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June 10th, 2002:
After weeks of intense negotiations and backroom machinations that saw the exchange of dirty money on more than one occasion, Michael Payne secured the exclusive rights to the correspondi of Robin Eley, teen heart throb and former Warrior, whose campaign to once again grace the hardwood has seen him return home to his native land of Australia to suit up for the North Adelaide Rockets of the Australian ABL.
June 23rd:
Picture if you will the antithesis of Westmont basketball and you will have a reasonably accurate notion of my new team the North Adelaide Rockets. We just lost tonight to a team that should not have come within 20 points of us, and although I am fully aware of the inherent irony in what I am writing, all people could do was point fingers and lay blame. I hesitate to fully express my disgust because I have yet to calm down since the game and I really have no idea who is going to be reading this.
My play so far has been surprisingly good considering my time out of the game. Coming into a team half way through the season is difficult for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that the coach feels compelled to sit you on the bench no matter how well you are playing until you "earn your stripes". As a result I am playing about 15 out of a possible 48 minutes. In the 3 games I have played I have shot 8 for 17 on 3's including a 4 for 7 performance tonight and I am averaging a shade under 9 points a game. If you do your math, you will discover that yes of the 9 shots I have made since I have been back 8 have been 3's. I don't think that this speaks as much to my lack of aggressiveness as it does the lack of shots going around. We have 4 guys who want to score 20 every night. The chances of seeing the ball back once you've brought it up are pretty slim. But I am slowly finding my niche, trying to establish myself in practice during the week. I will miss next weeks game because it's my parents 30th wedding anniversary, but I will play a couple of 3rd division games during the week to stay sharp.
Other than basketball, it has been a tougher than expected transition back into the Australian lifestyle. For those of you who haven't been here, Australia is much slower and laid back, a definite adjustment for me considering my unique living arrangements in Santa Barbara. My days right now consist mainly of a little work for some people back in America and catching up with family and friends. And for those of you that know me well, no I am not sleeping all the time. Well, it's 1:10 am here in Adelaide so I will sign off for now. I hope that my first letter has been mildly interesting to read, stay tuned for further updates, they are sure to be a little more entertaining. Take care all, Robin.
posted by Robin at 8:36 AM
