Malik Riddle (193-G-1999, college: HSU) is a 24 year old 193cm guard from Tennessee playing his second professional season and first in Germany with Pro B team RheineStars Cologne. Last season he played with Gzira Athleta Birkirkara (Malta-BOV League D1) averaging 28.8ppg, 9.4rpg, 3.9apg, Steals-3 (2.6spg), FGP: 57.8%, 3PT: 33.1%, FT: 75.5%. He began his basketball career at Rossville Christian Academy. He then played 2 seasons at Morehead State University (NCAA) and then played 3 seasons at Henderson State University (NCAA2). He teams up with germanhoops.com every week to talk basketball.

The RheinStars lost a tough 93-92 loss to the Basketball Lowen. How tough was it not playing and being able to help your team?

It was very tough not being able to play and only watch. I really wish I was able to play but unfortunately I wasn’t able to play due to injury.

It was a tough battle that went to OT. It seemed like Erfurts big plays helped them pave the way to OT.

It was a hard fought game. I feel like the guys played hard but made some mistakes that the other team fed off of. They made some big shots down the stretch and that really hurt.

In the OT Paul Albrecht made a big block. Did that give the guests the momentum to win?

I don’t think that gave them the momentum at the end. I feel it was back and forth and was a huge block but I also think we had many other opportunities that we just didn’t take advantage of like we should’ve.

Ruppert Hennen was huge as always leading all scorers in points. Is his mid range game unstoppable?

Yeah Ruppi seemed unstoppable in the second half with that mid range It seems like automatic. He is a really good player.

What positives could the RheinStars take from the loss? A 1 point loss always hurts, but the team did lead some categories of the stats.

Yeah I think one of the things is taking care of the ball. I feel we had too many turnovers very careless ones and feel that hurt us as a team. Hopefully we will be more aggressive and take care of the ball better.

On what areas of the game will the RheinStars work on most this week?

I feel our defense is always the main focus for us. We believe that great defense can lead to great offense. So our defense is always what we focus on most.

The next opponent are the Ahorn Baskets who are 3-3. What will be key to getting the win?

Locking in on defense will be the key and us being aggressive from start to finish will be the key for us to win.

Thanks Malik for the chat.