GB WOMEN FALL BUT MEN GO 4-0
It still seemed like it had been hardly any time at all since I got back from Newcastle, and even less time since I'd been reading some seriously warped Bosnian trash talk. However a Eurobasket Division A campaign is nothing if not intense and it wasn't long before I was packing a bag to head up to Birmingham for the first double bill(women's and men's matches on the same night) of the campaign.
So, off to St Davids station to catch a train that was actually heading all the way up to Aberdeen. I didn't envy anyone who was making that journey. This time around though there was actually unreserved seats left, the only headache I had to deal with was my pod going wonky the previous night. On the other hand, at least I was able to travel up on match day this time around. So, arrived at New Street station(which I know all too well) just before 1, grabbed a sandwich at the Camden food cafe there, made for the taxi rank, get in cab and then I realise that it's the first time I'd really done Birmingham proper. Still, I recognised the Paragon Hotel well enough - and that would be my base for the night.
The Paragon semed to be a decent enough crashpad(relatively cheap and a lot nearer target than the Hedgefield Hotel was). The cabbie also didn't charge me much to get me there from the station. Working out how the lights in my room worked wasn't straightforward though(needed to slot my key fob into an area at the wall). Still, it was a simple case of dumping most of my stuff off then getting a cab to the National Indoor Arena where the games were being played. Before that though, I hit the Malthouse, actually managing to get there just before the scheduled What's Bev crew meetup time of 2pm which wasn't bad. The Malthouse, right by the NIA is a legendary hangout for basketball fans.
Sure enough, I found a fair number of people there, both veterans of the trip to Warsaw(including the Plymouth Raiders fan who I ran into out there) and a few guys who I hadn't run into before. Talk turned out to be a mix of BBL chat, Warsaw reminiscing and some stuff about today's games as well. The big laugh I found though is that I seemed to be the only guy overnighting in Brum. Even the guy from Plymouth was getting an overnight coach back for crying out loud. Still, we hung around there long enough for me to down a couple of Fosters and a couple of the guys to grab a late lunch. Then it was off to the NIA, I split off from the main group looking for an entrance that wasn't there having to backtrack and then find myself a seat - front row, behind the opposition bench. 
Not so bad.
Now, I'd never even watched women's basketball on a TV highlights show before, so watching it live in the arena made me feel like a bit of a mug. Still, one group of women had "Great Britain" on their shirts, that's all that mattered. This group of women were also Division A players, and had been on pretty good form in friendlies prior to this, the first game of their Eurobasket qualifying group. Best I could tell they were a decent team, but they weren't as likely to qualify for their Eurobasket as the men's team was. Slovakia were also meant to be better than them. Still I was there, in an arena I first heard of when I was a Gladiators fan as a kid. I'm pretty sure that the Glads had bigger crowds back in the day though.
I'm also pretty sure they had louder crowds. By a fluke of ticket allocation I was a long way away from the main group of 'real' British basketball fans for that day - including a rump with tickets courtest of "Back British Basketball"that had called themselves the "Balldogs". The people I'd wound up alongside couldn't be bothered to do more than politely applaud either side. Possibly as a result, the Slovakians took us to the cleaners early doors and our girls did well to only be trailing 17-16 at the end of the 1st quarter. Our girls managed to step it up in the 2nd quarter though at Slovakia's American coach wasn't too happy with the turnaround. Joe Leedham led the way with 9 points and we led 36-34.
As the daytrippers frustrated me more and more with their silence GB actually managed to extend their lead and though the Slovakians replied we weren't quite done yet and led 44-40 with 6:31 left in the 3rd. However we were outright buried in the back end of that period and went into the 4th with our work cut out. Things didn't get much better for us in the final period as the deficit hit double figures and though I was still yelling, I was really looking for a miracle at that point. Our girls did manage to pin their opponents back in the last few minutes but it was only damage limitation. Luisa Michulkova grabbed 19 points as Slovakia won 76-67.
Elsewhere, the Ukraine faced Germany in Kiev. Though the home side opened the scoring, the 1st quarter turned out to be a solid display from the German girls. The Ukrainians replied in the 2nd quarter and the result was that the game was tied at 31. The third quarter turned out to be a tight affair with a long scoreless period midway through the quarter and another right at the end. By that point the hosts appeared to have the upper hand and led 44-42 going into the final period. The 4th quarter was also low scoring but it was the Germans that were running the show at the end. Linda Frohlich grabbed 15 points as the visitors won 60-56. That leaves GB 4th and bottom of Group B. Somehow I don't think that's going to get them to Eurobasket.
Well, after the women's game I left my seat looking for a bite to eat and grabbed a burger and chips. My first impression of women's basketball? OK but it didn't quite have the pace or spectacle of the men's game. A member of the What's Bev crew I ran into wasn't so polite about what she'd seen. In the meantime though I had more noise to make. The only team standing between GB and a 4-0 record was the Ukraine, a team that had only just won their first game of the campaign and had a modest record overall. We'd faced tougher teams that this both home and away. Surely on our court a team of this limited stature would crumble.
Well you'd have thought so. At the very least you'd have thought the daytrippers would have turned the volume up for own higher profile men's team. They did not and our guys never really got it going - in fact we were somehow getting anhiliated early on. We started to get it together before the end of the opener but we were still down 27-24 at the first buzzer and that was worrying. Early in the 2nd quarter things looked to get a lot wrse - surely we weren't going to lose our first competitive home game since '06 to these guys? However once again Dan Clark was taking care of business, banking 13 points as we scrabbled to halftime with a 47-46 lead.
Unfortunately the Ukraine still had fuel in the tank and went on to lead the game 55-50 with 6:53 left in the 3rd after managing to shut us down again. And yet we came back. The Ukraine retook the lead - and we came back again to tie the game at 64. I expected the rough ride to continue in the 4th quarter. Instead though after briefly retaking the lead the Ukrainins just imploded(having two of their guys fouling out wouldn't have helped their cause). The result was a GB demo session that finally got my part of the arena making noise. Luol Deng was untouchable again, finishing the game with 28 points. The final scoreline of 90-76 flattered us but at that point - who cared?
Elsewhere Macedonia faced Bosnia in Skopje. The top seeded team appeared in to be in no mood for mercy on their home court - it was not a good night to be a Bosnian basketball fan as the vistors were left with a mountain to climb at half time. Credit to the Bosnians - they managed to turn things up in the 3rd quarter and reigned in the Macedonians to a significant extent, cutting the gap to single digits but they still needed to do more. They weren't able to though and Macedonia stepped it up again. Of course though, they couldn't have done it without their US mercenaries and Bo McCalebb led the way with 19 points to a 70-56 win.
However, GB are still top of Group B with a 4-0 record, the only side in the whole of Division A that can claim that. The nearest competition is Macedonia on 3-1. No doubt about it we are well and truly on course for Lithuania.
After that, well, I waited outside for the What's Bev crew and checked round the Malthouse but they all seemed to have scattered. So, it was time to hail a cab and head back to the Paragon where I managed to get the lights and TV working this time round, channel surfing till I found the back end of Matrix: Revoloutions. After that it was a case of trying to get some sleep with the traffic of central Birmingham in the background(night time traffic is the big disadvantage of staying/living in the middle of a major city as I found out when I was living in central London). The morning saw me wake up, hit the shower, find that I was early for breakfast(should have set my alarm half an hour later), head back to my room for a time out, grab what turned out to be dodgy croissants, get packed and then get a cab to New Street.
Arriving at New Steet I see...no trains going south west on the departure board and I find that the next train to Exeter is well over an hour away. So begins the latest chapter in "Matt G hangs around Birmingham New Street station". As per usual I grab a drink and a cake then when a train heading to Plymouth turns up on the departure board, head to the pretty much dead(including dead coffee machine) platform waiting area. The train arrives, we come to a stop twice between Brum and Cheltenham before eventually I arrive at St Davids in time to grab a late lunch before heading home.
Two down, two to go.
Click here to visit the Basketball archive
Comments go here
