Ready for the call

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:18:01 GMT

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...

Comparing the fever for Final Fours!

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:24:42 GMT

For those of you who don't know me, I am one of CSKA's handful of newcomers this year, and thanks to the hard work all season, we are going to Berlin to try to keep this club's record of success going at the Final Four. That would be a great end to my rookie year as a pro. Even though I grew up in Russia and I'll be 24 right after the Final Four, I am a true rookie because I have spent the last seven years playing at high school and college in the United States. I am even kind of a rookie in Moscow - although I am lucky enough to speak the language! Everyday life is a little different here in Russia compared to what I was used to for seven years in the U.S. That's especially true in Moscow. It's such a big city, the prices are so much higher, the traffic is ridiculous. And even though I came from Siberia, I had lived in Florida in high school and Kansas in college, so the weather here is colder than what I became used to. More precisely, the coldest weather lasts a much longer span of time than anything in the States. So little things like that were bigger adjustments than you might think if you consider that I am Russian.

From a basketball standpoint, the big adjustment was getting used to the European style over here. I had never played organized basketball in Russia, only in America. So the first couple months were really hard. Then, I started understanding more and more as time went by. I am still trying to learn and adjust all the time, even now. It's kind of a process, but it's fun trying to help the team as much as I can while my own game gets better. The approach to the game here is different. You are expected to know a lot more than you are expected to know in college. At Kansas, it was more of a learning process. The coach would stop practice to explain if you were doing something new or you were doing it wrong. Here, if things aren't done a certain way, you have to find a way to do it. You figure it out or talk to your coach, but you have to take that responsibility.

Last year, as you might have heard, I was part of the NCAA Final Four, which my University of Kansas team won. So now I am definitely excited to be part of another Final Four team, although this one is on a whole other level. It's the Euroleague Final Four, the competition is so much bigger, and CSKA is trying for back-to-back. I am anxious to see what happens once we get there, whether the whole process is different or similar. The NCAA Final Four was a bit overwhelming. There were special times to go back and forth to the gym to talk to the media, and just lots of stuff going on all around you. It was definitely exciting to be part of it, live through it and see all the attention paid to it.

It's crazy how big the NCAA tournament is to a lot of people in America, and I think it's definitely a legitimate comparison to European basketball. The fans and the atmosphere here in Europe are more like college than the NBA, for sure. I mean, we were in Belgrade Arena recently for our playoff game there, and the atmosphere was just amazing, with a sellout and the crowd so into the game. The biggest difference here, though, is to see older people in the crowd compared to all crazy students in the NCAA. There are older crazy people here in Europe. When we were in Belgrade, that was ridiculous it was so like a college atmosphere. It was just great to play with all those people creating so much energy there....

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Ready for the call

Comparing the fever for Final Fours!