of it on my site so I encourage you all to take a look at it. Now back to the second half where we saw our lead diminish quickly and soon found ourselves behind an aggressive Tigers team. Going into the fourth down by 6 meant that we were right where we wanted to be. Both teams went back and fourth with some aggression at both ends of the floor resulting in very physical play. It came down the end like most games for us! With Willie hitting the three giving us the momentum that we were desperately looking for and Brett getting that charge with seconds on the clock sealed the victory for us once again winning the game by a whopping 2 points. This was a good win against a really good team giving us a good stepping stone for our next game Vs. the West Sydney Razorbacks.

West Sydney has been flagged with many injuries and losing their starting point guard Steve Markovich to Europe didn’t help them either. I don’t think that any of us has seen them play this year but one thing was certain that they are playing harder than ever for second year coach Mark Watkins. Playing teams that are struggling is tough but when they work their asses off makes it even more difficult. Teams like this have nothing to lose and everything to gain with their backs against the wall. Starting off of the season at the bottom of the ladder and if they don’t get a win or two soon they will find themselves in a big hole that they will find very hard to dig out of unless they have a gigantic shovel. The game started a bit sluggish for us in the 1st quarter trading baskets with WS until the 2nd when we finally broke out to a 10 point lead going into half time. A 10 point lead is decent advantage but for the 36er’s nothing is big enough as we managed to lose the lead again for the 4th straight game. I don’t know what it is but I think that we have to stop losing leads and winning games by a point. This game was about to end in the same way as the Tigers game did a few days earlier. West Sydney made their run in the 3rd and took the lead from us mid way through the 4th. As nothing went right for again this night I found myself short arming my shot and losing the handling on the ball many times. As a spectator it would look as if I was point shaving but I wasn’t I was just playing like shit again. Thank God we have Brett and Willie on our team because between those two you know that they will bail you out more times than not. Jacob was close to a triple double, Oz and Brad Hill picked up the slack nicely but it was Captain Bad Shirt that won the game for us again. With seconds remaining Brett had the ball at the top and just wore down the clock before he made his move. Brett faked one way and then went left spin to his right and then the lane gods opened the lane like Moses did the red sea and got a clear lane to the hoop giving us the pone point lead. We had only committed one foul in the 4th so we could manage to run down the clock by fouling and that is what we did. With less than 5 seconds left James Harvey got a good look at the hoop but missing it giving us yet another one point win! A win is a win in my book no matter how you get it!

One of the funniest things happened at the game to our assistant Coach Steve. We were getting screwed by the officials once again and Phil got up to have a talk with them. While this is going on SJ was sitting to my right and then he disappeared into the clear. I was thinking to myself what the hell just happened as it looked like someone had opened up a trap door and down he went. Then I looked over my shoulder and their poor old SJ was face all red on his back kicking like a turtle trying to place his feet on the ground. Yes you have guessed he feel flat on his ass as he reacted to a call that the officials made maybe a way of saying don’t mess with their calls or you will pay! Haha That gave us all a good laugh and hopefully they have it on tape and if they do look for the footage on www.d-rych.com . Another that happened to us while flying back we landed in Adelaide only to find ourselves sitting on the tarmac for an hour or so after landing due to a security breach at the airport. This didn’t make many happy especially since we were scheduled to do a promo at the new airport that day and showed up an hour and half late because of it. There is nothing more tiring than doing a promo after traveling all day because you are sore, tired and hungry after a day of it all.

Well that is it for now and hopefully I will have some more things to talk about next time. Next game is this Friday Vs. the Hawks at the Distinctive Homes Dome.

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Breakers Go Down at Home

This week’s game would see us match up with the red hot New Zealand Breakers at Trust Stadium in Auckland New Zealand. They are coming off of three straight wins and 2 straight at home so we knew that they would provide us with a huge challenge. They have been playing very hard lately and harder than they have ever played in the past so that is always dangerous. Traveling is always fun since this is an international flight meaning that we have a lot of time to think about the game in hand. One thing that has changed is our regular team manager Tony Rocca couldn’t make this road trip so we brought someone with a lot of experience on the bench and that man is Paul Bell. Now over the last couple of weeks we have been giving Roc a rough time because he has left stuff behind in the locker room and even left the jerseys on the baggage claim for three hours. Luckily Sydney has such a great luggage security and no one attempted to steal our uniforms. So as you can tell Belly has some huge shoes to fill but will manage to do the best that he can. Well here we all are waiting at the airport and poor Belly hasn’t lost the uniforms but has lost a player. Yup you guessed it he had everyone at the airport at the right time except Mr. Willie Farely who was fashionably late arriving to the airport giving us all some time to give Belly some shit. At least Roc wouldn’t forget the player’s ha-ha. Over all Belly did a good job filling for the Roc which resulted in a pretty entertaining game from us all.

The best and most annoying part of the game was this group of guys that were hired to sit behind our bench with cow bells, whistles, work sight cones and a telephone making noise behind us. This made it very difficult to hear what the hell Phil was trying to tell us but instead of distracting us it made us all pay more attention to Phil. Usually while Phil is talking you are busy getting water or wiping your face with the towel so you really don’t concentrate as hard as you should but since these tools behind us were making so much noise we all concentrated harder and it showed in the game. We started off hot and in full throttle not letting off the gas until half time. I think that we had a 30 point lead at half time but still wanted to prove to ourselves that we could put a team away for the first time all year. So we came out in the 3rd a little more motivated then before and it didn’t work. The Breakers came out a little more hungry cutting our lead from 30 to 20 with 6 min to go in the 3rd. We knew that this was their best effort and were tired resulting us in pulling back to a 26 point lead at 3 quarter time. This was all we needed running out to a 42 point lead allowing us to rest most of our guys. This meant that I got to rest for the final 8 minutes of the game. You would think that this was a good thing but it wasn’t because of the clowns that were sitting behind our bench. As soon as I sat down I started hearing the “Rychart you’re bald and you should hang with Cooper because he is bald and that you are both bald!” I thought it was pretty funny stuff but then they went a little over board personally attacking some of us with things about our families and sex. At one point during the game the SkySports Network camera man was throwing punches at them because he was trying to film the huddle and they got too noisy and in his was so he decided to throw a few punches. It was funny as hell and you couldn’t help yourself but laugh. Thank God the game went well for us about time that we all came to the game for once.

Some game notes: Cooper was going up to rebound a shot and Ben Pepper decided that he was hungry so he took a good chunk out of Coop’s head resulting in a few stitches. I have never seen a guy get cut more times on a basketball court than Coops! I don’t know if he has soft skin or is in the wrong place at the wrong time but it seems that someone is always making him bleed. Rich Melzer also had bad luck this night as he was hustling for a lose ball and cu this knee wide open to the bone on an advertising sign resulting in 20+ stitches himself.. Rich is from Minnesota and I caught up with him after the game which was good. Now we get a chance to play Brisbane this Sunday for the frist time since they came in here last year and shot us our of the playoffs. See ya at the game!

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Perth, New Zealand and West Sydney 2-1

The last couple of weeks have seen us come crashing back to earth and start another winning streak. The past few weeks have seen us beat the Breakers, West Sydney and lose to Perth. We have been playing a lot of ball lately which is resulting in lack of energy in practices and games. The first game that you could really tell that travel and time of year was taking its toll was the game in Perth. Perth was on a winning streak and looking good without big men Rogers and Burston. For some reason most teams without big men are doing better than they were with them so small ball is working at the moment. The thing with Perth is the physical style of play they like to use during the games that tend to frustrate guys. I really don’t mind a physical player but sometimes teams go over the line and the refs really don’t do anything at all and that gets frustrating. The Perth game showed how down we were because we turned the ball over a lot and didn’t hit the shots that we are used to making. Throughout the game Perth just wanted it more than us and out hustled and out played us the whole game. One thing that I don’t get is when they got up in the 4th they were all jumping around waving their hand like birds but more like idiots as if they won the championship. Nothing wrong with that but it gets to me when a team just rubs the win in and you can’t do anything about it. What can you do but get revenge when they come back to Adelaide. We had to take this loss like men and prepare for New Zealand a day later.

New Zealand is a team that is tough to play as well because they like to get into you and be physical which tends to be tough when you have no energy to start with. Another thing about playing them is getting the motivation to play your best. It is hard as a player to get up for a game against the bottom team in the league especially when you have zero energy. The start of this game was weird because the locker room is usually filled with energy and buzz but that wasn’t the case on this day. I don’t think that anyone said more than one word to each other prior to the game. Guys were looking like they had just got off of night shift and it showed. The game was a struggle to run up and down just for 30 seconds let alone for 48 minutes. Funny how that is because I felt like shit last year when I scored 40 and this time around I told myself that I was going to have a bad game and my mind didn’t want to listen. I hit a few easy shots and then the hoop seemed bigger and bigger soon everything that I was shooting went in. Before I knew it I looked up at the score board because I was that tired I wanted to see how many fouls I had. As I looked up I saw 12 points next to my name shocking myself not realizing that I had all but 2 of our first quarter points at that time. I wanted to get out of the game for a minute now and as I was motioning towards the bench I received the ball at the top of the key. I was so tired that I didn’t know what to do so I looked around to pass it but no one was moving or even open so I thought what the hell launching the first of my two threes of the game. Swish!!!! The ball went in to my amazement because I could barely lift my arms and couldn’t see the rim at the time either. Phil quickly took me out the game and the rest is history. Up next was West Sydney coming fresh off of a 50 point victory over the Breakers.

With West Sydney coming in with a winning streak and a revamped team meant that we were in for a tough battle. These guys like to play physical as well trying to frustrate most teams to secure victory. The game started just like the New Zealand game but we managed to have a little more energy even with our captain having a bad case of gastro. I think that when you know that you are going into a game without a guy at 100% you want to pick that slack up and that is what we did. We got out of the gate smoking and I even hit a three and came rolling down the lane for a thunderous dunk over Reese Carter… Pictures of this dunk are on my chat. After that dunk it was all down hill for me as I missed shots and free throws again. I will figure this one out sooner or later but man is it frustrating! We won and that is all that matters.. Now I am off to bed and we are off to Wollongong tomorrow and Melbourne on the weekend.

Wish us luck!

p.s. Sorry about the spelling and the lack of proof reading but it is late and I have to get some sleep.

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Tigers Claw us/Crocs Go Down

We have hit the midway point in the season and I think that it is starting to show with players getting injuries and sickness. After we had our 9 game winning streak snapped by the Perth Wildcats it has been up and down since then losing our share of games. Recently we lost to the Melbourne Tigers then turning that around beating the Townsville Crocs was a tale of two completely different stories. The Tigers came out with something to prove since they felt they got robbed at the Dome a month earlier when we beat them by 2 points with a few controversial calls going against then in the final seconds. It was time for revenge but before they could get into us they presented Andrew and Lindsay Gaze with a formal goodbye and thanks while retiring Andrew’s Jersey to the rafters. This has been the second time in a year we happen to play the Tigers while presenting Andrew with an emotional milestone or retirement ceremony. It’s starting to seem that they do this on purpose to us so that they get more emotion and energy to start the games but that is just my theory. Back to the game and boy did the Tigers come out blazing grabbing every lose ball and out working us all over the floor. This game was the worst defensive game that we have played all year as a group. No matter who had the ball they were driving to the lane scoring or either dishing it for an assist. We were just pathetic which was embarrassing as player and for our fans that made the game. The game was physical and even got a little our of hand when Chris Anstey threw the ball at Paul Rees head. This was the funniest thing that I have ever saw but was un-called for by Anstey. Rumors that I hear tell me that Chris has hated Big Fella since the day when he rolled over Brett Wheelers knee a few years ago when the Sixers where playing the Giants. He seems to think that that ruined Brett’s career and has been out to get Big Fella and did it this night by throwing the best falcon I have seen at Ree’s. A falcon is what we call a ball that hits your head hard that you don’t see coming. I don’t think that many players or refs like Big Fella as he has a bad rep in the league but when this happened they weren’t going to call any kind of foul or un-sportsman like conduct. O well back to the game as tempers cooled down we found ourselves down by as many as 20 points. We fought back but didn’t fight hard enough losing the game by 13 points. The game was ugly and really tested what we would do as a team while getting pumped like this. A lot of teams would just lay back and take the lose but I know the guys were really pissed at the way we have been playing over the last couple of games and knew we had to pick it up to regain our previous form. Up next the Crocs

The Crocs were coming to town riding on a one game winning streak! You might say that is no big deal but for them it was because they had previously lost 9 in row. The days leading up to the game saw us prepare with the two most intense practices that I have been apart since being in Adelaide. Monday and Tuesday’s practices guys came into the locker without joking around or the same humor that we have had all year and you could tell that it meant business once you stepped onto the court. Everyone came with their “A” game and practice was quick and intense proving to me that we have a great bunch of guys that hate losing and wanted to come out and totally destroy the Crocs. Well that is what happened on Wednesday night! We came out with energy and it showed from the start with our defense resulting in a nice 20 point lead going into half time. The lead was generated mainly form our defense and we knew that the Crocs would make a run and that’s what happened. Starting the 3rd quarter rusty and lackadaisical the Crocs quickly took advantage. They went on a 21-3 run putting us back on our heals making it an interesting game. I don’t think that I have ever got my shot blocked as many times as I did that night. I think that Townsville had 10 blocks as a team and at least 9 of them on me. I was getting so frustrated inside but couldn’t do anything about it and I seriously think that playing a year straight is taking its toll on me. I am feeling a little more rested but still not as good as they should be hopefully that will come around with proper rest. Even after all my shots that got blocked we still managed to win giving us bragging rights over Scott Ninnis.

I have been trying to do more things than sitting at home staring at the computer screen being bored and busy at the same time so I decided to make it out to a concert tonight. I went to the John Fogerty Concert tonight it was great! Some of you might wonder why I would want to go well when I was in college I had a teammate that would always invite us around for drinks and a bbq while playing old school tunes such as CCR, The Eagles and more so this brought back memories tonight. I also made it down to the beach today for the first time all year and it was very refreshing to sit in the water relaxing while the sun tears my skin away. I must say that I had around 100 flies sitting on my head which was very irritating but I seemed to manage. I hope to get out more this summer more than I have in the past but it has to be sunny or it won’t happen. Well that is it from my point of view and I hope that everyone enjoyed the soccer last night! It was pretty exciting in town and the buzz was just amazing!

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Someone’s streak has to end!

Yes I know it has been awhile since I last updated the journal but that’s what happens when you start college courses again so I apologize now for my laziness. The last few weeks have seen us beat Perth and Melbourne at home and lose like a bunch of oldies with no heart against Brisbane in between the two wins. I have to say that the Brisbane game was our worst game of the year continuing the weak play on the road. Everyone asks me why is it that you guys play so bad on the road? Well if we knew the answer to this we wouldn’t play so bad would we now? I am just being sarcastic. Many of us think about that question all the time and I have come to one conclusion. First off most teams play worse on the road unless you are the Sydney Kings so please don’t worry too much. On the road it is totally different situation than most of you all think. Most people think that it is great that we get to travel to all these places and see Australia. Well yeah it would be great if we actually got to see more than the airports, Hotel and Arena that we play in but we don’t. Most away travel consist of hours cramped into a plane and for most the population you don’t understand what it is like to be a big guy both tall and large resulting in some uncomfortable travel. Then you have to figure how much being on the road is different to you regular home routine. For instance at home you never eat as well as you do on the road. Post game at home would consist of chicken and pasta for me but on the road you get so many choices and tend to over eat. Which might be good but in our case it isn’t that great. Then post games at home are little and too the point but on the road you get more and more food then to top that all off you get as much ice cream as you want. Yeah Yeah I know you are all thinking that this is heaven which it is but it totally goes against the regular routine. Plus all day before the game on the road you find yourself just sitting in the room watching and waiting for the hours to go by. You end up sleeping all day long because you don’t want to go walking around and wasting valuable energy. Yes I know I am throwing around a lot of excuses but just trying to shed some light on the reason we play so badly on the road! You could sit here all day and night trying to analyze the road situation and come up with nothing at all. It’s like thinking how god made the earth! You will never figure it out.

Now back to talking the season! This year we are off to a great start sitting 2nd on the ladder but it seems like we are struggling and in last place. This year has been filled with many highs and lows for both individuals and team. As a player this has been the most up and down season that I have ever had and it is frustrating. One game I will be very productive and the next I can’t do shit. Very up and down with minutes as well which is a result of being over saturated at the forward position and seeing that everyone is playing great basketball competing for time. This trend seems to follow with the rest of the guys as well. I think that we have so much depth which is something that I am used to. Oscar, Jacob and Nashy are playing some of the best ball of their lives and big fella has been stepping it up not only when he plays Anstey but his overall game. Willie and Brett are their usual incredible players. It is a good sign that we have this much talent but we still have only managed to get it all working on one night and it was against the Tigers a few weeks ago. You could rack your brain for hours again figuring this one out but I think that guys are maturing and finding new roles on the team which will take time to adjust. I hope that by the end of the season we have figures out what is the best recipe among players and gel like a championship team will and should.

Enough of me whining bring on the Kinds this weekend! This is just like a heavy weight title fight with Sydney with their 13 game winning streak Vs. our 11 game home winning streak. This game should be very entertaining as both teams are playing some good ball at the moment. We had beat Sydney earlier this year but as every person knows they won’t go down so easy this time and they have added a few players since. Ian Crosswhite and a healthy Luke Kendyl are back adding even more depth to this loaded team. If we can contain the pre-season fav for MVp CJ Bruton we have a great chance of winning and going 2 up on them for the season series. It is going to take a lot of work but I think if we all come with our best games this can be done.

Well I am going to work on getting some more video high lights on the site. Until next time.

Visit www.BearBasketballAustralia.com.au for camp information

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3 Straight losses and it could be more

It has been a few weeks since I last posted again and I blame that on the studying that I have to do to keep getting good grades so I am sorry. When I last posted I mentioned that two winning streaks were on the line our home game winning streak and the Kinds overall winning streak. Well as you all probably know we lost the game to the Kings pretty badly and just got out hustled, out played and out classed by a better Kings team. The Kings are the only team in the league that can play their whole bench and really have no weakness simply because they play as a team and some great defense. Goorgian has been known for his teams lack of flare but they do one thing better than anyone else is they play hard tough defense all game long. The game started off good as both teams played tough and physical but we soon fell short. Being down to the Kings at half time by 15 or so we knew that it would be tough to get back in the game but not impossible. This game really pissed me off because it was the second straight game that I was in foul trouble again. I got three quick fouls in the first quarter and really was never in the game at all. I started the third and quickly got my 4th and 5th fouls seeing myself thrown back down at the end of the bench again. This kills me to sit there and watch helplessly while we are getting our asses kicked but I couldn’t do anything about it. I desperately was waiting for another chance in the 4th to try to turn things around for us. The type of game I play is really something of craft because I have to figure out ways to get things done with the lack of athletic ability that most people have that I don’t so little things that I do have to be sneaky. I have been playing for a long time and have never had a problem until this year. Back to the 4th quarter and no sooner than a few minutes into the game I got a foul for doing nothing at all at least I thought I didn’t but the refs always catch me. So frustrated I slammed the ball on the ground and received my first technical foul in my life. I have never been so frustrated at the refs, game and myself in my whole life! So I would like to forget that game!

The Hawks on the road is always going to be tough and that is who we had following the Kings game and then we would follow that up against Hunter the night after in Adelaide. Going into the Hawks Nest we wanted to prove that we could be tough on the road and that is what we set out to do. We started the game pretty even and eventually pulled ahead by 15 but quickly lost that lead going into half time up by 7 or so. We felt pretty good that we were able to get up on the Hawks at home but knew there was another half to play. We as you would know it we lost the lead within minutes of the 3rd and it was a tight game all the way to the end. The one good thing about this game is that we played as a team and helped each other out. The game was tied with 45 seconds remaining but we ended up losing this one at the expense of not boxing out at the end and not executing on offense. It was disappointing that we lost but we also lost while putting up a great fight so we knew we gave it our best. Once the game was over we quickly went to the hotel and headed for Sydney so we could stay over and not have to drive in the mourning and the theory was that this would give us more sleep. I wish that I could have slept that night because when we lose I cant sleep for hours after a game and this night was no exception as I didn’t get to sleep until 5 am and had to wake up at 8 for the flight home to play the Pirates.

With no sleep and less energy than a 99 year old I was feeling like shit coming into the game with Hunter on Saturday night at the dome. I knew we were in for a long night during warm-ups because we looked dead tired and the crowd wasn’t energetic either. In my days when you see your teammates struggling during warm-ups you know that you are in for a long night. This night was no different as we started the game out with turnover after turnover. I think we didn’t score until the 8 minute mark in the game which had us in being down and I don’t think we took the lead more than 4 times the whole game. This was the worst game that I have ever been apart and never want to be in a game like it again. We just were out played, hustled and muscled the whole time and looked like some passionless players out there. Losing to them meant that we have lost 3 in a row and now have the Tigers and Kings on the road this coming week so things don’t get any easier for us.

We need to start playing like we did at the beginning of the season and play with some passion and heart helping each other out on defense and offense to win games. We aren’t the tallest or most talented team in the league so in order for us to win we have to play as a team and help each other to win games. I hope by this time next week I can say we got two wins but that is going to be the most difficult task of the year.

>Well I got to pack for the road trip! Have a great Christmas and New Year

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Losing Streak is over! Thank You!

Well again it has been awhile since my last journal entry but I have been extremely busy with my online class. I usually am so sick and tired of the computer by the time I can really sit down and give a good entry. So here I am just finished for the week and needed to get this done now or it wont happen.

Firstly I would like to talk about the All-Star game reflecting back on the events that went on. Well let’s just say that it was better organized than the one in Townsville last year simply because we didn’t have to get to the airport at 5 am. The All-Star game is a great time to showcase the best players in the NBL but in the middle of the season and over Christmas break is just bad timing in my book. We had previously been on the road just getting the chance to come home for a few days before X-Mas and then you have to leave on the 26th to play in a game that no one try’s in makes you frustrated. I figure since I have deserved the right to be the starter and in such a prestigious game that you should play hard simply for pride. It was very frustrating especially on the World team that no one really cared enough to give a solid effort. I know that we don’t get paid to do things like this but you have to realize that people pay to see a decent game not players giving away easy lay-ups and ally-opps! There was something on the line that night and it was around 20,000 Velocity Rewards points per person that would get you a round trip anywhere in Australia for free! Now isn’t that enough incentive to at least give 80% effort? I don’t know if I was raised differently to others but I want to win no matter if we get paid or not! It hurts inside when we play in a game that is supposed to be the best Aussies/Imports and no one really cares! Why play at all then? Well enough about the effort of the game.

I felt that the dunk contest was very entertaining from where I was sitting. I don’t know what it looked like on TV but Eve from New Zealand put on a show! He did some dunks that you see in the NBA and if you were not impressed with what he had to offer than I don’t know what else you can do. He did two between the legs dunks and jumped over a few people stretching out flying through the air like a bird. For all of you that say that he can’t and doesn’t have any skills as a basketball player let me tell you otherwise. I got the chance to play with Eve during my time in New Zealand and he is very skilled player. At only 19 he had just arrived back from America where he had played his junior and senior year of high school in Utah. He never really got the chance to play much in our team because we had such a veteran squad but he does have a good shot to go along with a good attitude and work ethic. New Zealand might be onto something with him if he can gain some weight and mature under Breakers coaches. If he never pans out as a player he has a nice flat screen TV to show his children and children’s children that he once could jump and won the dunk contest. I know most of us hate the Sydney Kings but what happened to Rolen Roberts is just terrible. You don’t wish a season ending injury on anyone and this might turn out to be a career ending one as well. He totally tore his pec and shoulder ligaments which will be extremely difficult to recover from. I wish him a speedy recovery and hope that his career isn’t over.

I hope that everyone has had a great and safe Holiday season so far! I know that I have had a nice relaxing time enjoying the Holiday spirit. New Years saw us break our 5 game losing streak even if it was not the most entertaining to watch but a win is a win. We had been focusing on a lot of defense recently at practice trying to establish more communication and helping out teammates. Our recent form has seen us lose some confidence which really shows in out games and team defense. When things are the beginning of the season were going as well as it was our team defense was great and confidence was up. Since we had lost a few I think that some of us started to lose confidence and lack of team defense. The thing that I liked about our game on New Years Eve is that we played a game bad and still won. When things don’t go your way and shots don’t fall good teams find a way to win and that is what we did. Hopefully that will fill everyone up with confidence and see us make a nice strong run at the end of the season. I want to thank everyone that came out for our game vs. West Sydney especially after the game against Hunter where we came out with no energy or passion for the game. Fans could have easily given up on us and I want to thank you all for you continued support.

Off the subject I have a few things from the All-Star game that I will be selling at the D-Rych.com store such as my All-Star polo, playing shorts, warm-up jersey and a few 36er items.

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Playing Perth in Perth is always tough and you know wins are hard! Going into the game we found out on game day that Brett wasn’t going to play because of a sore hamstring that has been bothering him for weeks. I think when we found out guys realized that we all had to come with our “A” games in order to win this one. Brad Hill took over the point guard roll and everyone else stepped it up for the first time all year. We came out with something to prove putting the Cats on their heals. Willie came to play on this night and showed us all why he can win games by himself as he was hitting shots from all over the court! It was good to see us all play hard and show the league that we can play on the road. This night everyone just fed off of each other and lets pray that this leads to better things.

Having the wins under our belts we could concentrate to get Hunter back this coming weekend at the dome then this BASA thing drops. This is the last thing that we want to find out when heading into the playoffs. You just want to concentrate on ball and then you show up at the dome and reporters are everywhere. This was a shock to me when I arrived this morning but I found it funny what happened to Jacob. Jacob is usually one of the fist guys to arrive to the dome each day. Well this day wasn’t any different as he got out of his car and walked like he was too cool for school to the dome sunglasses on strutting his stuff. As he leaned to open the door it was locked and he had to pretend he was calling someone to let him in and no one would come. So in front of all the camara’s he was let down and had to retreat to the back like a little puppy dog that was locked out of home. I guess you had to be there or know Jacod or “Diddy” as we call him.

The next couple of months should be interesting as things start to pan out or hit the fan! Lets hope for the best!

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Injury Update

The last couple of weeks have been interesting with two losses to Queensland and the injury to my groin. It is disappointed that this injury has to come so close to the playoffs but what can one do when your body doesn’t respond well and something gives. That is what happened about a month ago during practice. We decided to dedicate one day totally to defense which is fine but my groin thought other wise. Starting off with full court slides and then moving on to 3 on 2 games slowly took its tool on me. I originally thought this would have gone away within a few days as most muscle soreness does but this seemed to be the monkey on my back which I couldn’t shake! It was getting better until we played Perth and I woke up the next morning to catch the buses to the airport and felt this sharp pain coming from my groin. I was thinking that is was another hernia as I had my right side repaired a few years ago but this felt different and a more severe pain. Any athlete that is a competitor will tell you that sitting out from games and practice isn’t that fun. That is the update on the groin and Brisbane this weekend is our next and last game of season. We are currently in 3rd but if we lose against the Bullets we will fall to 4th seeing that Wollongong plays West Sydney. I am guessing that the Hawks will easily beat them but you never know.

That puts us in the same situation as last year being that we are top 4 no matter what the results are after the weekend. It could be another showdown with the Bullets and I know many people would like to see us get a second chance and I would like nothing better than to kick their ass at home but saying that they are probably the most dangerous team in the playoffs. I say that based on the talent that they have and the lack of consistency throughout the regular season. We all their players want to come to work together this team is very touch and can beat anyone on any given night as they showed last season. I personally don’t like the elimination rounds of the playoffs simply because you work your ass off to get top 4 and it can be all done with one game. They should have one round of elimination rounds and then two rounds of best of 3 and the grand final best of 5. Any team can come out one night and beat anyone but it takes a good team to be someone in 2 or more games. I think that if we can get past the elimination round we have a good chance at the championship just because we have a lot of talent and when we all come and play together it is hard to stop. I just hope that we can get that monkey off of our back and get into the semis for the first time since I have been here. Hope to see you all at the dome supporting us as you did all year! Thanks for the support!

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Season Ends Early Again!

The 2005/06 season was supposed to be the season! We were bringing back the same bunch of guys that had finished tied for 3rd the previous year and looking confident coming into the early stages of the season with a commanding 9-1 record. With such a great and dominating first 10 games of the season had everyone thinking that we were title contenders and let me say that the fans weren’t the only ones to think this as we players got ahead of ourselves too. Then reality set in and the next thing we know we were sitting in the middle of the season with a 5 game losing streak at our feet. This wasn’t the best time of the season but it sure got our heads back on track. Then we hit the injury bug mid-way through the season which sent us in another tail spin but making us stronger as a team. Amongst the injuries and slides of the season it was pretty successful. We saw some milestones in Paul Rees 500th NBL game as well as Brett’s 450th which is something that I only can dream of as an import because our self life is so much more short lived than that. I would be blessed to play 250 or 300 games let alone 500.

Now this brings me the Cairns game last Saturday night and how much I wanted to win! I know since the 4 years since I have worn the Adelaide 36er blue and white uniforms we haven’t missed the playoffs once. You would look at that and say that is a good run but it is just smoke and mirrors. Getting the playoffs is something special but it is a catch 22 because we get there but get eliminated right away so you don’t really get to experience the whole thing. Blink of an eye and it is all gone right before you like a magic trick. I know that this loss killed me as it did many other fans and players alike but it is tough to swallow. I mean it wasn’t like we played bad like last years game where we got blown out by the Bullets. This was a good game with a lot of lead changes and guys putting their bodies on the line. First of all getting into overtime was something of a miracle when Brett found Oscar streaking down the middle for a hanging lay-up over Melvin Thomas that brought everyone in the Distinctive Homes Dome to their feet! That shot gave us another chance and with that momentum I thought it was game over for the Taipans. Instead they came back with just as much hunger and desire as we did in that last term lead by Mee. Darnel was unbelievable making all the right moves and hitting all the clutch shots which showed why he has won so many titles in his day and why he is the best point guard in the league. I play that last 10 seconds in my head all the time and wonder why the hell couldn’t we figure out that Stewy was put in the game just to hit the game winning shot. All game their back court was hitting and making big plays why not this time? As I watch the ball leave his hands I just could tell it had no chance of missing. It was just one of those things that any basketball player can tell. You see it leave the hands and with the perfect follow threw it was destine for the bottom of the net and sure enough splish-splash the ball was taking a bath and game over! Another disappointing end to a good season.

As most people know it is that time of the season when players go out of contract and negotiations start. I really don’t know what is going to happen at this point in my career as I do want to be apart of this team for a very long time but with the state that BASA is in I really don’t know what kind of security there is to offer. You would think that everything would be find and dandy but you really have to look hard and make sure you aren’t short changing yourself and make the decision. It is scary to see other teams in the league such as the Hunter Pirates go down and many of those guys have families to feed which will make it tough if they cant get paid. I know a few players from last year that still didn’t get paid so you have to feel for those players. I don’t want to be caught in a team that all you do over the season is wondering if you will get paid or form week to week thinking that this might be your last. Whatever happens with me I will make sure that I post something on here or you all will hear about in the paper.

My off-season is going to be simple this year as I am waiting on a few contracts to come or not to come from Europe and if they do come I will be off again overseas once again for a new and exciting adventure. If nothing comes up in the next week or two then I will find out where I could vacation hopefully somewhere warm and tropical where I could be sitting on a nice beach sipping drinks is umbrellas in them. Haha

I want to thank you all again for another great year and the support that you all have for us is second to none!

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The Big Move

I finally got home to MN last Wednesday to a blanket of white snow everywhere in the state which is a cool site from a plane but once you touch down reality hits and you ask yourself “why the hell did I come back so early?” I know that I lived in this freezing state for most of my life but have been really spoiled the last 4 years going from summer to summer. Anyway it feels really good to be home and see everyone for the first time in about 2 years. It took me another 30 hours to get home this year with a big 6 hour layover in LA which wasn’t a big for me because in the past I have almost missed my connecting flight to Minnesota twice because of the short layovers and bad service by NorthWest Airlines. Coming home this time around was a bit different than times in the past because I will be playing in Brisbane for the next few seasons. Tuesday night was my farewell drinks at the Stag as well as a nice dinner with my bestest mate at a Italian Restaurant downtown Adelaide. I wasn’t going to have to a night to say goodbye to everyone because in the states we really don’t do that much or at least anyone close to me for that matter. It was last second thing to get teammates and friends to the Stag that night but I have to say it was fun and was great to see so many people turn up with such late notice. I seriously thought with only 20 hours notice that no one would turn up and I would be sitting there alone toasting to myself! Ha-ha That wasn’t the case as more than I expected came out to say goodbye and wish me luck! That was hard to take because it didn’t hit me that I was leaving all theses people that I had formed great relationships with behind but that is the tough part about the business side of basketball and life. I want to thank everyone that came out that night as it was good to see and hear from everyone! Now I am sitting back in MN relaxing taking time to see my Grand Parents, hanging out with Mom and Dad and a few friends that are still my home town of Grand Rapids. I am having a hard time adjusting to the cold whether so I decided to take a little vacation to Mexico for a week or so to catch some sun and spring break fever!

Once I get back from Mexico I will start working out again preparing for next season and with a new team. As many of you know I have switched teams from the 36er’s to the Brisbane Bullets for the following few years. It was an extremely difficult decision to make because I did enjoy playing for Phil and the guys! I have formed a lot of great relationships during my time in Adelaide which I hope will be life long. Unfortunately I had to do what was best for me and my career as a basketball player. I have got mixed responses of why I left from fans and some are mad and some wish me luck with my life and career. Most of you won’t understand the situation I was put in and wondering why I left a team and city that embraced me dearly. As an import basketball player you have a limited time to play compared to local and naturalized players. While I had an option this year which is a team and player option which means if the team wants me and I want to stay then I will sign up for that option year but wasn’t recognized by the club because of the financial situation that we are in. This resulted in me taking a huge cut in overall salary which I wasn’t prepared to take because I don’t have that much time left to play pro ball at this level maybe another 6 seasons at best if I am lucky. So I found my self sitting there in December wondering what the hell am I going to do because this is my life that I am talking about and I don’t want to give up ball or switch teams but I decided that I wasn’t going to think about contracts until after the season. This brings us to the elimination round of the playoffs and I was determined to get out of it with a win because ever since I have been a part of the 36ers we haven’t gotten out of the first round. It was a devastating loss because I had an idea that this might be my last game in 36er blue, red and gold. Once we lost I knew that the club needed and wanted to make some changes because it isn’t acceptable that we keep losing like that after having good regular seasons. Knowing that I was going to take a huge blow in salary if I signed with the 36ers forced me to look else where to see if I could get a better situation with more security. Not knowing if any other team would be interested scared the hell out of me because I could be making the biggest mistake of my life. With Adelaide only offering me a one year option only made me more determined to find more security else where which was something I didn’t want to do but was kind of forced to fish around. Of all the teams that I would have thought that I could have gone to Brisbane wasn’t even on my list of teams to look at because they already had Bobby at the 4 and we are pretty much the same player and I was under the impression that he had a good year so they would have no reason to get rid of him. I guess I was wrong as Brisbane seemed very interested in me and my ability. During this time I felt better that some other teams thought I was worth looking at besides the 36er’s but I still didn’t want to leave my teammates or the relationships that I had formed over the years. I had considered Adelaide my home and it was tough knowing that I was going to leave all that behind. I am happy that I have some security for the next few seasons and wish that the fans and people in Brisbane are as good to me as the fans in Adelaide have been over the years! Only time will tell that story.

I will start my debut with the Bullets in LA this July when we play in the NBA summer league as the first international team to be accepted and playing the two week tournament. I am excited for my new opportunity with the Bullets and I think that I will fit in well. It is always hard to start out fresh and new but once again this is apart of life and you have to adjust to your surroundings! I will see you all next season in the NBL!

 

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5 Years of D-Rych.com

It’s been 5 years of D-Rych.com bringing you my life as an overseas basketball player trying to make his struggle into a successful living. Various people have sent me emails from around the world about a variety of topics but it still amazes me that I still emails from true Golden Gopher fans that watched me play at the U of Minnesota from 98-2002. For me personally it is refreshing to get emails from Gopher supporters saying that my story is such an inspiration to them and many around them. I was just a kid with a dream to play at a high major D-1 college that everyone thought was going to fail but in my head I knew that I could achieve the most out of my ability or lack of ability. From the start there were so many doubters but then that changed quickly and I soon gained the respect of my fellow teammates, coaches and fans. I never once thought I was going to fail but if I did it would be a learning experience that makes you grow.

Since the days of throwing up my knuckle ball at the Barn my life has changed in many ways. I no longer play in front of crazy fanatic crowds of 15,000+ nor do we have state of the art training facilities that were at our finger tips but the love for the game is still there. The game that I now play is in Australia which is a great place. The culture is laid back and their passion for sport runs in their blood especially over Aussie Rules Football. So in all I just wanted to say Thank You all for checking up on me at D-Rych.com! Thanks for the continued support I appreciate it all.....

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Welcome to Brisbane.

This is the first journal of my days and journey to Brisbane Australia. I was excited to start a new chapter of my basketball career but wasn’t looking forward to leaving MN so early or the long ass plane ride. I’m getting used to the plane flight over but not matter how many times I take that flight it still gets boring and long. The crucial thing that makes or breaks this trip is getting an exit row seat. As most of you know I am not the smallest man in the world neither am I the biggest but simply I need some leg room! I usually get exit row seating but this time around the flight was full of people ready for Australia. As I head back my anger towards the Qantas attendant for not being able to pull some strings I held it back and was able to change from a window seat to a isle allowing me to sit comfortably on one half of my body. Happy that I can fly semi-comfortable I made my way to the Café at LAX. As I was walking along looking like lost tourist someone yelled at me! I was thinking damn what did I do this time but as I looked over my shoulder luckily I didn’t say anything too bad because it was coach Joey Wright. It turns out that he and his son Justin were on the same flight that I was. This gave me a chance to talk some strategy with Joey before our flight which was good since I hadn’t really talked to anyone since last season. As we were contemplating how sweat it would be to win a championship a movie star walked right past us and no one even knew who he was. This is the first time that I have seen someone famous in person besides Pro-Athletes. Forest Whitaker walked right by us and we kind of looked and were puzzled as to who it was as he looked a hell of a lot smaller in person than he does on the big screen and when I mean small I mean tiny. I always thought he was a bigger guy and heavy too but not the case so I don’t know if he was losing weight for a new movie or does TV really make you look bigger? What was funny as we looked at him thinking “who the hell is this guy?” he gave us that cocky ass wink like we should know who he is but we didn’t. After being star struck I made my way onto the Qantas flight 176 to Brisbane preparing my mind mentally for this grueling ride. On my way to my seat I am looking at the seat numbers getting closer and realize that the seats are all full. I get to my seat and there are 3 teenage girls sitting there as if those are their seats. I quietly say “excuse me I think that you are in my seat.” The Girls just sit there and act like they didn’t hear me so I am thinking that they didn’t hear me so I gently raise my voice a little and they still ignore me. Now by the 3rd time I was getting a little mad and people behind me are thinking that I am a retard not knowing how to count or read numbers and they are getting a little angry. I then tap the girl on the shoulder and tell her that she is in my seat then she has to nerve to say go find another seat! Wrong move girl! I told her that she better get out of my seat and then we have a little argument while she claims that her seat is an exit row and that she is willing change seats. I accepted her ticket and went back to her seat and it turns out that she was lying to me and had a window seat. I calmly walked back to my seat and told her to get out and she still didn’t want to get out! All these little girls were in the wrong seat but they thought it was cool to sit there and everyone will cater around them! Ten minutes later she finally gets out of my seat talking shit to me on the way out sorry but don’t mess with my seat on an international flight.

Once the drama blew over the flight was a breeze arriving in Brisbane a little over 12 hours. I was sure that this flight took between 14 and 16 hours when I fly to Sydney or Melbourne so I was surprised to wake up with 3 hours to go. I slept for 8 hours without sleeping pills believe it or not! Once we landed I had organized to have Big Joe (Brisbane Bullets Team Manager) pick me up from the airport. I have never met Big Joe properly but have seen him when we played the Bullets so I had an idea of who to look for. Six in the morning is a little early and Big Joe was already giving me shit for not having some kind of coat or hooded sweatshirt because he thought it was cold. It seemed like a perfect morning for me, sunny and about 60 degrees. That kind of whether is perfect in MN for a morning but here in QLD its freezing! Ha-ha Once Joe got done bitching about how cold it was he had dropped me off at his place to pick up a rental car for my use until I find one of my own. The one thing that is always trouble for me in a new city is that I don’t know my way around like the locals do so when Big Joe dropped me off at the car I asked for directions to the hotel. Big Joe gave me the best precise directions that I have ever gotten from anyone but he forgot to mention that he didn’t quite know the name of the street that I was supposed to turn on so he made up a name like Edward St LOL. Wouldn’t you know it I got lost for about an hour and was on Edward St so I was like this cant be right so I called Big Joe again to see if he knew what he was talking about and sure enough he laughed and told me the name of the street was George! Thanks Big Joe! Once I figured out where the Hotel was it was time to sleep but as it usually goes I couldn’t sleep so I just got up and went apartment hunting. That was a tough job since Brisbane is a lot more expensive than Adelaide and there weren’t too many one bedroom places fully furnished so my choices were extremely limited. Three days of hunting I finally found a place in the heart of the city that was brand new and fully furnished with all brand spanking new appliances.

I am now settled into Brisbane and now I have a friend from college coming to visit to see all that Australia and Brisbane have offer. The problem is that I don’t even know what Brisbane has to offer because I have been here less than a week. I did my best to be the best host that I could so we went to the Great Barrier Reef, Australia Zoo, Brisbane sites and drove down to the Gold Coast. This was a first for me as well so it was a good adventure and very exciting to see something as beautiful as the Great Barrier Reef. Pictures of my travels can be seen at www.d-rych.com then click on pictures tab at the top. Brisbane is a lot different than Adelaide for getting around in your car which is confusing as hell. It seems as the road names are always changing names every two blocks or so. I think that I am on College street and it turns into Hale Street making my life miserable! I’ve had plenty of cars stuck behind me honking there horns as I am looking at the map and driving slow like a tourist. I’m just lucky that no one has severe road rage or I might find myself driving to the ER!

I had a few days to learn the city before my friend arrived in town so that gave me the chance to ask people of things to do and where to go. The #1 spot to check out was Mount Coot-Tha lookout which has a great panoramic view of Brisbane. I decided that we should see this at night so we waited til the sun was down then made out way up. Now the car that I am driving is a small 4 cylinder sport wagon with no power at all. Climbing hills was a struggle so I had to pretty much push the little guy to the limit. At one point the hill leveled off so the car started to gain momentum before the next steep part but before I could say oh s#$t! The cops had busted me with there little radar gun! At first I thought this was a breath-o station but it wasn’t so I knew I was screwed but then the guy started asking me about the Bullets then he walked back to the cop car and then another guy started talking about the season so I talked then he walked back then another younger guy introduced himself as our DJ at games so I thought cool we have a lot of Bullets fans I might get a warning. That was wishful thinking and it didn’t come true this time as the officer handed over the 150.00$ fine he smiled and started talking about the season and how I thought we would be. I was thinking man we would do a lot better without this 150.00$ fine! Haha Nothing ruins your day/night worse than a speeding ticket. So as you can tell Brisbane has been very Welcoming! On top of that I was pulled over for trying to find directions to the Hotel by talking on the phone so my luck has run out in the first week.

The next journal will be coming in a few days that detail trainings plus more…

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Practice and Conditioning

Conditioning wasn’t something to we did that much of in Adelaide. Now before you start thinking why the hell would a professional team not have any conditioning I will explain. In Adelaide we did most of our conditioning as in playing 3on3, 4on4 and 5on5 basically no line drills such as 17’s or suicides. Phil and Sj do a great job of realizing that we weren’t 18 year old kids that could run all day and night and wake up sore-less in morning. It’s a little different in Brisbane, my first day we had fitness testing and had to run suicides not just 1 but 4 bad boys with a minute rest in between. I haven’t ran these in 10 years or so which concerned me a lot. I figured that I could easily do 1 but 4 would be a struggle for me since I wasn’t in top form. Needless to say I got through them but my legs felt like some rubber no matter how hard my mind was saying run faster they weren’t listening! Overall it made me realize that I need to get into better shape but that’s what pre-season is for. Another thing that we do here in Brisbane different is that we actually have a strength coach as well as a conditioning. I sat down with Stewy (strength and Conditioning coach) before practice one day and he had tapped me doing agility drills and running. Let me say I look like a retard running and doing these drills with such bad form. I really hadn’t realized how bad I looked but hopefully I can improve my technique, agility and quickness over the course of the season. Another thing that Stewy does is provide a strength program that fits basketball players. A lot of strength coaches that I have had in the past try to bulk us up like we are football players that need to be bulked up. This isn’t the case here as we do a lot of work on our core and hip-flexor trigger reaction to help reduce the stress on other joints such as knees and ankles. It is hard to life weights after a hard day on the court but I think it helps me a lot that I have someone there to push you because sometimes you tend to slack when your energy levels are low.

Practice has picked up a bit over the last month from just court work without a ball to playing consistent 3 on 3, 4 on 4 and 5 on 5 slowly lowering the running. This is great in my mind because running is so boring because all you are doing is thinking about running but when you play games you have your mind on something else. In saying that on our first days of playing I got the ball at the top of the key and Brad Williamson was guarding me or trying to so I ripped the ball through and it happened that my elbow caught the bridge of his nose. Yup you guessed it in my first week of playing I figured out how to break someone’s nose. Good way to make some friends on the new team…

We are still missing 6 of our top players in Sam, CJ, Bradtke, Boucher, Ebi and Blacky so things will get more competitive at practice when they arrive. In saying that we played Cairns Saturday August 26, 2006 @ Auchenflower Stadium here in Brisbane most thinking that we would struggle since we didn’t have our main players. The game started out really well as we jumped to a quick 10 point lead but that didn’t last long as Cairns tied it up at 24 @ quarter time. The 2nd quarter was pretty even with Cairns gaining a slight 5 point lead going into halftime. The 3rd quarter saw us going down by as much as 12 or 14 with it looking like they were going to blow us out but then we hit fire. Lead by Brad Williamson hitting some deep threes and the rest of us riding his wave to a small lead. The 4th brought out the best in Mee and Cat with both of them trying to get their team back into the game. Cat is in the best shape that I have seen him in as well as Mee looking in great pre-season form. They came hard but we managed to match them point for point ending up with a 10 point win. This was a good confidence builder for us especially with all the younger guys that got to play a lot of minutes. Next up will be the Blitz.

Things are a little different than I am used to but its cool seeing how different things are done and changes per club. It all depends on your players, ages and personalities. It’s a lot better than my first days in Melbourne 4 seasons ago! It’s funny how back then when I got cut I really thought my life was ending but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Now I am in my 5th season in the NBL loving every minute of it realizing that I am doing what I want not what someone else wants. Can’t wait for the season to start and can’t wait to see the Bullets fans at first hand on my side for once..

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