Ready for the call

February 09, 2012

Ready for the call

To get ready for the Final Four, we played a couple of friendly games last week with Efes Pilsen. One was behind closed doors on Thursday and another open to the public on Friday. It helped a lot, especially for a couple players who haven't played much in the previous weeks. You have to remember that we finished out playoff series on March 31 and had only a couple Russian League playoff games after that. So, some of us hadn't been on the court most of April, but especially Terence Morris, who never plays in the Russian League. The playoff games in Russia weren't that difficult, so our coaches thought the friendlies were a good thing to do for everyone in order to have some Euroleague-type competition going into the Final Four. We played good, even though we were trying to work on a couple things specifically for Barcelona and had to run those things to help us get ready. Of course, it was also important to get ready from a mental standpoint with a more competitive opponent against whom we needed to push ourselves closer to a Final Four level of play. Overall, it was a good level of play in both games, certainly so for exhibition games, and I think it helped us get ready for whatever comes our way now.

I know that I am a rookie, but I have to be ready, too. Coach Messina in the last practice was very clear that I might play if something comes up, and if so, I just want to make sure I help the team in any way possible. I bring size, if it's needed, but I also want to do the little things. I won't be put in to score points, I know, so it's a matter of getting rebounds, making defensive plays and just doing the groundwork to help my team with if they need me. Barcelona has a lot of big guys on their team, and you never know what can happen. I am making sure to do everything right in practice so that when the game comes, if I am called on, I'll know what's going on and be ready.

From a confidence standpoint, I think that in the last month or more, I've been playing a little better and starting to understand everything better. In the beginning, there was so much new information, that I had to slow down to assimilate everything that's new and different for a rookie. I am still learning a lot, but at this point, I have a little more understanding on the court and I think that my game level has come up with that understanding. I can now do what I do best on the court without having to think so much about the things our coach wants me to do that were new to me. How we play different screens, for example. So I can now have more confidence going out and playing than I had going out and thinking before.

Barcelona's frontcourt is interesting because their big men can do a lot of different things. Just watching tape, you see they do different things depending on which big men are on the floor. They get good post play from Santiago, who dunks a lot down low, more dunks from Vazquez, who also plays screen-and-roll, the same as Ilyasova, while David Andersen can go from the five-spot all the way out to the three-point line. The power forwards can pass well from the top of the key, too. The other thing is they have a variety of great, quick guards who adjust to the big men and play off their strengths. So they have a lot of options, which makes it hard to play against them. They don't play one way. It depends on who they have on the floor.

A year ago, as I have mentioned, I was in another Final Four, that of the NCAA, and my University of Kansas team was able to win it all. That was a great experience, although the level of play was certainly not as high as in this Final Four. Still, it's good to look back on and makes me think I know the atmosphere of a similar event. One of the things that makes me happy again is that my mother will be coming to watch. It was great for her and for me that I returned this season to play in Russia, so we could be closer than we were during my seven years in the United States. She wasn't such a big basketball fan before this time last year, but after being at the NCAA Final Four, she kind of realized how cool this is. She had fun and became a fan of basketball, so this season she has come to Moscow several times to see me, and to see the games. It'll be a great experience for her, too, to see the Euroleague Final Four!

POSTED BY

Sasha Kaun - Moscow, Russia

DATE:

Wednesday, April 29, 2009