Tim Black’s Blog, Sept.-Oct.

Tim Black is in his fifth year of professional basketball in Germany. The 26-year-old is a star for the Schrono Baskets. Black is a graduate of Atlee High School, where he earned first-team all-Capital District honors and third-team All-Metro in 1999. He went on to tear up Division II basketball at Barton College, where he is the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,836 points. He was first-team all-CVAC twice, garnering player-of-the-year honors in 2003. That was his senior year where he poured in 25.5 points per contest, fourth in the nation. He was a two-time All-American. You can find Black’s blog here. Also visit www.timblack.net, his personal site.

September

The month of September was our second month of preseason and now it is over. The season is here.

We open up in Leverkusen on October 6 at 6 p.m. This last month has been good but very busy. Two practices a day every single day and a lot of player movement.

We shipped players out and brought players in to try and fill some holes that we had. It’s hard to see people get cut from the team after they have been with you for a month or so but is si a business and we all have to realize that.

We have to continue to “dry-run” the offense so that the new guys learn it and even someof the guys who hae been here can learn it better. After a while it just gets really boring.

We had like nine games this month but of course none of them counted because it was preseason. We played a few teams from our league and a few teams from other countires.

We did pretty well because we only lost one game out of the nine. That can be good but it can also be bad.

In some cases when teams win all their preseason games they think they are going to be great, but when the season comes they aren’t.

In other cases winning early like that gives a team confidecen that they can take into the season. I believe it will give us the confidecen that we need to win some games early and get off to a good start.

Tim Black averaged 32 points per game in his rookie season in Germany’s Division II league. He’s led his squad to the Division I level.

In this league anything can happen on any given night. Our team isn’t the most talented team but we have talent. We are going to have to win games because we out work other teams.

I’m so ready for this season to start because for some reason there are still numerous doubters over here that think I’m too small to play in this league.

October
Game 1 was a close one. We opened our season on the 6th of this month and it was a road game.

The team wasn’t really that good but I can say that we did not play that well. we started the game slow and the first half ended with us down by like 8.

Luckily there are two halves to a game. we plaeyd better in the second half and made it a game. We were down by 2 with a little under 20 seconds left and the ball in my hands.

This is my time. I love these moments but I made a crucial decision that possibly affected the outcome.

I keep the ball in my hands for most of the time and call for a pick from our big man. I had already decided that we were going for the win because it was an away game and most of our players were in foul trouble.

The pick and roll comes and I push it aay because I thought too much time was left on the clock. That was the crucial decision that affected the outcome.

I ran the pick and roll with about 4 seconds left and shot the ball with around 2 seconds left. That mistake didn’t allow for our team to try and get a rebound and it was all or nothing with the final shot.

Needless to say, I ended up missing the shot and we lose by 2. I learned a lot by that last play and the entire game. The next time that happens I will attempt to shoot earlier and give my team a chance to rebound.

Only one game into the season, Black has already learned a lesson.

But I will say this; they might not need to rebound because that next shot will be drained!!

I didn’t have the best shooting night but I ended the game with 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. There will be better days.

Next game is Friday, October 12 against last year’s champion. It is going to be a hard game but those are the best games to work out in. Until then stay posted and I’ll get back to ya…..