Final Two Legs of Journey to Begin...

On Saturday evening (Doha Time) we will begin the last two legs of an incredible journey and march toward a possible 2008 Olympic berth. We fly to Shanghai, China to train, putting the final pieces together with a Qatar National team that has the potential to get this thing done. While spending (11) days in Shanghai, we will compete in three more friendly games in final preparations. We fly to Japan on the 26th of July with our first game on the 28th. We will play (6) games in (6) days and the goal is to make it into the Final 4. Getting a feel for this team has been quite difficult, but I do believe after watching them and a (100) hours of film, I know that path we must take to win the Asian Championship and march onto Beijing.

The international game is in many ways, quite different than USA basketball. It is much for loose, where the officials try very hard not to disrupt the flow of the game. For instance, as freethrows are being shot, players are walking in and out of the freethrow spaces and it is never called. If a player fouls out and you huddle your team for substitution, they actually shoot one of the freethrows while you are still in your huddle. There are (10) minute quarters, (24) second shot clock, and on the 5th foul of each quarter you shoot two freethrows each time. There are no 1 and 1 bonus freethrows ever shot. You get (1) time out each quarter and (2) in the 4th quarter. You can NEVER call timeout when the ball is in play so that is quite difficult to get used to.