Stanley Whittaker (183-G-94, college: Keiser) is a 26 year old 183cm point guard from Philadelphia playing his third professional season and first in Germany with PS Karlsruhe. He played his rookie season in Lithuania and last season had his break through with UBSC Raiffeisen Graz (Austria-BSL) playing 24 games: Score-2 (21.5ppg), 6.3rpg, Assists-2 (8.0apg), Steals-1 (2.6spg), FGP: 49.3%, 3PT: 40.5%, FT: 78.4%. He played his college ball at Frank Phillips (JUCO) and Keiser (NAIA). He teams up every week with Miles Schmidt-Scheuber to talk basketbal

PS Karlsruhe suffered a tough 113-109 loss to the hands of Medipolis SC Jena. When was the last time you lost in double OT in your career?


Definitely a very tough loss in double overtime, as I try to think back I can’t recall a time I lost in double overtime in my career.

How tough is it in general for a player to lose after 50 minutes of a hard grind opposed to 40 minutes? I can imagine your muscles felt different than after 40 minutes. You played an insane 50 minutes. That must have been the most in your career.

It’s not easy but if that’s what is needed in the game to give our team a chance to compete at the highest level, I’d sign up for it time and time again. It’s what comes with this profession. My body was pretty sore, I took a tough fall in the first half and got hit with a hard screen in the first half as well, but I’ll be fine.

Jena was all over PS Karlsruhe in the first half leading 53-34. What lapses did you have as a team on the defensive end?

We just weren’t aggressive enough defensively, most of their offense in the first half came fairly easy to them, which is unacceptable on our end. We have to make opposing teams work a lot more on offense, and make them beat us with difficult shots. We weren’t disruptive at all in the first half.

PS Karlsruhe finally exploded in the third quarter scoring 31 points. What adjustments did you make to get back into the contest?

Our third quarter run all started with us playing defense and finishing possessions. On the defensive end, we came out with more of a sense of urgency and wanted to show some pride!

You could have won the game in the fourth quarter with free throws but missed one. Were you able to mentally let go quickly after missing?

That will haunt me, the game was ours to win, me at the free throw line to put us up 1 with two seconds left and I wasn’t able to give us the lead. And I had no other choice but to let it go we had an overtime to play so I had to lock back in. But that’s on me, I have to be better and knock the free throws down.

You brought your team into the second OT with a basket. You were in total control of your destiny. How much fun is it as a player to make these big shots. They aren’t that typical but more rare.

I play the game of basketball with a sense of joy and fun but in those moments I am extremely locked in so I won’t ever get the real chance to feel it, but it is nice when my teammates trust me in those moments to take shots of that magnitude to try and help us get a win.

The second OT was so exciting, but the guests won the game. Did the Jena free throws decide the game?

We gave up some free throws down the stretch in the second overtime but we still had an opportunity, it just didn’t go our way this time unfortunately!

Three guys combined for 86 of the 109 team points with you, Tylka and Pluskota. Is that a healthy thing to happen on a consistent rate?

I would love for it to be a consistent rate haha, but as long as we are playing as a team, and making plays that are going to give us opportunities to win games, that works for me.

What was it like battling Rayshawn Simmons who belonged to the top guards in the Pro A a few years ago and is back. Was he the toughest player that you have played this season at the guard spot?

It was good being in that battle with him, high level competitor and plays well with his group. He gave us trouble with his ability to drive the ball to the basket and he hit a big three in the second overtime.

How do you rate your own game of 32/5/12. Would it have been better had you won?

I was alright, made some plays but it wasn’t enough for our team to come out victorious.

When you look at your efficiency over 50 minutes, you probably could have done even more. Is this something that you thought about?

Definitely, I think it was more I could’ve done on both sides of the ball. The objective is to win and we came up short so figuring out what more that has to be done to pull out wins like that is what I’m thinking of.

You next play Bremerhaven. How will the team want to rebound after this? What will be the main focus this week?

We just want to get out of this Losing funk. So by any means, whatever it takes we want to get a win!

Do you feel like the great Scottie Pippen is damaging his legacy in the way he seems to bash Michael Jordan in every interview?

I think Scottie Pippen seems a bit bitter. I think his legacy is cemented because of what he accomplished on top of the athlete he was and skills he possessed. But these comments and statement in today’s media can make you look a bit foolish.

Thanks Stan for the chat.