Aug. 11, 2011

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - This is the second in a series of blog entries by senior forward Sandrine Nzeukou during her attempt to make the Cameroon National Team.

---------------------------------------------------

I felt like a freshman all over again meeting completely new girls that already knew each other from the national team in the past and teams in Cameroon. The girls made it much easier for me though because they were so welcoming and nice.

We started the first pratice in a circle with our firecracker of a coach. Fabio, who is from Italy and coaches teams all over Europe, introduced himself to the group by telling us his occupation, age, and hobbies. Every girl on the team then had to do the same. As we went around I was surprised to hear that another girl in the group is named Sandrine. Ive never been on a team with someone else who has my name so from then on I adopted the names ZeuZeu, which was my father's nickname when he played, San, and Sandrine #2.

As for the physical aspect of the camp, we definitely hit the ground running. We have solely focused on the offensive portion of our game. We started immediately learning the offense Fabio has adopted but we picked it up pretty quickly with the two-a-days. There are three major things that Fabio stresses in his offense. Number one, that when we set/come off of screens we have to hit shoulders. Number two, that the worst mistake is to not shoot when you're open. And number three, that the little things are the things that matter. This is something that I understood well as it is something that Coach KO preaches as well. As practices go on it is obvious that we need to work on our chemistry since all of us play so differently, but I have confidence that it will come.