BasketballAid

The Bohannon Heidelberg Connection Sparks The Iowa Hawkeyes Past The Basketball Aid Allstars 99-65

One doesn´t always have to be in caught up in the playoffs of the NBA, Euroleague, or Endessa where one can witness great basketball in places like the Oracle arena in Oakland or the Wizink arena in Madrid or other leagues in Europe to be in the basketball zone in mind and be more than ecstatic about getting the full hot order on basketball, but one can also be trapped by desire in smaller venues in the dog days of summer in August like the OSP-Rhein-Necker gym in Heidelberg that seats 2000 people. On one side of the less modern arena where the benches are is a wall and seats no people. Any basketball spectator that has been used to the huge state of the art arena´s and were brought into the OSP Rhein-Necker gym blindfolded and turned towards the wall could of suffered a minor heart attack not knowing in what basketball calamity they had stumbled into. On August 8^th, the OSP-Rhein-Necker arena in Heidelberg was the focus of a very special basketball evening that showcased great basketball talent all for a good cause as the well known University of Iowa that was an NCAA finalist in 1956 and NIT finalist 2013 were at the start of a European tour that would also take them to Italy and Switzerland and were playing against a put together basketball team for one night called the Basketball Aid Allstars. The game was for a good cause as once again Basketball Aid which had organized a successful tour last summer had put together this special event with all procedes going to help the fight for children stricken with cancer.

Iowa has a young team and some big talent with guys like Tyler Cook, Isaiah Moss, Jordan Bohannon and Nicholas Baer not too mention senior Dominique Uhi who was making his homecoming as he hails from Frankfurt only 98 kilometers from the trendy tourist attraction city Heidelberg where he was in the Fraport Skyliners organization for a few years before making the jump to the States in 2012. The Basketball Aid Allstars were led by coach German basketball legend Pascal Roller and had some very talented young players like Fraport Skyliners Richard Freudenberg and Garai Zeeb or Lukas Wank from Wurzburg, but also the very experienced Alexsandar Nadjfeji who at age 40 still plays like he is 30 and won titles in Germany with Cologne and Berlin.

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Dominique Uhl (Iowa NCAA) Returns Home To Germany To Play against The Basketball Aid Allstars

Dominique Uhl is a 22 year old 206cm forward from Frankfurt, Germany that will be going into his senior year at the University of Iowa this fall. He started his basketball career with Eintracht Frankfurt and also played two seasons with the Fraport Skyliners Juniors from 2011-2012 playing 4 pro B games. He then decided to go to the states in 2012 and played two years at Point Pleasant Beach High School (New Jersey). He moved to the University of iowa in 2014 an din his three seasons there has played a total of 96 games. In his freshman year he played 32 games averaging 2.1ppg, 1.9rp. In his second year at Iowa (NCAA) he played 32 games averaging 5.9ppg, 3.5rpg, FGP: 39.8%, 3PT: 43.9%, FT: 59.3%. In his junior year at Iowa (NCAA), he played 32 games averaging 3.5ppg, 3.2rpg, 1.2apg. He currently is on a European tour with Iowa playing in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He spoke to German Hoops before a special exhibition game in Germany in support of Basketball Aid.

Dominique thanks for talking to German Hoops. Where are you at the moment and how has your summer been going along?

No problem, anytime. I’m at school right now and my summer has been good so far, I’ve been working on my game a lot as well as my body. I’m just focusing on getting back to the basics and strengthening my my fundamentals.

Recently your ex teammate Tim Oldenburg retired so he could focus on his police job. You practiced with him many years ago when you were in the Frankfurt organization and played one Pro B game against Giessen. Did you notice already then that he could become the back bone and leader for so many years for the Fraport Skyliners.

Tim has always been a great guy. Even back then it was noticeable that he had the skills that are necessary to be a leader, so I am not surprised at all. I’m sure he will be able to thrive in his new career and I wish him all the best.

You have been in the States now for five years and will be playing your final year at Iowa in 2017-2018. How Americanized have you become in these 5 years and what good German quality do you still hope to possess?

I have become very Americanized by now, on and of the court. People even forget that I am from Germany sometimes. However, I think I still have some german qualities in me such as being well organized and disciplined.

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After 40 Minutes There Will Only Be Winners As Iowa(NCAA) And The Basketball Aid Allstars Play For Cancer Stricken Kids

It isn´t like Jordan Bohannon isn´t engulfed by special basketball vibes each weekend when he enters into huge basketball buildings in the States when he is on NCAA duty battling the likes of Michigan State, Purdue, Ohio State or Seton Hall, but even during the dog days of summer and approximately 4,532 miles away from Iowa, the American will be presented with some NBA and brotherly vibes even if he doesn´t know it. When the American who hails from Marion, Iowa and could have called the University of Wisconsin a second home when he was younger sets foot in the tiny size OSP Rhein-Necker arena in Heidelberg, Germany that seats 2,000 on Tuesday it may seem like just any other ordinary gym with one side showcasing stands and the other side where the team´s benches are only a wall behind it, but in reality it will be more than that. The 20 year old 183cm point guard will be at the first stop of a summer basketball tour that will also take him and the Iowa Hawkeyes to the mountains and chocolate of Switzerland and to the pasta and wine of Italy. The first stop in Germany is a very special one as Iowa is taking part in a special event for the Basketball Aid organization that has been fighting against cancer that effects children since 2007 by giving awareness and having events where the proceeds go to cancer aid. As Bohannon and his teammates clash against a special put together Basketball Aid roster of mostly German professional players, the sophomore will have that special brotherly vibe following him all around the court as his brother Jason played for the then USC Heidelberg second division team that played in the OSC gym. He also will taste that NBA flair that is in the arena as current Chicago Bull Paul Zipser learned his basketball trade in this gym when he was a youth and actually was teammates with his brother Jason in the 2010-2011 season and played two games together at the end of the season where the German played two minutes scoring two points and the American tallied a total of 14 points in the two games. Another NBA aspect to this arena is that German basketball legend Pascal Roller will be coaching the Basketball Aid team. He had a stellar career winning 2 titles in Germany with the Frankfurt Skyliners and like Zipser started his career in this gym, but even better was a long time teammate of Dirk Nowitzki in the German national team that fed the Dallas Maverick in the post more times than Tyler Cook will ever dunk at Iowa. Now more than 6 years later Zipser is in the NBA, Jason Bohannon has retired from professional basketball and Jordan Bohannon is on the verge of continuing a very solid NCAA career. Basketball Aid international tour chairman Hans Beth was able to get a Maik Zirbes German national team jersey that was autographed by every member of the team and will be auctioned off at halftime.

On Tuesday August 8^th, the University of Iowa will meet the Basketball Aid allstars and the American team led by head coach Fran Mccaffery at Iowa since 2010 are coming off a season ending loss in the NIT Sweet 16 to TCU 94-92 and embarking on the 2017-2018 season with many returning players, some interesting new freshmen and needing to compensate the loss of top scorer Peter Jok.

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The BASKETBALL AID-All-STAR-Team meet The University Of Iowa

BASKETBALL AID International Tour 2017

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It was one of the sporting highlights of the last years and it was for a good cause. In the summer of 2016, the BASKETBALL AID International Tour toured through Germany and Luxemburg. They demonstrated attractive basketball at 6 places playing 9 exciting games against EasyCredit BBL, Pro A, Pro B teams as well as against the Luxemburg national team in front of thousands of fans gathering money for children stricken with cancer. 30,000 Euro and a huge wave of enthusiasm and support was the result of the project.

Peter Jok driving to the bucket who finished a stellar Iowa career playing 123 games and now is looking to start his professional basketball career

The BASKETBALL AID International Tour will continue at the start of August. During the University of Iowa´s European tour at the beginning of August, they will come to Germany on August eighth. The Hawkeyes who play in the highest American college league division one will meet a BASKETBALL AID All-STAR team at the Heidelberger arena at the Olympic base Rhein-Neckar(Im Neuenheimer Feld 710) at 20.00. The organizer of the game are German Pro A team MLP Academics Heidelberg with their CEO Matthias Lautenschläger.

This will be the University of Iowa´s only game in Germany as they will play other games in Switzerland against the Swiss national team and in Italy.

“We are very proud to have been able to win such a top university for the continuation of our project. The talks have been running since months”, stressed Hans Beth who is the chairman of the BASKETBALL AID International Tour. Beth and German basketball legend Pascal Roller who won a silver at the 2005 European championships with Germany will look after the opponent of the University of Iowa. “At the moment we are putting together an All-Star team from Germany and it will be an attractive game”, stressed Hans Beth. The game also has a very special meaning for the ex German national player Pascal Roller. I have been a member of BASKETBALL AID for many years and I am looking forward to being a part of this great event.

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Hans Beth Lives For Bringing Awareness To Basketball Aid

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Miles Schmidt-Scheuber doing play by play commentary in english at the 2016 Gezeiten Haus Cup in Rhondorf in support of the 2016 Basketball Aid international tour.

After two playoff appearances in a row and the Fiba Europe Cup title last season only the third club title in the 18 year history of the Fraport Skyliners, this rapid success of the team could have kept a good majority of fans content this season as that third playoff showing didn´t happen as the season was at best average. There weren´t too many highlights to remember this season for the 2004 BBL winner that one will take into dream land when one is stuck on the German autobahn in the dog days of summer wanting to reach Salzburg, Austria in time for afternoon coffee and fluffy Nockerl at Cafte Mozart. Some things that stand out was the impressive rookie season of American Shavon Shields, the AJ English buzzer beater in Tuebingen, the magnificent 35 point performance and 8 crushing dunks by Florida native Mike Morrison against Pinar Karyisaka in Champions League action or the signing of another young gun for Gordon Herbert´s stable with 18 year old Richard Freudenberg who looks a tad like the young version of Zack Morris aka Mark Paul Gosselaar from 90s American TV show Saved By the Bell. So with one game remaining on the Fraport Skyliners schedule against 8 time BBL champion Alba Berlin in the Fraport arena one has little to look forward except for observing a good hard fought game and seeing some last great plays this season like Quantez Robertson feeding a Mike Morrison for the felt like 1000 alley-op of the season or asking a Nils Giffey in warm ups for the 20,000 time what it was like playing together with Kemba Walker at Uconn and where he stores his 2 NCAA rings. Not only what is on the court is worth observing, but also people who are roaming the Fraport arena. In Los Angeles you have Jack Nicholson courtside wondering when his Lakers will ever be good again, in New York it can be Spike Lee wondering who will be in the tabloids first the next morning him or Carmelo Anthony and in Frankfurt you have Hans Beth. Beth may not be as prominent as the Hollywood actors, but in the Fraport arena everyone knows his face as he is at every game sitting a few rows up behind the scorers table and is always flashing that charming smile and never seems to lose his dapper look and still has the combined look of James Bond star 007 Roger Moore and Dynasty star John Forsythe minus the grey. Beth shakes almost as much hands during a game as Don King does in any Boxing ring from New York to Tokyo and Fraport Skyliner CEO Gunnar Wobke and is always ready to bring further awareness to his baby Basketball Aid. This Saturday he will be talking to numerous people and could be bringing further life to the Basketball Aid international tour something he has been supporting and been in charge of the last years.

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Ratiopharm Ulm Destroy The Hebeisen White Wings Hanau 82-46 in Basketball Aid Charity Game In Rhondorf

Usually the last game on a tournament weekend means final time baby where the big time players write history and tragic hero´s can be born as well. However at the Gezeiten Haus Cup in Rhondorf that had seen Northeastern(NCAA) and the Iranian national team and Dirk Bauermann withdraw, the 2016 Basketball Aid international tour had to scramble and find replacements and did with Pro B team Bochum that played on Saturday while the Hebeisen White Wings Hanau fought against top BBL team ratiopharm Ulm in the second game on Sunday that may have been meaningless in the final title game atmosphere and was just another routine test game, but for some players, this game had other meanings when bringing teammates rookie Brian Sullivan and Till Joscha Joenke into the picture. For both players this was another game, but deep down it was another test that had different meanings for both. For Sullivan, he isn´t only another one of thousands that hail from the basketball talented state of Ohio, but it was a game where he could really measure himself against top rate guards and ratiopharm Ulm boasted a handful of them. Sullivan had faced top guards game in and game out in the tough Atlantic 10 conference at Davidson and now he had the chance to battle top German point guard Per Guenther, ex Boston Celtic Chris Babb and Braydon Hobbs who like Sullivan had to prove himself in the Pro A two seasons ago with Nurnberg. Sullivan as always was in attack mode on every possession and nailed home two three pointers early finishing with eight points, but overall had his difficulty with the swarm of annoying ratiopharm Ulm guards as the Hebeisen White Wings were destroyed by ratiopharm Ulm 82-46. “It was a good challenge and a good experience going against their guards. I could see how a Chris Babb reads ball screens and how he defended me. I also learned that their guards don´t tend to force anything and let the game come to them. The guards in Germany have a good feel for the game while in the States the guards tend to focus on getting buckets”, stressed ex Davidson(NCAA) guard Brian Sullivan. Joenke on the other hand wanted to show his ex team ratiopharm Ulm where he played from 2012-2014 playing 38 BBL games and 10 Eurocup games that he had developed further in the last two years with the Walter Tigers Tuebingen and last season with the Hebeisen White Wings. After the rout, Joenke was slithering his way back to the bus and had Ulm and his past less on his mind, but rather was content about playing against top competition. “It is always good to see people from the past. I was roommates with Per Guenther for two years and still have a good relationship with Thorsten Leibenath. This was a difficult game, because we had played three games in four days. My role is to play the one and when you lose by 36 points, it doesn´t show that we did a good job. For us it was important to play against top level competition, because we can see where we made mistakes and how we should correct our mistakes”, warned ex Bayer Giants Leverkusen guard Till Joscha Joenke. Both Sullivan and Joenke want to play a successful season with Hanau and help lead the club to the playoffs while one could see himself playing in the BBL for the first time in the future while the other has claimed that he wants to return back one day as well.

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The Telekom Baskets Bonn Escape Late Comeback From ratiopharm Ulm 78-74 At Basketball Aid Charity Game In Rhondorf

It may only be pre-season, but unforgettable and sour playoff memories can linger on for any player even if it is almost three months ago when the Fraport Skyliners were rudely booted out of the semi-finals by ratiopharm Ulm like a hurricane does any small Florida town that had the misfortune of being hit. ratiopharm Ulm identity figure and national player per Guenther and Konstantin Klein might separate only one cm and three kilo´s to the advantage of the Berlin native Klein, but can that one Fiba Europe Cup title erase some of the uncomfortable memories of the 3-1 playoff series loss for the Telekom Baskets Bonn guard? Guenther let his quickness and sharp shooting speak for him when it counted most in game one and game four. In game one Guenther hit two back breaking trey´s in OT and shooting 6/7 from the parking lot ending with 19 points while in game four he had the hot hand again leading the team to the final with 18 points and four three´s. For Klein, the series was one to forget as he played only 48 minutes in the four game series while contributing a bit with 8 points in 23 minutes in the game three 85-54 win in Frankfurt. After a four year stay with the Fraport Skyliners where he developed nicely, but had injury problems and consistency issues was in the shadow of the twin towers Johannes Voigtmann and Danilo Barthel now has moved on to the Telekom Baskets Bonn to start a new chapter in his basketball career. Klein is looking to play a significant role in the guard rotation of head coach Silvano Poropat and had the chance to get some pre-season revenge on Guenther again as both battled in a highly anticipated game during the Basketball Aid International tour that had set up shop at the 2016 Gezeiten haus cup in Rhondorf. Klein got revenge on Guenther for the playoff loss helping the Telekom Baskets Bonn escape a late comeback attempt by ratiopharm Ulm to win 77-74. The German isn´t only aggressive on the floor, but also when it comes to answering questions about his ex club Frankfurt or new horizons with Bonn, he is very edgy and one notices that he has a gigantic chip on his shoulder and wants to prove something this season with Bonn. “It was nice to win against Ulm. I still think about the series loss to Ulm with Frankfurt and probably will still remember it when I am 80, but it is a new season and life goes on. I am as motivated as I was the last seasons with Frankfurt and feel I always have to prove something. I am happy to be in Bonn. It is a good situation and I am looking forward to having a good season”, warned Konstantin Klein.

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