Russia n' Sweden

I've been traveling to places I'd only read about, playing a lot of basketball and having a good time in between and during. The past 36 days since my last blog have gone by like an hour on Facebook (yeah EVERYBODY who has a facebook account is shaking their heads right now). We had our Euroleague qualifier, played 5 league games and took a team bonding trip to Stockholm, Sweden. I have people tell me all the time, "do you realize how lucky you are?" To me winning the lottery or marrying Megan Fox is lucky- it's a one and ten million chance- not working hard for 20 yrs and becoming a pro. However, after doing a little research only 0.01% of basketball players will make it professionally...okay maybe lucky is the right word.

For the many who don't understand the differences between euro-league, euro-cup and euro-challenge. The best 24 teams in all of Europe compete in EL. These teams can have budgets surpassing tens of millions and individual players making well over six figures per MONTH. 22 teams were already penciled in and we were 1 of 16 teams given a chance for those last 2 spots. We were matched up with Kazan, Russia. The two major things they had on us was experience and size. They have 5 players over 33 years old, we have 0 over 30. They have four guys over 6'10 (one being 7'7) to our zero. We knew it was going to be a difficult test that would include a home game on Tuesday and a road game in Kazan on Friday. Playing at the EL level is something every overseas player strives for. The game at home went back and forth- until they gained a lead on is in the third quarter. We ended up losing the game by 12. Normally you wouldn't think how many points you lose by matters...but with this the point difference determines who advances- meaning we would need to win by 13 in Russia to advance. Six hours after the game (4AM-Wednesday), we jumped on a bus to Hamburg, Germany where we would fly to Moscow and then Kazan. About 17 hours later we had arrived in our hotel in Kazan.

It's hard to describe Russia without experiencing it for yourself, but I'll tell you this... it reminded me how FAR from home I was. I never really get that feeling in Holland, but Russia was a different story. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?" I snapped at Hype after I felt his sharp elbow in my ribs. "WOW Bausch, look at her!" As I slowly glance, acting like my neck hurts to avoid obviousness... I notice a girl 22 years old, long dark hair, legs for days and absolutely drop dead gorgeous. I was wondering if I was on reality show because this 60+ year old man with a gut like Homer Simpson was all over her- kissing her neck, his hands all over her hips. He was definitely doing it for the 12 professional basketball players next to them and frankly more power to him. The city has 1.2 million people our long winded tour guide would remind us a half dozen times. NOBODY really spoke English in Kazan and I mean they didn't know words like 'food' or 'party'. Attractive girls would be a theme on this trip, everywhere we went we saw the women all dressed up to impress. Even the ugly girls carried themselves like high class hot ones. It's almost like their society is set up for the women to really take care of themselves so they can marry a successful man...bad part for them is the Russian men we saw weren't going to be posing in GQ anytime soon. I never in a million years would have thought I'd travel to Russia- sometimes I can't help but pinch myself to make sure this is real life.

The game in Kazan we would play much better, even taking the lead in the 3rd quarter. Being up by 1 however meant that we were down by 12. Eventually they once again pulled away with some timely shots and we had lost the series. Two of our supportive fans actually made the long journey to Kazan, something that was not only time consuming but also very expensive. The loss means we are competing in EC this season. After the top 24 EL teams, the next best 32 teams play in EC- which includes teams in top division Spain, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Italy, etc. Our draw came out last week and we will have a home n' home series with GALATASARAY (Istanbul, Turkey); CANTU (Italy) and PANELLINIOS (Athens, Greece). We couldn't help but get excited knowing we get to compete against some of the best teams in Europe and the ideal locations was icing on the cake.

Coach sensed how hard we had been working since August and gave us the only free weekend we will have until Christmas. We all used this as a chance to explore beautiful Europe. J-El, Turek and Henry all took their families to different parts of Germany. The remaining 9 of us booked flights to Stockholm, Sweden...however Aron hurt his hamstring two days before leaving which meant he couldn't go. The trip would be eventful to say the least. We left our apartments at 2am for a 730am flight outta Brussels, Belgium- your probably asking WHY we flew out of Brussels, good question will NEVER do it again. Our flights were only $50 euros round-trip, but believe me YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Steve-a-RENO drove Hype and I in his car and then the other 5 went in Sanders parents van. After an hour outside of Groningen, Steve's car basically shut down. Anybody who knows me, knows I don't know a damn thing about mechanics. Steve who is my senior by 5 years has never changed the oil himself and HYPE well let's just say he is a good basketball player. The manual was in Dutch and it was 3AM so we began to panic slightly. Steve was upset, "WE ARE GOING TO MISS OUR FLIGHT!" I tried to add some humor to mood, "WELL we can always take a train to Paris for the weekend..." After stopping at the gas station and buying oil we were convinced that was the problem. The van at this point is probably 30 miles ahead of us. Steve was driving 100kph (62 mph) and by this time the GPS read "time of arrival" 645AM. We were starring at that GPS the way you stare at the taxi fare meter while sitting in the back (seems every second you check that thing, it's going UP). Ryan-air has a policy that if you aren't checked in 30 minutes before you can't fly. We finally decided the only way we could make our flight is if the van pulled over and all 8 suitcases and LARGER than average men packed in. We packed that van full like we were trying to get across the border. After speeding through Belgium, missing a couple turns- by the way CAN NOT stand when the GPS is a few seconds behind so you miss the exit! We parked the car at 6:48AM and ran towards to terminal- it was literally like the scene of Home Alone. After dripping sweat from the .7 mile sprint, luckily there were only 6 people in front of us at the line..."you guys made it by 2 minutes" said the guy at the counter.

Once the flight took off the trip was stress free. We booked our flights to Stockholm not expecting much but we knew anywhere we went with this crowd was bound to be a great time. It was the cleanest city I've ever been to. The people were extremely friendly to us and spoke very solid English. It was also the most expensive city I've ever been in- more than even Paris, London or New York. For lunch one day I had beef pasta, bread and a vitamin water and it was $33 dollars. Magazines at 7-Elven were $14, vodka red bull was $19, Robby spent $70 on a taxi ride less than 2 miles...however the trip was worth every penny. We toured a church that was built over 700 years ago...things like this are hard to fathom. The water surrounding the city left us speechless, at moments all 8 of us were dead silent just starring and taking it in.

48 hours later the trip was over and it was time to get back to Groningen to take care of business. We had home games Tuesday and Thursday...coming out victorious in each of them. We are 5-0 in league so far with a game in Amsterdam tomorrow night. I talked to a friend on Skype the other day for the first time in a month....they asked "how you been the past month, what have you done?" I nonchalantly replied, "things are going good, went to Russia for a game, just got back from Sweden...we are undefeated in league so far." They looked at me and said three words, "I. Hate. You."