It is about time! We can finally say today is game day. Not just any game a game that matters the one we have been waiting to play since last October. Needless to say we are slightly fired up, in fact a lot of us woke up before the alarm today and could not fall back asleep because we are just too pumped up.
Thankfully the day is not dragging on too slowly we are about to head off to shoot around. We really know nothing about Mali. They have a new coach and a few new players so film from last years Afro Basket is not all that relevant. We know they will be athletic and we are going to have to box out and control penetration. Offensively we have worked hard on our system for the last 3 summers and we have complete faith and trust that it can give us the scoring chances we want.
Tip off in 8 hours.
Thanks to everyone for reaching out to us all individually and as a team wishing us luck. We are feeling the love and can't wait to go out and make you proud. GO CANADA!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Boredom.....
Our schedule for the last few days has been getting us ready for our late night games. We wake up around 10am eat breakfast and then take a little walk. From 1030 until our practice at 7pm we are free to pass the time. We wind up spending a lot of it in our beds watching tv or getting treatment with our physios. We can't spend too much time outside exploring since the weather is so hot and we don't want to drain ourselves. We came here to get a job done. While we are incredibly bored the good news is that tomorrow is game day!!! Finally.
Tonight we get a chance to practice in the arena, it will be our first and only time to get some shots up on the court before we play tomorrow night!
Canada vs Mali 2:15pm EST or 11:15am PST tomorrow GO CANADA GO!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Ankara, Turkey!
We have arrived safe and sound. Almost smooth sailing except for Kim's bag not arriving with the rest of ours. She believes she jinxed herself last minute when Miranda told us that at the airports in Turkey she has known of people having things stolen from their bags, so she threw them into her carry-on before checking in. The front desk also thought that when the bag arrived at the hotel at 1:45am that Kim would really want her bag in the middle of the night.....
So far everything has been great. Dr Doug had a great meeting with the head chef at the hotel and an in-depth tour of the kitchen and we have been given the green light to eat everything they serve us. Its always a little shaky changing our diets when we travel and some people on the team have very sensitive stomachs. (not naming names, but you know who you are) The hotel is top notch, we are all on the 14th floor and have a great view of the city, it really is a hotel for the rich and famous! Marcel and Joanie have plenty of room to treat us all and we just finished up a "Roger that Session" in our team room which is spacious and comfortable.
Today we had our first of three practices before the games start. Can you tell we are counting down? Ahh we just want the games to start, I know everyone has been thinking about this tournament since October. Every practice is one step closer to our dreams. Our practice today was where we are playing but in the "practice" gym. The entire building is an amazing facility. It really reminds me of an NBA facility but brand new. The locker room, weight room, practice gym were all great, but the main floor was unbelievable. We are all excited to practice on it soon.
Well thats it from our end.
Go Canada!!!!
So far everything has been great. Dr Doug had a great meeting with the head chef at the hotel and an in-depth tour of the kitchen and we have been given the green light to eat everything they serve us. Its always a little shaky changing our diets when we travel and some people on the team have very sensitive stomachs. (not naming names, but you know who you are) The hotel is top notch, we are all on the 14th floor and have a great view of the city, it really is a hotel for the rich and famous! Marcel and Joanie have plenty of room to treat us all and we just finished up a "Roger that Session" in our team room which is spacious and comfortable.
Today we had our first of three practices before the games start. Can you tell we are counting down? Ahh we just want the games to start, I know everyone has been thinking about this tournament since October. Every practice is one step closer to our dreams. Our practice today was where we are playing but in the "practice" gym. The entire building is an amazing facility. It really reminds me of an NBA facility but brand new. The locker room, weight room, practice gym were all great, but the main floor was unbelievable. We are all excited to practice on it soon.
Well thats it from our end.
Go Canada!!!!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Lyon is quite warm this time of year. Practice today felt like we were swimming. Your clothes become a few pounds heavier, we all have the urge to whip them off and practice in spandex and sports bras. Practice started a little slow today we didn't move well to start. Not sure if it was the warm weather or what. We picked it up near the end and our final scrimmage was a good one. Everyone is getting quite excited to finally play the games. It is slowly coming up we will have our final practice in France tomorrow afternoon and then it is off to Turkey.
During our down time we have been reading, or watching tv shows. A group of us are watching Game of Thrones. It is a show set in medieval times and almost all of the team has adopted a really horrible Scottish/medieval accent. It really all started out in Scotland because we loved their accents. Every now and then someone would try and say a word with a Scottish accent and now it has become out of control. We will try and post a video tomorrow of the team and our amazing accents.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Recap
Our last two games have been played at venues around 2 hours away. The days felt quite busy there was barely any time for a pre game nap. The first game we played the Czech Republic it was a great team win everyone came in and contributed. Our minutes were spread out, we are pretty hard to beat when we play like that. It felt good to win a close game and execute down the stretch. With 30 seconds left we had the ball on the sideline with 1 second left on the shot clock. We misconnected on a lob inside and the ball was stolen by a Czech guard. Next thing we know she has hurled the ball all the way down the court... she thought 1 second was left in the game. The whole gym was in stunned silence. We gladly took the ball back and scored!
After the game we ate at a restaurant nearby and the food was delicious. Our hotel here in Lyon is very nice but the food has not been spectacular. It was nice to get a few different choices the last two nights.
Last night we got pummelled by France. We just started slow.... we could not hit a shot in the first quarter and they hit everything. It was an amazing setting to play a game. The gym was packed with enthusiastic fans who chanted and danced and cheered their hearts out. There is no better environment to play in, it gives you goosebumps and they are not even cheering for you. The passion for their team is awesome. We were a little disappointed that we did not play as well as we could but we missed shots that we know we can make and in the second half the score was 23-23. We know we can play with them we just have do it for 40 minutes when we meet on June 26th.
Today is a day off! We have certainly earned it 3 games in 3 days with 8 hours of bus rides in no joke.
Looking forward to recovering poolside!!
GO CANADA!
After the game we ate at a restaurant nearby and the food was delicious. Our hotel here in Lyon is very nice but the food has not been spectacular. It was nice to get a few different choices the last two nights.
Last night we got pummelled by France. We just started slow.... we could not hit a shot in the first quarter and they hit everything. It was an amazing setting to play a game. The gym was packed with enthusiastic fans who chanted and danced and cheered their hearts out. There is no better environment to play in, it gives you goosebumps and they are not even cheering for you. The passion for their team is awesome. We were a little disappointed that we did not play as well as we could but we missed shots that we know we can make and in the second half the score was 23-23. We know we can play with them we just have do it for 40 minutes when we meet on June 26th.
Today is a day off! We have certainly earned it 3 games in 3 days with 8 hours of bus rides in no joke.
Looking forward to recovering poolside!!
GO CANADA!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Win the Day
We beat Croatia tonight by about 14. It was a weird game, they really tried to slow the pace down. Defensively they were not overly interested in playing, we were open almost every time we came off a screen. You ran into the problem of should I shoot now or wait until we pass it a few more times. When we ran our offence with speed and held off the early shots we got some great looks.
Defensively we were pretty good. Their whole offence was a single high ball screen at times we tagged too long on the shooters and allowed them to get open looks. Something we can work on. Our bigs were very active in hedging and getting back to their own.
We are not sure how hard they were trying. They may have been saving plays and some of their effort in case we meet up with them later in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. We took a step forward tonight, only turned the ball over 7 times that may be a record!
It was a great team win everyone came in a contributed. It was exactly how we want to play in Turkey minus our shooting %. Need those to fall a little bit more.
Treatment time sorry if there are errors or typos no proof reading tonight running late.
Defensively we were pretty good. Their whole offence was a single high ball screen at times we tagged too long on the shooters and allowed them to get open looks. Something we can work on. Our bigs were very active in hedging and getting back to their own.
We are not sure how hard they were trying. They may have been saving plays and some of their effort in case we meet up with them later in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. We took a step forward tonight, only turned the ball over 7 times that may be a record!
It was a great team win everyone came in a contributed. It was exactly how we want to play in Turkey minus our shooting %. Need those to fall a little bit more.
Treatment time sorry if there are errors or typos no proof reading tonight running late.
Game Day!
Game day here in Lyon. We are excited to get back on the court against Croatia. It will be a good test for us guarding the pick and rolls. Their offence revolves around the pick and roll and so we will have to be very active hedging, helping and getting through screens.
It feels as though life has slowed down here in France. We appear to be more so on the outskirts of town as opposed to right in the heart of it as we were in Scotland. A bonus to this is no construction or drunk people outside your windows every night until 4am. The downside is not as many places to go when you have a few hours to kill. Guess it is good for us to keep our legs up and relax as we are about to play 3 games in 3 days. We always laugh at how we used to play 2 or 3 games in one day back in high school. The games are so much more physical that you are beat up after just one. Games are always better than practice, we relish the opportunities we get to put on our jerseys and represent.
We are even sporting our new jerseys tonight we will be wearing them in Turkey. They feel a lot like plastic and the white are 100% see through.... when in Europe!
GO CANADA!
It feels as though life has slowed down here in France. We appear to be more so on the outskirts of town as opposed to right in the heart of it as we were in Scotland. A bonus to this is no construction or drunk people outside your windows every night until 4am. The downside is not as many places to go when you have a few hours to kill. Guess it is good for us to keep our legs up and relax as we are about to play 3 games in 3 days. We always laugh at how we used to play 2 or 3 games in one day back in high school. The games are so much more physical that you are beat up after just one. Games are always better than practice, we relish the opportunities we get to put on our jerseys and represent.
We are even sporting our new jerseys tonight we will be wearing them in Turkey. They feel a lot like plastic and the white are 100% see through.... when in Europe!
GO CANADA!
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