Here at the AU Hoops Blog, we like to keep you apprised not only of current AU basketball news but also, when possible to keep you informed about what happens to past Eagles (I say past, and not former, because you know the line: ONCE AN EAGLE, ALWAYS AN EAGLE).
Derrick Mercer, four year starter, point guard extraordinaire, who helped lead AU to two straight Patriot League titles and subsequent NCAA tournament appearances, is now playing with the Kataja Basketball Club in Joensunn, Finland. Kataja plays in Finland's Korisliiga, which is the top tier basketball league in Finland.
This is, according to EuroBasket.com the third American point guard that Kataja is trying out this season (the first two left of their own volition). Mercer, in his first game yesterday, played 29 minutes with no points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, 2 blocked shots.
Nice to see Mercer continuing his basketball career! I'll try to keep you updated with any notable happenings with him.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Did he not make the Harlem Globetrotters? Dang, I was really rooting for him there...
ReplyDeleteHi AU Eagles fans! Greetings from Joensuu, Finland! The story of Eurobasket is false. Our first PG, Joe Knight (High Point/Lehigh), underachieved and our second one, Brock Gillespie (Rice), was actually more SG. I hope that Derrick will be our needed pass-first PG and will give us some leadership in the defensive too. Do you guys and gals know that he is the second little AU PG in finnish league. Glenn Stokes played in 3 teams here in Finland.
ReplyDeleteNeed to get to the bottom of the Harlem Globetrotters story, I think he probably wanted to play, without disparaging the Globetrotters, "real" basketball.
ReplyDeleteTo our Finnish fan, I apologize for the misinformation but thank you very much for correcting the Eurobasket story! (There's so little out there that I can find that is in English, and alas I don't speak Finnish and can't often get a good translation)
In any event, I hope Mercer works out for you as well as he did for us! There's a lot of love here at the AU Hoops Blog for him!
Hi again from Finland! Little correction to translation. "Täytä" is a form of a verb täyttää which means e.g. "to fill" in english. "Finland, meet Derrick Mercer" is " Suomi, tapaa Derrick Mercer". You have to use the verb "tavata", "to meet". :)
ReplyDeleteWell, on wednesday Derrick plays tha first home game in Kataja jersey. I'm really looking forward to see him play. I forgot to mention that we have also another player from Patriot League on our roster, Kendall Chones from Colgate.
Whoa! I didn't realize you had Chones. We used to have an "Abe Lincoln" chant when he came on the court. Solid inside man. I hope you get some good play out of our dynamic PL duo. Stick around and keep us updated on Mercer, and thanks for the help with Finnish!
ReplyDeleteIf someone´s interested here´s the link to the website of Mercer´s new club:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.joensuunkataja.fi/katajabasket
Choose "In English" on the left navigation bar.
And one more link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.basket.fi/english/competitions/teams/team/?league_id=4&season_id=undefined&team_id=42
There you can follow Mercer´s actions in the Finnish top league (results, stats).
Hi again from Finland! Tomorrow's the night! We'll see what happens. We are used to solid american/foreign PGs in the past: Shawn Swords (Canadian National Team, season 03-04) Michael Nurse (Iowa State, season 06-07), Louis Hinnant (Boston College, season 07-08) and Larry Blair (Liberty, 08-09). It's interesting to see how well Derrick will do.
ReplyDelete