David vs Goliath

(No, this isn’t the Bible but yes, it will probably be the blog entry of my LIFE. Bare with the length- trust me, it’s worth it :))

As stated in my previous post, in the Lithuanian League, yes we are Goliath. But in the Euroleague we are most definitely the David with a few meager stones. So of course it’s only fitting that we open up Euroleague play against the Russian Spartak team right? And yeah the ones who are the defending 4 time Euroleague champs. THAT Spartak. Those in the “women’s basketball loop” know how much of a powerhouse they are, but to give some perspective to those back home, let me give some analogies:

Spartak is to Vici as….

                Wolf Branch is to Pontiac

                Althoff is to Belleville East

                Xavier is to SLU

                Yankees are to Cardinals

Basically they’re the biggest rival possible (yes, I know Cards/Cubs but I needed a rival that actually wins :)). They’re the team that is ALWAYS good, no matter the year. The team that is always cocky. The team that you want to beat more than anything in the world...

Of course all the basketball websites and reports have been saying we’d be lucky to win any games in our Euroleague pool, let alone against Spartak. And I do have to say that although Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson (arguably two of the best female basketball players in the world) still haven’t joined the team yet, they are still loaded with Americans Noelle Quinn and Epiphany Prince and some of the top Russian players. Kind of like if you were playing UCONN this year and Maya Moore was out for the game- it’s still UCONN. Since everything’s bigger in Euroleague this also meant that we played in the bigger arena in the city which added even more of an aura surrounding the game. The place was pretty packed, including tons of screaming kids that were all given balloons when they came in (which of course theypopped loudly every time Spartak shot a free throw. I love kids! :) )

But everything we've done- every practice and every practice game was in preparation for this. We knew we had nothing to lose and all the pressure was on them. Even though maybe no one else believed in us, we were confident in ourselves going into the game and even all these laid back Lithuanian girls had more of a sense of urgency. Now, Coach's pre-game speech was...interesting. He came in with his clip board like usual but then put it down and said he wasn't going to talk about basketball. He then proceeded to COMPLETELY butcher the whole "life is a game of inches" speech from Any Given Sunday. Even though I knew that's where he was coming from (and that video/speech really gets me pumped), his interpretation was so confusing and the Lithuanian girls especially had no idea what the heck he was talking about. But basically he ended it with “do you want to lose as individuals or win as a team?” and we all just shouted “team”! Haha.

Anyways, I still don't know how, but we started off hot and led the entire game. Our shots were all falling. We were playing great team D. Everyone was intense. The bench went crazy with every shot we made. The crowd was huge and really into it. It was awesome! We were even up by 19 at one point! They would make little runs but we kept putting them back down. At the start of the 4th quarter we were up by 16 still. And thennn...the other shoe finally dropped. We were tired and shots weren't falling. Prince and Quinn were more aggressive and taking our girls to the hole. They kept chipping away and ended up tying it at the 2 minute mark. It went back and forth a bit and then their big girl got an and-1 put back with like a minute left. Ugh, right?! You could feel the tension on the court, on the bench and in the gym with everyone thinking there’s no way we’ve come this far, no way we’ve played this well all game, to let this opportunity slip away. Enter Ausra Bimbaite (and a little, or a lot, of luck).

The big Russian girl makes her free throw so we're down 3. After running through our staggers play, Ausra nails a step-back 3 to tie it up. Booyah! With deafening shouts of “GYNYBA! GYNYBA! (Defense! Defense!)” ringing throughout the gym, they’ve got the ball with about 30 seconds left.  After they had scored on us what seemed like the past 6 possessions, we somehow got them to have a shot clock violation. Our ball, 3/4 of the court, 6 seconds left. We call timeout to set up a play. Get it past half court and they had a foul to give and used it. So our ball just inside the half court line, 4 seconds. Everyone is on their feet. We on the bench are half bent over with anticipation and nerves, almost too scared to watch. And then, it’s just like a movie- Rima inbounds to Ausra. She drives on Quinn for a lay-up. And as if to suspend the moment in time even longer, it hangs just a bit on the back of the rim, and then IT’S IN, right as the buzzer goes off. WE. GO. CRAZY!!!!! Girls on the court take Ausra down as the bench is clearing, with everyone sprinting towards the madness. This was my first ever team dog pile and it was as crazy and amazing as you’d think! Then we all get up and lift Ausra up in the air and toss her up and down. I swear it was like we won the national championship! We pause our celebration to shake hands with the upset, but poised Spartak team (who were actually pretty humble losers unlike what I think of some of the other before-mentioned rival teams). We then run to half court to do our usual post game “Vici” cheer, except this time we were all jumping up and down and almost in tears... 

Yes it’s just one game. And it’s the beginning of season. And they didn’t have some of their best players. And in case you were wondering, I didn’t get a single tick of playing time. But to me, and to all of us, none of that matters because it is absolutely a game, a moment, and a feeling that I will remember for the rest of my life.

And although this video captures everything perfectly, I chose to leave it til the end so you’d have to read my play-by-play perspective first. :) But the video is great, even with all the Lithuanian commentary. I’ve literally watched it over 30 times by now and every single time I get chills and a huge smile across my face when her lay-up falls and the buzzer sounds. And honestly, I think I always will. :)

 http://www.basketnews.lt/news-33752-bimbaite-ir-vici-aistes-parklupde-daugkartines-eurolygos-cempiones-video-foto-komentarai.html  (Video is at the bottom of the article. The last-minute excitement I described starts at the 50 sec mark)

Also, here are other websites with links to the stories if you're interested. Of course they’re in Lithuanian so you’ll have to hit your translate button, but they’re still pretty cool and have some good pics. My favorite quote has got to be: "It was a sensational result for the home team who were playing in Kaunas for the very first time and even the fact the visitors were without world stars such as Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson won't stop the shockwaves of this result reverberating around Europe and beyond." Pretty awesome.

• http://www.eurobasket.com/Lithuania/basketball.asp?NewsID=207136&Women=1
• http://www.vicibasket.lt/273/naujienos/vici-aistes-parklupde-daugkartines-eurolygos-cempiones.html
•  http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/45013/arti.html



Dog pile!



Team love, excitement, tears :)



So although our Coach used the Any Given Sunday motivational ploy for this game, the one that keeps coming to my mind is from Miracle. “If we played ‘em 10 times, they might win 9 of them. But not this game. Not tonight.” Do you believe in Miracles? :)

Basketball Jones

The problem with not blogging often is that I have to back track to explain things before I get to the good stuff (a little teaser for my next blog... :) ). So for starters, let me explain the basketball situation here as best I can. Our team is in 3 different leagues-

• The Lithuanian League (Lietuvos Moteru Krepsinio Lyga aka the LMKL) which runs from now until Christmas. As you'd guess, we just play teams from all over Lithuania and apparently we are supposed to beat all of them by double digits.
• The Baltic League which I really don't know much about yet except that it starts after the new year.
• The Euroleague which is basically the top women's basketball league in the world. There are teams from all over in the league, but you start by playing a home-and-home with the ones in your pool. We probably got the toughest draw of anyone and are placed in arguably the best pool. All the teams have a few WNBA stars on them, including the 4-time defending Euroleague champs Russian Spartak team with Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson (and they previously had Diana Turasi too). This league is gonna be a big challenge for us, but basically these games are what we work for and everything we've done these past couple weeks has been to prepare us for them. The cool part of this league too is that I basically get to travel all around the world. The teams in our pool are from Spain, Turkey, Russia, France and the Czech Republic. Not sure how much actual site seeing or free time we get on trips but it will at least be pretty sweet to see all these places and of course get a few more stamps in my passport. :)

The 15th was our first LMKL game and as predicted we killed them, 112-48. Nope, that's not a typo. We dominated from beginning to end. I've been on some good teams in the past but I don't think I've ever been a part of such a big blowout (at least on this end of it...ha). So needless to say, it was a good way to start off the league play!

We took a semi-break from LMKL and played our last practice game on the 20th against TTT Riga who is a good Euroleague team from Latvia. We had played them at their place 2 weeks ago and lost by 20. It was a bad loss for us as we just weren't clicking all game (and I have to say that they were hitting shots out of their minds too). This game was a different story though. We played solid and they came back down to earth a bit. It was a tough game, very physical, but we pulled out a big 15 point victory! It was pretty exciting to get a little revenge, beat a good team and to see how far we'd grown as a team in those 2 weeks.

The 22nd was our next LMKL game and although we won 87-57 it wasn't our best game. I think it was a combination of things- knowing we won our last LMKL game by 60+ points, beating a good Euroleague team so handily and then our upcoming game against Spartak the next week looming over us....whatever it was, we were off our game. I think part of it can also be attributed to the fact that the other team was playing so helter-skelter that we played down to their level a bit, so I guess this was a good test for us to know that no matter who we play, we need to just play our game. And although the 30 point victory was good, coach wasn't happy enough with our effort (and that we had so many turnovers and gave up so many offensive rebounds) so that resulted in 2 practices that Saturday instead of our typical 1. Bummer. But I guess it'll be worth it in the long run. (Yes, another teaser! :) )

Now as for me personally in these games, I've held my own. My playing time is pretty inconsistent so it's sometimes hard but I just try to always be ready and do my best when I get in. Giedre and Vita are our starting (and primary) post players and then their sub minutes are divided between Lina, Kristina and I. I'm not always sure of Coach's reasoning but the break up of these minutes fluctuates game to game. It's frustrating at times I have to admit, especially since I'm not used to this situation and really want to play obviously. I'm definitely a team-first player, but at the same time this mentality has been another adjustment here since playing basketball is actually my job now. It'd be a lot easier to not worry about playing time as much if my whole way of living here wasn't dependent on it. I'm definitely giving it my all every day but all that really matters is what you produce in games and right now that's a struggle for me. This isn't supposed to be a rant by any means, but rather just an honest viewpoint of an overseas professional basketball player. But regardless of anything else, the fact that I'm absolutely loving my time over here is even more of a motivator to keep working hard and just hope that it'll pay off (hopefully sooner rather than later).

LNTM Cycle 2

Yes, ANOTHER photo shoot!!! But no worries, thankfully this one was in our uniforms not periwinkle ponchos...

It's kind of become habit here that we only know our schedules on a day-to-day basis. I don't think this is as much of a language barrier thing that they forget to tell me, but really the team just doesn't plan that far ahead. (Gotta love the Lithuanian laid-backness). So on Tuesday we were told that we'd be having another photo shoot the next day, but not too worry it wouldn't be like the last one. :) This one took place in Mega, the big mall close to my apartment, at the Charlie Pizza restaurant. Charlie Pizza is one of our biggest sponsors and Courtnay and I have learned to love going there because they gave us discount cards for there so we can chow down for like 5 bucks (American) each. Pretty sweet. And like the saying goes about me- "I've never met a pizza I haven't liked." Lol.

Anyways, Courtnay and I of course didn't know exactly what to expect but showed up at the mall when we were told. We got up there and found that there was a whole section blocked off for us and an entire group from the Kaunas school of cosmetology was there waiting to make us over. Another make over?! Again, so glad I had cousins and a sister to prepare me for this. :) My make-up took a good hour but luckily they gave me one of those "my hair actually looks/feels ratty but this is supposed to be trendy" styles that only took about 10 minutes. After getting pretty they took us over to a place out in front of the big Charlie Pizza sign to get some individual shots. Another slight cultural difference-- even though we may be "hoopers," sex appeal is always at the forefront for Europeans it seems. Hence why they used binder clips to make all of our uniforms seem tighter. Sweet, thanks...

The pictures themselves were not too bad this go round. Some of the girls did some posing but luckily I got away with just a few torso shots. After everyone finally got done with their individuals, we took some team shots. A few normal at first but then we also did one where we were all supposed to be blowing a kiss to the camera. No worries, all the other girls thought it was awkward too, but I guess the photographers thought it'd be a good media thing (again, sex appeal). 

So overall this photo shoot was much easier and more my style than the last one. And even better, it was much more fun because all of us girls were there together and of course watching everyone else get their pictures taken and cracking jokes, trying to make them laugh- you know, solid team stuff. Ha. :)

A few pics...


Can you spot #6 with the Farrah Fawcett blow-out??




Yep, Farrah with glittery eyes...


Also, there were some video crews there to document all the fun on film which can be seen here:

• http://www.basketnews.lt/news-33418-lmkl-rinks-zaviausia-krepsininke-foto-video.html
• http://sportas.delfi.lt/eurobasket2003/pries-naujaji-sezona-viciaisciu-krepsininkems-teko-paragauti-modeliu-duonos.d?id=37516967

So until the next photo shoot, stay fierce America! :)

Recap in Pics

So here are a few pics of stuff that's gone down the past 2 weeks (pic first, then story).

CAR 

Guess which one's mine... :)



Well obviously everyone knows of my beloved car that I left back in the states, my little red "Go Kart". I can touch every window sitting in the driver's seat and she wheezes pretty bad in the winter, but that baby has been a team bus/mom van to countless teammates over the years and has served me well to zip around in. It's seen hubcaps come and go and even was sportin a "nub" for a passenger door handle for a good year (It has to be known that is was actually my MOM who pulled that one off...literally. Lol). Well I guess God wanted me to feel like home here and brought a new little Baby Blue into my life. I've come to terms that I am now destined to always have a small car with no hubcaps on it (at least until I actually buy my own car. I might even get a Hummer just to put my past cars to shame...;) ). As promised, when we returned from that tournament in Slovakia at the beginning of last week, I got my car the next day. It's actually a car that Courtnay (the Canadian) and I will share, but at least it's our own to drive around. I have to admit that I've missed my one-on-one chats with Migle on all our car trips, but it is definitely nice to have some more freedom and be able to go more places around the city as I please. No worries, it is an automatic (possibly the only one in the city) and they drive on the right hand side of the road just like in the states. Whew, glad for that similarity too!


________________________________________________________________

PHOTO RELEASE

Well, there I am, in all my glory. As promised, here is the ridiculous picture of me from our team photo shoot (see: "Lithuania's Next Top Model" blog entry). Yes, it's strange for a basketball photo shoot and no, I don't think I'll look quite like this ever again (or wear a periwinkle blue wool poncho ever again either...). But like I had said, it was for sure an experience to remember. And with the way things get around/are found on the web these days I figured I'd rather share it freely than try to hide it. (Let's just hope Perez Hilton doesn't get his hands on it.)


Also, although this is just being released to my blog friends, I had originally emailed it to a small circle of peeps and have to say that the best response I got came in from Louisburg/KC, Kansas at the hands of La (Lauren Brown, sister of Liv Brown so that makes her my best friend-in-law? :) ). Here's what the creative gal came up with that gave me a good laugh...

Love it La!!

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YOU SPEAK ENGLISH, EH??

Sorry for my awkward smile...



This picture is actually out of order, but this past Tuesday my English-speaking friend finally got here! Like I had said before, Courtnay was ballin it up with the Canadian National Team at the World Championship so her arrival was delayed about a month but she is now finally in Kaunas! I've tried to show her the ropes around the city and we laugh about how much easier her transition has been than mine was. Although all the Lithuanian girls are great, it is nice to have someone to speak slang English with and to practice broken Lithuanian with. :)

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AFTERNOON MIDNIGHT MADNESS

Migle getting announced, all of us loving her. :)

VICI vs Kaunas Politicians

 This past Thursday we had what could be considered a "Midnight Madness" type game. It was mostly a publicity thing as our opponents were all men (of various ages) who worked for the city of Kaunas. There was a big pre-game ceremony where we were announced and walked out with a little boy from some Kaunas team (hence the first pic). Even though I had no idea what was going on or being said for most of this, the spirit of it all was pretty cool as we exchanged gifts with the other team and presented Vici jerseys to a few big-wigs. Even though we still played just as hard it was a fun game that was mostly light hearted (but no worries we still killed them by 20. No matter the venue, it always feels good beating guys :) ).

Ps- this game took place at 4:00 on a Thursday afternoon and I have never seen so many people at a "matinee" game! But of course in Lithuania I guess basketball is a priority! :)____________________________________________________________

DON'T BE TARDY FOR THE PARTY

Back: Marina, Courtnay, Me, Giedre
Front: Lina

Last night was the first night going "out" out in Kaunas. As all athletes know having a Sunday off is absolutely clutch because it means you get to go out on Saturday night. Fortunately, that thinking is the same here too. :) I was obviously a little nervous not having any idea what to expect, but I figured this was a good opportunity to embrace something outside of my norm (Maybe I'll change the name of my blog to Eat Play Party?? :) ). The evening started with Giedre picking up Courtnay and I, then picking up Marina and heading to Lina's apartment where her, her sister and another friend were already waiting. We introduced them to the term "pre-gaming" and the night was rolling from there! It was so good to feel like I was back in college again, hanging out with friends on a Saturday night. Everything was just the same as a good ole Grand Forest party except they had like legit appetizers- fried bread, cut up cheeses, etc. compared to our party food standards- usually some Grippos provided by Katie Pags and of course my favorite white cheese dip. :) Courtnay and I took this opportunity to share some of our sacred North American customs with them in the form of some good ole fashion drinking games. I'll leave out all the juicy details but basically all the girls loved them and it led to a pretty interesting night! After awhile we headed out to a club that was downtown which basically reminded me of the Library Annex back at SLU's campus. In fact, if I hadn't known otherwise, this seemed like any other bar/club in the states, playing all US music, including some awesome throw backs like Hot in Herre and even the Men in Black theme song! Could it get any better?! All in all it was an awesome night with great friends. I obviously know my purpose here is to play basketball but having a little extracurricular fun is all part of the experience right? :)

Don’t call it a comeback…

Don’t call it a comeback…

Ok, you could call it a comeback. I suck at blogging. Done and done (yes, Sammi, I got “the phrase” in there :)).  I mean I do actually enjoy writing immensely, but I am terrible at updating my blog. I’m reminded of Drew Barrymore’s character on “He’s Just Not That Into You” when she talks about trying to communicate with a guy she’s dating and says, “I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It’s exhausting.” Well I’m not being rejected by a guy (thankfully), but I am on total “technology portal” overload. We all know that I’m in a deeply committed relationship with Facebook. I check Twitter now and again. I’ve got 3 different email addresses. And I follow a number of other blogs too (I guess I like reading more than writing). So basically what I’m getting at is that I’m having trouble finding time to fit my blogging in the mix. I really do feel bad because I know that this is the main way for some people to hear all my amazing stories (sarcasm), but please don’t take it personally.:)

I’ve also decided that I’m gonna go more for a topics approach rather than a day by day summary- as much as I’d like to do that, it just makes blogging even more stressful knowing that I need to do it that often. Ha. But besides any other big things that happen, this is what most of my days are like-

·         Get up around 8.

·         Eat breakfast (usually cereal) while reading emails/Facebook and browsing the Internet.

·         Go to morning practice from 10-12. This practice usually involves some combination of lifting, cardio, and shooting but lately we’ve been doing some actual court stuff too.

·         Get home around 12:30.

·         Eat lunch (which is always the same- turkey sandwich, string cheese, baked lays and either an apple, orange or grapes).

·         Respond to some emails/Facebook messages.

·         Maybe watch an episode of Gossip Girl online (it used to be Grey’s Anatomy but now I’m all caught up (SOOOO GOOOD btw)).

·         Take a quick nap. (Everyone knows I’m a big napper. And I usually do it on my little couch/loveseat, just like I’m on my loveseat at 4 Daughters Farm :) )

·         Go to evening practice from 5-7. This is like legit, full practice.

·         Get home around 8.

·         Make dinner (my specialties include tacos, chicken, shrimp, pasta or recently some good ole Blue Box Mac & Cheese sent from home!)

·         This is then peak time to chat with people back home. Actually, it’s usually the only time that both myself and people back home are awake and available at the same time during the week. So I take full advantage of this and usually talk to at least one of my parents on the phone (thru my Skype), make some other calls to friends/family and then chat with any other people that are online at this time. This usually lasts until I find no one else to talk to or finally drag myself away from my computer and head to bed.

·         While in bed I read my “Portals of Prayer” and then as much Harry Potter as possible until my eyes bleed (Along with Mac & Cheese I got the 7^th HP sent from home- best mail EVERRR!).

So there ya go. In lieu of updating every single day, this is pretty much it. I’m very big into routines (possibly OCD?) so this schedule has become my life here. I know, I know, the life of a “professional athlete” sounds oh-so-glamorous huh? :) There are obviously little nuances here and there that cause excitement and the cultural/language issues always make things interesting, but overall, this sums it up. Now, all of those little nuances will be the topics of my next blogs….that will come….soon. :)

*Also, this has absolutely nothing to do with anything written above, but I couldn't NOT share this pic with everyone in the blog world. It's definitely the face I miss most from home...How could it not be?! :)

Can't believe he's already 6 months old (almost 7!)!!