Brandon Lockhart (I Feel Like I Can And I Definitely Want To Play In The Pro A)

Brandon Lockhart is a 26 year old 185cm guard from St Louis, Missouri that completed his third professional season and first with German team ScanPlus Baskets Elchingen (Germany-ProB) averaging 12,0ppg, 3,8rpg and 6,2apg. 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%. Last season he played for the Giants TSV 1861 Noerdlingen (Germany-ProB) playing 29 game averaging 16.8ppg, 4.1rpg, 5.7apg, 2.5spg, FGP: 49.6%, 3PT: 26.8%, FT: 81.1%. He spoke to German Hoops at the end of the season.

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Miles Schmidt-Scheuber interviewing ScanPlus Baskets point guard Brandon Lockhart after a loss against the Fraport Skyliners Juniors in Frankfurt

Brandon thanks for talking to German Hoops. Congrats on a big season where you fell short in a do or die game in the semi-finals. How hard has it been digesting this season end since you were one win away from the Pro A?

It’s always tough to digest a loss, even more so one that ends your season. But I’ve had some time to cope with it and will now just use it as motivation to prepare for next season.

You played a hard fought series against Wurzburg and went the distance against PS Karlsruhe as well. Do you feel like the Wurzburg series took a toll on the team going into the PS Karlsruhe series?

Wurzburg was a tough team, but I do not think that series had any effect on the PSK series because we had enough time to recover.

The 92-75 score in game three was a little deceiving as there wasn´t much that separated the two teams in many statistical categories. What do you feel decided this series?

In the final game, the second quarter really was the turning point in the game. They came out with a ton of energy to build a big lead and from that point on, we were always just trying to get back in the game. Kudos to them because they never allowed us to make the game interesting.

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Brian Butler (ScanPlus Baskets) Free Throws Are Still A Work In Progress

Brian Butler is a 25 year old 196cm German forward that completed his second season with the ScanPlus Baskets Elchingen (ProB) averaging 10,9ppg, 6,9rpg and 1,9apg. He started his basketball career with the  FC Bayern Muenchen junior team (NBBL) and then moved to  BG Illertal/Weissenhorn (ProB) where he played from 2010-2013 playing a total of 74 Pro B games. He then played two seasons with Erdgas Ehingen/Urspringschule (ProA) playing 65 Pro A games. He spoke to German Hoops after the conclusion of the 2016-2017 Pro B season.

Brian thanks for talking to German Hoops. Congrats on a big season where you fell short in a do or die game in the semi-finals. How hard has it been digesting this season end since you were one win away from the Pro A?

Yeah it’s tough because like you already said we were only 40 minutes away from the Pro a A, but we have to see the positive things that we accomplished and our goal was to stay in the league and to make the playoff. And we even made it to the semifinals which we didn’t make last year .

You played a hard fought series against Wurzburg and FC Schalke going the distance and then went the distance against PS Karlsruhe as well. Do you feel like the Wurzburg and Schalke series took a toll on the team going into the PS Karlsruhe series?

I don’t know it could be but I don’t want to look for excuses. I think PSK had a good team and we had a good team and it could’ve gone out either way. And what also was a factor in my opinion was the home court advantage. I think at home we were a different team than on the road !

The 92-75 score in game three was a little deceiving as there wasn´t much that separated the two teams in many statistical categories. What do you feel decided this series?

Like I already said I think in this series the homecourt advantage was a big factor!

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Terence Smith (I Brought A Lot To The Table Even In Games I Wasn’t Scoring)

Terence Smith is a 25 year old 191cm guard from Russellville, Alabama that completed his rookie season in Germany with the Giants Nordlingen averaging 17,6ppg, 5,2rpg and 3,8apg. He started his basketball career with Tenn-Martin (NCAA) in 2010 playing 84 NCAA games in three seasons averaging double figures in scoring each season with his junior year being his most productive where he averaged 14.8ppg, 3.6rpg, 2.8apg, FGP: 42.4%, 3PT: 44.4%, FT: 82.1%. He played his last year of school with Mississippi (NCAA) playing 33 games averaging 4.0ppg, 1.2rpg, 1.7apg. He spoke to German Ho opsat the conclusion of the 2016-2017 season.

 

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Miles Schmidt-Scheuber interviewing Terence Smith after he dropped 26 points in a 83-59 loss to the Fraport Skyliners Juniors

Terence thanks for talking to German HoopsYou have completed your rookie season with the Giants Nordlingen which ended in the team moving down to the Regionaliga. Was the last close loss to the Uni-Riesen Leipzig a game you should have won synonymous of how your season went?

We lost a lot of close games this season, but I like the way our team continued to fight till the end.

In our last interview at the end of the regular season you stated this in terms of the team wanting to stay in the league after the playdowns. “We will leave it all on the court and try our best to end the season on a good note”. Nordlingen had a 2-4 record in the playdowns. Did the team leave on the floor in the last 6 games?

Yes, I felt that we started to play better towards the end of the season and ended up splitting with the teams in the playdowns.

Nordlingen went into the playdowns playing their best basketball, but had a poor playdown record of 2-4. Did the fact that you were playing against big odds to stay in the league mentally effect the team?

A lot of it was out of our control so we were just focused on us.

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Will Sharp Shooter Kyle Kuric And FC Bayern Munich Become A Fit?

A day before game 3 between the Brose Baskets Bamberg and FC Bayern Munich, CEO Marko Pesic was displaying a friendly, but somewhat cautious smile in the Fraport arena after he witnessed the blowout win of his NBBL team against the Young Rasta Dragons as he knew that getting too confident about possibly getting that only club title of the season at the youth level was too early  since the BBL team had a do or die game 24 hours later in Bamberg in hopes of saving their season. Instead the next day Pesic witnessed the third playoff loss to their archrivals in three years and second sweep in a row as he possibly was hoping for the NBBL magic of Frankfurt in the final where they destroyed IBAM would somehow have miraculously carried over to Bamberg.  Or if Devin Booker who had had a solid game of 13 points, six rebounds and four assists could have inherited that major beast mode game of NBBL player Marko Pecarski who averaged 26,9ppg and 15,6rpg at the European Championships U16 in Radom (Poland) which most likely would have got FC Bayern Munich over the hump and forced a game four in Munich. But then again maybe it wasn´t so much that beast mode that was needed, but moreover that deadly sniper as the club couldn´t muster anything from downtown in game one shooting 2/16 and 3/21 in game three. Kyle Kuric could be that sniper and more that FC Bayern Munich was missing to help have gotten them by Bamberg.

No season is fully satisfying for any FC Bayern Munich club if the league title isn´t achieved. Maybe it´s something extra special that the football players are being served for meals that has made them so successful winning the last 5 Bundesliga titles, but then again one can´t deny the fact that the budgets that both have and what kind of players they can reel in just isn´t comparable, because if the basketball department had the money that the football team had, then you would have a starting five of top Euroleague players.

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Marko Pecarski Owns The Paint Leading FC Bayern Munich To 2017 NBBL Title Overpowering IBAM 94-71

The 2017 NBBL final was not even 30 minutes old and if one was roaming the catacombs in the Fraport arena, one would have observed intense sadness as IBAM players had their heads sunk low and others were feeling the sorrow even more like Johannes Klughardt as it was sinking in slowly. 19 year old Klughardt who started his career with TUS Uhrspringschule was in tears and was hugging his teammates like a 8 year old would their parents with that first overnight summer camp departure. He had made a clutch jumper and steal in the last minute to secure the IBAM win against Alba Berlin in the semi-final and the final was the last game for the German in the NBBL with this special group of guys as many will be too old to compete in the NBBL next season. Not only was Klughardt unhappy with the 94-71 NBBL final defeat at the hands of FC Bayern Munich as he also let some frustration out on an empty plastic bottle lying on the floor, but also his teammate 16 year old 186cm shooting guard and game changer Joshua Obiese who had a great semi-final game from the bench against Alba Berlin was feeling the grief of playing a last time with a very unusual  group of guys and was near tears as he described playing that last game with Stanford bound Oscar Da Silva. “This last game was very emotional for me. I had a very special relationship with Oscar. We spent a lot of time together training together a lot during the afternoons. It is really hard to let go”, stressed Joshua Obiese. However for some fellows the frustration and down period after a tough loss escapes a mind quicker as others like Oscar Da Silva was already in future mode as he had an intense talk with German U-18 head coach Alan Ibrhimagic for about 10 minutes listening about how he should prepare for the summer national team time and one could of orchestrated a wet tee shirt contest next to him or had Lebron James walk by him and the 18 year old would not have flinched or lost concentration with his matter at hand. The young German is all business and already has the type of strong mentality that will carry him far at the professional level. For Da Silva, it was just another big game with many more too follow as he produced 19 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and two steals and filled up the stat sheet like a Russell Westbrook. On the other side of the coin, the winners FC Bayern Munich were celebrating like no tomorrow, but one player won´t only remember the win, but also playing that last youth game against Da Silva. “It is always entertaining to play against Oscar. I never had as much fun as today as this was my first final. A guy like Oscar makes me so much better as you always have to play at a high level against him or you get eaten up”, warned FC Bayern Munich guard Nelson Weidemann.

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Miles Schmidt-Scheuber interviewing 2017 NBBL champion Marko Pecarski of FC Bayern Munich

The 2017 NBBL final was a tale of two halves as the fans saw a very balanced and even game in the first 20 minutes, but in the last half witnessed a fatigued IBAM team fall apart and be unable to withstand the constant FC Bayern Munich pressure on both ends of the floor. IBAM was fatigued and FC Bayern Munich knew that and used it to their full advantage.

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Karl Moore (Aguilas de Tunja) I Treat My Opponent As If They Are Taking Food From My Family Plate

Karl Moore is a 29 year old 203cm forward born in 1987 that is playing his third professional season with  Aguilas de Tunja (Colombia-Liga DirecTV) after completing the season with the Crailsheim Merlins 2 team where he averaged 25,9pp. Last season he played for Telstar Hesperange (Luxembourg-N2). As a rookie, he played for TV 1872 Saarlouis (Germany-ProB) where he played 28 games averaging 16.3ppg, 6.4rpg, 1.0spg, FGP: 60.7%, FT: 73.5%. He scored in double figures in 25 of 28 games including three double doubles. He scored 20 points or more eight times. His best scoring games was 28 points against Hanau and 27 points against BG Karlsruhe. He played college ball at Schoolcraft Community College (JUCO), Rio Grande(NAIA), and Culver Stockton (NAIA). He spoke to German Hoops about his season with the Crailsheim Merlins 2 team and new basketball adventure in Columbia.

Karl thanks for talking to German Hoops. You could be home in Detroit enjoying late spring, but instead earning additional money in Columbia. How good is life at the moment?

You’re welcome Miles. It’s always a pleasure doing interviews with you. I remember one night back in the year of 2014, I spent over eight hours on eurobasket searching for agents and coaches to contact for an opportunity. Here we are three years later doing our fourth interview together. Getting back to the question that you asked, life for me at this moment is going well. I serve an awesome God, He may not have been there when I wanted him, but He was always there on time.

Before we get to your next basketball adventure in South America, let us look back to your season in Germany. You played with TSV Crailsheim Merlins 2nd team (Germany-2.Regionalliga). Were you satisfied with your season? You averaged 25,9ppg?

Yes, I was satisfied with my season in Crailsheim. I came there and did what they paid me to do, which was to lead their team to a championship. It was no surprise to me being the league leading scorer. All season long during our days off from practice, I was either in the weight room or outside running 18 miles per week. It felt good seeing the sacrifices such as those pay off.

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Ron Howard Is The Basketball Mr Everything That Gives Unknown Players Hope With His Howard Hoops Opportunity

If you’re a German basketball fan and primarily follow the easyCredit BBL, you surely will be able to easily find the arena´s in big cities like Berlin and Munich, but if your driving through the beautiful countryside of Germany and town hoping, you may not necessarily know if that place has a professional basketball team if you aren´t caught up with the lower leagues like the Regionalliga, second Regionalliga or Oberliga. You won´t find the same caliber of players in these lower leagues then you would in the easyCredit BBL where guys like Rickey Paulding, Bryce Taylor and Quantez Robertson have become the identity players of the league and why people come to watch games. Very often it is these import players in German lower leagues that have some kind of special story and have made their dream come true usually coming from a lower college league, but not necessarily giving less than the BBL players, but often having a special kind of heart that only these type of players can have, because they never had an easy journey to get to the professional level. One of these guys is Ronald Howard. Three years ago, one could of discovered him earning a living playing in the Regionaliga in Limburg in a small school gym in front of not more than 300-400 people. At first glance, one may have thought that 196cm NBA star James Harden had gotten lost or secretly been loaned out for a game, but with closer scrutiny one would of seen the 15cm difference as it really was Ron Howard even if his goatee made him a dead ringer for Harden, but only if one was at more of a distance away. The American is quick to point out what he likes and dislikes about Harden and that having a goatee has nothing to do with him. “I think James is a good offensive player but he doesn’t play defense and that is what I can’t stand about James. Best PG in the league is tough for me because I don’t watch the NBA much because I love Euroleague but I give it to Kyrie that boy knows how to win and as a PG he must know how to be a winner. I grew my goatee out because I´m Muslim”, stated Ron Howard. Even if Howard had played for some other German Pro B teams and in Romania, his professional career was never a cake walk, but one in that he witnessed what lesser known players really go through as making the professional level has many hardships and twists and turns that he somewhat tackled and conquered. Once his professional career ended in 2014, he knew right away, that it was his duty to try to make the professional route for other Americans easier.

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The first meeting between Miles Schmidt-Scheuber and Ron Howard in Limburg in 2013

Currently Howard is 32 and will be turning 33 in August and had a short professional career, but at least he can always boast that he was able to live the dream of playing overseas.

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Demetrius Ward (I’m Not A One Dimensional Player And Think I Can Make An Impact In The Pro A)

Demetrius Ward is a 26 year old 188cm guard from Detroit, Michigan that completed his fifth professional season with MTV Wolfenbuettel  Herzoege (Germany-ProB) averaging 19,0ppg, 6,4rpg and 4,2apg.. This was his fourth Pro B season with the club after having helped the team move back up from the Regionaliga last season where he played  21 games: 11.8ppg, 4.3rpg, 4.8apg, 1.8spg, FGP: 45.6%, 3PT: 34.2%, FT: 72.9%He played at Western Michigan from 2008-2012 playing a total of 129 NCAA games and as a senior played 31 games averaging 12.1ppg, 4.6rpg, 3.0apg, 1.2spg, FGP: 41.3%, 3PT: 31.5%, FT: 76.2%. He recently was promoted to player/coach and spoke to German Hoops after the completion of the 2016-2017 season. 

Demetrius thanks for talking to German Hoops Congrats on helping Wolfenbuettel stay in the Pro B. What kind of experience was it playing 6 pressure games this season in the playdowns compared to the playoff pressure from last season?

Hello Miles thanks for taking the time to do the interview. The experience was a lot different from last season being in the playoffs at the 2nd seed. We accomplished our goal by making the playoffs last season. This year we were unfortunately in the playdowns and had to play to stay in the league. Just coming from the 2nd spot in the north last season into the 10 spot this season was pretty difficult.

Wolfenbuettel played some fine basketball in the second half of the season beating playoff teams like Schalke, Bochum and Iserlohn. How disappointing was it not reaching the playoffs?

 Not making the playoffs was a hard pill to swallow. Throughout the season we showed how good we can be by beating some of the top teams in the league. We also showed how inconsistent we can be by losing to some of the team we should’ve beaten. Overall we didn’t have consistency to get us over that hump to make the playoffs.

Did Wolfenbuettel have a large chip on their shoulder going into the playdowns? You won four of your first five playdown games. You took care of business quickly.

Going into the playdowns we knew how close the teams were in comparison to points in how important each game was to stay in the league. We started clicking late toward the end of the season where we as a team played with good confidence.

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Quinton Mcduffie (Club Trujillo /Peru) I Grew So Much Mentally And Physically During My Time In Europe

Quinton Mcduffie is a 26 year old 197cm swing man originally from San Diego, California and on account of a military back round went to high school in Virginia and currently is playing for Club Trujillo (Peru-LNB). In the 2015-2016 season he played for  La Gallofa Cantbasket 04 (Spain-EBA). He played his rookie season for Portsmouth Cavaliers (APBL): 6 games: 24.6ppg, 6.0rpg, then moved to TLG-13 NGO S.Tulga (Mongolia-MBA) averaging 21.9ppg, 9.2rpg, then signed for Planeta-Universitet Ukhta (Russia-Superleague). Before turning professional he played for Va.Wesleyan (NCAA3), Alabama St. (NCAA) and Chowan (NCAA2) and as a rookie played 27 games averaging 14.6ppg, 4.8rpg, 1.1apg, FGP: 54.5%, 3PT: 30.0%, FT: 74.2%. German Hoops has spoken to Quinton in the past and it was time to check in on him again in Peru.

Quinton thanks for talking to German Hoops. Where are you at the moment and how content are you with your basketball life at the moment?

Thank you guys over at German Hoopsfor your continuous support over the years. I am Currently playing in the LNB, which is the top league in Peru. I am very satistified with my living arrangements and basketball life here in Peru. The people here are very generous and helpful.

You started the season with KK Radnicki Gorazde (Bosnia-D2), but left in pre season. Why was your stay so short?

 I spent the pre-season in Bosnia, which was a great experience, however the team was very young and at this point in my career I am trying to grow as a player on the court and I am looking to play alongside more experienced guys. I feel as though it will allow my game to develop

You have witnessed the last few years how difficult it is in general to find a team. Did experience with the process make the time finding a new team easier for you?

Yes, I feel as though the market is very hard to breakthrough, you must have patience and faith while you are going through the process of finding a job in this business. Without these two things, it´s very hard to continue to move forward.

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Quo vadis Alba Berlin?

After firing Ahmed Caki Alba Berlin looked desperate and noone thought they could compete with powerhouse FC Bayern Munich in the quaterfinals of the BBL Playoffs. But after a devestating loss in game 1 (95:68) Alba bounced back and made Bayern work extremely hard to reach the semifinals. Even though Alba Berlin ultimately lost 3-1 to Munich, the team somehow managed to win back the hearts of their supporters and earn the respect of the whole german basketball community.

Interim coach Thomas Päch, who took over after Caki was fired, brought back the spirit and passion the team lacked for most of the season. Alba’s twitter hashtag #mitleibundseele (transl.: with body and soul) finally made sense for the first time this season. One has to wonder why it took so long for the players to break free and play with the kind of energy and effort they showed against Munich. Was it all Caki’s fault that Alba struggled after a 7-game winning streak in December and never fully recovered throughout the season? First of all one has to mention that Ahmed Caki seemed very unfortunate as the team had to handle so many injuries over the course of the season. Just remember: Brandon Ashley, who should have been a keyplayer on Alba’s frontcourt, decided to leave the club before the season even started. Malcolm Miller broke his hand at the end of the preparation and missed the first nine games of the season. That’s two starters out before the season even started. When the team finally seemed to have found their rhythm Peyton Siva, with whom Alba had a 14-5 record, had to deal with a stubborn adductor injury that made him miss most of the second half of the season. Without Siva the team finished the BBL regular season with a miserable 4-9 record. Then just days before the start of the Playoffs Alba’s most important offensive player Dragan Milosavljević suffered a season-ending injury to his elbow. But bad luck aside, retrospectively hiring Caki seems like a big misunderstanding.

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