what's up everyone,

Another day off today without much going on.  After i got done writing this morning I went to Hasse's to get a lift in.   After that I went to the store to pick up a few things for dinner.  I've been having alot of steak recently so I thought I'd change it up tonight and have some chicken and pasta.  Dinner turned out great and now Im stuffed.  I'll probably just sit back and watch the Daytona 500 and call it a night.  

The Daytona 500 is huge in America.  Its a stock car race and is considered the Super Bowl of Nascar racing.  A friend of mine from high school will be racing in it so I'll be excited to see him going for the win.  Me and all my friends back home are in a fantasy league for Nascar, so we'll be following the season really close.  You get to pick 4 different driver who you think will win each race.  I've never done any thing like this before so this will be new to me.  I know a couple guys on the team are in different fantasy leagues for football and basketball and they seem to enjoy it.  So I'll be looking forward to see how this all plays out.   I spent about an hour going over all the different drivers and their history of how they've finished on this track.  Checking to see how their cars are running during practice.  I can see how it can get addicting.  

Anyways,  this will be my last blog for the week but I just wanted to say thanks for checking it out and all your comments.   I know this season hasn't turned out the way we all expected but I wanna say thanks for your support and for coming to all the games.  Have a good one and take care.

Ryan 

Hey Everyone,

Didn't get a blog in last night so im doing it now.  I meant to write before I went to bed but fell asleep while watching the Dunk Contest for the NBA All-Star game.  After watching the highlights of the contest today, im glad I didn't stay up for it.  I fell asleep before any of the contest started but I dont think I missed much.  The All-Star game is on tonight but Im not sure if I'll see that either, think it starts pretty later over here.  

It was Valentines Day yesterday but Im not sure if people really celebrate that here.  At the grocery store I shop at they had a little table set up with V-Day stuff.  Back home, every store would have decorations up and it would be in your face.  Im not that big of a fan of Valentines Day.  If you have feelings for someone than you should let them know whenever it strikes you, not on a day where you feel obligated to do something.  Valentines Day, to me, just feels like a day where people do things because they feel they have to.  But it's really nice if you do something special for someone out of the blue.  An unexpected gift at an unexpected time.  I think that's when you show your feelings are genuine and unforced.   Just my 2 cents.  

Anyways, that's all i got for now.  Ill be back tonight to let you know how today goes and if anything exciting happens,  though I don't think there will be.  Hope your having a great weekend.

Ryan 

Hey Everyone,

It was another tough loss for us tonight.  This loss was just as hard to take as any other one we've had this season.  The only thing that makes it harder to take is that we didn't compete tonight.  They past few games we've played well enough to give us a chance to win.  But for whatever reason things didn't go our way and we would end up losing a close game.  Tonight wasn't even close from the start.  As I think about what happened in the game and why we weren't able to compete a couple things come to mind.  Our defense was horrible.  We gave up alot of easy layups by not getting back on D fast enough.  Our helpside wasn't there fast enough and when it was our rotation was a little slow if there at all.  These are all things that we now how to do and should do but for whatever reason just wasn't there tonight.  We missed some shots too.  I, personally, missed about 6 shots that I wish I could have back.  Dennis only played 13 minutes but still managed to put up 19 points for us.  I would've liked to have seen him on the court more.  I think when he's in, it gives us a better chance to win than when he isn't.  He's one of the quickest players in league, one of the top scorers in the league and our best on defender.  Some of the young guys got in the game and I was happy for them.  They work just as hard as any of us so for them to be able and get on the court and contribute was good to see.  Although i wish it was under different circumstances.  

Well that's all I have for tonight.  I apologize for not being more in depth about what went on today, but all these losses take a toll on us emotionally and puts us in a bad mood.  Im just gonna get to bed and tomorrow's another day.  

till next time...

ryan 

What's up everyone??

We have a big game tomorrow so today started out with a morning workout at Erikslund again.  We just worked on starting our fast break and then worked on our individual games for a while.  We had some time to kill before lunch at Andreas, so I just came home and messed around on the internet trying to find some new music.  We have a set menu at Andreas so when I came to lunch a couple of the guys were already eating.  They had some chicken and rice so I was stoked that we had some good stuff to eat.  But when I went to dish up I found that they had paid for their meals and we got something totally different.  It was all good though, out food was still good so I wasn't upset for too long.  

Before practice started we watched some film of Sundsvall to see what will give us the best chance to win.  We broke up into groups to talk about their individual players and how we could attack them.  We've had some success against Sundsvall this year so hopefully we'll keep that going.  Before practice started a couple of us witnessed one of the funniest events that has happened all year.  I was getting tapped by Hasse and it was pretty crowded trying to get out to the gym, so Emin accidentally stepped on Toni's foot.  So instinctively, Toni kicked Emin's leg to get him off.  That's when it got hilarious, Emin didn't take to the kick too kindly so he started yelling at Toni and Toni started yelling back.  They were both yelling at the same time so Im sure they couldn't hear what the other was saying but those of us left in the lockeroom were losing it.  I know Dennis, King, Chris, Hasse and Coach was there to witness the hilarity of it all and I think a couple other guys were there too.  Toni was lucky Emin walked away cause I think Emin would have put a beat down on.  I really wish I could understand Swedish so I knew what they were saying.  Good stuff.  So I wanna break it down even further by taking a look at Toni and Emins friendship chart:

                                                                 FRIENDSHIP CHART                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |                           ___________                                                                                                                                                                                    Friends |                          /                   \                                                                                                                                                                                             |                        /                       |                                                                                                                                                                                           |                      /                         |                                                                                                                                                                                           |         ____    /                           |         |                                                                                                                                                                                 |       /        \ /                             |         /                                                                                                                                                           Colleagues       |     /                                          |____/                                                                                                                                                                                   |    /                                                                                                                                                                                                           Strangers                |__/                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |                                                                                                                                                                                                               Enemies                  |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

        Now, you can see through the Friendship Chart that Toni and Emin started out their relationship as Strangers, not knowing each other at all.  But they quickly moved on up to Colleagues where they had a business relationship being teammates.  And it didn't take that much time at all for them to become Friends so they could hang out at social functions and maybe even watch a DVD together.  But that all changed this afternoon where you can see a steep drop from Friends back down to Colleagues in the friendship chart.  Their lucky they didn't drop further down to Strangers where they wouldn't even know each other anymore.  But alas, after practice they made up and are working hard to get back up to the level of Friends, which is good to see.  I have no doubt that they'll be back up there in no time.         

So now that I've explained that, the rest of the practice went well.  We played hard and I think everyone is ready to get a win tomorrow.  Of course after practice we tried to take Dennis' Ms. Pac Man record down but without much success.  But the record is looking more beatable now.  Dennis had claimed that it was the highest  score ever recorded in the history of Ms. Pac Man.  But thanks to King and Emin and a couple other guys who took it upon themselves to prove Dennis wrong, they got some hard evidence online from google that Dennis score isn't even close to the highest score ever recorded.  Dennis has around 42,000 points but the highest ever is 933,580 points.  Thats crazy.  To put it in perspective Dennis' score isn't even 5% of the best score ever.  And me and Rasmus cant even get close to Dennis score so that's not saying too much about us.  But we will get it, Fo Sho.

So that's about for today, gotta get some rest for the game tomorrow.  Hope to see you all there. Take care.

Ryan 

Hey everyone,

We had a day off today so it went by without much happening.  I was able to sleep in until about 12 so that was nice.  No nap was needed although I think i did fall asleep for a minute or two while I was listening to a podcast.   I was listening to this guy who writes for ESPN.com who's name is Bill Simmons.  It's a pretty cool story, he started up his own website while living in his home town of Boston.  It was called Boston's Sports Guy or something like that.  He was just a regular guy who would give his opinions on the Boston sports scene without holding anything back.  He began to get a large following and eventually was picked up by ESPN to write for them and now he is one of the most read journalist for ESPN.  He's really funny and I alway like to hear what he has to say about what's going on in the sports world.  

One of my favorite bands, The Kings of Leon,  is playing in Copenhagen tonight.  When I found out we had the day off today I tried to get tickets but they were sold out.  I was pretty bummed about that.  I was so tempted to drive down there anyway to try and scalp some but ended up being too lazy.  I've seen them 3 times and they always put on a great show.  Im sure Ill get a chance to see them again this summer.  So instead of driving down to Copenhagen I went to Hasse's gym to get a lift in.  Hasse just moved some of his cardio machines so there's alot more room in there.  It looks great.  After lifting I went to the store to pick up some things I needed for dinner.  I know I said I was gonna check out that Greek restaurant last night but wasn't feeling it so I ended up just cooking some steaks.  I'll be sure to hit up that restaurant sometime before I leave though.  

Now the nights ending and I'll probably just watch a movie or something and call it a night.  But Ill be back tomorrow and let you know what's going on.  Have a good one.

Ryan 

What's up everyone??

First off I just wanna say welcome back to Emin.  Emin has been injured for almost the whole season and today was his first full on practice.  I can't even remember the last time he practiced with us.  But it was great to have him back and he looked great out there today.  When you come back from an injury it usually takes a while to get into basketball shape, but Emin was keeping up with us.  

The day started out with a morning practice at a different gym,  we were at Erikslund which is over by the soccer stadium.  We just did some individual workouts, working on different things to make us better.  King and I were working on our post game but I felt bad for Dennis.  He was working on bringing the ball up court from the inbounds after the opposing team scores.  So he had to run over 60 sprints as fast as he could up the court while dribbling.  All his partner, Toni, was doing was inbounding the ball.  Toni was giving some great passes though, but he's gotta remember to keep his thumbs down.  Anders was giving him a hard time about that.  After the morning workout we went for a run outside through the trails behind the gym.  I hate having to run after practice but today wasn't too bad because we had some interesting conversations while we were out there.  Made time go by alot faster.  

After practice we had some lunch at Andreas followed up by a great nap.  I gotta say, I really look forward to a good nap.  I know that one day, when Im done playing basketball, Ill have to get another job.  And when that happens, I won't have to luxury to take naps everyday.  So Im gonna take advantage of that for as long as I can.

 Afternoon practice started off pretty funny.  I had to get my ankles tapped before practice so when I came out everyone was already getting warmed up with a shooting drill.  Dennis needed a partner so I joined up with him to start shooting but we were doing the drill wrong and Coach wasn't too happy about it.  So he wanted King to explain what we should be doing.  I don't know what was so funny but King had a hard time explaining what to do, as he was laughing the whole time trying to talk to us.  And, you know when someone starts laughing it gets contagious so pretty soon everyone was laughing quite a bit.  Now, me and Dennis are even more confused on what to do but luckily, Hank and Toni were there to talk us through it.    I don't think Coach was laughing, but what are you gonna do?  I thought it was hilarious.  Practice was pretty uneventful after that.  We were working on a couple things that we think will help us for our game against Sundsvall.  After practice we were hanging out in the lockeroom having some great conversations.  It would be too hard to write what we were talking about but let me just tell you it was highly entertaining.  Me and Rasmus play alot of Ms. Pac Man after practice trying to get the high score.  Dennis has it right now and it's looking pretty unbeatable.  We're getting closer and all it takes is one great game.  I think Rasmus has it in him to take Dennis down.  

So I just got done eating dinner and am gonna head over to Chris' place to hang out for a bit.  The last time I blogged I asked for some recommendations of good restaurants around town.  I haven't been to them all but I think I'll check out the Greek restaurant tomorrow and let you know what I think.  I love Greek food so Im looking forward to that.  

Hope you everyone is having a great night and thanks for checking out the blog.  Later

Ryan 

Whats up everyone,

So we had the day off yesterday and not much was going on.  I was able to sleep in a bit and went to the Hasse's to get a lift in.  I ran into Chris, Hank, King, and Juke there.  Afterward we went to a cafe to get a late lunch.  After that we went to Chris' place to hang out.  I was gonna go get a haircut but everyplace I went to was closed so I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer.  All in all is was a good day off and we were ready to get back after it today.  We had practice this morning at 11 and got after it.  For some reason we usually have a hard time with Sunday morning practices but  I thought today was one of our better ones.  We played alot of full court and did a little conditioning afterwards.  Coach is still in Stockholm so Jonas took care of running things.  We were pretty tired afterwards and a bunch of us hung out at the gym for probably a half hour.  But since then it's been a pretty lazy Sunday.  Simon just got a new apartment so me and Chris helped him move in.  They both live in the same building now so Im sure Chris will be a good captain and have Simon over for dinner all the time.   

The last time I wrote I told you we all went to the new Bond movie and it was good.  A couple of the guys thought it was just okay but I really liked it.  But you really need to see the last one to kind of know what's going on.  It's pretty much a continuation of the last film.  

But now, I just got done eating dinner and am getting ready to call it a night.  Only one more practice before we play Norkkoping so we need to make sure its a good one.  I think practices this past week have been good.  We're playing a little more aggressive but I think we can improve on it even more.  I think we go through spurts where we're playing really hard and getting after it but it needs to be constant.  Its not gonna happen over night but I think each day we're getting better.  Well everyone, this is my last blog of the week.  I just wanna say thanks for checking it out and I hope to see you all at our next home game.  Have a good one and take care.

Ryan 

Whats up everyone,

Happy Halloween.  I guess Halloween isn't as big in Sweden as it is in the states.  But Im sure there's some costume parties going on out there.  It was a pretty quite day here.  We didn't have a morning workout so I was able to sleep in but I woke up around 8 and wasn't able to fall back asleep.  I don't know what it was but I was just couldn't sleep so I got up and made a good breakfast.  Bacon and eggs with some toast and orange juice.  It was good stuff.  After that I made it over to Hasse's to get a lift in followed by lunch at Andreas.  

We had practice at a gym over by the football stadium.  Practice was pretty light as we only played half court for about an hour.  But while we were on the court we were getting after it.  Coach wasn't there because he had some things to do in Stockholm so Jonas was running the show.  I think we could have played some full court and that would have been good for us.  I was talking to Tony after practice and we were talking about what we could do to help us prepare for games better.  We both agreed that we need to get up and down that court a little more.   

After practice I had to get some laundry done.  I was the last thing that I wanted to be doing but it was the only time available.  Once I got that over with I made dinner for the first time in a while.  Nothing fancy, just some steak and potatoes.  I made a little too much but it'll be good leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  Im just getting ready to take off to go see the new Bond movie with a couple of the guys.  The 9:00 show was sold out so were going to the 11:30 show.  We won't get home until late so it's a good thing we got tomorrow off.  I'll let you know how it was tomorrow.  Have a good one and thanks for checking in.  Later.

Ryan 

Hey Everyone,

So this morning started out pretty tough.  I woke up and was feeling pretty sore from the previous day's stairs workout.  But once we got to the gym and started shooting things started to loosen up a bit.  We got alot of shots up this morning.  We each had a partner and took turns shooting 25 shots apiece until we got 300 shots up.   After that we went to Hasse's gym to get a lift in before lunch.  I was lifting a bit with Simon and Hank and was really impressed with how much stronger they've gotten since last year.  They worked hard this off season and you can really tell.  Hank was even doing squats today, even after our day yesterday, which was crazy to me.  I don't plan on working my legs for a while, there so sore right now.  A buddy of Hasse, who works at a sport institute in Florida, was there to show us some lifts we can do to help get us in good basketball shape.  I have never done the work outs he suggested, so im looking forward to put them in my program.  I hope to get a few more suggestions from him what I can do to work on being more explosive.  After we finished lifting we headed over to Andreas for lunch.  Things are a little different for us during lunch now.  Before, we would eat the same thing as the regular paying customers and got all the lingon juice we could drink.  But now, Andreas cooks us something special each day.  It usually consists of a pasta with a chicken or beef sauce to put on top.  Its delicious as always, but we have to watch out, because sometimes the regular customers try and sneak a little bit of our food on their plates.  The first day this happened Hank was all over it, letting everyone know this was our food.  But he's been slipping the past couple of days.  A couple people have slipped past him so Im not sure if we can rely on Hank to be the team food enforcer anymore.   The only downside of our new setup is that we only get one glass of lingon each day.  And today was the best lingon of the year, no doubt.  It was ice cold and full of flavor.  Once you started to drink you couldn't put it down till you finished it.  I think King put a glass down in record time.  

After we finished eating everyone went home and I think most of us took a nap.  I had a great nap, but when I woke up I was feeling more sore than I did this morning.  Im not sure if it was from lifting earlier or what, but the nap didn't help as much as I thought it was going to.  Instead of practicing in Borashallen we had practice at Englebreken.  It's always a bit of a struggle to practice away from our home court.  The rims are always a little different, the floor isn't quite the same.  But what can you do?  We play trough it and try to get better.  We'll have away games where we'll have to get used to the conditions so maybe it's a good thing to get us out of our comfort zone.  Practice went well.  We didn't go that long, but for the time that we did go, we played hard.  We pretty much just played 5 on 5 full court.   It wasn't always pretty, were trying to change some things up and it's gonna take a while.  But I think were headed in the right direction and everyone is on the same page for what we want to accomplish.  

After practice I had every intention to go to the store and cook up a good dinner of steak and potatoes but I got a call from Chris saying a couple of guys were going to Alle Terresson.  Now, I know I've gone out to eat every night that I've blogged, but you gotta believe I usually don't eat out this much.  But when a teammate calls and says they're all getting some dinner, I can't turn that down.  So Chris, Hank, King, Dennis and I went out and had some great pizza again.  Except Dennis he got some pasta.   After that, I went to the store to get some things for breakfast and dinner tomorrow night.  I will cook tomorrow night.  That is, unless I get a call that some of the guys are going out.  And now, Im just getting ready to call it a night.  Will probably watch an episode of the Sapranos before I head to bed.  We don't have a morning workout, so Im looking forward to sleeping in.  Hope everyone had a good day and Ill be back with more tomorrow.  Have a good one.

Ryan