Well it was quite a long pre season (even though I joined the team a month after the Turks started practicing). But it was needed as I'm in shape, healthy, and game ready now. One fun preseason tourney took us to Prague. I had heard it's quite a city and it definitely was very beautiful with lots to see. Our Americans finally finished their WNBA season and joined us just before our first game. We have the same Americans as last year with the exception of Katie Smith. Penny Taylor replaced her who is an Australian and will help our team in different ways than Katie. Neither Penny nor Tammy really had a complete practice with us before we played in the Presidents Cup which is a rematch of the previous year's champs and runner up. We lost that game but we play again in a couple days so we're hoping for a different outcome this time around.
We've played one Turkish league game and one European league game this past week. Our first Turkish league game was a team from Turkey's capital. We started the game with an early 10 point lead and never looked back. We returned to Istanbul and had a couple days to prepare for our first Euroleague game against a strong team from Poland. We played great for the first 3 quarters and almost blew a 20 point lead in the 4th quarter but we held on to win that one as well. If you want to follow those games you can check them out at fibaeurope.com and click on the Euroleague women tab. Our next Euroleague game will be in Brno, Czech Republic on Tuesday. So we are back in the swing of things and there is no sign of things slowing down so I will try to update the blog more frequently since we will be playing two games a week from here on out.
Hope everyone has a very happy Halloween!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Back at it
Well, I'm back in Istanbul ready to start a brand new year. Basketball year....that is. I've been back for a few days and was thrown into two a days like I never left. I've been training long enough to know that this is the hardest part. Getting back in shape. My body is sore all over, I'm tired, and I have no energy. I have to keep going at it until that wears off and I'm back in shape ready to play again. I haven't done a lot since we ended our national team stint in Latvia which we placed 9th after a couple of hard losses to end the tournament for us. Hopefully next time we will have our full team of healthy players because Turkey definitely is capable of competing against the tougher countries.
When I say I haven't done a lot, I'm talking about basketball, because my summer was jam packed of travel, friends, and family. Not two weeks of being back in the states (one of those in Denver to see friends and teammates) my parents and I took a trip to Lucerne, Switzerland to watch Brett compete in World Cup. I haven't seen many more beautiful places than that. Brett took home the bronze. I flew back separately from my parents into Chicago to spend a week with former Stanford teammates. I got to see a little more of Chicago since last time I was there was New Year's and we obviously didn't spend too much time outside without freezing. It's a pretty cool city. From there my parents picked me up on their way to South Bend, Indiana. My mom's high school reunion created a sort of family reunion for all of us. I'm accustomed to seeing my mom's side of the family only once a year so it was a pleasant stay to see them for a week. We also took a day break and drove up to Michigan to see my cousin Aura get married.
I had been living out of a suitcase for three weeks so I was ready to sleep in my own bed once we got back to Riverton. It was short lived, however. I stayed long enough to see friends, Taryn and Garth, wed in the mountains above Dubois. Brett flew in to be a groomsman in that wedding with his girlfriend, Ashleigh. I took off two days later for Stanford. I have so many great friends, teammates, and adopted families that are around the area so I wanted to make sure I saw them before Turkey. I also spent four days in Phoenix during that time with another couple friends.
Summer is the only time I get back in the states these days, so I make sure to have enough fun and make enough memories to last me until the next summer! But now I'm back to reality and shifting gears as best I can. I'll post some pictures soon and keep everyone updated on the games coming up in a little over a month.
When I say I haven't done a lot, I'm talking about basketball, because my summer was jam packed of travel, friends, and family. Not two weeks of being back in the states (one of those in Denver to see friends and teammates) my parents and I took a trip to Lucerne, Switzerland to watch Brett compete in World Cup. I haven't seen many more beautiful places than that. Brett took home the bronze. I flew back separately from my parents into Chicago to spend a week with former Stanford teammates. I got to see a little more of Chicago since last time I was there was New Year's and we obviously didn't spend too much time outside without freezing. It's a pretty cool city. From there my parents picked me up on their way to South Bend, Indiana. My mom's high school reunion created a sort of family reunion for all of us. I'm accustomed to seeing my mom's side of the family only once a year so it was a pleasant stay to see them for a week. We also took a day break and drove up to Michigan to see my cousin Aura get married.
I had been living out of a suitcase for three weeks so I was ready to sleep in my own bed once we got back to Riverton. It was short lived, however. I stayed long enough to see friends, Taryn and Garth, wed in the mountains above Dubois. Brett flew in to be a groomsman in that wedding with his girlfriend, Ashleigh. I took off two days later for Stanford. I have so many great friends, teammates, and adopted families that are around the area so I wanted to make sure I saw them before Turkey. I also spent four days in Phoenix during that time with another couple friends.
Summer is the only time I get back in the states these days, so I make sure to have enough fun and make enough memories to last me until the next summer! But now I'm back to reality and shifting gears as best I can. I'll post some pictures soon and keep everyone updated on the games coming up in a little over a month.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sampiyon! (Champions)
It wasn't a 40 point blow out but we won our 3rd game to win the Turkish championships. And I just so happened to be celebrating my birthday as well so it was an extra special day for me! Our Americans took no time at all to get back to the states. They wanted to enjoy the little time they had before they started with their teams for the summer so they left the next day. The rest of the team presented our cup to our club's president as well as walking out on the field during halftime of our club's soccer match. I hadn't been to a "football" match yet so that was pretty cool to see.
I also left the next day on a little vacation of my own the next to Antalya which is in southern Turkey. It's very nice this time of year and I pampered myself for a few days before I had to come back to Istanbul to join the national team in camp. I've been with them for a few days and we just finished a scrimmage against Czech Republic. We won it and we will play them again tomorrow just to get more game time before heading to Latvia where we'll start games on June 7th.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Championship in sight!
Well, I've been pretty horrible about keeping this thing up to date. To my defense I had about 3 weeks straight of visitors. First my parents came to visit, just in time to see us win the Turkish Cup. It's a 3 day mini tournament right before the playoffs start. We beat Galatasaray in the finals of that tournament. We had the next day off so I stayed with my parents in Kayseri where the tournament was played and we toured Capadoccia which was one of the most unique places I have ever seen. I will post pictures very soon. It's a huge area with bunches of caves built underground and in the sides of mountains and hills. Worth the google visit if you have time to look it up. My parents also saw the first game of the semi finals, again against Galatasaray, and again a win.
The day they left, my old teammate, JJ Hones, from Stanford who is studying abroad in Madrid right now took a weekend visit to Istanbul. She saw the second game of the semi's against Gala, but we lost that one. We still had a lot of fun and she was able to see most of Istanbul as one can see in just a couple days. She left and just a few hours later, another teammate from Stanford, Cissy Pierce came to visit. She just ended her basketball season in Germany and had a few days before her return flight to the states. She saw our final game and win against Gala in order to move to the finals and also toured a little bit of Istanbul. I saw more of Istanbul in just a few day span than I have in the last 2 years!
After Cissy left, I had a couple days to recoup before we played our first game of the finals against Mersin and my old coach from last year. It's a best of 5 series and our first two games were at home. We swept this team during the regular season but they were both close games so we were expecting to play a tough game. However, we easily won our first two games by 25 points and 40 points respectively. Our team was just determined to win and make a statement. (We also have 4 wnba players who the earlier we win the more rest they get before their wnba seasons start, so they had extra motivation.) We play what we are hoping is our last game and the championship game this friday on my birthday in Mersin. Here's to hoping I get that birthday present!!
The day they left, my old teammate, JJ Hones, from Stanford who is studying abroad in Madrid right now took a weekend visit to Istanbul. She saw the second game of the semi's against Gala, but we lost that one. We still had a lot of fun and she was able to see most of Istanbul as one can see in just a couple days. She left and just a few hours later, another teammate from Stanford, Cissy Pierce came to visit. She just ended her basketball season in Germany and had a few days before her return flight to the states. She saw our final game and win against Gala in order to move to the finals and also toured a little bit of Istanbul. I saw more of Istanbul in just a few day span than I have in the last 2 years!
After Cissy left, I had a couple days to recoup before we played our first game of the finals against Mersin and my old coach from last year. It's a best of 5 series and our first two games were at home. We swept this team during the regular season but they were both close games so we were expecting to play a tough game. However, we easily won our first two games by 25 points and 40 points respectively. Our team was just determined to win and make a statement. (We also have 4 wnba players who the earlier we win the more rest they get before their wnba seasons start, so they had extra motivation.) We play what we are hoping is our last game and the championship game this friday on my birthday in Mersin. Here's to hoping I get that birthday present!!
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