OK, everyone. Here we are at the moment of truth. It's all in the hands of my Cholet Basket teammates and I to push our way into the Top 16 this week. We have a major challenge ahead of us, traveling to Istanbul to try to beat Fenerbahce Ulker on its home court in front of what I hear might be 15,000 fans. We understand that this is the most important game of our season right now. In fact, we really feel like we deserve to have qualified already, except that we didn't finish our game against Siena at home. We were doing everything right for almost 35 minutes, and then we didn't execute for the six minutes down the stretch. That game would have clinched it for us, but we still control our own destiny. We just have to win again on Thursday against Fenerbahce. We are going into the game relaxed and focused. We've proven already that we can compete hard. We had a great game to beat Fenerbahce on our home court. So we know definitely what it takes to beat them. It's all about competing, and if we do that start to finish, we will have the chance to win and advance.

One thing is for sure: it's a long way from where we are now to the night we opened the season losing by 76-44 at Siena. It's been a night-and-day difference between now and then. I don't think it helped to start in Siena, where that team is always strong regardless of who they are playing against. If you don't believe me, ask Fenerbahce, which lost by almost as... more

Hi again, from Cholet, France, where since my last blog everybody is feeling even better about our team. That's definitely the case after our last win, at home over Fenerbahce Ulker, which as you know was the last undefeated team in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague until that game. Our fans have been really supportive all the way, and now we feel like we rewarded their loyalty with a big win. At the same time, you can tell the team is doing well after three wins in a row. Remember, until the first of those early this month against Lietuvos Rytas, our club had not won a Euroleague game in 10 years! So, three in a row is nice. But I especially like the way our team is coming together. We have Sammy Mejia doing a great job scoring the ball, of course. He was terrific in the Fenerbahce game, hitting one tough shot after another, and the rest of us are making plays around what he does. The combination is good, and best of all, we feel like we're just getting started!

I ended my first blog saying I thought there would be more wins after that first one against Lietuvos Rytas, and sure enough we haven't lost since then. I could say that just because i know the character of our team. After you spend time with guys, you know what you can count on. And we have guys who are fighters. On paper, we go into these games outmatched, but that has little to do with the actual game and how it's played. This is a good group... more

Hi everyone. I'm DeMarcus Nelson from Cholet Basket, happy to be blogging for my team on the Euroleague webpage, especially since we got our first victory last week! That was nice for everyone as a reward for the hard work we've been doing to try to compete in this competition. I am especially happy to be in the Euroleague this season and join my fellow Duke University alumni Trajan Langdon and Martynas Pocius. We all know that Duke is famous on the other side of the ocean, so we would like to make sure that fame extends all the way to Europe. There's no doubt that Trajan has already done his part, with all the success he has had in the Euroleague. Of course, Martynas is already making his name known, too. We were lucky enough to run into each other at a friendly game in the preseason. Martynas didn't play because he just came back from his national team, but we got to talk about the Euroleague season ahead of us. We played two years together at Duke, and we all knew he was a good player there and would do well. So his performances last year, in the summer with Lithuania and so far this year have been no surprise to me. In all our cases, our coming to play here is a testament to the kind of competitors we are. Trajan of course has had opportunities to play in the NBA and I could have been in a camp this fall. But none of us wanted to sit on somebody's bench. We preferred to play at the highest level possible. My decision to come to Europe last year and this year was a choice. Last year, I wanted to take the opportunity to play in Europe, and this year I wanted to come back because I feel I have something to prove here. I felt I didn't do enough last year, some of which is on me and my play, some on things... more