We had another shootaround on Saturday before the game. I did not feel too good. My Jumper is just horrible at the moment. Mike took me to his side after practice and gave me some new Coaching points I have to work on. I think my Jumpshot looks ugly as hell. It is just how it is with Leftys. We had a big gap in between the game started at 7pm. So we had like 6 hours to rest.
I started a small warmup with Coleman one hour before the game. He is a good role model, too. We were playing a little bit one-on-one. He helped me with what i could do better in offense and defense.
Wels was playing strong and aggressive this time. they started of very well.

Rocky had a strong game. He was leeading us in every category. Unfortunately, Lee landed on Conleys foot after a deep three in the 2nd quarter and twisted his ankle badly. He was really laying on the floor with pain for a long while and would not return. Mike got a little bit furious with the refs. In this case, the ref does also have to protect the players sometimes. We did really get hacked by the welser squad. But that was why we were here for. Compete on the road against unfair circumstances. They called almost everything on us. Kevin and Basti fouled out in regulation.

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Meeting point 10am at Ulm. Austria we are coming. The road trip to Austria should compare us for the away games of the upcoming season. We would face Wels and Gmunden again.
The travelling was very nice. We were using two small buses. We got there (Wels) within 5 hours.

Our hotel was very nice. To be honest it was the best hotel I have had every been. Our room was so big. And we really had everything. LCD-TV Screen, Internet, nice bathroom, toilet etc. This is life.

I was sharing my room with Darko.It was really fun with him. We do really get along. We had a light practice at 8pm. We had a shootaround and were running through some offensive plays.

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We had a nice day off on Monday. The Americans could relax. I had to head back to school. It was alright though. My school seems very nice. I got lunch with my teachers. I did not introduce myself as a ratiopharm Ulm player. I don`t know. I got some strange looks though. Seemed like some kids did recognize me or know that I am playing basketball for Ulm.

I had a horrible practice week. I don`t know what is going on. I am getting killed at the defensive end at the moment. Not talking about getting crossed or something. That never happened. But defensive Rebounding against Rocky Trice. It is hard. It is probably harder to box him out then Robert Maras for example or Aleksandar Nadjfeji. He is so quick and fast. And it is hard to put your body on him, because he is so small. He will outjump you all the time. You got to put your body on him.

We were having another pre season game against BG Leitershofen, a 1.Regionalliga team. I do not really want to talk about this game. They have not lost a pre seaosn game yet and were ready to play. The first quarter was an up and down. But they couldn`t keep up with us for the whole game. They were hustling though. We were heading with an 20-point lead to the locker rooms.

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Three games, three days. I figured out that this costs a lot of energy. My body and legs were all sore. Well, I wasn`t the only one. The rest of my team felt the same way. Today we were facing an All-Star team. A selection of some ball players, which have not sigend with any team yet and are still trying to sign something. If we would win this game, we would win the tournament, because Tübingen just got toasted by Wels with 20.
Darko Jukic, who is usually playing on our team, was playing for the All-Stars for the weekend. He had a few words to us about what he is going to do. Dunking on somebody and so on. We started off well, but the game seemed kind of slow, no intensity. The All-Stars were not playing with any intensity. We didn`t take care of the ball at all and had like 6 turnovers or more in the first quarter. Both team looked rusty out there.

I was already playing in the first quarter. We were down by 7. We had the last possession of the quarter. Lee was penetrating and did hit me on a cut I pumped faked it. My man left both feet from the ground. I leaned a little bit into and got the shot off before the buzzer. I made it. It felt great. I got some high fives from Lee and Mike. That shot did cut the lead to 5.

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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 Ademola 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.

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Game 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.

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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 play 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.

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Today we were heading to Munich to play our next test game against Bayern München. We were travelling in a comfortable 23-seat bus. We 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.

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I was sleepy today. I slept in until 11am. I had a lot of time left, because we had to be at the meeting point at 2.30pm to leave for our second pre season game against Gmünden. It was a very short trip. We got there about an hour and a half before the game started. I got a little bit loose before we were getting back into the locker room for our personal team meeting. We didn`t know much about Gmünden, just that they did have a couple Veteran guys. And they really did.  We have had a better start than yesterday and did build a comfortable 6 point lead after a few minutes. They came back thou. Those old guys do really know how to play and how to take advantage of every single mistake.

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Today I was ready to get tested. We have had our first pre season game in Nördlingen. Fortunately it was a very close trip and we were driving with a couple cars to the game. I was still studying our playbook while we were travelling. We arrived almost two hours before the game, which was very nice, so everybody had enough time for himself to get dressed and get some shots or own drills off. Then we got, about 45 minutes before the game, back to the locker room.
Mike Taylor was introducing us the keys to success for today’s game and what we have to do and what we have to be good at to win our first game.
Then we did something what really surprised me for a second. Mike told us to come together for a prayer. So we huddled up and we or Mike started praying. The last time I was doing that was more than two years ago, while I was playing High School basketball in the states. I was really missing it. It is very hard to describe and to explain. What it is able to do with an individual and team. I do not know the right words now. It is just great to come together as a team and do things like that. It increases the team chemistry. I felt very warm and comfortable while we were praying. Surrounded by giants, which will protect me and help me up, when I am falling down.
After the prayer, we went out and did run our pre game warm-up. I felt very comfortable with my Jumpshot and everybody else did. I didn’t know that Lee Humphrey is able to dunk. It didn’t even seem hard for him.

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