Is everybody ready for Final Four weekend? I certainly am! You work all season with this goal in mind, focusing on getting to the Final Four, and now that it's so close, you just want to be there and win! Personally, I would rather have a shorter time in between the playoffs and the Final Four, although it really doesn't matter, because it's the same for all teams, so there's no advantages or disadvantages. But there is so much anticipation leading up to the Final Four, you just want to start playing! The other reason that I am excited to get back to this event is that last time I was there, I left with a sour taste in my mouth -- and I still have it! It was 2008 and we were up big on Maccabi in the semifinal, but we just didn't play the second half, and lost. I have always felt like we let a big opportunity get away from us. Now, I am hoping we make up for last time and do something special.

The truth is that in 2008, it was great until the end of that semifinal game. It was a great experience and a lot of fun getting there, but after we lost, I couldn't enjoy myself at all. I always believed we should have been in the final, and thought all that season that we were one of the teams that matched up well with CSKA, the eventual winner. Sure, we might have lost the final, but it would have been great to try. What hurts is never knowing. I would like a different memory of the Final Four to replace that one for me now. That's why we are going to Barcelona this week very hungry. I have my reasons, my teammate Rimas Kaukenas couldn't play in 2008 due to an injury, so you know he's excited to get back. Bo McCalebb went there last year, played great, but lost two games. He wants to know... more

Well, how many of you expected to see Montepaschi Siena's blogger still here? After losing the first two in the Top 16? After going down 48 in Game 1 of the playoffs? Well thanks to all of you believers out there for your faith in us. Because here we are, three weeks from the Final Four, and looking forward to every minute of it! We earned that much.

It's huge to be a part of the Final Four, and this time more than ever. You work all season long trying to get to this point. You go through the groups, the Top 16, the playoffs...and when you finally get there, it's kind of hard to believe, for me. We began the season not knowing, any of us, how good we would be, with new players coming in, things like that. To come together as we have and have the kind of season that gets you in the Final Four is just incredible. I have been there before, so I understand how big of an opportunity it is. When you get to the Final Four, you have two games and a huge chance before you. Although it's not easy, it's two games. Anything can happen. And we are all really excited about that.

I guess no one thought this was possible when we lost by 48 in Game 1 of the playoffs. Would you believe you if I said that we were not shocked or surprised to come back and win the series? After losing by 48, the one thing we knew was that Olympiacos had not done something special on defense or offense to make that number happen. They... more

Hi, this is Shaun Stonerook of Montepaschi Siena, coming back at you after one of the stranger weeks in my career and in Euroleague history. As you surely know by now, we lost at Olympiacos in Game 1 of our playoff series by 48 points! Deep breath, yeah. Then we came back in Game 2 and won by 17! Two days after one of the worst losses by any team at this level, and certainly something I had never been through before, we were going home tied at 1-1 with two games in Siena. If we can win them, it will make for a place in the Final Four and an amazing story to be told for a long time. For the moment, however, we can't draw any conclusions except that the homecourt advantage is nice to have, but it's clear now if it wasn't before that anybody can win away, so we will have to be even better now if we want to survive!

Game 1, as you can imagine, was really strange. It was something that never had happened to me before in all the time I've played basketball. I guess it was just one of those days when nothing would go right. Out on the court, we kept trying to say, "Let's make a little five-point or 10-point run and ease back into this game." But no matter what we did, what we tried, it didn't work. We couldn't score or do anything right. It was a strange feeling. You're playing and you're aware of what's going on, but the shots your team usually makes aren't going in, free throws aren't going in. You just think, "What's going on?" Then, when we watched the game afterward, we could see what was wrong. We weren't playing hard, weren't being aggressive, weren't making strong fouls, weren't doing anything we usually do. We were just kind of out there, like, shoot it, and if it goes in, ok, if... more

Euroleague fans, good to be back here blogging for you, especially since the last time I did this, my team made the Final Four! I'm Shaun Stonerook of Montepaschi Siena, and my team is traveling this week to play Olympiacos in the first two games of our playoff series, best of five, winner goes to the 2011 Final Four in Barcelona! As a player and a competitor, it doesn't get any better than this. You look at Olympiacos, and it's loaded at every position: great bigs, great guards, great forwards. They couldn't be any more dangerous. You can completely shut down their big men, and their guards could kill you. You could complete shut down their guards, and their big men can kill you. That's why a whole team effort will be needed by us. Fortunately, that is our biggest strength: team defense. We play together, rotate, help as much as we can. So it'll be a great offense against a great defense. It will be interesting to see which one prevails. It should be a great series. There are great coaches and players, so all the ingredients are there. I just hope we win, whether it's three, four or five games. I can't wait to get to Greece, have fun and win!

Everything's different for us now, entering the playoffs, as compared to when we were entering the Top 16 and didn't know how we'd play without Bo McCalebb, who was hurt. The way he plays is different than anyone in Europe: so fast, so quick and so explosive that he changed our whole style. Of course, we made it to the playoffs with Nikos Zisis leading us. Nikos is great point guard with a ton of experience, but his is a completely different style from Bo's, so we weren't sure how we would adjust. We had to change our plays and kind of change... more