Blues Serbia and Macedonia Tour Report
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 17:39 — rjem2
Game Reports from our Trip to the East
From 13th to 20th December a team of current and past Blues players was invited to tour Serbia to promote the soon to be formed Pexim Foundation. Having a Serbian coach and current player certainly helped smooth the trip over, but all of the committee played their parts in getting it organised and carrying it off.
During the trip the team played 4 teams from Macedonia and Serbia - all of an extremely high standard and with a majority of the players looking to play professionally in Europe. First up were Skopje - a 17/18 year old team from the Macedonian capital. The difference in quality between British and East European basketball was immediately apparent, with any slight mismatch (of which there were many) or poor pass being punished ruthlessly. Nevertheless, a second half rally and some key shots down the stretch kept the scoreline respectable.
The next 2 games were very different stories. Playing the FMP and Partizan academy sides we were ranged against a collection of at least 20 2.00m plus players, all aiming to make a career in basketball. This was obviously an extremely tough ask, especially for the shorter members of our team. Despite keeping the game against FMP within 12 points for 3 quarters, they were playing very much in 1st gear and upped it in the 4th quarter to open up a 40 point advantage. The ball movement and fast breaks were, at time, exquisite.
Obviously trying to outdo their local rivals, Partizan fielded by far the strongest side of the trip, and held the Blues to 4 first quarter points whilst racking up 40 themselves. As a learning experience, lessons don't come much better than that! However, the final score of 107-33 was not as terrible as it appeared, with Torsten Geelan making good use of his extra time on the floor to hit several shots.
The final game of the tour was against Belgrade University, who were easily the most comparable to a British team. A weary Cambridge team battled in vain to avoid the Eastern whitewash, but eventually fell in a close game by 12 points. With a full squad, fresher legs and perhaps more urgency this result would have been different.
All of the guys on the trip learnt a lot about themselves, both on and off the court, but the biggest lessons by far were from the teams we played. Obviously talented, they played without care for individual stats and got on with doing their job. This is something I hope we can all apply to our game here in England.
From 13th to 20th December a team of current and past Blues players was invited to tour Serbia to promote the soon to be formed Pexim Foundation. Having a Serbian coach and current player certainly helped smooth the trip over, but all of the committee played their parts in getting it organised and carrying it off.
During the trip the team played 4 teams from Macedonia and Serbia - all of an extremely high standard and with a majority of the players looking to play professionally in Europe. First up were Skopje - a 17/18 year old team from the Macedonian capital. The difference in quality between British and East European basketball was immediately apparent, with any slight mismatch (of which there were many) or poor pass being punished ruthlessly. Nevertheless, a second half rally and some key shots down the stretch kept the scoreline respectable.
The next 2 games were very different stories. Playing the FMP and Partizan academy sides we were ranged against a collection of at least 20 2.00m plus players, all aiming to make a career in basketball. This was obviously an extremely tough ask, especially for the shorter members of our team. Despite keeping the game against FMP within 12 points for 3 quarters, they were playing very much in 1st gear and upped it in the 4th quarter to open up a 40 point advantage. The ball movement and fast breaks were, at time, exquisite.
Obviously trying to outdo their local rivals, Partizan fielded by far the strongest side of the trip, and held the Blues to 4 first quarter points whilst racking up 40 themselves. As a learning experience, lessons don't come much better than that! However, the final score of 107-33 was not as terrible as it appeared, with Torsten Geelan making good use of his extra time on the floor to hit several shots.
The final game of the tour was against Belgrade University, who were easily the most comparable to a British team. A weary Cambridge team battled in vain to avoid the Eastern whitewash, but eventually fell in a close game by 12 points. With a full squad, fresher legs and perhaps more urgency this result would have been different.
All of the guys on the trip learnt a lot about themselves, both on and off the court, but the biggest lessons by far were from the teams we played. Obviously talented, they played without care for individual stats and got on with doing their job. This is something I hope we can all apply to our game here in England.
Sponsored by
