Hello, Eurocup fans! I am Keith Simmons of Banvit BK. As I get back to you, Banvit lost twice on the road and needs to win its last game, combined with a win by Krka in Montenegro, in order to reach the Quarterfinals. We really wanted to win one of those road games to have the best chance to advance, but now we depend on another team and our destiny is in someone else's hands. We will try to stay focused in our last game against Spartak. We know Spartak is undefeated, but the only opportunity we have to give ourselves some chance to advance is to beat them.

Our key loss has been against Buducnost on the road. We went to Montenegro with every intention to win that game. We ended up having a bigger loss than they had in Bandirma. Unfortunately, we lost by 10 points and even with that, we knew we have a good chance to advance; they had to go to St. Petersburg, but we didn't get the job done in Novo Mesto. Still, there is one more game left and we will try to protect our home floor, just as we have done in the entire Eurocup season.

Of course, the trip to Podgorica wasn't easy. Well, it is not easy to come to Bandirma, either, so we cannot complain. It is part of the competition, so you have to take that as it comes. The city was OK, but it was very cold there. In the end, we didn't have much of a chance to see anything. We go there to play a basketball game and everything else is secondary. We are fully focused on the game, and that is all that matters.

Krka was 0-4 in the Last 16 and didn't want to disappoint their fans in their last home game. We didn't finish the game well. The... more

Hello again from Bandirma! I am Keith Simmons of Banvit BK and since I last got in touch with you, Eurocup fans, our team lost against Spartak St. Petersburg on the road and beat Buducnost Voli at home. It was a good win for us. We played pretty good defense and allowed just 61 points. We had to do a better job and play better down the stretch. We got a big lead and allowed them to come back. It was a good win, but we wish we could have closed the game a little earlier. Lance Williams played great last night. This is his fourth year in Banvit and he knows everything about the team. He was hot and picked the right spots and knocked down a bunch of shots.

It is definitely easier to bounce back, personally, when you win. I went scoreless against Buducnost, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is that Banvit won. I definitely want to play better in the next game and help my team win. We have a deep team and other people stepped up against Buducnost. I think more than anything else, Banvit was able to win with me scoring 0 points. It has been a while since I had a scoreless game, but it happened and like I said, our team is pretty big and luckily, we were able to still win and that softens the blow. I just have to be more focused and do whatever I can to make my team win.

Before that, we had the chance to face Spartak in St. Petersburg. It was a tough loss for us, because we were right there at the end. We were even tied with less than two minutes to go and again, we didnt close the game well, made a couple of bad turnovers and they hit some big shots. We were close and where we needed... more

Hello Eurocup fans! This is Keith Simmons of Banvit and welcome to my blog! I better introduce myself a bit, since I guess not all Eurocup fans have heard of me. My career has been pretty good so far. I have been able to play in good teams like the Skyliners in Frankfurt and now Banvit. I have been here for three years and we have had a lot of success. I am a hard-working player that has been fortunate enough to play for some good teams here in Europe. I think Banvit is doing a very good job at keeping a nice core of players together. Teams are changed every year, so having a group of three American players staying together is kind of unusual. We all like it here, playing with each other, staying together as part of the team. We just try to keep winning games and playing well in the Turkish League and the Eurocup.

We started the Last 16 with a home win against Krka Novo Mesto. They had changed a lot of players from the end of the regular season to start of this new phase, so we didn't know too much about them going into the game. Our game plan stayed pretty much the same as it always does: Play really good defense and try to get as many stops as possible. I think we did that against Krka and were able to win. We already beat some very tough teams to make it to the second round. We didn't play so well on the road, but managed to beat... more