So we haven't posted in a while....

Sorry again. As a team we haven't been playing as well as we'd like, so the results have been....poor. There has been a considerable amount of tension surrounding the team the past couple weeks. Hopefully splitting the games last weekend against Fukuoka will mitigate some of that tension.

I have a really busy week this week, but I hope to get to some posts. I have some ideas, so there should be some good posts coming up.

Also, I should really just write posts about my dreams. After the "styles!" I had another funny dream. The following night I dreamt that we were on a road trip and staying at a hotel on top of a hill. There was snow everywhere. I went down to the bus to go to shootaround and found Ray and one of my teammates, Mike, down there. The bus was open but nobody was inside or around. Mike was pestering Ray, trying to get him to take the brake off the bus. Ray acquiesced and the bus started to roll down the hill, slamming into every car possible. I was chasing after the bus like I could do something to stop it.

After the bus came to a stop we ran back up the hill to find everyone waiting. I started professing my innocence (I actually was innocent too!) and telling our coach that "The front of the bus is messed up but our seats are ok so we can still sit in the bus." That's a direct quote from my dream.

Our Asst. GM saved the day though, saying it wasn't a problem because we had a second bus (not true).

Wild.

The Prophetic Dream

Hello and Welcome

When I was a little chap, I dreamed about going to the moon, meeting Optimus Prime from transformers or being the president of the United States of America. Well, as for my best friend Brayden that was not the case. He has dreams the are out of this world, from run away buses, to fights with rams and baby chickens. Although, nothing would prepare me for this last one. Lets enter the mind of Brayden "shinche" shall we..........

Brayden: Okay guy's I had this dream last night and Bobby you were in it.

Bobby: Oh God...

Brayden: So guy's check this out! So, me and Bobby we were in kyoto and we had just beaten Okinawa and we were going to this club "Sam and David".

Bobby: Oh God...What did I do now!

Brayden: Wait....hahaha....Clap....Loud Clap.......anyways so we were heading into the club and you call one of your friends and asked them if they wanted to come and hang out with us. So, you called them and they said "no we aren't friends anymore!"

Bobby: Oh Lord...

Braydne: Wait hold on....haha....Clap.....So you say back to them "okay, thats cool, STYLES!" and hung up the phone...(dumb and dumber laugh)....loud clap and more laughter.....

Ray: Wow...Styles.....

Bobby: Yeeeaahhh.....STYLES....

Ryan: "You want to talk to me about style! Look at that bowtie!"

Brayden: Another Clap for good measure and then silence.....

Bobby: Wow that was strange....

Sorry for the limited responces we have been really busy...Thank you to all five of our bloggers for your support. Please stay tuned for more hilarious antics of brayden and I, they are assured to be knee slappers.

A Better Weekend.

As Bobby wrote below, we played Osaka at home this weekend. Before this weekend we were 0-4 against Osaka, and only one game was close enough to win. They are a very physical team, which has presented some problems for us in the past.

This weekend we were able to match Osaka's physical presence, and were rewarded with much better outcomes than we had previously attained. Saturday we won, 84-78. It wouldn't have been that close if we could make a few free throws. We shot a combined 12-25 from the free throw line.

Sunday we ended up losing, I believe 82-69. But it was much closer than that. I missed an open three to tie the ball game with about eight minutes to go in the 4th quarter. Osaka hit their free throws at the end of the game.

But 1-1 against the defending champs isn't bad. Coming into the weekend we had been in 5th place, down one game to Fukuoka. But Fukuoka lost both games to Okinawa this weekend, so we moved back into a tie for 4th place. If we end the season on a tie, the tiebreaker is point differential over the entire season. As of right now we are leading Fukuoka in this category.

Oh and I got another technical this weekend. And it's another bullshit technical too. I was in dribbling in the post and got the ball knocked away. I dove for the ball, as did their Japanese point guard. In the ensuing collision the tiny Japanese guy bounced off me (physics 101, thanks Newton!). As we got up, one of their players thought it was appropriate to get in my face as if I just sucker-punched a cheerleader. On his way over to confront me he actually punched Ray in the face. Of course the refs didn't see this because they were looking at me and the little guy getting up. So he gets in my face, waving his finger in my face and yelling.

Since I don't want to get a technical (costs me 50 damn bucks each time!) I slowly back away, looking at the nearest ref the whole time. I keep my mouth shut, just trying to move away from the guy. Somehow the refs think I was escalating the situation and give me and the Osaka player a technical. Upon inquiring as to my offense, I received a blank stare.

Osaka were coming for you.......

the road road only gets tough for the Shiga Lake Stars. We had a disappointing weekend coming up short in two very good games. It is important for us to put that behind us and really think about what is coming up next. I especially didn't play well shooting a dismal 24% in the first game and 28% from behind the arc. We have worked to long and to hard to not be in the finals this year. I know that i can speak for Brayden on this we are going to bounce back work our butts off and get back to our winning ways. As Brayden is, I'm not accustom to loosing either. I have won two state championships, I have gone four years in high school and only loosing two games. In college we had four winning season out of my five years. I hate loosing just as much as Brayden and we are going to turn it around. Osaka were coming for you....... and you can count on that.

Opportunities Missed..........

Both games this weekend came down to the final possession, and each time we were on the wrong end of a close game.

The wounds from this weekend are still fresh, but I suspect that the sting from these missed opportunities will bite at us for the remainder of the season. Had we been able to capitalize and win at least one game we would have picked up a game over Fukuoka in the race for the final playoff spot.

This weekend hurts doubly bad because we are hosting Osaka next weekend. We are 0-4 against Osaka so far, and really only one of those games was close. They are the most difficult team we've played against.

I am not accustomed to losing. In high school my teams were very good, placing 2nd and 3rd in the State my two years on varsity. In college I suffered one losing season out of four. Not bad for a mid-major school known for its academics. Last season in Denmark we were very good, winning the National Cup and winning 80% of our games before losing to a clearly superior team in the Finals.

This has been a rough season for me, I am not accustomed to team failure like this. I often find myself laying in bed late into the night, unable to sleep. In my self-imposed solitary confinement the mental replays of my mistakes nick me like little cuts from a razor. Last night I slept about three hours. This was after I played well, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Tonight we lost by three. I was 1-6 on free throws, including 0-4 in the fourth quarter.