Ricardo Artis II (198-F/G-1993, college: Wiley) is a 30 year old 198cm forward from Texas that is playing his second season in Germany and first with the bringiton Ballers Ibbenbueren (Germany-ProB). Last season he tore up the Regionalliga with SV Hagen-Haspe 70 (Germany-Regionalliga): 30 games: Score-2 (29.3ppg), Reb-3 (11.5rpg), 2.7apg, Steals-4 (3.2spg), FGP: 57.4%, 3PT: 33.0%, FT: 81.1%. Before coming overseas, he played back at home for TBL teams Dallas Skyline, and the Enid Outlaws and the Potawatomi Fire. He also played with the North Texas Prowlers (PBA) and Newfoundland Rogues (ABA). He played at 4 schools with Eastfield College (JUCO), McLennan Community College (JUCO), North Lake College (JUCO) and Wiley College (NAIA). He teams up with germanhoops.com each week to talk basketball.

You suffered a tough 72-64 loss to Wolmirstedt. How did it feel playing your first Pro b game. Was there a big difference to the Regionalliga?

Great win by Wolmirstedt. It felt good just to finally get back out there playing. I don’t see much of a difference but the size. They said it would be a more physical game but I haven’t witnessed it. Even when we scrimmaged Pro A Muenster in preseason, it’s all just the basketball to me at the end of the day.

Ibbenburen had a solid first half leading 36-27. What were the main reasons for going into the break with the lead?

We were able to get stops in the first half and take advantages of the mismatches on the court. Great coaching adjustments by the Wolmirstedt coaching staff coming out of halftime. They were able to commit turnovers against us and execute.

In the third quarter Wolmirstedt kept Ibbenburen to 11 points and exploded for 25 points. What adjustments did the opponent make?

It was just bad execution as a team. Not enough sharing the ball and they started taking advantages of the mismatches we had. We also struggled to knock down shots and take care of the ball. They fed off of the opportunities we gave them both offensively and defensively.

Ibbenburen just couldn´t get over the hump? Was there some fatigue involved in the fourth quarter?

After watching film, I wouldn’t say it’s fatigue. I would say great coaching adjustments from the Wolmirstedt coaching staff and us as a whole going away from what got us in the lead is what fueled their run that we wasn’t able to come back from. We knew they would make a run but we couldn’t take control back over the game after the run.

What was it like playing against Bill Borekambi? He is one of those unique guys that can make tough shots?

I’m not to familiar with none of the names of the players in this league so I had to look his name up. I see he’s been a part of that organization for a long time so he’s comfortable with the system and use to doing what he did to us. Which is great for him. He had a good game. Nice mid range shot and it showed he has a good IQ because he took advantage of the mismatch when he had the chance.

You had a solid first game with 20 points. How would you rate your Pro B debut?

I would rate it a B- game for me. I’m just here to win. Last year I averaged 30 but I never planned to do that. I just did what it took to win. If I have to score 30/40 I can do it but yesterday wasn’t one of those days. It was a team game and we didn’t execute on the opportunities we had. I’m not really worried about points I am more focused on wins.

It seems with the little fire power that Ibbenburen has, you will be relied on to score a lot. Will we see even bigger scoring games from you in the future?

We have some scorers on the team that can score but they struggled to get it going and it just wasn’t enough minutes available for some of our players to get it going. Once again I’m here to win, if that means more scoring from me will be needed than I can do that for sure. So we’ll see.

Ibbenburen next battles the EN Baskets Schwelm. What kind of game can we await from Ibbenburen this time?

It’s our first game at home so I know it’ll be electric. Also, I’m battling my old teammate from last year Sven Cikara so I think some Haspe fans and supporters will join too. It should be fun. I know I’ll be coming out with a lot of energy to get our first win and I know my teammates will also.

How do rate the Jrue Holiday trade for the Boston Celtics?

I didn’t really like the Celtics losing Robert Williams. But they did gain Porzingis so we’ll see how it goes. Jrue is a great player but I think the Celtics lost a lot of role players that are needed. Marcus Smart was the heart and soul of that defense but Jrue should fit in very nice.

Thanks Ricardo for the chat.