Former UNCG star Kyle Hines is living a basketball adventure, playing for Prima Veroli of the Italian Lega 2. As Hines plays his first season abroad, he will provide regular updates on his experiences for the News & Record.
Welcome back for my fifth post for SportExtra at news-record.com. I want to again thank everyone for their continued support and comments on my previous blog posts.
In my last blog, my team just had a big home victory against one of the best offensive teams in the league. I was coming off my best game so far during the season (27 points and 11 rebounds) and holiday break was only two weeks away. So coming into the next week, I was feeling very confident but also really excited that I would have the opportunity to go back home in a couple of weeks.
For our next game, we traveled to face Aget Imola. During the game, I would be matched up against Joe Bunn, who is the leading scorer of the league averaging close to 24 points a game. Bunn is a unique player in that he plays primarily inside and he stands only at 6-feet-3. I'm listed at what some would say, a "generous" 6-6 and I'm considered undersized for my position. My coach appropriately titled the match up between Bunn and I, "The Battle of the Midgets."
We started the game going back and forth trading baskets with Imola, finishing the quarter down 21-20. The next quarter, Imola continued to push their lead further and went into halftime up 43-37.
In the first half, I was defending Bunn really well. I figured because he get some many touches, that he was going to score some points, but my goal was to make him work for every basket he scored. He finished the half with eight points.
In the third quarter, after continuing to trade baskets with Imola, we made a run and ended up regaining the lead, 61- 60. In the final quarter, we continued our run and pushed the lead out to six points. Then, in the last two minutes of the game we went cold. We couldn't hit a shot and went the last minute-and-a-half without scoring a single basket. I guess with all the physical play and the energy I expended trying to limit Bunn's touches throughout the game, I ran out of gas and allowed him to score 11 points in the final quarter.
We ended up losing the game, 85-79. I finished with a below-average 12 points and five rebounds. Bunn finished as the victor of "The Battle of Midgets,"with 25 points, nine rebounds and more importantly the win. My team shot horribly throughout the game, attempting 41 3-pointers and only making 13 of them. The loss continue our trend on the road, where we were 1-5 after the game with Imola.
Because of the week we a get off for holiday break, our next game was on a Thursday, which for me was perfect because it meant a shorter practice week and gave us an opportunity to quickly come back from our horrible play of the last game.
Our next game we hosted Enel Brindisi, which is primary lead by a pair of high-scoring Americans, Marcus Hatten who starred at St. John's University, and Marco Killingsworth, who played at Indiana University a few years back. They where coming into the game averaging more than 40 points combined.
The game started out much like the others, with both teams trading baskets. We finished the quarter even, 15-15. The next quarter, we put together a few defensive stops and gained a 10 point lead with less than two minutes left in the half. Going into halftime, we were up 44-37. We started out ice cold from the field in the third quarter and went the first two minutes of the half with a single field goal. Meanwhiile, Brindisi was able to go on a 10-0 run to start the half. We would eventually recover to tie the score at 62. In the fourth quarter, our strong defense allowed us to take control of the game. We constantly forced Brindisi into bad shots and costly turnovers that allowed us to push the lead up to 14 points. We would end of winning the game by 10, 89-79. I finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
I was starting to get excited about the holiday break, which was only three days away. Our next game was moved from Sunday evening to late Saturday evening because it was going to be televised. The moved would allow me to have an extra day home.
We went on the road to face Seven 2007 Roseto, a team whose go-to player was former George Washington University star and L.A Lakers player J.R Pinnock. A win in this game would help improve our terrible road record and also allow us to go into the holiday break in good sprits.
We started the game slowly, allowing Roseto to hold an early lead. Before the end of the quarter we where able to cut into the lead and found ourselves down by 2, 21-19. In the second quarter, we continued to slowly gain momentum and went into the half with a three-point lead, 33-30. The next quarter the momentum shifted and Roseto regained the lead after we made a few costly mistakes. They went into the fourth quarter up 52-46. We staged a comeback, hitting four 3-pointers in a row and never looked back as we won, 72-65. I finished the game with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The whole ride home from the game I was just thinking to myself, "I can't believe I'm going back home tomorrow. My flight was scheduled for 11:20 the following morning. I got to the airport at 7:30 in the morning. My other teammates and I, (Afik, who was flying back to Israel, and Jerome, who was also headed back to Philadelphia) wanted to make sure we had no chance of missing our flights.
While I was in the airport waiting at the gate, my name was called to report to the front counter. I initially thought it was for the exit row that I had asked for, but when I walked up to the counter I knew I was wrong. The woman at the counter said, "Wait here for a moment," got on her walkie talkie and said something to someone and the next thing I knew two airport security officers were asking me to follow them. From what the airport security officers told me, something in my bag had set off one of the security alarms. They wanted me to go through the bag, in front of them to make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary inside. They placed me in this van and the whole time I'm sitting in there nervous because I didn't pack the bag and I had no idea what was inside it. The bag was filled with excess clothes and items that my girlfriend couldn't bring back with her she flew back to New York. She had packed everything in the bag and I was thinking to myself, "I should have checked the bag after she packed it."
The guards took me back to the area where the luggage is sorted and checked. They asked if me if this was the bagged I checked, and I said yes. Then they asked me to take the bag and follow them. They took me into this room that was size of most household walk-in closets and shut the door. The room was all white and the only piece of furniture was a small desk and chair. I was sitting in this small room thinking this wasn't how I envisioned my trip back to America. They asked me to open the bag and show them the items inside. The guards didn't find anything out of the ordinary except why a 6-6 male was traveling with only a suitcase filled with female clothing. After I explained the situation, they said everything was fine and allowed me to return to the gate. At 11:15, I finally boarded the plane and after three movies, two completed iPod playlists, three in-flight meals and a total of 10 hours in the air, I was back home in America.
While I was home, I wanted to try to take advantage of all the things that I couldn't in Italy. The first thing I did when I got home was to get an authentic Philly cheesesteak. I promise myself that I wouldn't even think about eating pasta or pizza my entire stay at home. For the most part during the week, I spent it with my family and friends. I especially got to spend a lot of time with my little brother and sister. I even got to see my brother, who is a freshman at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore play in a collegiate game. In all, I really enjoyed my time at home. It gave me an opportunity to relax and "recharge my batteries," for the final five months of my Italian season.
When I got back to Veroli, I felt refreshed and excited to be back. It felt good to see my teammates and the coaching staff after spending our first week apart from each other in almost four months. Coming back, we had a confident feeling after our last two wins. We knew that we had two big tests coming up in the next two weeks, facing the top two teams in the league. Practice during the week had a new sense of urgency and spirit. Throughout every drill and segment of practice, you could just feel that we were preparing for a big matchup.
After one of our best practice weeks, we traveled to Jesi, to face the first-place team, Fileni Jesi. I would be matched up against the three-time MVP of the league, Michele Maggioli. He stood almost 7 feet tall and clearly was the biggest player I had faced so far this season. I knew it would be a difficult task, but I was eager to see how I would fare against the most celebrated player of the league.
The first quarter if the game started out like most of the others, with the teams trading baskets trying to get a feel for each other. We finished the first quarter with a one point lead, 17-16. The second quarter, we were able to extend our lead to eight points, but the allowed them to cut into the lead and we went into halftime up 37-34. In the third quarter, Jesi secored eight unanswered point to take the lead, 48-46. Early in the fourth quarter, we were able to regain the lead after we forced back-to-back turnovers that led to easy fast break layups. From there we took off and pushed the lead to 12 and ended up winning, 73-65.
The win was by far our biggest of the season, because it was against the first place team and also because we won on the road, where we have been struggling throughout the season. I finished the game with 15 points and nine rebounds, but more importantly I held Michele Maggioli in check for the entire game. He finished with only eight points, far below his 20-points-per-game average.
In our next game, we faced the second-place team, Cimberio Varese, at home. Varese' star player is Randolph Childress, who is remembered by most for his incredible performance in the ACC tournament in 1995, when he led Wake Forest to the championship.
This game also had a couple of subplots that made the game really interesting and important. The first was the rivalry between Childress and my teammate Jerome Allen. They both were members of the 1995 NBA draft class ( Childress being drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers and Allen by the Minnesota Timberwolves), and over the years they have gone head-to-head many times. Coming into the game, Jerome was extra focused and made sure that we as a team were focused also. The second subplot was if we won this game, we would qualify for the midseason final four tournament, which would give our team more exposure and would earn every player on our team a salary bonus.
The game started off with both teams hitting their first seven shots. This high-percentage shooting led to a high- scoring first quarter, which ended with our team leading 25-21. In the second quarter, Varese was able to take lead and went to the locker room up 44-38. During the third quarter, just as it seemed that we were going to lose control of the game, with Varese up eight points with two minutes left, we made a run to tie the score at 52 as the quarter ended. In the fourth quarter, we continued the momentum and regained the lead and won the game by nine points, 77-68. I finished with another solid performance, scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds.
The win concluded the first half of the season. After an inconsistent start, we finished very strong, winning our final four games. We also accomplished a majority of our team goals, qualifying for the final four tournament and positioning ourselves as one the top teams in the league. We battled through injuries and the addition of a new player to have a strong record of 9-6. I'm feeling very confident that if we continue on this path throughout the second half of the season we can be even more successful. As an individual, I feel I have finally adjusted and feel comfortable with my play on the court. I'm currently leading the team in scoring and leading the league in rebounding, blocks and field-goal percentage. I hope with hard work and continued determination we can have an even more successful second half of the season.
Until next time, ciao.
Kyle
