Author: Miles Schmidt-Scheuber

Basketball journalist and play by play commentator

Janek Schmidkunz (Giants Nordlingen) There Wasn´t One Point In The Season Where I Thought I Didn´t Wanted To Be Here

Janek Schmidkunz is a 26 year old 183cm point guard that is playing his first season for the Giants Nordlingen. Last season as a rookie he played for the MLP Acaaademics Heidelberg. He started his basketball career with Central Hoops Berlin (Regionalliga) in 2008. He then also got further experience at ALBA Berlin II (Regionalliga). He then went to the states and played at Amer.Internat. (NCAA2) from 2010-2014 playing a total of 86 NCAA games and as a senior played 26 games: 10.9ppg, 2.1rpg, FGP: 38.5%, 3PT: 38.9%, FT: 61.5%. He spoke to German Hoops after the bitter 78-77 loss against Ehingen ending his season.

Thanks Janek for talking to German Hoops. A tough 78-77 loss to Ehingen to end the season.Head coach Mario Matic told me 5 hours before tipoff that he was very confident that his team would win. How confident did the team feel that it would give a lot better effort then in game one?

I think we shared his view on the game. It kind of reflects the way we went into our games all season and especially during the playoffs. Especially looking at the things that we did not do well in game 1, we knew playing at home with the great support of our fans, we would play a much better game.

Does the bitter loss effect lessen a bit when you think how hard the team fought from 15 points down in the first half to almost winning the game at the end instead of being beat by 20 points to end the season?

I think at first you are somewhat shocked that the season ends and especially it being a one point game you don’t realize it until that buzzer sounds. However, we did gave it our all and that is what I told everyone stepping on the court for the second half. So there are no regrets and I think it makes me proud that we played the way we did.
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The Miles Basketball Minute:2016 Beko BBL Playoff Preview Brose Baskets Bamberg-s.Oliver Baskets Wurzburg: 3-0

It wasn´t long ago where s.Oliver Baskets head coach Doug Spradley was toiling around with the Eisbaeren Bremerhaven near the end of his four year tenure where he must have had almost more nightmares than Tom Brady still has with his two lost Super Bowls against the New York Giants.In his last season with Bremerhaven, the frustration of the lack of success seemed mind boggling as like so many other times, the club had great talent and experience, but were unable to form that needed team chemistry and also not having the right mix of players seemed to leave a sour taste in his mouth as well as everyone else affiliated with the organization. In his first season, he had almost reached the Beko BBL final in 2010 losing a tough five game series to Frankfurt and three years later was about as far from a playoff spot as Wurzburg´s amazing point guard Dru Joyce is too magically getting invisible wings and being able to fly and dunk over childhood friend Lebron James on a playground in Akron, Ohio. That last season in Bremerhaven really left Spradley at a crossroad in his coaching career that he felt the need not to jump back in the shark infested Beko BBL coaching tank, but took a year off to find himself again mentally. That year off really did wonders as he returned back to the scene signing a contract with the s.Oliver baskets Wurzburg in 2014 and was back at a location where his job was too lead a team back into the Beko BBL the way he did Paderborn in 2006. He found instant success with Wurzburg in the pro A and may not have eclipsed the 50 win in a row season with Paderborn, but also easily led his team back into the Beko BBL. This season, Wurzburg and Giessen together with the Fraport Skyliners formed a trio that were the little darlings of the league. Frankfurt with their team basketball moved up to the big teams like Bamberg and FC Bayern Munich in terms of regular season success while Wurzburg and Giessen who´s season goal was too just remain the league were battling for playoff spots all season long. On the last game day, Giessen was denied, but Wurzburg clawed on to that last spot putting Spradley back into the playoffs. Now he has the most difficult task of having too perform a miracle against Euroleague top 16 team Brose Baskets Bamberg. Just having reached the playoffs is a major accomplishment for the organization and nobody expects a miracle, but one should not forget that he once led a little Paderborn squad of unknowns to almost beating the big mighty Alba Berlin in the 2009 quarterfinals probably giving Alba Berlin Marco Baldi then his first major midlife crisis. Almost anything is possible in basketball, but for Wurzburg to be able to defeat Bamberg in a 5 game series or even win two games is about as unlikely as Dirk Nowitzki dressing up for his Bavarian home team in the series.

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The Miles Basketball Minute: 2016 Beko BBL Playoff Preview: EWE Baskets Oldenburg-ratiopharm Ulm 3-2

Whenever May comes around in Germany, it means the first sign of warm weather, people showing off their newest shades in the café´s, men drooling again at the sight of mini-skirts moving with the motion of the cool spring breeze and family´s doing bike trips on the weekends when the spring weather is nice. On the basketball side, it is time again for the Beko BBL playoffs and one player that seems to have an almost guarantee pass to the being able to battle for that coveted title is Mr Oldenburg Rickey Paulding who has been their eight out of nine seasons since his arrival to Oldenburg in 2007. However in those eight attempts, he has only been able to win one title which was in 2009 as the EWE Baskets Oldenburg beat the Telekom Baskets Bonn in one of the more memorable final´s series in the history of the Beko BBL. Paulding and co were close a few years back reaching the final and despite being swept by the Brose Baskets Bamberg lost the three game series with only a combined seven points. Paulding isn´t getting any younger at age 33, but he still plays like a 27 year old and seems like his body is ageless as he still looks as fresh on the floor like a young buck belonging to the top 5 perimeter players in the Beko BBL as his consistency over the years with age has been commendable. Especially at age 33, every new playoffs experience has to be of big worth for the ex Missouri(NCAA) player as he doesn´t know if it might be his last. It is never good to look ahead, but the American probably has realized that there could be a possible semi-final date with the Fraport Skyliners, a team that not only he wants to seek revenge on, but also his teammates. This season, the Fraport Skyliners won a do or die game in January for the ticket to the Beko BBL cup final 4 in Munich and recently were easily disposed of in Frankfurt as they couldn´t find a remedy to stop their lethal ball movement. Two facts riding on the side of Paulding who can compete with the best American smiles in the Beko BBL when he displays his wide grin and glistening white teeth, in that he beat Frankfurt back in 2009 in the quarterfinals of the playoffs and also has beat ratiopharm Ulm in the playoffs in a hard five game series . Paulding wants more after winning his second title last season with the cup on his own floor as he wants another title to make him a tad more immortal in Oldenburg even if achieving it this season will be a difficult task with the competition level, but not many expected it in 2009 either.

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David Sturner (Dresden Titans)By The End Of The Season We Could Have Any Five Players On The Court And Play Our Game

David Sturner is a 206cm power forward/center playing his first season in Germany for pro B team Dresden Titans and currently is averaging 11,4ppg and 6,4rpg. He started his basketball career with Orgeon State playing 13 NCAA games and then moved to S.Oregon (NAIA) and as a senior played 31 games: 14.6ppg, 9.2rpg, 1.2apg, 1.5bpg, FGP: 56.2%, 3PT: 36.4%, FT: 56.2%. He started his professional basketball career recently with the West Adelaide Bearcats (Australia-Central ABL) before coming to Germany. He spoke to German Hoops after the bitter 98-96 loss to Frankfurt ending his season.

David thanks for talking to German Hoops A tough 98-96 loss to the Fraport Skyliners Juniors to end the season. Does the fact that the Dresden Titans came back from 19 points to almost win the game ease the hurt somewhat instead of having been blown out?

My pleasure as always, Miles. I wouldn’t say the comeback eases the hurt, but it was definitely a testament to our resiliency and shows how much fight we have as a team.

I came back from my training run in Chalon, France to check the score and was shocked to see that Frankfurt was up by 20 points in the second half. Did the Dresden Titans wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

It’s hard to say what went wrong in the first 20 minutes. We didn’t come out aggressive and let Frankfurt impose their will upon us.

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The Fraport Skyliners Crush Alba Berlin 83-64 to take 1-0 Playoff Lead

The few days after the Fraport Skyliners had won the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup title in Chalon France over Italian team Varese last weekend, the club had numerous appointments and honors to accept while savoring the moment. The biggest honor was being able to step out on the slim balcony at city hall in Frankfurt and see the sea of fans down below cheering on the team. Following official business where each player was able to sign the golden book, the team then went into the basement and celebrated with the fans with the beautiful silver Fiba Europe cup sitting on a small table for each person that wanted to to get a photo. Even if head coach Gordon Herbert seemed relaxed during the party with the fans, you knew that as much as he allowed his players to indulge in this big moment of being only the fourth team in the history of German basketball to have won an international club tournament, he was also thinking ahead to the weekend where the Beko BBl playoffs were to start. How often Herbert questioned in his mind during the two days of celebrating if his team could get back down in time of the playoffs was unknown, but knowing the immense competitive and perfectionist mindset, he must have been playing mind games with every type of scenario that could face him in game one. One guy who was as happy as a kid that just cleaned out a candy store after icing the title in Chalon was Englewood, New Jersey native Jordan Theodore who definitely showed after the final win that he has had his share of party experiences back home. However two days after the win, one could sense that he was getting itchy to get back on the court and take care of the next order of business the playoffs. With Frankfurt having had extra days to party, it was Alba Berlin that took part in a special training camp and still had that loss in Berlin on their minds a few weeks ago. The intense playoff rivalry that Berlin and Frankfurt took center stage as Alba Berlin won the last playoff battle in 2011 winning in 5 games in Frankfurt, but this season´s series had an extra appetizer with the duel of the two Jordan´s. Both Jordan Theodore and Jordan Taylor who belong to the top point guards in the Beko BBL as the latter had a 2-1 record head to head this season, but the Taylor still had semi bragging rights over Theodore as he had won the last minute shooting battle in the cup semi-final in Munich propelling Alba Berlin to the final while Frankfurt had to wait for that next opportunity while Theodore got him back a few weeks ago in Berlin with a 80-63 win to even the head to head battle at 2-1. In their fourth head to head meeting, it was Theodore that got the best of Taylor as he led the Fraport Skyliners with 19 points past Alba Berlin 83-64 as Alba Berlin and Taylor had massive difficulty all night long coming to terms with the Frankfurt aggressive defense. Important for the Fraport Skyliners was that the club was able to get down from their Fiba Europe Cup title and get back to business with the Mission Beko BBL title 2016. “We got revenge on Alba Berlin a few weeks ago, but Taylor has the cup trophy. Coach preached this week that we have to stay professional. The last thing that we wanted to do was serve up an egg in game one. We had fun for two days and on Wednesday we were focused at the task at hand. We knew that it would be a tough game. Alba Berlin is a gritty team that plays physical, gets rebounds and loose balls. We were ready for them and left it all on the court. I was focused 100% and since it´s my first playoffs, I want to show the people that I can play. Every guy contributed and when we play as a collective unit then we are hard to beat”, stressed Fraport Skyliners guard Jordan Theodore. Alba Berlin will have to go back to the drawing board, because if they don´t find a way to score more consistently then their summer could already start next weekend. “Frankfurt hit a lot of shots and there wasn´t a lot that we could do. We didn´t get consistent stops on defense. They wanted it more than we did”, stressed Alba Berlin guard Rob Lowery.

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The Miles Basketball Minute: 2016 Beko BBL Playoff Preview: FC Bayern Munich-MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg 3-1

Can three be a charm this season for head coach John Patrick and the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg? It really doesn´t matter where MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg head coach John Patrick has coached in the last nine years in Germany, whatever team he was in charge of, he made better a feat which isn´t necessarily self-evident. With BG Goettingen, he made a second division team into a genuine Beko BBL team that made the playoffs on a regular basis and crowned his existence there with the 2010 Eurchallenge win. In all his time there, he had lesser known players and NCAA players that he groomed and one into a Euroleague player with Taylor Rochestie. He also discovered current Fraport Skyliner John Little and brought him to Goettingen as a rookie and today is the only player to have won two German international club titles. Next he moved to Bavaria and coached the s.Oliver Baskets Wurzburg which was a huge project at the time made it into another playoff team that defeated top team Alba Berlin in the 2011 playoffs and gave him in a short time legendary status. His possibly biggest challenge was saving the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in the 2012-2013 season keeping them in the Beko BBL coming in as a fireman and then in the last two years forming playoff teams that annoyed FC Bayern Munich and the Brose Baskets Bamberg. With Ludwigsburg, the experienced coach has had the best talent ever far eclipsing what he had to work with in Goettingen and Wurzburg the last two seasons as having an NBA player on the floor at all times like with Coby Karl, DJ Kennedy and Mustafa Shakur was about as typical in any game as seeing Jon Brockman hauling down an offensive rebound with his undeniable physicality. However in the last two seasons, the club just didn´t have that extra piece to the puzzle to get over the hump against FC Bayern Munich losing 3-1 in the quarterfinals two years ago and last year being swept by the Brose Baskets Bamberg, but playing them tough losing by eight points twice and once with five points. Now Patrick and co have that rematch again with FC Bayern Munich that at times are like night and day as they can stink up the arena and lose to a poor team like the Mitteldeutscher BC and on the next game manhandle the Brose Baskets Bamberg. Ludwigsburg played FC Bayern Munich very tough two seasons ago and Patrick surely can still remember that series where they had to replay a game. Can the MHP Riesen seek revenge and make the upset this season with the personal and character on the team?

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Brandon Lockhart (Giants Nordlingen) The Bond We Had On And Off The Court Is What I Will Remember Most About This Team

Brandon Lockhart is a 25 year old 185cm guard from St Louis, Missouri that is playing hiss econd professional season and first with German team Giants Nordlingen. AS a rookie he played for BK Levicki Patrioti (Slovakia-Extraliga) playing 34 games: Score-5(16.7ppg), 3.8rpg, Assists-5(4.3apg), Steals-1(3.0spg), FGP: 50.2%, 3PT: 28.5%, FT: 78.9%. He played at Drury (NCAA2) from 2009-2013 and as a senior played 35 games averaging 12.5ppg, 3.9rpg, 6.1apg, 2.9spg, FGP: 50.9%, 3PT: 48.3%, FT: 77.1%. He spoke to German Hoops after the tough 78-77 loss to Ehihgen ending his season.

Thanks Brandon for talking to German Hoops. A tough 78-77 loss to Ehingen to end the season. Head coach Mario Matic told me 5 hours before tip off that he was very confident that his team would win. How confident did the team feel that it would give a lot better effort then in game one?

We knew that it would be an extremely tough game because Ehingen is a really talented team. Our confidence was pretty high because we believed that we would play better in game two. Also knowing that we would be playing at home provided us with more confidence.

I could say that I would rather lose by 20-30 points, but at the end of the day, a loss is a loss. So however you lose that leads to your season ending is going to be a tough pill to swallow.

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Jordan Taylor (Alba Berlin) Nobody Expects Us To Win Except Us So I Feel Like We Don´t Have Pressure Going Into The Frankfurt Series

Jordan Taylor is a 26 year old 187cm point guard from Bloomington, Minnesota playing his forth professional season and first with Alba Berlin. He started his basketball career at Wisconsin(NCAA) in 2008 where he played until 2012 reaching two NCAA Sweet 16´s and played a total of 136 NCAA games. As a senior he played 36 games averaging 14.8ppg, 3.8rpg, 4.1apg, 1.0spg, FGP: 42.6%, 3PT: 36.9%, FT: 78.5%. He started his professional career in 2012 with Virtus Roma (Italy-SerieA) where he played until 2014. Last season he played with Hapoel Holon (Israel-Winner League) playing 37 games: 14.4ppg, 2.9rpg, 4.8apg, Steals-4(1.9spg), FGP: 42.6%, 3PT: 37.0%, FT: 73.9%. He won the 2016 Beko BBL cup title with Alba Berlin earlier this season and spoke with German Hoops before game one against the Fraport Skyliners in Frankfurt.

Thanks Jordan for taking some time to talk to German Hoops. When you look out your hotel room does the skyline of Frankfurt remind you a bit of Bloomington, Minnesota?

Yes a little bit.

If someone had told you before the season started that two Jordan´s you and Jordan Theodore would already have a title combined before the start of the playoffs what would you have thought?

I wouldn´t have thought to much about it so early in the season. But then again he and I have very big expectations to always want to win. I have known Jordan since he was 13, so us having won two titles already hasn´t been so much a surprise.

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The Miles Basketball Minute: 2016 Beko BBL Quarterfinal Playoff Preview Fraport Skyliners-Alba Berlin 3-0

It isn´t always easy to shift gears going from one extreme to the other, but some teams have that ability to go from being at the top to having to refocus and get mentally ready for the next task at hand. A team like the Brose Baskets Bamberg for a time a few years ago were able to win cup and league titles in the same season with ease the way Fraport Skyliner MIke Morrison can erupt in the paint area with dunks like a lost Lion from the Tampa, Florida Zoo does when his evening meal is a few minutes late. From a span from 2009-2012 the Brose Baskets Bamberg were able to accomplish this feat with bravery winning the double league and cup and always being able to hold that unbelievable hungriness that you only see with top teams. The Fraport Skyliners don´t have that club history like Bamberg has as it took them 12 years to win that next title after their last one in 2004, whereas Bamberg has won 10 titles in that span which could make even the most calm Freak city fan a bit full. However with the Fraport Skyliners just having won the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup title in Chalon, France over Italian team Varese, they didn´t have a few months to recover and then have to play the playoffs, but actually had only 6 days to get off their momentary peak and be ready to be plucking mode as next on the menu are the Albatross bird or otherwise known as top team Alba Berlin. Of course when a team like the Fraport Skyliners have fought and played a superb season in the Fiba cup Europe Cup where they went 18-1, it is only normal that they celebrate with style. Celebrating the high class way started with the normal post game clowning around with the trophy and medals and Frankfurt might have even started a new trend with posing the selfie´s not only with the hardware, but also being caught in the netting of the rim the way a flounder is in a fiserman´s net off the coast of Cape Cod. The partying went on in the the night until morning where it continued with the train ride home where the last thing that was on anybody´s mind at that juncture was how to control Jordan Taylor the following weekend. Upon arrival in Frankfurt, the team had a gathering at a local TV station in the evening where they could tell for the 100^th time what it felt like to have won an international title. The next day followed further team appointments and an official party at night with the fans where they all met and marched to city hall together. After two days of doing the title rounds, Fraport Skyliners head coach Gordon Herbert had the first scheduled practice on tap for Wednesday giving the team three days to prepare for the very hungry Alba Berlin team that had scheduled a short training camp during the time where Frankfurt was telling stories how they wrote history while a Jordan Taylor might have been studying film on how to control a Jordan Theodore when he makes his almost unstoppable speeding to the rim. The question is now can the Fraport Skyliners be able to get back to the basketball office again on the ground instead of being in basketball heaven sipping champagne from the Fiba Europe Cup trophy? If Gordon Herbert needed advice, he probably could have dialed up Chris Fleming in Denver or Jordan Theodore who seems to know every living basketball player or at least someone who knows a guy that could give him the number of ex Bamberg guard Casey Jacobsen in Phoenix. At least these two Bamberg legends should be able to give the guiding words for them How to refocus successfully again.

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Johannes Richter Muscles The Fraport Skyliners Juniors Past Ehingen 77-72 in Game One Of Pro B Final

One of the most difficult things for a professional team that carries double license players is when the two teams have conflicting schedules that hit each other at the same time. When that does happen, it is never an easy task for the head coach to juggle changing rosters. For Fraport Skyliners Juniors head coach Eric Detlev having to confront these problems has been something of getting used to, but since his arrival in 2012, he has had enough practice trying to master it. Recently the club had that problem and were chewed up and spit out in Weissenhorn 107-38 where one may have thought from the score that it was men playing among elderly men. However sometimes even in a brief time, you can learn from your mistakes and come back the next time under similar circumstances and play with a lot more spirt, heart and possibly hitting a few more shots and witness eye popping results. Last weekend, Beko BBL team Fraport Skyliners were on the road in Chalon, France looking to win their third club title, while the Pro B team Frankfurt Juniors were looking to move into the final with a win in Dresden. With the danger of getting an injury, it was no secret that Gordon Herbert would take every available player and did with Johannes Richter, Max Merz and Tomas Dimsa who weren´t available to the pro B team. Having these players in France left Eric Detlev a depleted team in Dresden that have one of the best crowds in the league. Guys like Niklas Kiel and Stefan Ilzhoefer who contributed to the Fiba Europe Cup success playing 4 games surely had Chalon in their thoughts at one time or another, but blocked that out in Dresden and stepped up with the team winning 96-94. What made the win even more spectacular was that despite having a 22 point lead in the second half and then letting Dresden come back and cut the lead down to two points with under a minute to go, they buckled down and won the game. Ilzhoefer, Kiel and co were the hero´s of Dresden while 24 hours later, the organization was celebrating the hero´s of Chalon as they took the cup back to Germany. In the Pro B final which is a two game series, the hero´s of Chalon were in the stands cheering on the hero´s of Dresden, but they had to play against the powerful Ehingen team that had swept the Giants Nordlingen in the semi-finals. The Fraport Skyliners Juniors knew that they had to lay the foundation in game one, if they were to have any chance in game two and were able to muster a 77-72 victory. “It was a tough game. We went on a run in the first quarter and they did in the second quarter. It came down to the last five minutes where some balls went our way and we came out with the five point win. Johannes Richter carried us and played great. They gave him 3-4 dribbles and all he had to do was flip the ball in the basket. They let him play like that and we gladly took it”, stressed Fraport Skyliners Juniors guard Travis Thompson. Even if Ehingen lost by five points, all they have to do in game two to win the 2016 Pro B title is win by more than five points and probably will not have to face Richter who will be on the bench in Frankfurt against Alba Berlin in game one of the Beko BBL playoffs. “It was a great game and Frankfurt was very physical. We knew that they have a very good big man with Richter and good guard play. We tried to limit the touches of Richter, but he played smart and strong”, added Ehingen guard Devon Moore.

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