Former UNCG star Kyle Hines is embarking on 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 to my third post for the SportsExtra blog at News-Record.com. Thank you all for the continued support and all the comments that were left after my previous blog post. I can't tell you all how much it means to me when I read the comments and I hear about the positive feedback.
When I left off in my previous blog post, I had just completed my first preseason as a professional basketball player and was highly anticipating my first official regular-season game. For our season opener, we traveled about four hours to the central part of Italy to face Carmatic Pistoia. Like us, they had a very successful preseason, finishing with a record of 11-0. Because of the success that both teams had during the preseason, this game was looked upon by others in the league as the first big matchup of the season.
We were coming into the game without one of our frontcourt players, Massimo Rezzando. He was sidelined with a leg injury that he had suffered in practice earlier in the week. We knew because of Massimo's absence that we would need a big game from everyone to help make up for what he usually brought to the team.
If we won this game this would give us momentum into the start of the season, especially because the game was on the road. Road games are always difficult to win. When I was at UNCG, Coach Dement would always say, "A win on the road almost accounts for two victories because of the adversity that you're facing from the opposing team on their home court." This is especially true in European basketball.
In my previous blog last year at NCAA.org, I wrote how much I enjoyed going on road trips because of the luxuries that we would receive on the road, like steak dinners and comfy hotel beds. Since I've been in Europe, my feelings have change toward road trips. For about 85 percent of the games we play on the road we will travel by bus, and most buses are not made to accommodate a basketball team.
This particular trip to Pistoia was about a four-hour ride, which I'm hearing is short compared with others. I spent the majority of it adjusting and re-adjusting my legs to find a comfortable position. By the time we arrived at the hotel, I barley had any feeling in my legs.
Since I've been here, I have realized that European hotel rooms are a lot different from American-style hotel rooms. In America, the norm of our culture is the bigger the better and in Europe it seems just the opposite — the smaller the better. This hotel's rooms were much like the buses, not made to accommodate a basketball team. The room didn't have comfy full-size beds, only very small twin-size beds. When I would lie down, my legs would hang off the end. A couple of times during the night I attempted to roll over and fell onto the floor.
Pistoia is known for having some of the most intense fans in our entire league. European fans as a whole have a reputation for being crazy. Many people say they are very comparable to a college basketball student section, showing a strong sense of pride and an almost cult-like obsession with their team. To put it in a perspective, just think of the "Cameron Crazies," but times 10.
I know it may be hard to imagine, but to most European fans the success of their teams is a life-or-death situation. In some countries, it's a pregame ritual for rival fans to meet up before games and fight one another. Because of this die-hard attitude the fans show for their team, it makes for a very intense environment. During the games, the fans are draped in flags, face paint and clothes with their team colors and they blow whistles, bang drums and scream chants over bullhorns. It makes for quite an atmosphere.
When we came out on the floor against Pistoia, the fans immediately lived up to their reputation. It was like walking into a loud sea of red (Pistoia's team color). During warm-ups they were screaming and yelling all types of things at us, but it didn't affect me because I couldn't understand what they were saying anyway.
The game was an even match for much of the first quarter, with Pistoia leading 22-17. The next quarter Pistoia went on a 12-0 run at one point and pushed its lead to 15 points. We made a late run toward the end of the half and found ourselves only down 37-29. We came out stronger in the second half and found ourselves down by one at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, we made a few attempts to cut into the lead, but were never successful and lost 71-67. I played a horrible game and finished with 10 points and 9 rebounds before I fouled out.
Practice the day after a loss is never easy. Our coach was very critical of everyone, especially me, since I played a horrible game. He was on me extra hard for the entire practice.
During that practice, I suffered a knee injury when I collided with one my teammates. At first, I thought it was nothing, but when I woke up the next morning I knew something was wrong.
I met with our team doctor later that day. When I told him what was wrong and where the pain was, the reaction he gave me wasn't too reassuring. In fact, it made feel kind of scared and nervous. He sent me to the hospital to get an X-ray and a MRI.
I had never gotten an MRI before and the machine kind of freaked me out a little bit. If you've ever had one, you understand why. They put you inside this machine with only your head sticking out and then they give you a set of headphones. You sit inside the machine for about 20 minutes while loud beeps and buzzs go off inside the headphones. When the machine finally stopped, I just sat there nervously awaiting my results back from the doctor.
Fortunately for me, the MRI didn't show any major issues — only a slight bone bruise and a stretched ligament in my knee. The doctor said that he didn't want me to practice, but I could play in that weekend's game. Instead of practice they assigned me to therapy for about two hours a day. It felt strange not practicing; I don't think I missed an entire practice my whole time at UNCG. But even though I wanted to practice, I knew it was important for me to rest so I could play the next weekend.
Our second game was against Harem Scafati, a team we had beaten in a preseason tournament about two weeks earlier. The game was our regular-season home opener and also our first game on Italian television. It was important for us to win because we didn't want to start the season 0-2.
This game also was our first of the season in our home arena. During the preseason, home games were played in our practice facility in Veroli. The arena where we play our home games is in a town called Frosione, about 15 minutes outside Veroli.
Last season, when the team moved up in divisions, it marked the first time in the team's long history that it didn't play in Veroli. The gym where the team used to play, which is now our practice gym, could no longer accommodate the team's needs. When the town of Veroli wouldn't allow the president of our team to build a new arena or expand the gym, he decided to build an arena in Frosione. In protest the previous season, many longtime Veroli supporters decided to stop coming to the games.
This season, the team and management put in a lot more effort to help rebuild the relationship with the town supporters. Coming into the game, though, many were still unsure on how much fan support we would actually receive. Management's efforts proved to be successful as we had a sellout for the first time since the team has played in Frosione. I guess that gave the team a spark of energy because we started the game a lot better than we had in our opener and led 19-15 at the end of the first quarter.
During the second quarter, we went on a run and pushed the lead to 15 points, but toward the end of the half we began to make some defensive mistakes and went in up by nine. In the third quarter, we were making the kinds of mistakes we made to close the first half and Harem Scafati was able to capitalize and make a run of its own. They outscored us 16-7 in the third quarter, but we still led, 46-45, going into the fourth. We pushed the lead back out in the final quarter and won by nine, 66-57. I finished the game with 20 points and 16 rebounds.
This week of practice was a lot easier after a win. Because of my knee, I was still taking it easy and only participating lightly. I was still going to therapy and by the middle of the week my knee was starting to feel a lot better.
I decided to try to participate throughout a whole practice, and on the first day I felt fine. The second day, I again fully participated and felt almost pain-free throughout. Then midway through practice, I made a move while going for a steal on defense that sort of jerked my knee and the pain returned. The coaching staff felt that I tried to come back too quickly and decided to sit me down so I would be able to play on Sunday.
To me it was frustrating because, as I said before, until that moment I had been injury-free throughout my career. I realized, though, that I have to be patient and I can't force myself to come back when I'm not ready.
During that week, I made another one of those "rookie mistakes" that I had mentioned in my previous blog post. This time I crashed my car into a wall while trying to maneuver around a car coming down one of the side streets in Veroil.
The damage looked a lot worst than the actual accident. I was probably going less than 10 mph at the time I hit the wall, but the impact was enough to knock off a nice chunk of my bumper and put a nice-size dent into a fender. I'm really not that bad a driver, I just haven't gotten used to the Italian streets. The streets in my town are really narrow. My car isn't the narrowest, either. It almost feels like I'm driving a limo.
The general manager of my team joked that he had signed me up for driving lessons. Hopefully, I can get used to the Italian streets soon. I don't think my car can take any more punishment.
Our next game was on the road against Banco Di Sardegna Sassari. It is one of the few games where we travel by airplane, because Sardegna is an island off the coast of Italy.
We played Banco Di Sardegna Sassari during the preseason and won in overtime. This time around would be different because we would play without the other American on our team, Dawan Robinson, who suffered a broken hand and will be out for three months. We started the game really well and finished the first quarter with a 13-point lead, 26-13. In the second quarter, we continued our run and pushed the lead to 20 points. Then all of a sudden, things just started to fall apart. We ran into foul trouble and next thing you knew Sardegna Sassari had momentum and started making a run of its own.
By the end of the half we only led 36-35. The third quarter started the same way, as Sardegna kept the momentum and went up 63-60. With less than 30 seconds left and the score tied, we had a costly turnover that gave Sardegna Sassari an opportunity to win the game in the final moments. The point guard from Sardegna Sassari broke free from our defense and sank a 3-point shot just as the buzzer went off. We lost our second straight road game, 86-83. I finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
The next game we play is at home versus Regina Emila and is a must win for us to keep positive momentum for the rest of the season. We are 1-2, but on the positive side, the Italian season is really long. So even though you would like to win every game, it is better if you are playing your best toward the end of the season.
The season is more of a marathon than a sprint, and we have yet to play a regular-season game with our team entirely healthy. I'm confident that as the season rolls along we'll have more success.
Well, that's all I have for you this week. Thanks again for the support and the comments.
Ciao,
Kyle
