Felipe Buedo Gallardo R.I.P.

I'm not sure if this is appropriate but I felt that I should give my respects and condolences to the family team mates and friends of Felipe at Athlone IT.
For those of you that didn't hear about it Felipe died suddenly of a heart failure while playing a local team. It was another instance of Sudden adult death syndrome that seems to be affecting more and more people.
Anyway there isn't much more to add so once again condolences to those who knew Felipe Buedo Gallardo.

The Freshers Tournement

Sorry for the lack of posts but as you can see above I was busy. We had the freshers basketball tournament down in Limerick over the weekend.The team consisted of 3 starting 5 and three off the normal team. We also had three other lads with us who don't normally play. So the nine of us set off on Saturday morning.
It was an early morning wake up for us as we were on the road at eight. Thankfully everybody managed to make it there with time to spare. After a three hour drive we arrived down in Limerick. We got a quick breakfast and then got ready for our first game against limerick.
This was the home team and they definitely made us feel unwelcome. The referees were home grown lads and within the first quarter which was only seven minutes long one of our players was on four fouls. For those of you that aren't familiar that means one more and he was off as you can only have a maximum of five fouls. The crowd as well were that special breed of deathly silence when we scored but raise the roof volume when UL scored. But we persevered with a 10 point win over the home team. This was our first win of the freshers competition and the first win DKIT had in any competition so far this season.
We then went and checked in to the hotel. Rooms were allocated and we were all in good spirts when we went back for our second game against DIT. We lined out but were slow off the mark and DIT were off to the better start. Due to those two slow quarters we were simply playing catch up and went on to lose by 12 points.At the end the group stood like this;
DIT-4
DKIT-4
UL-4
We found out that we were going through to the plate semi-finals against Cork IT. UL had also gone through as they had beaten DIT in their first game so went through as best third place team in the three groups.

*****SCENE MISSING*****

We woke up Sunday morning and then went to the arena. We all decided against a breakfast and got ready for the game we took our team photo.
We started the match against CIT and by the end of the first quarter it was Dundalk IT 20 Cork IT 2. Some awesome three point shooting from one of our newest recruits stunned the opposition. We went on to win the match by roughly 30 points.
Then we heard we were playing UL in the final.
We got some breakfast and went back over. We walked on to the court. For the next 40 minutes what followed was a game that had some terrible defence by us some mis-allocation of points by the table/third official and some of the most awesome 3 pointers I have seen in a long time. Our point guard Tommy made 6 3 pointers within two quarters. No matter what UL tried no matter how many players put on him he couldn't be stopped but unfortunately the game was still lost by 4 points. for the second time in two days a slow start is what lost the match for us. The fact that the incorrect score was put up on the score board shouldn't have mattered.Even if it may have given the opposition a psychological advantage, we should have beaten them.
We then sat down and watched the cup final between DCU who looked like the favourites and NUI Galway. NUI went on to win the game. They weren't better on any kind of technical level. They were definitely not as physical as the opposition but they won it. This was down to a group of players who new how to play as a team. Our team have very talented individuals and player for player we were one of the strongest teams there but we still don't know how to play like a team.
We got some food and most of us then slept for the journey back. Got back to dundalk about half eight.
On reflection we did well. It was the first time Dundalk had entered a team in the freshers tournament and also we were the first Dundalk IT team to ever make it in to a basketball final. That is somthing to be proud of but we knew we should have won it.
So now our attention turns back to the league. With the taste of a win in our mouths it's time to make them more frequent.Role on Carlow IT!!!!

Tallaght IT Vs DKIT

So last night we had our re-match against the tallaght side which beat us last week. For those of you that read the last one you'll remember that one of the issues with the game was the fact that the refereeing was shi.....sub standard. However that was nothing on last nights match.
We went down to the national basketball arena of Ireland in Tallaght to play the game. For a national arena though the floor could do with a bit of a rub down as we were able to skate in the dust. The game started and from the outset tallaght it made there intentions known with a few quick baskets. We were on the backfoot from that point on. It was at this stage that we started to realise that the ref was not working on any kind of impartial level. There were multiple fouls all of which were audible from the bench as the sound of slaps could be heard yet for some reason the ref who was much closer to the action couldn't hear a thing. The heads started to go down but slowly dundalk started to come in to their own with some nice drives from Tim,Brian and Darren.
Some more unfair calls later and some frustration from the players which led to us giving away some fouls and we were 18 behind going in to the last quarter. The team couldn't be faulted for lack of hunger but a few silly mistakes and letting the heads go down on a few occasions are what ultimatley led to us loosing this game.
A lot of positives can be taken from it though.The team are working well together and starting to gel which is great. We've developed a style and now are starting to have a sixth sense where to find other players on the court.
From now on we have no excuses. We know how to play and we know what we're good at. No more bulshit,no more excuses!!!

and then later that same night......

So after a bad loss in a game we felt could be won some of the team went on to amber. The night passed well but my highlight had to be Tim's bald German friend who kept saying that bacardi wasn't a womans drink. Also that German people are awesome and that German ladies at least the ones that hang around with the guys from the team clear six foot quite easily.
German lads seem to be also fond of slap fights as I found myself surrounded by three who were trying to bitch slap me in to submission. For my country and my pride I had to lay the pain out!!!
So lots of drinking bulshi*?ing and shots later we also went our seperate ways...I went home, some people went to a house party and one individual for reasons known only to himself went to the casino....Germans, they're CRAZY!!!!

Dundalk IT Vs Tallght IT

Dundalk IT played they're second game last thursday against Tallaght IT here in Dundalk. The anticipation leading up to the game was that this was going to be one of the tough games as we lined out against the league favourites.
The team were up beat though and looking forward to a good game. Things started going a bit sour though when the two coaches were left to referee the game. This caused the usual issue of the coaches being worried about making calls in their teams favour and this lead to some bad referee calls on both sides but if I'm honest mainly by ours.
It was a tough and high paced game but due to some bad free throw taking and a few great performances from some Tallaght players DKIT started to lag behind. At the begining of the second half the referee turned up for the game so things got a bit better.
Going in to the fourth quarter though Dundalk were down by 12 points and through some great team work Dundalk got the score down to a four point deficit with a minute to go. But DKIT unfortunatley let their eye off the ball for the second game in a row and Tallaght went on to score a three point shot and another two point shot to bring the gap to ten.
The end scoreline didn't really show the effort and work that the home team put in but cest la vie.Again Steven played his heart out and was awesome when it came to rebounds and such. Tommy also played well if not overwhelmed by the fast hands of the Tallaght IT point guard.
I can't help but feel that if DKIT don't learn to kill off a game and unless we learn as a team how to keep the foot down until the final whistle we're going to end up with a very mediocre season and I hate mediocrity especially when I know the team is a lot more capeable then that!!!

Royal college of surgeons-65, DKIT-62

Well our first game has come and gone. I have to say for our first league game we didn't do too badly although if I'm honest we should have killed them off at the begining of the fourth quarter.
We were down by 14 at the end of the first quarter. By the end of the first half we were down by 8. By the end of the third quarter we were up by four so as you can see from this trend you would think that we would kill them off. But due to a few crucial mistakes by ourselves and some good work by RCSI they won the game by three.
We lost one of our big men early on but apart from that there were just a few basic mistakes where players should have passed instead of taken a shot but there is no point looking at that now as hopefully players have learned from their own mistakes. Awesome hussel though in offence and particular great work from Tommy Tim and Aris. Great boards by Stephen and Brian.
Hopefully going in to what will probably be our toughest home game this season against tallaght we can improve on last nights performance.
Roll on Tallaght.....

Welcome one and all

Hello sports fans.
Finally a place for me to keep people up to date with the success or failure of the forthcoming basketball season here in dkit. We're quietly confident but it remains to be seen what this team can do until we play against other teams at the same level.
So far as pre-season friendlies go we've won one and lost one. Hopefully we'll be a bit more consistent and have an awesome season. We've our first game tomorrow 13/11/2007 against Royal college of surgeons. It's an away game and our first real test as a team. Then on Thursday 14/11/2007 we have our second game against the favourites for the league Tallaght IT. Largest basketball en-catchment area in the country with several teams local to the area such as hoops, kilnamanagh and St Marks but on Thursday we'll see what they've got or if the hype was completely unjustified.
From what I keep hearing though from the coach here and from more senior players it should be a good season for us as we have the strongest squad the college has seen in years.
Time as always will tell.