Newcastle

After our victory on the road in Hungary we flew back to London and then on to Newcastle. We have a bye this week so we set up camp here at the Hilton. Great city and great hotel. We will practice here for the next few days then play Macedonia. We are practicing and will play our game at Northumbra University. It is a classic looking college with Red brick buildings and about 18,000 students. The Gym and athletic buildings are brand new. You can still smell the wet paint. It reminds me of a big Division 2 school or small division 1 college in the States. Nice size gym holds about 3,500 people. I hope we can fill it for our game and stir up some interest in the basketball team here at home. We are going to play a very good veteran team, FYROM or Former Yugoslovia Republic of Macedonia. They have a team full of SHOOTERS or more to the point MAKERS. When a coach says he needs a "shooter" he really means he wants a "maker"! There are a lot of "shooters" out there but not many "makers". I am finding that a lot of the "shooters" and "makers" are playing here, overseas. They have 2 big players that really shoot the ball well from 3pt range. Pero Antic and Todor Gecevski, both are 6'11" And very skilled basketball players. It's kind of crazy but I remember sees both of them workout 6 years ago at the Euro basketball camp in Treviso Italy. It was a workout for all the NBA GMs and scouts. I was one of the coaches that worked them out and I remember thinking afterwards.... These two could be good back up bigs in the NBA in a couple years. It will be interesting to see them years later. It looks like they have become good players overseas.

Newcastle is a pretty city on a river. It reminds me a lot of Portland. Nice downtown but not too busy with lots of shops and pubs. The weather has been cool, in the 60's and it is starting to rain a little today. Kind of weird for August. It fells like we should be going to a college football game. Maybe Kansas vs Kansas State in Memorial Stadium on a nice cool Saturday. Memories........ Well back to watching tape and working on my scouting report.

P.S. To let me know anyone is reading this feel free to add any and all comments. I would love any feedback. Please no comments on my spelling I get enough hassle from my family. Hi Michael and Bryan. Your mom is having a great time site seeing while I am stuck in a gym.