Teamcheck: Telekom Baskets Bonn

Bonn supporters had been enjoying a lot of sweet victories over the years. And they had, as a four times German vice-champion, bonnwitnessed bitter losses. Still, when the last remaining seconds on the clock ticked away in BBL Finals Game 5 on 25th of July and EWE Arena erupted in joy after a furious Oldenburg comeback, back from three down and Bonn playmaker EJ Rowland at the free throw line with 23 seconds to go, it was harder than ever for Bonn fans to swallow (video Game 5). After all, it was the first time they had actually believed that the championship could be theirs.

Under the guidance of Croatian Bruno Soce and Bosnian Predrag Krunic – the one that led Oldenburg to their first championship, quite ironically – as Soce’s successor, Bonn had been playing entertaining, high-level basketball for several years, however, their rosters were mentally fragile at times and never seemed to make a serious push towards a league championship. The big crash came in 2004/2005, when an extremely talented but unbalanced roster missed the playoffs for the first [and so far last] time in club history. Krunic was fired, yet Bonn decided to continue their philosophy and engaged Danijel Jusup, a Croat who had been coaching almost exclusively in his home country. Jusup put together a questionable roster, and it is safe to say that his way of handling players – a young rookie coming right of college, Jason Conley, in particular – did not make him a lot of friends. Things were heading into the wrong direction, and Bonn corrected their offseason mistake by releasing Jusup and trusting his assistant, Michael Koch, one of the most successful German basketball players of all times, with the headcoach duties. Koch, a rookie head coach, quickly installed a winning mentality. Moving Michael Meeks proved as crucial as the acquisition of Terry Black, who added some much needed athleticism to the roster. Koch managed to reach the playoffs with a roster he would never have had put together himself and his team put up a huge fight – literally – in the postseason versus champions Bamberg.

(more…)

A Basketball Moment From Los Angeles With Ex Skyliner Travon Bryant

Travon Bryant (206-F-83, agency: Octagon, college: Missouri) is a 26 year old 206 cm forward that is a skilled combination lefty forward BBLthat has a nice shooting touch from 10-15 feet, and is strong enough to maneuver in the paint in traffic and with his back to the basket. He comes from Long Beach, California and played at The Univeristy of Missouri from 2000-2004 with skilled players like Linas Kleiza, Rickey Paulding, Jason Conley and Jimmy McKinney.

In his senior year, he played 30 games averaging 10.6ppg, 6.6rpg, 1.7apg. In his five year career, he has taken a liking to the warm climate of Greece playing there for four years. In 2004-2005, he played for Iraklis Thessaloniki playing FIBA Europe League averaging 11.6ppg, 7.7rpg, 1.0apg, 0.9spg, FGP: 52.7%, 3Pts: 25%; and playing 26 games in the Greek league averaging 10.2ppg, 6.3rpg, 1.0apg, 2FGP: 48.0%, 3FGP: 31.0%.

In 2005-2006, he played for AO Kolossos Rodo playing 24 games and averaging 14.5ppg, 7.4rpg, 1.3apg, 1.1spg, 1.1bpg, 2FGP: 52.0%, 3PT: 41.0%, FT: 66.0%. After the season ended in Greece, he hopped over to Italy and helped Benetton Treviso win the Italian league title averaging 16 games: 4.6ppg, 2.6rpg.

In 2006-2007, he played in the BBL for the Deutsche Bank Skyliners playing 28 games and averaging 14.7ppg, Reb-5 (7.8rpg), 1.8apg, 1.1spg, 2FGP: 54.7%, 3FGP: 28.6%, FT: 61.7%. In 2007-2008, he jumped back to Greece and played for Costa Cafe Marousi playing FIBA EuroCup averaging 15.0ppg, 6.0rpg, 1.0apg, 1.5spg, 1.0bpg, 2FGP: 55.6%, 3PT: 33.3%, FT: 53.8%; and playing 22 games in the Greek league averaging 10.3ppg, 5.1rpg, 1.0apg, 2FGP: 62.0%, 3PT: 34.0%, FT: 52.0%. He also reached the Greek final in the playoffs playing 13 games and averaging 7.2ppg, 4.9rpg, 1.2apg, 2FGP: 60.0%, 3PT: 62.0%, FT: 62.0%. Last season, he played for AEK Athens playing 24 games and averaging 11.9ppg, Reb-5 (7.1rpg), 1.1apg, FGP: 53.8%, 3PT: 19.0%, FT: 75.4%.

German Hoops caught up with Travon Bryant (206-F-83, agency: Octagon, college: Missouri) who is currently working out in Los Angeles and still looking for a team for the upcoming season.

(more…)

Jerome’s diary entry #8: Rivalry, but also friends!

Rivalry! It couldn`t be better than having a home game at 7:30pm on a Saturday night. You got to love it, that is what our assistant coach bridgewaterteampicAdemola Olatunde told us. I met up with my fomrer team-, classmate and friend Andi Kronhardt. We had a nice pregame talk. Also a lot of trash talking was going on like basketball players always do. I’m gonna dunk on you. Three pointer in your face, Block the s§§t outta you etc.
Well, we both headed t o the locker room at the same time. I could feel a little bit nerovsity today. The gym was much more crowded than yesterday. I guess a thousand people. Well, it was the first test for us and me against a 1.Bundesliga team. Former Ulmer player Romeo Travis got booed very badly at the players presentation.

(more…)

Teamcheck: Walter Tigers Tuebingen

Since coming into the BBL in 2004-2005, the Walter Tigers Tuebingen have been treading water in the BBL middle standings and at times Tigersscrapping the deregulation area. The best finish of the club was 2006-2007 as they finished in 10th place. The Tigers have been more a harmless creature that seems to have their mouth sealed with little power escaping instead of showing their absolute unconquerable qualities of a tiger on the court.

The team has been known for developing  a healthy fan base and letting guys like Rasko Katic and AJ Moye (his first year) develop into top BBL players, but then again also have gone the usual BBL route of signing an abundance of Americans and closing an eye for further developing German players and the organization also has been prone to getting involved with minor scandals like in 2006 with Tamien Trent and Mike Moten who were banned by the German basketball federation following  a drug test. Making the jump to the BBL is not easy and if one were to ask experts in the Tuebingen surrounding, one would always hear three things. A lack of management know how, a slim budget and not getting the right mix of players. Ex coach Tolga Öngören came in the middle of the 2007-2008 season and started getting the team in a right direction.

(more…)

Jerome’s diary entry #7: First Home Game

bridgewaterteampicGame day! We would face the Austrian Champ Wels today. We have had a good shoot around this morning. Mike put at the end of practice a 10 Euro bill at the halfcourt line. And said first who is going to make a half court shot gets the 10 euros. We are shooting in an order. I was seventh though. Everybody in front of me was very close. Now it was my turn. Can you imagine, I just swooshed it in, did not even touch the rim at all. History in the making. I made the first half court shot of this new and young ratiopharm Ulm team. I felt honoured.

I have had a lot of time between practice and the game. We had to be in the gym at 6pm.

Wels wouldn`t be an easy test. Their Point Guard Moore used to play with Rip Hamilton at UConn and everybody knows that UConn won a championship with Rip Hamilton. They also had Jason Conley on the wing, and some guy who was playing at Illinois.

(more…)

Jerome Bridgewater Diary Entry #6 Prince

We have had a nice practice week after our road win in Munich. Now we are getting prepared and ready for the weekend. We are going to bridgewaterteampicplay our Fritz and Maciol Cup in Ulm. Facing the current Austrian Champion Wels and also Ulm`s biggest rival Walter Tigers Tübingen. I cannot really wait until this tournament will start. Per headed back to Ulm this week. Although he is injured he seems alright. I thought he would be very down and disappointed at this moment. A couple guys of us had a lot of meetings and events going on.

We have had a player presentation on Thursday night in front of our sponsors. We got introduced to our fans and sponsors. It was very nice and we had a lot of fun as a team. The announcer asked me a couple questions and then asked me, that he had heard that I like to listen to Prince.

(more…)

Grayson Moyer Is Looking To Shed Image That NCAA2 Players Are Second Rate

More often than not a player who is going through the rigors of NCAA 2 basketball might secretly be dreaming of lacing up the sneakers for a professional team, but would never openly admit it or actually be living the fairy tale. For Cum Laude mastermind, Grayson Moyer from Humboldt State, he didn´t have the affliction of having to choose what business firm to work for after experiencing a rookie season of hell in the ABA, but moreover saw a second chance of learning complex playbooks and managing his day as a basketball professional in the BBL.

His future was a bit suspect this summer after his ordeal in Alaska, but he kept a positive spirit and his hard work and focus paid off as the Deutsche Bank Skyliners signed him.

“I just kept working as hard as I could in the camps and I never thought that I would get a situation as good as this in Frankfurt. I am simply ecstatic right now”, declared Grayson Moyer.

(more…)

Jerome Bridgewater Diary Entry #5: Game Vs Bayern Munich

Today we were heading to Munich to play our next test game against Bayern München. We were travelling in a comfortable 23-seat bus. bridgewaterteampicWe got there 2 hours before the game. The tip-off was at 8pm. So we had plenty of time to get loose, goof around a little bit. With 35 minutes until the game started we started to warm up. The floor was very nice and soft. It seemed easy for me to get up. But I couldn´t keep up with Rocky, Cole and Christian. They did some hilarious dunks. Talking about 360 windmills, off the back board windmill and much more. It seemed like everybody was ready for the game.

Sebastian Betz was also back in action and he seemed very comfortable at the warm ups. No signs of pain. The gym wasn`t very crowded. It was nice to see some Ulm fans in the gym. I did not know much about the Bayern munich roster and was very surprised when I saw Robert Maras, a former German national player, in the gym. He is a 7-footer. He doesn`t look that tall thou like I always imagined. But I felt very honored to get the opportunity to play against him. Well to be honest, I didn`t expect to get any playing time, since I was struggling the last game a little bit on defense. And my lastest performance in practice wasn`t cheerful. My goal for this game to bring a lot of energy from the bench and be aggressive on the defensive end and not to get beat easily.

(more…)

Teamcheck: MEG Goettingen

If you would have asked the 18 managers of the BBL teams before the 2008-2009 BBL season, which team would be a top the standings at goettingenthe Allstar break, I am sure no one would have predicted that MEG Goettingen would be there, but they were. A spectacular result like this could be comparable to unimposing Formula One racer Nelson Piquet junior as if he had come from nowhere to win 3-4 races and be challenging a Lewis Hamilton or Kimi Raikkonen near the top of the drivers list. Nobody had expected this bunch of relatively unknown players to be so strong and dominate the league. It was refreshing and something that was positive for the BBL. At times it seemed like the Goettingen players had to pinch themselves just to be certain that it was not all a dream:

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure, you read enough of the papers and listen to what people say about you, you can really start to believe that maybe “Gottingen was lucky that day” or maybe our opponent did “just have a bad shooting day.” But Ben Jacobson and John Patrick did a good job at having everyone on the same page and working hard everyday and we eventually realized that winning was an attitude and we should go into every game expecting to win with the way we play”, stressed American Jason Boone.

(more…)

That Was No George Foreman Sighting In Paderborn, But Really Nate Gerwig

Nate Gerwig (206-F/C-83, college: Kent St.) is a 26 year old 206cm center that grew up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He played at Kent BBLLogoState from 2001-2006. He was unable to play the 2003-2004 season on account of being a medical redshirt. In his senior year, he played 32 games averaging 6.4ppg, 3.9rpg, FGP: 58.0%, FT: 58.1%.

In the 2006-2007 season he turned professional playing for Porvoon Tarmo (Korisliiga) in 22 games and averaging 2.9ppg, 2.6rpg. In the 2007-2008 season, he returned back to the States and played in the D League for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants playing 40 games and averaging 3.6ppg, 5.9rpg, FGP: 49.6%, FT: 49.1%. Last season, he played his first season in Germany in the PRO A for BV Chemnitz 99 playing 30 games and averaging 15.6ppg, 8.5rpg, 1.7apg, 1.0spg, FGP: 65.0%, FT: 61.8%. He spoke to German Hoops during training camp.

(more…)